The Messianic Covenant (part 3)

God’s promises were made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as believers, and only to the spiritual children of these ancestors.

· Rom 4:13-17 It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. 14 For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, 15 because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. 16 Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring-not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

This principle of two interpretations is important with many other terms that deal with God’s covenant people. Just one example is found in:

· Song 6:4, You are beautiful, my darling, as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, majestic as troops with banners.

And,

· Isa 40:2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.

In these two passages, Jerusalem is a term used for the church in both the Old and New Testaments. Of course, it also refers to the city, but the context will guide us as to how we are to interpret it.

One other use of the word “Jerusalem” may be helpful.

· Rev 3:12-13 Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name.

This double significance of the term “children” and “seed” of Abraham are found in:

· Gen 22:17, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.

Now notice that Abraham’s descendents here are divided into two groups; those as numerous as the stars in the sky and those as numerous as the sands of the seashore. Abraham’s seed, or descendants, like the stars of heaven refers to his spiritual children and the seed, or descendants, like the sand on the seashore refers to the natural descendents.

The same must be said for the word “Jew”.

· Rom 2:28-29, A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 29 No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God.

Given this clear statement, it is surprising that most of the “Jewish” community continue to believe that they are “Jew” only because they are descendants of Jacob and they reject the idea of the “spiritual Jew”. Note what Paul says about “inwardly” and “circumcision”.

Now it may seem to some of you that we have wandered from the subject of the Messianic Covenant. No, the covenant was made with the “house of Israel and the house of Judah”, and we must understand those terms if we are to correctly interpret passages such as Jeremiah 31:31ff.

Lets look again at:

· Jer 31:31-34 "The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. 33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

Has this promise of God already received its fulfillment, or is it currently being fulfilled, or is the fulfillment yet future? The Christian has a special interest in the correct answer.

Matthew Henry in his commentaries says, “This refers to Gospel times….for of the Gospel times the apostle understands it, where the whole passage is quoted, as a summary of the covenant of grace made with believers in Jesus Christ.” The passage Henry refers to is Heb 8:8-9, where the writer quotes the whole of the Jeremiah 31 passage, as a summary of the covenant of grace made with believers in Jesus.

At this point it is reasonable to raise the question, if the main reference in Jeremiah’s prophecy was to the gospel, or new Testament Church, where the Gentiles were dominant, why is the covenant there said to be made with “the house of Israel and the house of Judah”? There are several answers.

· First, to make it clear that this covenant is not made with all of the fallen descendants of Adam, but with God’s chosen people.

· Second, because, so far as we know, during Old Testament times most of the elect were from the Hebrew nation.

· Third, to indicate that the Jewish theocracy had given way to the Christian Church.

· Heb 10:9, Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second.

· Matt 21:43, "Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

· And fourth, to hint that the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints are all one body. 

It is generally believed among the best scholars that the Jeremiah passage above speaks of the church age. Notice that God says He will make a “new” covenant and it will not be like the old one, meaning the one made at Sinai.

· Heb 8:7-8 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 8 But God found fault with the people and said:

The Apostle then quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34. The above passage from Hebrews makes a very provocative statement.

So what was wrong with the Sinai Covenant that necessitated a new covenant? The old covenant did not secure peace and fellowship between God and the people and therefore the benefits and advantages were useless. This demonstrated the need for a new and better covenant, which would clearly secure the believers forever.

The fault with the Sinai Covenant was that it was altogether external and nothing internal. It provided for Israel an objective standard, but there was no source of power that enabled them to measure up to God’s standards. It dealt with the natural Israel. It provided for sacrifices for sin but these were only ceremonial. Because of these inadequacies a new covenant was needed. God’s complaint in Jeremiah is not with the covenant but with the people.

When the passage says “the time is coming” we must conclude that that time is the advent of Jesus. So the subject of what Jeremiah predicts is a new covenant.

This new covenant pulls together all the promises of grace that had been given from the time of creation to the presence of Jesus, His death and resurrection. So the new covenant became the new standard of spiritual life and worship.

The idea of the writer of Hebrews is to show the superiority of Jesus’ priesthood over the priesthood of Aaron and he does this by showing the great superiority of the new covenant of grace of which Jesus is the mediator.