THE OLD AND NEW COVENANTS

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VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> <div> A <B>COVENANT</B> is an agreement by which parties bind themselves to each other for the fulfillment of certain conditions.  Thus the human agent enters into agreement with God to comply with the conditions specified in God's Word.  God's law (the Ten Commandments) is not an agreement (or covenant), but a non-negotiable requirement (or else Satan did not sin).  The Ten Commandments are only the reason for the covenant agreement.  Under the Old Covenant, the conditions by which eternal life could be gained were the same as under the New - <B>PERFECT OBEDIENCE</B>.</div> <div> <A HREF="mailto: heislord@teacher.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto: heislord@teacher.com"><U><IMG SRC="2696e6b0.gif" border=0 width="110" height="107" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> The <B>Moral Law of God</B> is a revelation of God's will for human conduct.  The purpose of Christ's redemptive mission, was not to terminate the function of the Law, but to  enable believers to live out the principles of God's Law in their lives (Phi. 4:13).  Through Christ, God does what the Law by itself could not do - namely, He empowers believers to live according to the fact “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us,” Rom. 8:4.  The new life in Christ enables the Christian to keep the Moral Law of God as a loving response to His mercy.  This is the very thing that the Law by itself cannot do, because being an external standard of human conduct, it cannot generate a loving response in the human heart.</div> <div> <A HREF="mailto: heislord@teacher.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto: heislord@teacher.com"><U><IMG SRC="258597b0.jpg" border=0 width="89" height="123" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> The New Covenant is the most important of all and was planned before this world's existence, between the Father and the Son, when Jesus offered Himself as “the lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Zec. 6:13; 1Pe. 1:20; Rev. 13:8).  This covenant was first proclaimed to man in Eden, when after the fall, God stated that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head (Gen. 3:15), ratified by the animal sacrifice (Gen. 3:21), else where did the skins come from (Gen. 3:21)?  God then says to Noah “with thee will I establish My covenant,” Gen. 6:18.  Next it was established with Noah and his sons (Gen. 9:8-9), with the “token” (or ratification) of it being the rainbow (Gen. 9:13).  In Gen. 9:16 the New Covenant is called the “everlasting covenant” for the first time.  Here we can see that the New Covenant has existed and will always exist between those whom God deems obedient to it.  Abram is the next one that God establishes His “everlasting” or “New” covenant with (Gen. 17:2,4,7,9-10; Luke 1:72-73), the “token” of which was circumcision (Gen. 17:11).  Then Isaac (Gen. 17:19,21; see also Gen. 26:3-5), then Jacob (Exo. 2:24; see also Psa. 105:8-10) and then Israel is next (Exo. 6:4).</div> <div> <A HREF="mailto: heislord@teacher.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto: heislord@teacher.com"><U><IMG SRC="259557a0.jpg" border=0 width="85" height="122" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> This brings us to Exo. 19:5 where the Old Covenant is then ratified by the “blood” of “oxen” (Exo. 24:5,7-8).  Heb. 8:6-13 states that the New Covenant (called the “second” - verse 7) is “better” and has “better promises” (verse 6), than the Old Covenant (called the “first” - verse 7), which was faulty.  The major difference between the Old and New Covenants is not the method of salvation, but the manner in which salvation is offered.  The difference is one of shadow (type) versus reality (anti-type).  The Old Covenant was “symbolic” (Heb 9:9) of the “more excellent” redemptive ministry of Christ (Heb 8:6).  Consequently, it was necessary for Christ to come “once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself,” Heb 9:26.  The obedience called for by the Sinaitic covenant was meant to be a loving response to God's provision of salvation, not a means of salvation.  For Christ was to be seen in the Sacrificial system just as much as we see Christ in the cross of Calvary today.  Greg Bahnsen puts it this way:  “The difference was that the Mosaic or Law-covenant looked ahead to the coming of the Savior, thus administering God's covenants by means of promises, prophecies, ritual observances, types, and foreshadowings that anticipated the Savior and His redeeming work.  The Gospel or the New covenant proclaims the accomplishments of that which the Law anticipated, administering God's covenant through preaching and the sacraments [baptism and the Lord's Supper],” culminating in the Cross of Christ.  The New Covenant puts God's “law's into” our “mind” and “hearts” (verse 10 and Jer. 31:31-33), and the “old is ready to vanish away” (verse 13).  The Old Covenant “had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary” (Heb. 9:1), whereas the New Covenant has Jesus' blood, and a sanctuary in “heaven itself” (Heb. 9:24-28), thus “better promises,” Heb. 8:6.</div> <bR> <div> So we see that the Old Covenant was established between God and Israel at Sinai, being ratified by the “blood” of “oxen,” and the New Covenant was established “from the foundation of the world,” being ratified by the shed blood of Jesus.  Understanding why the Old Covenant is called the “first” and the New Covenant the “second” now becomes simple.  The “everlasting [New] covenant” (Heb. 13:20), is called the “second” covenant, because the blood by which it was sealed, or ratified, was shed after the blood of the “first” [Old} covenant.  The Old Covenant then, vanishes away (ends, Heb. 8:13) at the cross.</div> <bR> <div> The New Covenant was instituted and ratified and forever by the blood of Jesus at His death (Heb. 12:24; 13:20; Mat. 26:26).  It went into effect permanently when He died.  “For a testament [or covenant, same thing - see margin] is of force after men are dead:  otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth,” Heb. 9:17.  After the death of Christ nothing could be added or taken away from the New Covenant.  “Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto,” Gal. 3:15.  This is why Jesus introduced the Lord's Supper on Thursday night before He died, so that it would come under the New covenant (Mat. 26:28).  The New Covenant consists not in the replacement of the Ten Commandments with simpler and better laws, but in the internalization of God's laws (Jer. 31:33; 2Co. 3:3).</div> <bR> <div> The result of Christ's coming has been described as “setting aside” (Heb 7:18), making “obsolete” (Heb 8:13), and “abolishing” (Heb 10:9) all the Levitical services associated with the Old Covenant.  It is unfortunate that these statements are interpreted as meaning that Christ by His coming abrogated all the Mosaic Law, including the Sabbath.  This interpretation, which is at the heart of the misguided thinking about the Law by most Evangelicals today, ignores the fact that the termination statements found in Hebrews refer to the Levitical priesthood and services of the Old Covenant, not to the principles of God's moral Law which includes the Sabbath Commandment.  Of the Sabbath the Book of Hebrews explicitly states that “a Sabbathkeeping is left behind for the people of God,” Heb 4:9.  That God wants to put His moral Law into our Heart's (Jer. 31:33; 2Co. 3:3) is quite Biblically established.  Thus what was to be set “aside,” made “obsolete” and be abolished could not be referring to God's moral law of Ten Commandments.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="mailto: heislord@teacher.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto: heislord@teacher.com"><U><IMG SRC="19637280.gif" border=0 width="55" height="40" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>