III
The New Covenant: Is It Present or Future?
Mr. J.B. does not make his position as to this vitally
important question entirely clear. He says quite positively that the promise
of the new covenant in Jeremiah XXXI pertains to the natural Israel and
Judah, and, without asserting in so many words that the promise is yet to be
fulfilled and the new convenant is yet to be established, he repeatedly speaks
of it as being in the future. Thus he says (Answer 1) that "a new covenant
will be made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,"
which will be "in the day spoken of, by God performing a divine
work, that of new birth in those who will then compose the nation."
Also in the same Answer he says, "the new covenant is primarily to be
made with Israel and Judah;" and he speaks of a time to come when God "will
bless Israel and Judah, when He makes with them the covenant spoken of
by Jeremiah." (The emphasis in the above quotations has been supplied by
me).
While this "Answer" is
in some respects obscure, this much at least is clear:
(a) that
in Mr. J.B's opinion the promise of the new covenant was made to the natural
Israel and Judah, and hence must be fulfilled "primarily" to them;
and (b) that the convenant has not yet been made; for the people with
whom it was to be made is
now
non-existent, and must, according to this doctrine, be brought into being
before the prophecy of Jeremiah can be fulfilled.
I feel
sure that our brother does not realize what is implied in the postponement of
the new covenant to another dispensation, and in appropriating it to a nation
which is now and has been for nineteen centuries non-existent; but, however
that may be,:
no child
of God can afford to be in any doubt whatever as to the glorious gospel
truth that the new convenant prophesied by Jeremiah has been mediated,
confirmed, established, and is now in full force and effect, and
has been ever since "The Mediator of the new covenant" entered the
heavenly sancutary "with His own blood" and the Holy Spirit came down
from heaven to bear witness thereto. This diverse and strange doctrine — the
postponement of the new covenant — has to do with the foundations of our most
holy faith; but happily the Scriptures speak concerning it in the plainest
terms. We need therefore refer to but a few only of the many infallible proofs
of Scripture that the old covenant has been "abolished," along with
everything that pertained to it — the earthly people, priesthood, sanctuary, and
sacrifices — and the new covenant, with its spiritual counterparts of those
"shadows of good things to come" — its people, priesthood, sanctuary,
sacrifices — has been "established" firmly and forevermore.
Here are
a few of the evidences:— 1. The prophecy of Jeremiah is twice quoted in
Hebrews. The first and most extensive quotation (Chap. VIII) is preceded by
the statement that "He (Christ) is the Mediator of a better
covenant" (Heb. 8:6) and is followed by the statement that "He is
the Mediator of the new covenant" (Heb. 9:15). The mediator of a
covenant is one who mediates between the parties thereto, bringing them into
agreement. As Moses was the mediator between God and His old-covenant people,
so Christ is the Mediator between God and His new-covenant people, those to
whom He refers in the prophecy, saying, "And they shall be My
people" (Jer. 31:33). According to the prophecy those new-covenant people
were to have two distinguishing marks: (1) they all were to be possessors of eternal
life, "from the least of them to the greatest of them," or as the
prophecy puts it, "they shall all KNOW ME," and our Lord has
interpreted this for us, saying, "And this is life eternal, that
they might KNOW THEE, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast
sent" (John 17:3); and (2) and they all were to be forgiven sinners,
as the prophecy says, "I will forgive their iniquity and remember their
sin no more." With these plain marks to guide us, can there be any doubt
in our minds that God's new-covenant people are those who are saved through the
gospel of Jesus Christ, and are redeemed and cleansed by "the blood of the
everlasting covenant?" And if these, who "in time past were not a
people, but are now the people of God" (1 Pet. 2:10; Hos. 2:23)
are indeed God's new-covenant people, then they must be the true "house of
Israel and house of Judah;" which also is proved by many other N.T.
Scriptures. It is appropriate here to recall that the apostle Paul has
interpreted Hosea's prophecy concerning God's future people as applying to
"the vessels of mercy which He had afore prepared unto glory, even US,
WHOM HE HATH CALLED, NOT OF THE JEWS ONLY, BUT ALSO OF THE GENTILES, As He
saith also in Osee, I will call them My people, which were not My people"
(Rom. 9:24,25). The words "which were not My people" shut out the
natural Israel and Judah, for they and they only were His people. And to
this agree the words of the apostle, "He is not a Jew who is one
outwardly" (Rom. 2:28) The language is unmistakably plain.
2. We are
reminded in Hebrews VII that the priests under the old covenant were inducted
into office "without an oath," whereas our Lord's priesthood
is eternally established by the oath of God; from which the inspired writer
deduces that "By so much was Jesus made a SURETY of a better
covenant" (Heb. 7:21, 22). From this we learn the wondrous and most
comforting truth that our Redeemer is not only the Mediator but also the
Surety of the new covenant; that is to say, He makes sure and certain
the salvation of all His people; as the writer proceeds to declare in the words
of verse 25, "wherefore He is able also to save them to the
uttermost who come unto God by Him."
3. But our glorified Lord stands in yet another relation to
the new covenant and its people, which relation is the most important of
all. For He is the Testator, that is, the victim by whose death the
covenant is put into effect. "For where a covenant (diatheke) is,
there must also of necessity be the death of the testator (diathemenos) ...
Whereupon neither the first covenant was dedicated without blood. For
when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he
took the blood of calves and of goats, ... and sprinkled both the book and the
people, saying. This is the blood of the covenant which God hath
enjoined unto you" (Heb, 9:17-20). These words recall those spoken by the
blessed Mediator of the new covenant Himself at the institution of His supper
when, in giving the cup to His disciples and addressing them as the
representatives of all His new-covenant people, He said, "This is MY blood
of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins"
(Matt. 26:28). Do these Scriptures leave any room for doubt or question as to
who are "the people" of God's new covenant?
4. It seems to me that our brother shrinks from the
implications of his own doctrine. For in the very same sentence in which he
asserts that "the new covenant is primarily to be made with Israel
and Judah" (meaning the natural Israel and Judah) he says:
"But
the blessing of it, such as the impartation of the new nature, cleansing and
forgiviness, are now ministered through the gospel to all who call upon the
Lord. "
Inasmuch
as the blessings of the covenant are the very essence of the covenant itself
and are inseparable from it, this last quoted statement cannot be true unless
the new covenant itself was and has been throughout this gospel dispensation,
in full force and effect. In fact the promised blessings are the
covenant, which cannot exist apart from its promised blessings. This is evident
upon a moment's reflection on the nature of a covenant (or contract) whereby
one party undertakes and promises to do for the other party certain specified
things (in this case the blessings promised by Almighty God to the
covenant-people). And it may be clearly seen by the Apostle's words in
Ephesians 2:12, in which he groups them all together, speaking of "the
covenants of promise," to which Gentiles were by nature strangers, but
wherein believing gentiles are now made sharers on perfect equality with
believing Jews, the equality being so perfect that "the twain" —
believing Jew and believing Gentile — constitute "one new man." This
passage shows that the new covenant and its promises were in full force in
Paul's day and that believing Jews and believing Gentiles were the
new-covenant people and fellow heirs of those promises.
5. Further and strong confirmation of our whole position,
and specially of the last preceding paragraph, is found in the words of Paul,
where, speaking for himself and Timothy, he says: "But our sufficiency is
of God; Who also hath made us able
ministers
of the new covenant; not of the letter,
but of the Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth
life" (II Cor. 3:5-6). Of course, Paul and Timothy could not have been
ministers of a non-existent covenant; nor could they have ministered to
believing Gentiles the blessings of a covenant promised and restricted to the
natural Israel. This whole chapter, in which the two covenants that "of
the letter" which killeth, and "that of the Spirit" which
quickens the dead — are contrasted, affords proof positive that the new
covenant was then in full force and effect.
6. Such
is the sanctity of the doctrine of the new covenant, that he who errs in
respect to it incurs a grave risk. This is made clearly to appear by the
following warning in Hebrews 10:28, 29:
"He that despised Moses' law
died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
Of how
much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden
under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant,
wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto
the Spirit of grace?"
Let us
call to mind also that deeply impressive invocation at the end of the epistle
to the Hebrews, which calls upon "the God of peace that brought again from
the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep THROUGH THE BLOOD OF
THE EVERLASTING COVENANT" to make us, His new covenant people, "perfect
in every good work to do His will' (Heb. 13:20, 21), whereby it clearly appears
that "the blood of sprinkling" to which we "are come" (Heb.
12:22-24) is an inexpressibly holy thing.
7. The
Scriptures teach in the clearest terms that in Christ are the "yea"
and the "Amen" of all the promises of God; that being for
glory to God through us (II Cor. 1:20), who are the spiritual seed of
Abraham. As it is written, "For ye are all the children of God by faith in
Christ Jesus ... And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and
heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3:26-29); the special promise
to Abraham being "that he should be heir of the world" (Rom.
4:13) — not merely of the tiny land of Canaan, which was but an earnest of the
inheritance.
In the
simplest and plainest words it is declared that "He is not a
Jew who is one outwardly" (Rom. 2:28), from which it follows that if there
were ten thousand promises all in terms for "the Jew", those who are
Jews outwardly would have no claim to the least of them;
"but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is
that of the heart in the spirit" (id. 30); from which it follows that all
promises that were made to the Jews belong to those who are Jews inwardly,
who are known by that "new name," by which God would call His people
(Isa. 62:2), the fulfilment of which is recorded in Acts 11:26.
Again it
is written: "For WE are the circumcision, who worship God in the spirit,
and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh" (Phil.
3:3), the last clause being a reference to the natural Jews, whose confidence
was in their relation in the flesh to Abraham. It is a notable fact that almost
the first words (and the sharpest) spoken by the herald of the new covenant
(cf. Mal. 3:1) were directed against that fleshly confidence of the leaders of
the Jews, who were saying within themselves, "We have Abraham to our
father" (Matt. 3:7-9).
In the light of these Scriptures
it is too plain for doubt or uncertainty that the people to whom God promised
His new covenant, and of whom He said: "I will put My law in their inward
parts and write it in their hearts" (Jer. 31:33), are New Testament
believers in Christ Jesus (II Cor. 3:3).
3
|
Page 3 of 4 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Previous
Article Summer 2003 Front Page Next Article