2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
Yesterday, I was led to recap the covenants of the OT in light of what God has revealed to us about covenant relationships. Today, we will do the same with a view of how the Covenant of Grace came about and how it is a logical extension of the OT covenants. While the Covenant of Grace is different than the old covenant, it has some important connections to the original covenant the we need to see. That will allow us to appreciate the meaning to our own lives of the consistency of God’s word and His actions. I left off yesterday with Jeremiah’s prediction of the coming of a new covenant to replace the old one in JER 31: 31-34, because it is the first overt mention of what would happen in the Scriptures. Of course, we can read into Bible books before Jeremiah what would happen based on our hindsight, but this first prophecy of the new covenant must have come as a puzzlement to the Jews reading it for the first time. The same could be said for IS 53 and PS 2 the chapters about the Suffering Servant and the Chosen King. Had traditional Jews then and today have really understood what God was telling them in these places, they too would know that Yeshua Ha-Meshiah Adonai [Jesus Christ] is their Lord and Messiah.
Just as Moses was the mediator of the old covenant, Christ is the Mediator of the new covenant. 1 COR 11: 25, “In the same way, after the supper He took the cup and said, ‘This cup is God’s new covenant, sealed with My blood. Whenever you drink it, do so in memory of Me.’” These words came in the Lord’s supper, that first introduction to the disciples of the taking of communion. The old covenant became obsolete the moment that Christ died on the cross as a propitiation (satisfactory, once-for-all, sufficient sin sacrifice). LK 23: 44-46, “It was about twelve o’clock when the sun stopped shining and darkness covered the whole country until three o’clock; and the curtain hanging in the Temple was torn in two. Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Father! In your hands I place My Spirit!’ He said this and died.” GN 17: 15-16, 19 promised a nation including kings. One King in particular is of major importance to all of us.
In the older versions of the Scriptures, the word, “descendants,” is replaced with “seed.” We see this in verses like GN 12: 7 which is an important part of the Abrahamic covenant. It is significant that in the more modern version, “seed” wasn’t used because of possible confusion about if singular and pleural is meant. In the above verse, the word can be interpreted to mean “Israel” or “Christ.” We get clarification on this from GA 3: 15-16. [Paul speaking] “My brothers, I am going to use an everyday example: when two people agree on a matter and sign an agreement, no one can break it or add anything to it. Now, God made His promises to Abraham and to His Descendant. The Scripture [GN 12: 7] doesn’t use the pleural ‘descendants’ meaning many people, but the singular ‘Descendant,’ meaning one person, namely Christ.”
Another place in the NT that illuminates something said in the OT occurs amidst Stephen’s speech in AC 7: 2-5 where we learn exactly what God meant by the land promised in the Abrahamic covenant. “Stephen answered, ‘Brothers and fathers, listen to me! Before our ancestor Abraham had gone to live in Haran, the God of glory appeared to him in Mesopotamia and said to him, ‘Leave you family and country and go to the land that I will show you.’ And so he left his country and went to live in Haran. After Abraham’s father died, God made him move to this land where you now live. God did not then give Abraham any part of it as his own, not even a square foot of ground, but God promised to give it to him, and that it would belong to him and to his descendants.” From the hindsight that history gives us, we know that that land was occupied by the Canaanite tribes, which would later be vanquished by God under the hand of Joshua and his men. Even the threshing stone that Abraham was to buy wasn’t his yet, nor was the cave at McPelah [in modern day Hebron] where he and his family would be buried.
The question arises: What does all of this mean to me? Consider that our covenant relationship with God has its roots in the old covenant. All of earth may be in the hands of Satan right now, but in the end dominion over the earth will be wrested from Satan’s hands by Christ and returned to its rightful Owner, our Father in heaven. That is what the book of Revelation is all about. Because of our covenant relationship with God, our own fate is directly affected by our willingness to live up to our end of this Covenant of Grace. We can take comfort in knowing that God will consistently keep His covenant promises to us. After all, would He have agreed to sacrifice His only Son if He was planning to break those promises? The new covenant is specifically designed to bring us to eternal joy and fellowship with Him as joint-heirs with Christ Himself [RO 8: 17].
PRAYER: O Lord, the connections between the old and new covenants are important to us. While the new covenant makes the old one obsolete, there are still relationships that made the Covenant of Grace an improvement over the old one that we must understand. Much of what went on in ancient OT times foreshadows the present and the future. The Jews were promised a King, One that was delivered and then was cut down as an acceptable sin-sacrifice allowing mankind a way of escape from spiritual death. Out of Your love and compassion, believing Gentiles were grafted in and given the Gospel, so they too could access salvation [RO 11: 17-24]. The Mediator of this new covenant was none other than Christ, Your only begotten Son. Because of Him, animal sacrifices that never brought eternal forgiveness are no longer necessary [HE 10: 3, 9]. Dearest Abba, You know that we lack Your wisdom, and so You gave us verses in the NT like GA 3: 16 and AC 7: 2-5 to help us understand exactly when You meant when You were making promises of land and a King to Abraham. In LV 17:11 You told Your chosen people the significance of blood shed in a sacrifice to You. Later in HE 9: 22 You elaborated, so that we wouldn’t forget the significance of Christ’s blood shed on the cross to us. We stand before You today knowing that we do not deserve the blessings You have given us. We express our gratitude with the offering that follows, made in humility before You. We offer our adoration, worship, loyalty, trust, obedience, glory, honor, diligence, praise, and thanksgiving eternally. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will take up the subject of the specificity of the royal line of David from which Christ came and its significance to us. This line is exemplified by a long genealogy of people, all of whom were faithful keepers of their covenant promises. Nothing like this could have ever been made possible were it not for the profound love that God has for us. This love is His exercise of His covenant promises to us and is ample plea that He deserves the same faithfulness from us. God loves each of you, and so do Peter and I.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn