| The Christian Life | September 1948 |
Public Lecture at Chautauqua, Ohio
By G. Russell Pollock
God’s Plan for Man
As Shown in His Covenants
GOD has a plan for man, a plan that will result in the blessing of all the families of the earth, and which, when it is complete, will have restored the human race to God. If one studies the Bible merely to prove a pre-adopted creed he will never find the jewels of truth that are hidden in its pages. But if our sincere effort is to learn the purposes of God, and if we come to the Bible with an open mind and an honest heart, we will find the divine plan for human destiny clearly revealed in his Word.
The covenants of God give a complete outline of the divine plan of the ages. These covenants, as they are recorded in the Bible, cover the whole course of human history from paradise lost to paradise regained. It is my purpose at this time to discuss with you some of the covenants between God and man as they are recorded in the Bible. To understand these covenants will help us to appreciate our place in the great divine program for the salvation of the world. As we behold the stately steppings of our God in the unfolding of his plan for man, our faith will be increased and our hope for his kingdom will grow greater and more real.
The first covenant between God and man was made in the Garden of Eden and is recorded in Genesis 2:15-17:
“And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Life or death depended on the keeping of this covenant. It called for obedience to God’s law. Adam broke this contract through his disobedience. He lost his covenant relationship with God. He was sentenced to death. The Bible says, “In his favor is life.” (Psalm 30:5) No one can live forever without God’s favor, regardless of the fact that many believe in the erroneous doctrine of eternal torment and the like fallacy of inherent immortality. It is only in the favor of God that man has life. Man’s eternal existence depends upon his being in covenant relationship with God. Satan said, “Ye shall not surely die.” “You appear to die, but you will really be alive some place else,” is the modern version.
“He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44) On the other hand, God said, “Thou shalt surely die,” and from the evidence all about us, he is right. Certainly Adam is dead, and sooner or later all of us will have to make a decision as to whether it was God or Satan who told the truth in this matter of life and death.
It is evident that not only Adam lost his communion with God, but all of his children as well have been born out of covenant relationship with him. It is written, “As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”—Rom. 5:12 After Adam’s transgression, God did not turn the human race over to Satan for its complete destruction. This fact was first made clear by the statement in Genesis 3:15, where we are given an assurance that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head.
Covenant with Noah
The next important covenant that was made with man after his expulsion from Eden was given to Noah. This covenant furnishes great assurance that “the heavens are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.” (Psalm 115:16) This covenant is clearly stated in Genesis 9:11-17:
“And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.”
In this account God tells us that the rainbow is the token that the covenant will be kept and that the earth will no more be destroyed by a flood of waters. Let me ask, Why was a rainbow chosen as the token of guarantee of God’s covenant? To appreciate this simple truth is to have our faith increased. According to the Bible, it had never rained upon the earth before the flood. In Genesis 2:5,6 we are told, “For the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, … but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.” One of the reasons Noah was mocked when he told the people of his day of the rain from heaven which would cause a flood to cover the high mountains, was that the antediluvians had never seen rain fall from the clouds.
The reason there was no rain before the flood is scientific as well as scriptural. In Genesis 1:6-10,14-16, the story of creation tells us that the firmament separated two great bodies of water. We are told that the firmament is the heavens, the same heavens in which were our sun and moon and stars. The waters below the heavens were on the earth, and as the dry land appeared, they were separated into great bodies of water called seas just as we find them now. The water above the heavens was the “great deep.” (Gen. 7:11) This describes the ring of aqueous matter which surrounded the earth before the flood. It is not strange for planets to have rings surrounding them. Saturn has rings, and Jupiter has belts even to this day. The ring which surrounded the earth before the flood was created during the time that the earth was being prepared for man’s habitation when the intense heat of the planet threw off in vapor vast quantities of moisture. This moisture surrounded the earth as a veil. It caused a hothouse condition to exist upon the earth.
This theory of cosmogony is held by many scientists and biblical scholars alike. Many have been puzzled as to why the mastodons and other warm-blooded animals were able to live in what is now the Arctic Zone. The hothouse condition that existed upon the earth before the flood made all parts of the earth equally habitable. In Genesis 7:11,12 we have the record of the breaking of the ring above the earth in these words:
“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.”
“The windows of heaven were opened” and the waters of the “great deep” were broken up. The waters above the firmament came within the gravity pull of earth. The outer air caused ice caps to form at the poles. The flood had come in fulfillment of the word of God given to Noah. The mastodons were trapped with green grass in their mouths and undigested food in their stomachs, and are preserved even till this day as a testimony.
We now know why God chose a rainbow as a token of his covenant. As long as there were waters above the firmament the earth could not enjoy the sun’s direct rays. It requires the direct rays of the sun to cause a rainbow, for a rainbow is the reflection or the refraction of the direct rays of the sun shining upon moisture-laden atmosphere which breaks the light into the different prismatic colors. The existence of a rainbow visible to the earth proves that there is no more a ring of waters above the earth, and therefore proves that there never can be another globe-covering flood. God chose the rainbow as the token of his covenant to man because it is an absolute guarantee that another flood of such magnitude is an impossibility. Isn’t the Bible a wonderful book when it is rightly understood?
Covenants with Abraham and Israel
God made his next covenant with Abraham. This covenant definitely affects you and your family and me and my family. It is simply stated in these words, “In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” (Gen. 12:3) This covenant was repeated to Abraham’s son Isaac, and to Isaac’s son Jacob. Here is a wonderful assurance to all men, for the covenant called for two things: First, that Abraham would have a seed, and second, through the seed of Abraham, blessing would come to all the families of the earth. What a happy prospect!
God made his next covenant with the children of Israel, the descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob. It is known as the Law Covenant. It was entered into at Mount Sinai. After being given the statutes of God’s Law, Israel was told in substance, “If you do these things ye shall live by them,” and with one accord they replied, “All that the Lord hath spoken will we do.” (Lev. 18:5; Rom. 10:5; Exodus 19:8) The children of Israel accepted the terms of the Law Covenant. In this covenant they thought that they had found the way to everlasting life, and that all that was necessary for them to do was to keep the terms of this covenant.
God made a picture of these two covenants—the one with Abraham, and the other with the nation of Israel—in the wives of Abraham as recorded in Galatians 4:21-28:
“Tell me, ye that desire to be under the Law, do ye not hear the Law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.”
Why was the Law Covenant ever made? It has held the nation of Israel in bondage. As yet no Jew except Jesus has ever kept it perfectly. It has been beyond the reach of their ability. The Law Covenant was made for several reasons, but now we mention only one—the reason expressed in Gal. 3:21-25. Part of this record is, “Wherefore the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.” The Law was perfect. The reason no Jew has ever kept the Law is because there is not a perfect Jew, and an imperfect man cannot keep a perfect Law. No son of Adam can keep God’s perfect Law, because all are born in sin and shapen in iniquity. All are imperfect. The Law, which the Jewish people thought was unto life, they found was unto death. It concluded them under sin. It showed them that they were imperfect and that the perfect Law was beyond their ability.
The Law Covenant proved that neither Jew nor Gentile can keep God’s Law without help. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” (Rom. 5:12) Therefore the Law was a schoolmaster leading to Christ as the Savior and Redeemer. Our Lord Jesus was “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.” (Heb. 7:26) He kept the Law of God. This demonstrated his perfection as a man, and therefore proved his ability to die as a ransom. God’s Law requires a life for a life. Adam, a perfect man, had sinned and died and the whole race had died in him. Christ, a perfect man, was obedient to the Law of God. He died and rose again. This is an assurance that the whole race will live in him. (Acts 17:31) “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (I Cor. 15:22) The Law Covenant was given to show the need of a Savior and Redeemer. It was given as a school-master to lead Israel to Christ. Through him, we again have the privilege of communion with God. Again I say, the Bible is a wonderful Book when rightly understood!
The covenant with Abraham spoke of a “seed.” The events recorded in the Old Testament show that neither Isaac nor Jacob was the seed referred to. The New Testament tells us that the seed was Christ—“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” (Gal. 3:16) The seed of Abraham is to bless all the families of the earth according to the covenant. Jesus Christ by the grace of God tasted death for every man, and brought the fulfillment of the promised blessing closer. (Heb. 2:9) The plan of God is not haphazard. It is based upon the principles of justice, wisdom, love, and power, for all the attributes of God unite in the harmonious fulfillment of his plan for man.
When the Master was born the angel said, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord.” And the heavenly host declared, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:10,11,14) Many years have passed since Christ died on Calvary and the promised blessing has not yet come to earth. There is a reason for this. It is found in the covenant that makes the Gospel church a joint-heir with Christ as the “seed” which will bless the world. This great truth, overlooked by many, should thrill the Christian with the prospect that it brings—“If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”—Gal. 3:29
The work of the Gospel age has not been the conversion of the world. The world has not been reconciled to God. But the Gospel age has seen the development of the “seed” of Abraham, which includes Christ and those who are his. “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” It is the privilege of the true Christian today to perform the work to “show forth the praises of him” who path called us “out of darkness into his marvelous light.”—I Peter 2:9
In due time the faithful will live and reign with Christ a thousand years, and will have another work to do—that of blessing all the families of the earth in accordance with the promise of God. Jeremiah 31:31-34, and Hebrews 8:8-12, tell us that the time will come when the words of the Lord will be fulfilled:
“I will put my Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall no more teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest of them, saith the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
This is another way of saying that all the families of the earth will be blessed. Here is an assurance that man will again be brought into covenant relationship with God.
The promise will be fulfilled, and God’s Law will be put again in the minds and in the hearts of the people during that thousand-year reign when all enemies will be put under his feet, and the last enemy, Death, will be destroyed. (I Cor. 15:25,26) Only the wilfully disobedient will be cut off in death. (Acts 3:23) All the obedient and willing of earth will bend their knees in worship and every tongue will confess to the glorious majesty of God their Father. Surely God has a plan for the rehabilitation of the race—yea, for the blessing of all the families of the earth! This plan will reach its culmination in what the apostle describes as “the dispensation of the fullness of times when the Lord will “gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.” (Eph. 1:10) Yes, the Bible is indeed a wonderful Book when it is rightly understood!