| Christian Life and Doctrine | November 1964 |
God’s Covenants
GOD has revealed his loving plan of salvation through the covenants he has made with his people. The word covenant is not in such general use today as it was in the past. Now the words agreement and contract are more frequently employed instead. The word promise is closely related to the word covenant. God promises to do certain things, and these promises constitute a covenant, an agreement. The promises of God to reconcile the world unto himself through Christ are unconditional. If we are to participate in this divine plan as individuals and receive the blessings promised to those who are faithful co-workers with the Lord, then we must abide by the conditions attached to God’s promises.
A covenant implies agreement and harmony between those who enter into it. Hosea 6:7 reminds us (according to the marginal translation) that before his transgression Adam was in covenant relationship with the Creator, and that just as the Israelites had transgressed the Law Covenant into which they had entered with God, so Adam had transgressed that original covenant.
The terms of Adam’s covenant with God are partially set forth in Genesis 2:15-17. These terms were simple, but exacting. They called for Adam’s obedience—obedience based upon the simple test of not eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Thus Adam’s part in this covenant was to obey. Clearly implied in the record is God’s promise to bless Adam with a happy and continuous life. Had Adam remained obedient to God the beautiful harmony which existed between him and his Creator would have continued, to his great joy, and his understanding of his loving Creator would have been an ever expanding one.
But as we know, Adam did not remain faithful to his part of that original covenant. As the Prophet Hosea wrote, he “transgressed the covenant.” This meant that instead of continuing in a friendly relationship with God, Adam was alienated from him. God’s disfavor was manifested toward Adam in that he pronounced the sentence of death upon him, and was cast out of the Garden of Eden into the unfinished earth to die. (Ps. 30:5) Adam’s transgression affected his entire progeny, in that they all came under the same manifestation of disfavor. Paul explains this in I Corinthians 15:21,22.
Covenant with Noah
While God was no longer in covenant relationship with his earthly creatures as a whole, from time to time he made covenants with certain individuals from among them, individuals who, through their faith and obedience, were pleasing to him, After the Flood, the first one of these mentioned in the Bible is Noah. Noah had demonstrated his faith in God by his obedience in building the ark in preparation for the Flood. Noah’s family held the same faith as their father, and later shared in the covenant which God made with him.
God’s covenant was made with Noah after the Flood. The Covenant promised that all flesh would not again be destroyed by the waters of a flood. The covenant reads: “God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living creature that is with you; of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you: from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. 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.”—Gen. 9:8-11
This is a very important covenant in connection with God’s plan for the recovery of the human race from sin and death. While the promise assured Noah and his family that the human race would not again be destroyed by water, it is a reasonable implication that God did not intend that it would be destroyed in any way. God’s plan for man was that he was to multiply and fill the earth. The command to do this was given to Adam, and repeated to Noah and his family. He created the earth to be man’s home, and we can rest assured that neither the earth nor the human race will ever be destroyed.—Isa. 45:18
The fulfillment of God’s promises relative to the redemption and recovery of his earthly creatures from sin and death calls for a resurrection of the dead. This means that all the pure adamic stock which died in the Flood did not perish forever. God’s covenant with Noah and his family is a wonderful reminder that he created man to live, not to be destroyed; and through his other covenants God’s great love for his human creatures is revealed, a love that has provided an opportunity of salvation from death for all mankind.—John 3:16; 5:28,29
Covenant with Abraham
A few hundred years after the Flood God made a covenant with Abram, whose name was later changed to Abraham. We quote “I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” (Gen. 12:2,3) Two points are mentioned in this promise. One is that the descendants of Abraham would become a great nation, and the other is that in him “all families of the earth” would be blessed.
This promise was reiterated to Abraham later, the last reference to it being Genesis 22:1-18. God tested Abraham’s faith in connection with his son Isaac, whom he believed was at least the first of the “seed” which God had promised. Isaac was born when Abraham and his wife Sarah were very old, and they both doubtless recognized that God had performed a miracle to give them this child of promise. But when Isaac was grown, God asked Abraham to offer this miracle child in sacrifice.
This was a severe test of Abraham’s faith, but he demonstrated his willingness to obey. In the New Testament it is revealed that Abraham believed God would raise Isaac from the dead in the event he was sacrificed as a burnt offering. (Heb. 11:17-19) When Abraham demonstrated his faith by placing Isaac on an altar and preparing to slay him, his hand was stayed by an angel, who instructed him to use a lamb which God had provided as a substitute. God was very pleased with Abraham because of this marvelous demonstration of faith, and said to him:
“By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hath not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying, I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”
New Testament Explanation
Turning to the New Testament we read, “The scripture, for-seeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” (Gal. 3:8) The 16th verse of the chapter reads, “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.” From this it is clear that when God promised Abraham that his “Seed” would bless all the families of the earth, the One he had chiefly in mind as the blesser of the people was Jesus, the Christ of the New Testament, and the Messiah of the Old.
Then the apostle gives us further information concerning the “Seed” of promise. In verses 27-29 of the same chapter, addressing Christians, he adds, “As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus, And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
This means that the faithful followers of Jesus during the Gospel Age are the children of the covenant which God made with Abraham. Paul further states, “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of the promise.” (Gal. 4:28) In Hebrews 6:13-20 the Apostle Paul again associates the followers of Jesus with God’s oathbound covenant with Abraham. We quote:
“When God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest forever after the order of Melchisedec.” How very closely Paul associates the Gospel church with the Abrahamic Covenant!
The Law Covenant
Following the Exodus, God entered into a covenant with the natural descendants of Abraham. We speak of this as the Law Covenant because it was based upon an expression of God’s Law as epitomized by the Ten Commandments. Moses served as mediator between God and the Israelites in the making of this covenant. In the Early Church there were some differences of opinion as to whether or not the followers of Jesus were bound by the terms of the Law Covenant.
Paul explained the truth on this matter, saying that the Law was “added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the [original] promise was made.” (Gal. 3:19) And again, “The Law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (vs. 24) It is obvious from these statements, that Christians are not under the Law Covenant, although they certainly are in harmony with all its righteous requirements.
However, for the natural descendants of Abraham the Law Covenant served a good purpose. First, as Paul explains, “it was added because of transgressions till the [promised] seed should come.” God knew that it would be many centuries before his due time for bringing forth the true, faith seed of Abraham. It was in his plan that the Head of this faith seed should come from the nation of Israel. But because of the transgressions of this people, the chances were that before the due time came for the Messiah to appear, the nation would wander completely away from God, and through assimilation lose its identity as the typical people of God. The Law Covenant served as a deterrent to this trend. While the Israelites were not too faithful in keeping the Law, it did hold them in check sufficiently, so that there was a small nation of Israelites into which Jesus was born, and to whom he presented himself as Messiah.
Paul further explains that the Law Covenant was a “schoolmaster” to bring us to Christ; that is, it demonstrated the need of a Redeemer. Paul wrote, “Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression.” (Rom. 5:14) Adam’s transgression was willful. Had he elected to do so, he could have refrained from partaking of the forbidden fruit and thus bringing the sentence of death upon himself.
But Adam’s progeny came under condemnation to death through him, and not because of individual willful sin of their own. Or, as Paul states it, these died although they had not “sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression.” This situation continued, Paul explains, until Moses—referring to the time of the giving of the Law. It was then, in the case of the one small nation of Israel, that a change took place.
This change was brought about through the Law Covenant, a covenant in which God promised the Israelites that if they would and could keep his Law they would live—“He that doeth these things shall live by them.” (Lev. 18:5; Rom. 10:5; Gal. 3:12) This meant that any Jew who lived up perfectly to the terms of the Law Covenant would no longer need to die because of Adam’s transgression. When the rich young ruler asked Jesus what he must do to receive eternal life, Jesus referred him to the Law, as summed up in the Ten Commandments.—Matt. 19:16-20; Luke 18:18-27
This young man realized that he was not gaining life by keeping the Law, although doubtless he had been making a sincere effort to do so. The reason for his failure is the fact that no imperfect, fallen human can measure up to the perfect standard of the divine law. He realized that like all others he was on the way to death. This failure to gain life by keeping the Law had caused this young man to seek life in other channels, and he went to Jesus.
The rich young ruler was not ready to meet the terms of discipleship; so he did not learn the manner in which he could get life through Jesus. But he had learned that he could not gain life by keeping the Law. So it is, as explained by Paul, that the Law served as a schoolmaster, a teacher and leader, to emphasize the need of Christ, and the provision which God has made through him to give life to all who lost life through Adam. Not many of the Jewish nation have as yet learned this lesson. Indeed, very few of the Gentiles have learned it. But ere the plan of God shall have accomplished its full purpose, all will be fully enlightened, and only those who willfully turn against this light will fail to gain everlasting life.
An Allegory
In Galatians 4:22-26 Paul presents a further aspect of the covenant God made with Abraham, and the Law Covenant into which he entered with Israel. We quote: “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.” The “Jerusalem” which is “the mother of us all,” that is, of all true Christians, according to Paul’s lesson, was represented by Sarah, the “freewoman.” Thus Paul refuted the argument of Christians in his day who desired to be in bondage to the Law Covenant.
The New Covenant
In Jeremiah 31:31-34 another of God’s covenants is brought to our attention. It is referred to as a “new” covenant, and the promise is that it will be made “with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.” We quote: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that 1 will make with the house of Israel: After those days, saith the Lord, 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 teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
At the time this promise was made the Hebrew people were divided. One segment was known as the house of Israel, and the other as the house of Judah. God included both to emphasize that this promise applied to all the natural descendants of Abraham. Indeed, since the promise to Abraham was that “all families,” or nations, of the earth were to be blessed, all outside of the Jewish people will eventually have an opportunity of receiving the blessings of the promised New Covenant. First of all, however, those who were disobedient to the first, or Law Covenant, will be given the opportunity of entering into the New Covenant arrangement.
The Lord explains that the New Covenant will be “not according” to the covenant which he made with their fathers. It will be different, he explains, in that the law of the New Covenant will not be written on tables of stone, as was the case with the original Law Covenant, but will be written in the “inward parts” of the people, and in their “hearts.” This is a marked difference.
The Law written on stone, and read to the people, did not bring about a change in their “inward parts.” They remained imperfect, and basically selfish and sinful, the result being that except for brief intermittent periods little real effort was made by the people as a whole to keep the Law. There were noble exceptions to this by a small class who, upon the basis of their faith and sacrifice, proved worthy of “a better resurrection.”—Heb. 11:35
Going back to Adam, who was created in the image of God, we could say that God’s law was a part of his being. One test of obedience was defined for him, and he had the ability to pass that test, had he not willfully yielded to other influences. So it will be with those with whom God enters into full covenant relationship in the promised New Covenant. That the law will be written in the “inward parts” and in the “hearts” of those who subscribe to it means their ultimate restoration to human perfection, and to the divine image in which man was originally created.
World-wide Blessings
These restoration blessings of the New Covenant will be world-wide: “They shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.” Because of this when the law of the New Covenant shall be written in the “inward parts” there will be no more need for the services of teachers to instruct people in the ways of the Lord, nor to call upon them to obey and serve him.
The Lord’s introduction to his promise of the New Covenant is very enlightening as to the time when the promise would be fulfilled. Verse 28 of the chapter, referring to the scattered Israelites, reads, “It shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the Lord.” This is clearly one of the promises of the restoration of Israel in the early days of the kingdom age.
Then the next two verses read: “In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge; but every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.” Then follows God’s promise of the New Covenant and its blessings, emphasizing that when the time comes for its fulfillment there will be a complete change in the position of the human race so far as its relationship to sin and its consequences are concerned.
Figuratively speaking, we could say that it was Adam who ate the sour grape of disobedience to divine law. Not only were his own teeth set on edge, but the result of his disobedience was passed on to the entire human race. In preparation for the making of the New Covenant, Christ gave his life to redeem mankind from death, thus to provide all with an individual opportunity to obey divine law. This opportunity will reach the Israelites and the people of all nations in connection with the making of the New Covenant.
Jesus spoke of his shed blood, a symbol of his sacrificed human life, as the blood of the “new testament,” or New Covenant. (Matt. 26:28) It is his blood that ratifies God’s promise of the New Covenant, and makes possible its fulfillment. The reason is simple. The New Covenant will give life to those with whom it is made, who, prior to the making of the covenant, are members of the condemned and dying race. It is only through Jesus, and his sacrificial death on behalf of Adam and his children, that they can have an opportunity to gain everlasting life.
Servants of the New Covenant
The Scriptures inform us that Jesus is the Mediator of the New Covenant. (Heb. 12:24) Through sin, Adam and his race are alienated from God, but the Creator has not ceased to love his human creation for he made arrangement to bring about a reconciliation through Christ. We read in II Corinthians 5:19 that God was in Christ “reconciling the world unto himself.” Moses was the Mediator of the Law Covenant, and part of his work as Mediator was the providing of blood with which to sprinkle both “the book” and “the people.”—Exod. 24:3-8
As Mediator of the New Covenant it was necessary also for Jesus to provide blood, not of animals, but his own precious blood—blood being a symbol of his sacrificed, or poured-out life. Thus we see that Jesus’ sacrificial ministry was in preparation for mediating the New Covenant. Jesus will have associates in his work of mediating that covenant. These are referred to by Paul as “able ministers” of that covenant. (II Cor. 3:6) These are the faithful followers of Jesus who, throughout the Gospel Age, take up their cross and follow him into death. (Matt. 16:24) They are the “saints” of Psalm 50:5 who make a covenant with the Lord “by sacrifice.”
In II Corinthians 3:3 these are spoken of as epistles of Christ, “written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” Here Paul is not referring to God’s promise of the New Covenant in which his law is to be written in the “inward parts” of the people, but is comparing the epistles of Christ with the tables of stone on which the Ten Commandments were written.
The entire Gospel Age is set aside in the plan of God for the preparation of these epistles, or representatives, of Christ, referred to in verse 6 as “able ministers” of the New Covenant. Not until these “ministers” have all been prepared can the inauguration of the New Covenant take place. Since all of these were originally members of the sin-cursed and dying race, the blood of Christ is essential to give them a standing before God, and to make their sacrifice acceptable to him.—Rom. 12:1
There are two aspects of the ministry of the New Covenant. First there is the sacrificial phase. This was begun by Jesus, and it is the privilege of the “able ministers” of the New Covenant to share with him in this work of sacrifice. This is why we are invited to take up our cross and follow him into death. Then there will be the glory phase of the ministry of the New Covenant. This comes after the work of sacrifice is complete. Paul uses the glory which was displayed when the Law Covenant was inaugurated as an illustration of the glory which in due time will be associated with the ministry of the New Covenant.
On this point Paul wrote: “For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. Seeing then that we have such hope we use great plainness of speech.”—II Cor.3:9-12
Paul’s lesson is clear. He emphasizes the great glory attached to the ministry of the New Covenant, but reminds us that this glory is to be realized in the future. He speaks of it as a “hope,” and as he says in Romans 8:24,25, “We are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” Now we are in the sacrificial phase of our ministry of the New Covenant. It involves trials and afflictions, but as Paul wrote, “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”—II Cor. 4:17
As followers of the Master we surely enjoy a wonderful hope. It is the hope of sharing with Jesus, as the promised Seed of Abraham, in the work of blessing all the families of the earth. It is the hope of sharing with him in the work of mediating the New Covenant. The knowledge of the Lord is to fill the earth, and it will reach the people through those denominated by Paul as “epistles” of Christ. Are we yielding to the work of the Holy Spirit, that the knowledge of the Lord and the spirit of the Lord may become a very part of us? If so, then Christ is in us, and we can rejoice in the hope of glory, an important part of which will be, together with Jesus, reconciling the lost world to God, so that his will may be done on earth as it is now done in heaven.—Col. 1:26,27: Matt. 6:10