Day Of Favour

Covenants

The Importance of Covenants

This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you (Luke 22:20).

These were the words of Jesus the night before his crucifixion. Notice the term he used: new covenant. These are not casual words. Since a covenant is a binding agreement, it is a serious matter not to be taken lightly. And describing it as new meant, obviously, that it differed from whatever had gone before. We need to investigate in the Bible what it means to be living under this New Covenant, and especially to see in what ways it differs from the Old.

So the Bible is the source. It is divided into two sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. I know that, I hear you say, but is it not remarkable in itself? New religions tend to have their own unique text, and ignore [or pay lip-service to] any others. Christianity is different. It has complete respect for the Old Testament, and sees its roots there. It worships the same God. Christ did not appear in the flesh in some random place or time. He came to Israel, the country of the Old Testament, so to a nation prepared for his coming. The understanding of the history of that nation and its forebears is vital in understanding the mission of Christ himself.

About 30 years after the crucifixion Queen Boadicea in Britain led a revolt against Rome, was defeated, and died soon after. Imagine if it was claimed by her or on her behalf that her death was God's means of redeeming humanity. The problem with this notion is that there was no history supporting the claim, and nothing that followed supported it either. Without such evidence, it would be hard to believe. The Bible however does both of these things. It makes the claim, has the history to support it in both the Old Testament and the Gospels, and records events after which substantiate it further.

So, the Christian Bible needs the Old Testament as well as the New. The solid roots found there give support, conviction and explanation to the claims of the New. The New Testament writers frequently quoted from the Old Testament, seeing it as an authoritative source of truth. Jesus claimed to be the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament (John 4:26), and to fulfil the Law found there (Matt 5:17). He declared that many passages, including in Moses and the Prophets, were actually speaking about himself (Luke 24:27). For example: Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, and instructions concerning sacrifices, are prophetic of Christ as Redeemer. Some accounts illustrate aspects of the life of Christ, such as the story of Isaac being laid on the altar, or of Joseph, son of Jacob, who was loved by his father but rejected by his brothers. We are also specifically told that Melchizedek is a foreshadowing of Christ (Heb 7). So there is blessing for us, as for the disciples on the Emmaus Road, whenever we can delve beneath the surface meaning of an Old Testament passage to discover the revelation it provides concerning Christ. Paul stated something similar when he said that the Old Testament contained a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ (Col 2:17). The ministry of Jesus, the history before and events after combine to reveal an integrated whole that gives us solid ground and credence to believe Jesus is who he said he was. Christians therefore are not limited to reading the New Testament, where Christ is revealed openly. We need to read the Old Testament as well, because we see there the foundations upon which the New is built, and, according to Paul, a foreshadowing of Christ and his ministry.

But this combining of Old and New does give us an added task. We need to discern the differences! If we read the whole Bible and adopt all of it equally, then we are failing to properly distinguish what is new. Jesus did not say that he was adding a codicil to the Old Covenant. By calling it new, he inferred that the Old Covenant would be revoked, in the same way that when someone writes a new will they revoke all previous wills.

A covenant is a binding agreement or contract between two or more parties. There are quite a few in the Bible. The remarkable thing is that God has himself instigated covenants with people. These are of particular interest to us, since, by definition, they specify the relationship God has with those with whom he is in covenant. Hence, although the roots of Christianity lie in the Old Testament, and we can learn from those roots, we should nevertheless be fully aware of the differences between covenants. Here is a brief summary of covenants that are pertinent to this discussion:

Noah

After the flood, and after Noah had offered sacrifices on an altar, God established a covenant with Noah and his descendants, and even with the animals, that never again would he destroy the earth with a flood (Gen 9:11). God made this promise despite knowing about man that every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood (Gen 8:21). So he knew that man would be unable to keep any conditions. Obviously the animals couldn't keep any conditions either. So he made the promise with no conditions attached whatsoever. It was a covenant of grace.

By bringing the flood God made known to all the world his absolute right to do whatever he pleases with his own creation, even to destroy it with a flood. So the flood has a message for us today. It shows us what God could do at any time if he was so minded. Only when we understand this for ourselves can we fully appreciate his grace in promising never to do it again. And he never will. We can still see the rainbow, a sign that the covenant is still in effect (Gen 9:13). Further, it would be inappropriate for anyone living after the flood to plead with God not to do it again. To do that would indicate either a mistrust of God or an ignorance of his promise. The appropriate response is to be aware of the covenant of which he is a beneficiary and to be thankful to God for it.

Abraham

God made promises to Abraham on several occasions in his life. It is helpful to list them in context as follows:

Genesis 12: God made him a promise when he was 75 years old and called Abram, that he would become a great nation, be blessed, and be a blessing to all peoples on Earth.

Genesis 13: Abram gave Lot the choice of where to live, and it was then that God promised him and his offspring, or seed, the entire land that he could see, and that his offspring would be countless.

Genesis 15: God promises him his own child, and again that his offspring would be countless. And at this point Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6). It is this verse that Paul quotes in Romans 4 and Galatians 3, uses as a foundation for the gospel, and stresses that this occurred before the sign of circumcision [see below]. God then promised the land to him again. Abram asks for confirmation at this point: how can I know?. God answered by requiring a ceremonial sacrifice at which he established a covenant with Abram, promising the land to his descendants, but only after 400 years of servitude in a foreign country.

Genesis 17: When Abram is 99, God meets with Abram again and confirms his covenant with him, reiterating all the promises made before. He changes his name: No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations (v5). His wife's name is also changed from Sarai to Sarah. The practice of circumcision is made compulsory for all males, as a sign of the covenant (v11). An uncircumcised male did not endanger the entire covenant, but would be excluded himself from participating in it and benefiting from it. God promised that Sarah would bear a son.

Genesis 18: The Lord appears again to them and gave a date for the birth of Isaac: about this time next year.

Genesis 20: Abraham puts all the promises in jeopardy by saying that Sarah was his sister. Abimelech took her for himself! It took God's intervention to put that right.

Genesis 21: Isaac is born when Abraham is 100. Later on, when Isaac was weaned, Hagar and Ishmael are banished.

Genesis 22: God tests Abraham, by asking him to sacrifice his son, Isaac. An angel stops him from doing this, but because of his obedience, God restated his promises concerning his descendants, and being blessed, and being a blessing to all nations. This time, God swore that these things would take place, as commented on in Hebrews (Heb 6:17).

So we have here a story of a promise to Abram, which became a covenant, which was later confirmed, and later still God swore by himself concerning its fulfilment. Its one condition, circumcision, was called a sign of the covenant (Gen 17:11). In this respect this was like the rainbow, which was also called the sign of the covenant (Gen 9:12). If we accept that the condition of circumcision is to be regarded as a sign, then the covenant with Abraham is also in effect a covenant of grace, like Noah's.

Moses

The main covenant with which I want to contrast the New is that of Moses, which is called Old explicitly by Paul (2 Cor 3:14), and implied to be such by Jeremiah (Jer 31:31-32). It was a covenant with just one nation, Israel, to the exclusion of all others: Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole world is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Ex 19:5-6). Incidentally, this description was echoed by Peter when he called the Church a royal priesthood and a holy nation (1 Pet 2:9). There were many blessings for the Israelites under this covenant, which are listed in Deuteronomy chapter 28. But there were many conditions in it, unlike the covenants with Noah and Abraham. Obedience brought the blessings, but disobedience brought curses, also listed in that chapter. It was based on law. And it was a covenant with the nation as a whole, as well as with each individual Israelite, since it had laws governing the roles of Levites and priests, the setting up of cities of refuge, and mandatory feasts to be held each year at a specified place of worship.

The Law required offerings to be brought to the Lord. The sin and guilt offerings were for wrongdoing, and brought forgiveness to the wrongdoer (Lev 4:31; 5:16). So there was provision within the Law for failure to keep to its terms. There were also other offerings which were to be used on special occasions: the burnt offering, grain offering and fellowship offering. These were also often presented in thankfulness for or anticipation of some deliverance or blessing, and were therefore an acknowledgement that God was the source of such blessings.

Gibeon

God had told Israel that he would wipe out the inhabitants of the promised land, saying: Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you (Ex 23:32,33). But we read in Joshua chapter 9 that the Gibeonites, who were inhabitants of the land, pretended to be from far away. So Joshua and the leaders of Israel were deceived and made a treaty with them. The Hebrew word used for treaty, berith, is the same as the word for covenant. So it is a covenant for our purposes. The leaders had sworn to keep the agreement they had made (v15), and because of that, even though it was based on deceit, they did. Soon after, other cities decided to attack the Gibeonites because of the treaty they had made with Israel. The rational course for Israel would be to let Gibeon be defeated first, and then deal with those cities afterwards. But they were bound by the treaty they had made. They honoured that treaty and came to Gibeon's aid, as related in the next chapter. But not only did Israel keep the treaty, God did so too, to the extent that he did an amazing miracle - the sun stood still till the battle was over. And even years later, God still stood by the treaty:

During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the Lord. The Lord said, it is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death (2 Sam 21:1).

The lesson from the treaty with Gibeon is that covenants should not be broken. Saul did break that treaty, but not without cost. There was a famine later, and Saul's descendants paid the price (v8,9). Covenants are solemn affairs. When God makes a covenant, he keeps it: I will not violate my covenant, or alter what my lips have uttered (Ps 89:34). When we make a covenant, we should keep it, too.

John the Baptist

John the Baptist was a transitional figure between two covenants. He preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 3:3), but his method of receiving forgiveness was not the one prescribed under the Law. That required the offender to bring an offering to the priest (Lev 4:31). The priests would have disapproved of John's new teaching, which is consistent with the fact that they didn't believe him (Mark 11:31). It presented a new means of forgiveness and salvation, as prophesied by his father:

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins (Luke 1:76,77).

According to Jesus, yes, John was a prophet, so therefore like the Old Testament prophets, yet also more than a prophet, because he was preparing the way of the Lord, and from his time on the kingdom of heaven would advance (Matt 11:9-14). Evidently he had authority to change the established order, and by so doing was preparing the way for the New Covenant.

The New Covenant

The Old Covenant was a very detailed, highly specific and comprehensive agreement that had come direct from the Lord and revealed to Moses. Yet, 1300 years later, Jesus was born. Things changed under his ministry and were revolutionised after his death and resurrection. I have already referred to his announcement of a new covenant. What did he mean by it? He was obviously making a hugely significant statement in that short sentence. There must be something profound about the new which distinguishes it from the old. In fact his use of the term implied that he was fulfilling a prophesy of Jeremiah:

The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Jer 31:31-34).

The promise to write his law on their hearts can be rephrased as a promise to give them a new nature. The promise that they will all know God can be seen as the creation of a spiritual link between man and God. All of this is predicated on forgiveness. God will remember their sins no more. This is better than forgetting sin - forgotten things can be remembered. God has promised not to remember their sins any more. Note that these promises are directed towards the house of Israel. We can see now that the beneficiaries of this new covenant are believers in Christ. So why does Jeremiah address this prophesy to the house of Israel only? Paul explains:

Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus (Eph 3:2-6).

So prior generations, including Jeremiah, were not privy to this revelation, given to Paul, that the Gentiles were to be included. He called this a mystery, meaning something that was hidden, but is now revealed. Paul says elsewhere that Gentiles have been grafted in (Rom 11:17). This truth came as a shock to the Jews [including the apostles, who were also shown this truth (Acts 10:45, 11:18)]. It was completely new.

Jeremiah was aware that that the new covenant would not be like the old one. The book Hebrews, which quotes the above passage in full in chapter 8, agrees that the New Covenant is radically different. It declares that God spoke through the prophets in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son (Heb 1:1), and that there has been a change of priesthood, and a change in the law (Heb 7:12). For example, under the Old Covenant certain foods were deemed unclean and forbidden (Lev 11). However Jesus, teaching about what it is that defiles a man, declared thereby that all foods were clean (Mark 7:19 ESV). This message was repeated to Peter in his vision at Joppa (Acts 10:15), and taught by Paul (Col 2:16). So for a Christian, though there may be natural reasons to avoid certain foods that may carry an increased risk of adverse effects, for instance if not properly prepared, there is no longer a legal or religious reason for adhering to the laws in Leviticus 11 concerning food. The same applies to festivals, the Sabbath, and special days, according to Paul (Col 2:16; Gal 4:10). These differences are significant in that they are indicative of a much more fundamental change. The Old Covenant was concerned with the outward observance of rules, whereas the New Covenant promises an inner transformation, a new nature, a new birth. As Jeremiah put it: I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.

The Root of the New Covenant

According to Paul, the New Covenant was not based on the Old Covenant which came through Moses. He called the Old Covenant a ministry that condemns (2 Cor 3:9). Instead, he likens it to the covenant with Abraham. In Romans chapter 4, he maintains that our righteousness and blessing come by faith in exactly the same way as it did for Abraham. This linkage is confirmed by the fact that God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, i.e. of those of like faith with Abraham. He therefore became the father of us all, whether Jew or Gentile:

Therefore the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring - not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations (Rom 4:16,17).

In Galatians chapter 3, Paul states similarly that God gave an inheritance to Abraham by means of a promise (Gal 3:18), in the same way that believers receive promised salvation by faith. The promise to Abraham encapsulates this extension [to cover believers] by being addressed to Abraham and his seed, being in the singular and meaning Christ according to Paul (v16). Through Christ Gentile believers are also included (v14), which explains how the seed or offspring mentioned in the original promises are both singular and countless. Those who belong to Christ are therefore Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise (v29).

In Hebrews also we are told that we are heirs of the promise made to Abraham, and that we therefore have a hope that is rock solid, having been confirmed with an oath (see Gen 22:16):

Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged (Heb 6:18).

So the promise to Abraham of righteousness by faith, and all the blessings flowing from that, is a foreshadowing of faith in Christ. The root of the New Covenant is the covenant with Abraham.

But most of the Old Testament relates to the period governed by the Law of Moses. Some truths recounted there are eternal, but others relate specifically to the Old Covenant. We need to be careful to distinguish which elements of belief and practice in the Old Testament are to be followed today. The early church went through an exercise of this nature before deciding to abandon the imposition of circumcision on the Gentiles, while retaining some other prohibitions including against blood (Acts 15).

All of these differences exist for a reason. We are living under the New Covenant, and should not be oscillating back and forth between covenants when we read the Bible. As already mentioned, the covenant we belong to determines, by definition, our relationship with God. Paul said of the Israelites:

But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away (2 Cor 3:14-16).

So let us continue to read the Old Testament, but with unveiled face, seeing Christ portrayed even there, and living in the freedom that we have in Christ (v17, Gal 5:1).