Doctrine of the New Covenant, part 6.Title: Doctrine of the New Covenant, part 6.
Not only does the NT use the term New Covenant, but it also uses quotes from the New Covenant given in the OT.
We noted the Lord's use of the term to describe the cup of the Lord's Supper and Paul's use of the term to the Corinthians when referring to the Christian being a manifestation of Christ with the law of Christ written upon his heart by the Holy Spirit.
We must always keep in mind that the New Covenant is unconditional and was made with Israel and will only be fulfilled by Israel. If there is one New Covenant as opposed to two, the church still does not fulfill it, but only that the spiritual blessings of the NC have been extended to the church.
The New Covenant of Jer 31:31-34 is quoted in Heb 8 in order to show that the old covenant was temporary and ultimately to be superseded.
Heb 8:6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.
Heb 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless [it was but man could not keep it], there would have been no occasion sought for a second.
Heb 8:8 For finding fault with them, He says,
"Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, When I will effect a new covenant With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;
God gave Israel a faultless Mosaic law that did not sufficiently provide for the faultiness of the people. It proved every man a faulty sinner.
Millions of men went on breaking this law for well over a thousand years. And within the law was the salvation message of the gospel to all the law breakers. The Levitical system was a visual picture of the promise in the Abrahamic covenant.
When we consider the possible reasons for God letting such an age to go on for so long in which a law is in effect which cannot be kept, one that seems clear is that God was proving something to mankind.
Perhaps God had to fully convince the human will of his own inadequacy. It is human nature to assume that one can perform all God's commands with enough effort.
Exo 19:8 And all the people answered together and said, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do!"
The most blessed nation possessing the greatest law ever written, which should have made them the most prosperous nation in the history of the world by far, actually fell flat. They should have continued throughout the history of the world with the greatest wealth, power, culture, art, craftsmanship, intellect, etc. while kingdom after kingdom crumbled around them, but they ended up divided by civil war and destroyed by far lesser nations on three separate occasions.
In the Millennial reign, in which the New Covenant will be fulfilled, there will be other people, not of the fold of believing Israel, who will live in a perfect world for hundreds of years. We read the prophecy that those people will rebel against the Lord and seek to destroy Him and His people. It is clear that God is showing something about the human race in this aspect of human history, that fallen man, unregenerate, is implacable.
As with the Millennial reign, couldn't it also be true that God was revealing something to the human race by placing the most gifted people under a conditional covenant?
God was showing something to the world in the age of Israel by giving them wonderful blessings above all other nations and conditioning them on a law - human inadequacy.
The individuals in OT Israel who prospered in their souls and in their lives were the ones who believed Yavah for salvation in the way of Abraham, and who believed in Yavah's promises, that only with Him would they prosper, while the way of the false gods would only hurt and kill them. Since they believed Him, they believed the only way to go was God's way of the Law of Moses, and though they would break the Law, in faith they would offer the proper sacrifice. However, that sacrifice would be offered first and foremost in their own hearts, and eventually the actual animal would be offered when they got to the altar. In faith they would make the offering in their heart knowing that their sin caused death, in the next few days by the death of an animal, and in the coming future, the death of a Messiah. In OT Israel, such a system was a reminder of sin, day by day and year by year. This knowing would cause them to have a broken and contrite heart; broken from its arrogance and broken in knowing what God would have to go through to save mankind. But, more often than not, the people in Israel just went through the motions of the ritual of the animal sacrifice and without understanding of its meaning and impact, and so there were very few who had prosperous souls and lives in OT Israel.
And so, with the people, fault was found by God and He displayed that fault to the world. That age is a testimony to the inadequacy of fallen man.
Heb 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless [it was but man could not keep it], there would have been no occasion sought for a second.
Heb 8:8 For finding fault with them, He says,
"Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, When I will effect a new covenant With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;
He finds fault with them and not with the covenant.
Under the New Covenant, Israel will never be split. This is fulfilled in the Millennial reign and not during the church.
Heb 8:9 Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers On the day when I took them by the hand To lead them out of the land of Egypt; For they did not continue in My covenant, And I did not care for them, says the Lord.
Israel in the OT was treated as a minor or child and so she was given the Mosaic Covenant. If they behaved they got the blessing and vice versa. They were taught like children, by object lessons or typology.
The words "lead them by the hand," speak of the fact that the First Testament was given to a people in its minority. Israel was treated as a minor. God put it under laws and regulations. If Israel behaved itself it was rewarded. and if it misbehaved, it was punished. Israel was taught by object lessons as one would teach a child, for instance the tabernacle, priesthood, offerings, the gorgeous vestments of the high priest. If you were to walk into our prep school, you would see something similar, and such objects are not found in the adult classroom.
Gal 4:1 Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything,
"child" - nh,pioj [nepios] = an infant. Literally: one who does not talk.
Gal 4:2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father.
Gal 4:3 So also we, while we were children [nepios], were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.
"elemental" - stoicei/on [stoicheion] = first things from which others in a series take their rise. Here it refers to the basic principles of the Jewish religion, symbolic, ceremonial, and legal.
This word would be used for letters as the elements of speech. Since Paul is speaking of Jews under the Law, the elementary things are the first principles of the Mosaic Law. They are holy, but they could not be perfectly obeyed. They were given to minors for instruction until the proper time came.
Gal 4:4 But when the fulness of the time came [incarnation], God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, |