The Everlasting Covenant

God’s promises to Abraham (and therefore to us as well) are “the new covenant”.

“And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.

“For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.” Ga. 3:17, 18
When God makes a covenant, it is based on a condition that we believe and obey it. Abraham became “the father of us all” when he chose to believe those promises. “It is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written “I have made you a father of many nations”)… Rom. 4:16-18

We read those promises in Genesis 12
– I will make you a great nation
– I will bless you
– And make your name great
– And you shall be a blessing
– I will bless those who bless you
– And I will curse him who curses you
– And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed

The promises were renewed again in chapter 15 when God called him out of his tent one night and asked him to count the stars: – “So shall your descendants be”

As we read the entire report through chapters 12-19, we learn that the fulfillment of God’s promises were based on faith and on obedience; and we find that Abraham did fulfill these conditions when He responded: “He believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness.” Gen. 15:6

That’s all what God has asked us to do: believe His promise to us and obey His commandments.
Jesus said: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. Those who worry that salvation by grace through faith won’t produce good works need to remember that true faith always “works through love”. Eph. 2:8,9; Gal 5:6

The reason why God’s covenant is so often broken by us is because our nature is so weak and sinful that we cannot keep our promises to Him in our own strength. We make promises to Him and then often we break them later. We get down on ourselves “I’m not so good”, “I’m not cut out to go to heaven.” Note how Paul speaks of God’s covenant “and a promise as being identical.” “The Law…cannot annul the covenant…that it should make the promise of no effect.” Gal. 3:17. This is part of His promise that He will give us power to live a sinless life.

The old covenant “gives birth to bondage”.
Gal. 4:24. Some people in the church even give up in despair, and many go through their so-called “Christian
experience” under a constant cloud of discouragement. But the confusion about the two covenants can be resolved very simply. The problem concerns “the law” given at Mount Sinai. Does it alter the “new covenant” that was the straightforward promise of God?

Paul was probably the first Israelite who clearly understood the function of the law and of the two covenants in the light of Israel’s up and down, discouraging Old Testament history. Apostle Paul clarifies the confusion in several simple steps.
1. “The blessing of Abraham” is to come on everyone, “that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith”. Gal. 3:14. Not one human soul is left out if they have faith.

2. A “will” or covenant that anyone makes (even God’s!) cannot be annulled or added to once the testator dies.
Gal. 3:15. In God’s “will” or “covenant” He promised (and then swore to it a solemn oath) to give Abraham the whole earth “as an everlasting possession”.

Gen. 17:8. This had to mean after the resurrection, for he could never inherit it that way unless he also was given everlasting life.

But since only “righteousness” can “dwell” in the “new earth” 2 Peter 3:13, the promise had to include making righteous
those who believe God’s promise Therefore the new covenant has to be the essence of righteousness by faith, and the old one – by self-righteousness.

3. When we make a covenant, it is always a contract. You do so-and-so, and then I will do so-and-so. God also makes such contracts with us. His new covenant is always a promise on His part. And our part is to believe and obey.

4. God said that His promise was to Abraham’s descendant (singular, “seed”) “who is Christ”. We came into the picture only as being “in Christ” by adoption through faith. Gal. 3:16.

5. Since God made His solemn promise to Abraham (which He sealed with an oath), nothing under heaven could change an iota, so that the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai 430 years later could not be an extra feature because Abraham knew the law and he obeyed it.

6. “If the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by promise.” Gal. 3:18. The new covenant does tell us what to do, and that is to believe. Then the new covenant is to believe and to obey, the old covenant is to obey in human weakness.

7. God did speak the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai because people had forgotten His law. Abraham knew the law, they were written in his heart. “Because that Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments,
My statutes, and My laws.” Gen 26:5.

8. The law of God is eternal (Ps. 111:7-8.) It has always existed, and will exist for ever. But the people of Israel had forgotten it. It had to be proclaimed to them on Mount Sinai and also other laws added to it, which remained valid till Christ died on the cross. In the new covenant the same law will be written in the hearts of the people.

The forming of the Old Covenant:
Before we get to the Exodus 20, in the chapter 19 God made a covenant with the people of Israel. They promised to do all that the Lord had spoken and to obey Him.

When they gathered at Mount Sinai, God told Moses to renew to them the same covenant. “Tell the children of Israel” “you have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people.” Ex. 19:3-5.

“Keep My covenant” He said, that is, cherish it.
Thus the Lord said to Israel. “Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all the earth is Mine: And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” Ex. 19:5-6.

The people answered, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do”. Ex. 19:8. Thus the old covenant was formed.
Paul saw the significance of this old covenant promise of the people: “Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Gal. 3:21-24. The word “tutor” is petagogue in the Greek, from “paideuo” which means to exercise discipline.

Paul saw the old covenant that the people voluntarily put themselves under as a disciplinarian, keeping the people of Israel obedient until such a time as they could find the new covenant and the Justification by faith which their father Abraham enjoyed.

Since they brought the old covenant upon themselves, God must let them learn through their own history how vain were their promises to keep the law in their own strength – until at last they come to the experience of their father Abraham to be justified by faith and not by their self-righteous “works of law”.

The difference between the New covenant
and the Old Covenant is simply “where the law is written.” In the new covenant it is written in the heart and in the old covenant upon the tables of stone. Our salvation does not depend alone on our making promises to God but on our believing His promises and keeping His commandments.

Believing God’s new covenant promise delivers us from the “yoke of bondage”. No longer do we serve Him through fear of punishment or even from hoping for some great reward. The new covenant is based on love. Because we love God above all, then our love is expressed in obedience and in keeping His commandments.

All this sense of compulsion is summed up in Paul’s expression of being “under the elements of the world”, the health – destroying anxiety that all humans know by nature. Gal. 4:3

The old covenant drove Israel through long centuries on a relentless history of ups and downs. Prophets, judges and some kings tried but in vain to bring in permanent reformation and revival. Samuel’s blessed ministry ended in the people’s clamor for a king like the nations around them; Saul nearly ruined the nation. Kings such as Jehoshophat, Hezekiah and finally Josiah tried their utmost to set the people on the right course. But their revivals were always frustrated by their lack of faith.

What do the two covenants mean to us today?
The two covenants are not hemmed in by matters of time, as though people living anciently were automatically under the old and we today are automatically under the new. There were people in the Old Testament times who lived under the new covenant (Abraham, for example) and we today can be living under the old covenant, if we don’t understand and believe the freedom giving gospel.

A gourmet chef can prepare a delicious seven-course dinner with good wholesome food, but if he put in a little tiny amount of arsenic, it is spoiled. Even if it doesn’t kill us, it will cause paralysis.

Luke warmness in His people is a mixture of hot and cold that produces the condition that God will spew them out of His mouth. Rev. 3:15,16.

Both Abraham and Sarah waded through the discouragement of old covenant thinking. Sarah cherished bitterness
against God in her heart because she could not get pregnant. “The Lord has restrained me from bearing children,”
she complained. Gen. 16:2. Her solution – Abraham taking Hagar and adopting Ishmael as their son to help God fulfill His promise. Finally we read in Hebrews 11:19 that Sarah discovered new covenant repentance. Her heart was melted somehow by the grace of God.

“By faith Sarah… received strength to conceive…” and finally Abraham’s faith triumphed when he offered up Isaac as an object lesson, sensing a little of what it cost the heavenly Father to offer up His Son.( Gen. 22)

The new covenant is part of the light yet to “lighten the earth with glory” (KJV) in the closing hours of this world’s history. Rev. 18:1-9

The message will be centered in a true understanding of righteousness by faith which alone can prepare God’s people for the final time of trouble.

Many when they hear its good news will awaken as of a dream. All of God’s biddings will become enablings, and the Ten Commandments will become to them ten precious promises of good news. Nothing will be able to stop them from responding to God’s gracious last call. “Come out of her My people.” Rev. 18:4
Amen

Alin Sirbu Emanuel
Finland