“For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. . . . In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” Hebrews 8:7, 13
The existence of a new covenant presupposes the existence of an old covenant. Through Jeremiah the Lord declared: “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.” Jeremiah 31:31
If there is a new covenant it is because there was an old one, which became unnecessary when the new one was enforced. Obviously, the validity of the new pact overrides or supersedes the first.
Christ Himself introduced the new covenant saying: “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Matthew 26:28 MKJV
“In the same way He took the cup also, after supping, saying, ‘This cup is the New Covenant in My blood; as often as you drink it, do this in remembrance of Me.’” 1 Corinthians 11:25 MKJV
The apostle Paul explains that the establishment of a new covenant involves the removal of the old, which had not yielded the expected results, and therefore had to be replaced: “But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.” Hebrews 8:6
“Who also has made us able ministers of the new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive.” 2 Corinthians 3:6 MKJV
THE OLD COVENANT
“And He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even Ten Commandments; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone.” Deuteronomy 4:13
A careless interpretation of this text has led some to conclude that the old covenant is the law. Following this trend, the covenant of the law should be removed because it was a yoke of bondage, useless for man’s salvation; and therefore, a new covenant, without the presence of the law, was necessary. They reach the conclusion that when the new pact was enforced, the law that constitutes the old pact, expired. The new covenant is taken as the covenant of grace, and in the presence of this grace, according to this assumption, the law is eliminated. This assumption implies the failure and removal of the Ten Commandments and leaves the impression that God is ultimately responsible and guilty for the mistakes of Israel by imposing a law that was an unbearable yoke of slavery. The failure of the pact would then be the failure of God. The deficiencies of the law would be the shortcomings of God. The yoke of the law would be a yoke imposed by God.
We can quite logically ask: Was God wrong in proposing and enforcing His law in the first covenant? Is the new covenant a correction of the mistakes made by God in the first one? Who bears the final responsibility for breaking the covenant? Keep in mind that the law was given by God, He is the author of the law, and it is impossible to condemn and reject the law without condemning and rejecting the author of it by association. To better understand this issue we need to define what a covenant is.
A covenant is an agreement in which two or more parties, under the regulation of accepted terms, commit themselves to fulfill their respective part to achieve the mutual goal. A covenant is always established between rational and thinking beings. They must be entities that are capable of making decisions, contracting responsibilities and getting commitments. There are no pacts between a living party and an inanimate one; therefore there is no such a thing like a covenant with the law of God. The law cannot agree with anyone, it does not have decision-making capabilities. The law can certainly be taken as the regulatory terms of a covenant, but it is the deal agreed upon by the parties which really constitutes the covenant. That was the case of God with Israel. It is crucial to understand this fact, because it is not the law that infringes or breaks the covenant. It is not the law that fails to fulfill its commitment. Neither is it the reason or cause of the failure of the pact. The violation or breaking of a covenant is the responsibility of one of the parties.
GOD’S COVENANT WITH ISRAEL
“And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.” Exodus 19:7–8
“And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.” Exodus 34:27
A good example of a pact is the marriage covenant. A man and a woman agree to unite their lives, to procreate and to support each other. The terms governing the marriage relationship, which establishes the rights and duties of spouses, is the law of marriage. When the wedding vows are violated, nobody blames or attributes faults to that law, nobody declares the law guilty of adultery, and neither creates a new marriage code. God purposely uses the figure of the marriage or the spouses’ relationship to illustrate His covenant with Israel:
“Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest Mine.” Ezekiel 16:8
“And I will betroth thee unto Me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.” Hosea 2:19–20
God committed Himself to take the position of a loving protector and husband to Israel. God would provide for their material needs. He would protect them from enemies and pests, but above all, He would give them spiritual blessings and would cover them with His love: “And He will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: He will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which He sware unto thy fathers to give thee. Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.” Deuteronomy 7:13–14
PURPOSE OF THE COVENANT
Every covenant has a particular purpose. In the case of marriage, the happiness of the couple, procreation, and legal authority are the goals for this particular covenant. The Bible also presents the goal of God’s covenant with Israel, which was in actuality the resumption of the covenant that had already been established with Abraham.
“In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.” Genesis 15:18
“And I will establish My covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.” Genesis 17:7
“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.” Genesis 12:3
“And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed My voice.” Genesis 22:18
The essential purpose of the covenant was to make Israel an instrument of blessing for the world. Israel was to be the means used by God to evangelize the nations, and to bring freedom and salvation to all men; the offspring of Abraham would become a blessing for all nations. To achieve that goal, God presented to Israel the terms or the law that would regulate the pact. The faithful obedience to that law as the binding principle of the covenant was the way Israel could become a great and mighty nation—not to master over the world, but to be a channel of blessing and salvation for the inhabitants of the earth. This was God’s covenant with 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. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.” Exodus 19:5–6
“Hear thou in heaven Thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to Thee for: that all people of the earth may know Thy name, to fear Thee, as do Thy people Israel; and that they may know that this house, which I have builded, is called by Thy name.” 1 Kings 8:43
The pact stated that God was to reveal Himself through the nation of Israel. The Hebrew nation would become the means used by God to make known to the other nations His real character. The world was to see in Israel the personification of the goodness, mercy, and loving character of the true God. The promises of greatness that God made to Israel did not include earthly glory as the supreme goal. Israel’s glory and distinction was dependent on being the channel through which God would bring light to the nations covered by the darkness of sin. Israel’s greatness lay
in being the instrument used by God to free the people from the bondage of ignorance, superstition, vice, degradation, and all satanic bondage. God in Israel, and through Israel, was to be the light and salvation for the whole world. This was the purpose of the first covenant.
The children of Israel were to occupy all the territory which God appointed them. Those nations that rejected the worship and service of the true God were to be dispossessed. But it was God’s purpose that by the revelation of His character through Israel men should be drawn unto Him. To all the world the gospel invitation was to be given. Through the teaching of the sacrificial service Christ was to be uplifted before the nations, and all who would look unto Him should live. All who, like Rahab the Canaanite, and Ruth the Moabitess, turned from idolatry to the worship of the true God, were to unite themselves with His chosen people. As the numbers of Israel increased they were to enlarge their borders, until their kingdom should embrace the world.” –Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 290
The dream of a conquering Messiah that would lead Israel to become a political empire that would rule the world and to whom all nations would be tributary was a total distortion of the purpose of Israel’s covenant with God.
FAILURE OF THE COVENANT WITH ISRAEL
Unfortunately the objectives set by God when He covenanted with Israel were not met. With few exceptions the nation forgot the pact with God and followed crooked ways in opposition to God’s plan. The history of Israel has two main stages in its performance as a people in covenant with God. The first, from Sinai to deportation, is mainly characterized by apostasy. The second, from Babylon to Christ, is characterized by religious fanaticism, nationalism and religious isolation. The Apostle Paul approaches the issue of the two covenants using an allegory:
“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.” Galatians 4:22–28
Abraham was 75 years old when, following the instructions of God, he left Haran and settled in Canaan. Over time, his wealth had increased to such a point that he had to be separated from his nephew Lot, because of the abundance of his possessions. Sadly, he saw that the years were passing by and the possibility of having an heir of his legitimate wife was becoming more and more remote. Sara did not conceive children, and as time went on his hopes vanished before the inevitable effects of age and the barrenness of his wife. When God promised him that his descendants would inherit the land on which he was, Abraham took occasion to mention his childless condition.
“And Abram said, Behold, to me Thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.” Genesis 15:3–4
Undoubtedly Abraham told Sarah everything the Lord had promised, yet after ten years, the promise remained unfulfilled. Sara then took it upon herself to fulfill God’s purposes through her own human capabilities. She utilized a clause of the Hammurabi Code, in which a barren wife could take a female servant and give her to the husband to beget children from this servant. The lawful wife received the child on her lap, and this son of the servant became the legal child of the wife and mistress.
“Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.” Genesis 16:1–3
This experience of Abraham and Sarah is used by Paul to illustrate and explain the failure of the first covenant. Sarah and Abraham decided to take the matter of the son of the promise into their own hands. They proceeded by their own wisdom, following a man-made method. They drew on a legal resource designed by man, according the standards of the society of their time. What the couple decided to do is the human effort to facilitate the fulfillment of God’s promise. It was man helping God to keep His word. They thought that this was the way God would fulfill His promise. It was man doing the work of God by his own means and his own ability; man taking the place of God to do things according to their way. The birth of Ishmael, son of Abraham and Hagar, is the fruit of human endeavor—the product of man’s capacity in pursuit of doing the will of God. Ishmael is not the fruit of faith, but a product of the flesh.
The apostle saw in this illustration a conduct similar to the life of the people of Israel in their dealings with the pact made with God: “But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone.” Romans 9:31–32
“For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” Romans 10:3
Israel committed solemnly to comply with all the terms of the covenant. They proclaimed, “All that the LORD hath spoken we will do.” Exodus 19:8. Their intention was honest; they were really willing to do their part. Their ruin was that they trusted in themselves to obey the law. They took the matter of the covenant in their own hands and decided to act by themselves, following their own methods, adding to and removing from the law all that in their opinion was necessary to fulfill God’s plan.
“But He answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me. But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Matthew 15:3–9
The Hebrew nation repeated the story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar. They put human methods into action, using formulas created by men so that the promise of God would be fulfilled. Once more, in the mistake of taking the place of God to do by themselves in their own power, the task of God is repeated. In the prayer of the Pharisee who went to the temple to pray, we see a clear example of the Jewish mentality and attitude regarding the law and other people:
“Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank Thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.” Luke 18:10–12
The pride and self-sufficiency of the Jewish nation finds a fit model in the example given by Christ. The arrogance and self-satisfaction expressed in the prayer of the Pharisee manifested the feelings of the nation. His obedience was the fruit of the selfish desire to be seen and considered superior and better than others. The law that had been given to Israel as the instrument to make known the justice, goodness, mercy and love of God, instead became a wall of separation because of the conduct of the nation. The nation perverted the laws intended purposes, using it to exalt themselves and to condemn and reject others. The covenant established at Sinai with the purpose to fulfill the promises made to Abraham, that Israel was to become a blessing to the world, was never achieved. The conduct of the people that professed to follow God, instead of revealing the character of God, bore witness to the meanness and selfishness of the nation. They professed to follow God but denied Him with their character and behavior. They boasted of being superior and better than others. They were proud of their race for being descendants of Abraham, and regarded themselves as the blessed of the Lord while others were cursed because of their privilege of being the chosen people, bearers of the covenant and the law. The world around them, rather than being attracted to the God of Israel, came to hate Him because of the rejection they experienced from the Jewish nation.
The fruit of the Jewish religion was the product of lives dominated by selfishness and pride, revealing the spiritual slavery in which they were mired. The Jewish religion, like the slave Hagar in giving birth to Ishmael, only produced fruits that were legal before men; however, in reality and in the eyes of God were still slaves of sin:
“What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant: and He looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.” Isaiah 5:4, 7
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” Matthew 23:25–28
In the experience of Israel—the Old Covenant, represented by Hagar and Ishmael—has been shown that the capacity
and power of men are insufficient to render perfect obedience to God’s law. The fruits of these efforts are as sour grapes. Such a religion is simply a dead routine, a whited sepulcher. The weakness of the flesh and the selfishness of our nature constitute a barrier that prevents us from achieving justice and holiness by ourselves. The failure of the first covenant is the failure of the flesh; it is the failure of the power of human capacities. Sister Ellen G. White states, “He who is trying to reach heaven by his own works in keeping the law is attempting an impossibility. . . . All that man can do without Christ is polluted with selfishness and sin.” –Faith and Works, p. 94
REJECTION OF ISRAEL – END OF THE FIRST COVENANT
“Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto Him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. . . . Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” Matthew 21:33–41, 43
When the Jewish people rejected Christ, they rejected the coauthor of the covenant. Israel not only failed to meet its part of the pact, but rose against the other contracting party and killed Him. The patience of God reached its limit and the Hebrew nation was rejected and abandoned as the husband who divorces an adulterous woman. Israel is no longer God’s chosen people.
It should be clear that God did not divorce the law, obviously, because the covenant was not with the law. God divorced Israel because it did not fulfill its part of the covenant. It was not the law that was rejected and abandoned but the Jewish nation. If God had removed the law, that would have been God’s acceptance that the failure of the pact was His responsibility for imposing a law that could not be obeyed, or that was highly defective. In that case, Israel could not have been rejected as the chosen people. Removing the law would have eliminated the evidence that incriminated the nation and no longer could judgment be given against Israel.
The rejection of Israel is the categorical proof that the law was never abolished or eliminated.
THE NEW COVENANT
Fourteen years had passed since the birth of Ishmael. Abraham was now 100 years old and Sarah 90 years old.
“Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?” Genesis 17:17
The chances for a woman to bear a child at the age of 90 are humanly impossible, and we have to add to the effects of age the affliction that Sarah had always been barren. From a biological point of view, her stage of a woman suitable for reproduction would have ended some 30 years earlier. Adding up all these factors, there was not the remotest possibility that Sarah could conceive a child.
Here is where God intervenes and makes it entirely clear that what is impossible with man is possible with God. Against all reason and logic, Sarah conceives and gives birth to a perfectly normal and healthy child. It puts in evidence that when all human resources have been exhausted, when there are no more man-made formulas, then God takes over, and brings a solution. When human methods are barren and useless, God shows that beyond human weakness, He is almighty.
Following Paul’s allegory, Sarah and Isaac represent the new covenant. This is the pact where the methods and power of men have no place. Paul shows us that as it was impossible for Sarah to conceive and to give birth to a child at the age of 90, having been barren all her life, so it is impossible for human weakness to obey the law and remain loyal to the covenant.
“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Romans 8:7
But in the new covenant God takes the initiative. He takes over and makes for man what man is not able to do. It is the grace of God at work; it is the work of God in man and for man. It is the power of God, overcoming all the limitations and weakness of the human flesh and making the obedience to the law a reality, which was impossible before.
“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13
“Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Hebrews 13:20–21
“Man cannot be saved without obedience, but his works should not be of himself; Christ should work in him to will and to do of His good pleasure.” –Faith and Works, p. 94
In this covenant, God is the main actor; He is the author and finisher of faith, justice and salvation. In the life of every believer who surrenders to the will of God, the Holy Spirit takes over and makes a work of transformation of character and conduct as miraculous as the conception of Isaac. Against all reason and logic, man, that could only yield the polluted and sour fruits of selfishness and sin, now becomes an instrument of justice. Through the human instrument, possessed by the Holy Spirit, God reveals His character in genuine works of heavenly love. But, I insist on it, it is the work of God; it is the power of God working in man. It is Christ keeping the law in us; it is Christ revealing His love through us; it is Christ living His life in us.
Isaac, the legitimate son of Abraham, is really free, conceived and born only by the power and grace of God. In Paul’s analogy, Isaac represents the fruit of the work of God in the life of man. It is the freedom from the bondage of sin and the legitimate obedience to the law as the fruit of God’s action and work.
THE LAW IN THE NEW COVENANT
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people.” Hebrews 8:10
The new covenant was not established because the law was defective: “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.” Psalm 19:7. “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Romans 7:12
The law continues being an essential part, as the ruling terms, of the new covenant; but not anymore as an external object, alien to man, and as a dead letter. Now the law is going to be written in the heart; it becomes part of the soul itself, as a living letter and the motivating principle in human life. The law takes again the place that God originally assigned to it in man’s life when Adam was created.
The new covenant is established to achieve the objectives that, because of the betrayal and the failure of Israel, were not achieved with the first one. God intends to do through the Christian church what was not possible to do through Israel.
In the old covenant the people of Israel, as a nation, were the contracting agent of such a commitment. Of course, the individual had a part to do, but mainly, the nation as a whole, was responsible for the covenant with God. The leaders, kings and priests and later on the Jewish Sanhedrin were responsible before God for the conduct and decisions of the nation.
“In the parable of the vineyard it was the husbandmen whom Christ pronounced guilty. It was they who had refused to return to their Lord the fruit of His ground. In the Jewish nation it was the priests and teachers who, by misleading the people, had robbed God of the service which He claimed. It was they who turned the nation away from Christ.” –Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 304
“For the rejection of Christ, with the results that followed, they were responsible. A nation’s sin and a nation’s ruin were due to the religious leaders.” –Ibid., p. 305
In the new covenant, the terms of the pact with Israel, namely the law, are transferred to the church as a body, but unlike the first, in this one, it is given to the individual having much more participation. Each human being now assumes his individual responsibility before God and His law, not depending on a group of leaders to decide for him. Everyone has to make his own covenant with God.
The second covenant, as stated before, pursues essentially the same purposes of the first. The spiritual descendants of Abraham are to bring the light of God to the whole world. What the biological children were not able to do, by relying upon the flesh, God intends to do with the children of Abraham by faith.
“Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.” Galatians 3:7
Since the law is the transcript of God’s character, writing it in the heart involves the implantation of the heavenly love principle in human life.
“Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Romans 13:8–10
The barren soul, empty, fruitless, becomes, by the presence of Christ in it, a fruitful plant that yields abundant and delicious fruits. The grace of the Spirit of Christ implants in the soul the nature of heaven.
“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.” John 15:5
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22–23
This is the fruit that God expects from every believer. Every soul who bears these fruits will inevitably become an agent of justice, a love instrument that in the hands of God and by His grace will be a blessing for the whole world. In this way, God will make known to the world His true character. This is the new covenant.
“It is the darkness of misapprehension of God that is enshrouding the world. Men are losing their knowledge of His character. It has been misunderstood and misinterpreted. At this time a message from God is to be proclaimed, a message illuminating in its influence and saving in its power. His character is to be made known. Into the darkness of the world is to be shed the light of His glory, the light of His goodness, mercy, and truth. . . . The last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy to be given to the world, is a revelation of His character of love. The children of God are to manifest His glory. In their own life and character they are to reveal what the grace of God has done for them.” –Ibid., p. 415
CONCLUSION
The new covenant contains the intervention and the exercise of divine power because the human effort to keep the law has failed. The old covenant has revealed the complete human inability to obey the law by itself. But now, in the new covenant, what Israel could not carry out, making use of all human faculties, God intends to achieve through spiritual Israel, taking the initiative, control and action in the human life. When God takes this control, the human being becomes a channel through which God makes Himself known to the world. Man’s responsibility in any case, is to open the heart, to accept the dominion and control of Christ in his life and to allow being possessed entirely by the Holy Spirit. The submission must be such that the self disappears and only Christ remains supreme in life.
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
The conflict of the conscience and the failure of the carnal man portrayed in the man of Romans 7 and the contrast presented in the next chapter, properly correspond to the two covenants. Likewise, the allegory argued by Paul quoting the experience of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar masterfully exemplifies the two covenants.
Neptali Acevedo