Doctrine of the New Covenant, part 16.

Title: Doctrine of the New Covenant, part 16.  

 

So we would conclude that the NC was instituted when Jesus died and His sacrifice finished, while the realization of the benefits of the covenant was future from that point.

 

By the grace of God, the church was given the spiritual aspects of the covenant, salvation, the forgiveness of sin, the ministry of the Holy Spirit: but the church is never promised physical blessings, such as inheritance in a land, material blessings on the earth, and rest from oppression.  

 

So then the church cannot fulfill the covenant, but it can be sharers in certain aspects of it. For the covenant to be fulfilled, all of it must be realized, and that will occur at the second coming of Christ in which He will give all of its spiritual and physical blessings to Israel.

 

Hence the church remains unique. We get the spiritual blessings with all of the worldly problems. We get to fight in a way that was never done by anyone other than Christ, and will never be done again after the Rapture.

 

Christ was the first to fight the enemy without sword or spear. Christ fought with the truth, the Spirit, the will of the Father, and such a method results in the certainty of suffering.

 

Herein lies the blessedness of being in this age. In the midst of this age of war, we might wish to have been elected as Jews in the Millennium, but with all the assets that we have been gifted with, why shirk a fight? Of course, all believers in all ages have been incredibly blessed beyond their wildest dreams and we have all been elected at the proper time according to God's infinite wisdom and mercy.

 

This future fulfillment by Christ is as sure as the very order and stability of the universe.

 

After stating the New Covenant in vv. 31-34, God confidently says:

 

JER 31:35 Thus says the Lord,

Who gives the sun for light by day,

And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,

Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar;

The Lord of hosts is His name:

 

JER 31:36 "If this fixed order departs

From before Me," declares the Lord,

"Then the offspring of Israel also shall cease

From being a nation before Me forever."

 

JER 31:37 Thus says the Lord,

"If the heavens above can be measured,

And the foundations of the earth searched out below,

Then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel

For all that they have done," declares the Lord.

 

The New Covenant is definitely in effect, but this doesn't mean that it is fulfilled. The fact that every believer today is indwelt by the Holy Spirit is due to the outworking of the New Covenant.

 

An additional provision of the New Covenant that is revealed in the NT is the Law of Christ, GAL 6:2; ROM 8:2.

 

Like the law of Moses the law of Christ has many individual commandments. Some commandments are the same as those in the Mosaic law. Nine of the Ten Commandments are under the Law of Christ. Some of the commands are different, for there is no Sabbath law or dietary restrictions. Some are similar commands but are greatly intensified. For example, in the law of Moses you were to love your neighbor as yourself, but now you are to love as Christ loved. Christ gave a new commandment to go along with a new covenant in His blood, that we love as He loves. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ elevated the ethics of the OT to the heights of heaven and commanded that they be performed by His disciples. This is the law of Christ.

 

There is also a new motivation.

 

Under the NC there is a new motivation:

Under the Mosaic law you were taught to do in order to be blessed. The law of Christ teaches that you are blessed, therefore do.

 

This is a long and difficult lesson to learn for the church age saint. He is not under a merit system. He is not under legalism. He is also not granted antinomianism. He is not under threat to do good. All that he is and has in Christ are fully unconditional. He is not earning rewards nor is he going to gain any more than he already has. He can lose rewards, but this is not his motivation either, since it would be self-centered. He must come to an understanding of who he is in Christ and what has been given to him, and then, as a saved, righteous, complete, and fully blessed person he must keep the commands and do the will of the Father.

 

Confusion arises since the NC is clearly given to Israel, so how can the church enjoy some of its benefits? The Covenant theologian resolves this with replacement doctrine - that the church has taken the place of Israel. This is wrong. The dispensationalist tries to resolve this with two NC's, which is closer to the truth, but in my estimation still misses the mark since the same name is used without explanation.

 

A better solution is to remember that way back in Gen 12 it was promised that spiritual blessings would come to the Gentiles.

 

Great spiritual blessings along with salvation would be given to the Gentiles in this age and this is what Paul calls the mystery that was entrusted to him.

 

How ironic that God would entrust such a ministry to a zealous Pharisee.

 

EPH 3:4 And by referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,

 

EPH 3:5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;

 

EPH 3:6 to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,

 

That the Gentiles were to be saved was no mystery. There are several OT passages that spoke of it.

 

ROM 9:25 As He says also in Hosea,

"I will call those who were not My people, 'My people,'

And her who was not beloved, 'beloved.'"

 

ROM 9:26 "And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ' you are not My people,'

There they shall be called sons of the living God."

EPH 3:7 of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.

 

We are going to come back to this section after examining the context.

 

The mystery is that the Gentiles would become beneficiaries of these blessing, and within that mystery are the very real manifestations of those blessing, e.g. the fruit of the Spirit.

 

EPH 2:11 Therefore remember, that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by human hands — 

 

"Uncircumcision" was a name of contempt hurled by the Jews at Gentiles.

 

The pious Jew was ever conscious of the privileges which he had inherited: daily he thanked God that he had not been made a Gentile. The external sign of the Jews' special relationship with God was circumcision, the seal of the covenant which had been made with Abraham. They would refer to non-Jews as the uncircumcision. That only males bore this outward sign, they believed themselves to have better religious prerogatives than women enjoyed: the man who thanked God daily that he had not been made a Gentile thanked Him at the same time that he had not been made a woman. Hence Paul would write that "in Christ Jesus" there was neither male or female, Jew or Gentile.

 

ROM 2:17 But if you bear the name "Jew," and rely upon the Law, and boast in God,

 

ROM 2:18 and know His will, and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law,

 

ROM 2:19 and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,

 

ROM 2:20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth,

 

ROM 2:21 you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one should not steal, do you steal?

 

ROM 2:22 You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

 

ROM 2:23 You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God?

 

ROM 2:24 For "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you," just as it is written.

 

ROM 2:25 For indeed circumcision is of value, if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

 

ROM 2:26 If therefore the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?

 

ROM 2:27 And will not he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law?

 

ROM 2:28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.

 

ROM 2:29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.

 

EPH 2:11 Therefore remember, that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by human hands — 

 

Of course, the physical circumcision of many OT Jews had no spiritual significance since it was not mixed with faith in the Messiah promised as Abraham's seed. None the less, the unregenerate Jew thought himself superior to the Gentile simply by means of his physical birth, of which he saw circumcision as a mark. They were really no different than people who think they have been born with the right to govern other people, like kings and lords, and like King George thought some 200+ years ago.

 

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

 

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.[Declaration of Independence]

 

He refused his assent to laws, meaning natural law, because George fully believed that he was sovereign over the colonies due to his birth as nobility. In our Constitution, no one is allowed to take such titles on themselves. You can see the same thing in many of the religious Jews in the first century, and you can also see that God's truth forbids such superiority over others by anyone.