B
brakelite2
Guest
There is a major crisis in today's church, and it stems from a misunderstanding of what the covenants that God has made were all about. I hope to clarify a few things here. I am not a theologian, so please bear with me in that some of my terminology might be awry but I believe I have got the principles right.
Covenants and/or testaments are based on promises and agreements between two or more parties.
Our Creator and God is a God of infinite,unfailing,unwavering,uncompromising love.It always has been,and always will be that He would have His erring,sinful,proud,and unbeleiving creatures to know this love, and therefore to know Him.It has always been in His heart of hearts that He and mankind should be on the most intimate of terms, and that both parties know the joy and peace that comes from a loving relationship with each other. The entire government of God, the kingdom of heaven, and the laws by which it is governed, is based on this love.
Deut. 7:7 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:
8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Isa 63:7 ¶ I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.
8 For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour.
9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
See also 1John 4:7-21; 5:1-4.
That is why, when Adam sinned, God still sought him out. (Gen3:9) And love was the motivating factor behind God's promise that the damage to the relationship caused by sin would ultimately be undone that the power of Satan and sin over our lives would be undone:and the power of death would be overcome. How was God to accomplish all this while at the same time honouring justice, love, and mercy? Through Jesus Christ. The plan for our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated afetr the fall of Adam. It was a 'revelation of the mystery kept secret through times eternal' (Rom16:25 RV )Forseeing the apostacy of Satan and his deception of Adam and Eve causing their downfall, God had already prepared to meet the crisis. So great was His love for the world that He covenanted to 'give His only begotten Son that whosoever should beleiveth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."(Jn 3:16)
This covenant was to be shown in types and symbols.They were a 'lesson book'for the people of Israel. (Gal.3:24,25), and from them the people would learn (or should have learnt), three vital lessons.
1. Sin results in death,for remission is only possible through the shedding of blood.
Heb 10:[1 ¶ For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
2. The constant shedding of innocent blood was to teach an abhorrence and hatred for sin, and thus encourage the people to turn away from it.
Isa 1:[11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
16 ¶ Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
3. The symbols and prophecies pointed to a coming Saviour.
Gen 22:8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
Re 5:6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
And so how were these promises, this covenant, to be appropriated personally? By faith.(Heb 11). Was Israel at any time justified or saved by works of the law? No. A big error they made however was to trust in the works of the law rather than in the grace and mercy of God.
Rom 10:1 ¶ Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
3 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.
Habb 2:4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
What then, does all this mean for us? God's love has not changed, nor His purpose in undoing the works of Satan.(1 Jn 3:8). Therefore it is the method by whichj He is to fulfil His purpose that has changed. Why? Because the old covenant was based on faulty promises. God's promises? Surely not, no., but rather the peoples promises.
Heb 8:6 ¶ 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.
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
They had misjudged the part they were to play in the covenant. In Ex. 19:5,6 God promised (again) to make of Israel a mighty nation and a holy people, an d they answered 'all that the Lord hath spoken we will do.'(vs 8). Unfortunately, they had little idea of what they promised. God said He
would perform and establish His covenant: they people promised they would perform His covenant. Thus God made a new covenant based on better promises.
Heb 8:9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
10 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:
See also Rom 10: 1-10
therefore today, as always, the just shall live by faith.(Rom 1:117 Heb 10:38)
The old covenant, the old method by which God was to save His people and establish righteousness and obedience to His commandments was through the Mosaic law. Circumcision, sacrifices and burnt offerings, the annual sabbaths and services of the tabernacle etc. (Heb 9:1-7). The new covenant is still by faith not in a coming Saviour which the services and annual sabbaths pointed to, but in a risen Saviour, who writes His holy moral law in our hearts and minds.(2 Cor 3:3)
Thus through Jesus, Satan is conqured and his power over us broken. Jesus gives us the new birth experience and the power to overcome sin.( 1Jn 3:9 2 Peter 1:3,4). He dies in our place, and we, by faith, die in Him. (Rom 6:1-7). And the result is what Adam and Eve had in Eden before the fall: a loving relationship with God.
Note carefully that the law did not change. Only it's address. The law was the substance of the old covenant, and it remains the substance of the new.
The law was not the old covenant. The law was not faulty.
It is not the law that needed to be changed. It is us. It is us, who are at first rebellious and sinful and disobedient to the law, who need to be changed to loyal, sinless and obedient doers of the law.
OBEDIENCE IS NOT LEGALISM. OBEDIENCE IS A LOVING RESPONSE TO HIM WHO SAID "IF YOU LOVE ME, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS"
Covenants and/or testaments are based on promises and agreements between two or more parties.
Our Creator and God is a God of infinite,unfailing,unwavering,uncompromising love.It always has been,and always will be that He would have His erring,sinful,proud,and unbeleiving creatures to know this love, and therefore to know Him.It has always been in His heart of hearts that He and mankind should be on the most intimate of terms, and that both parties know the joy and peace that comes from a loving relationship with each other. The entire government of God, the kingdom of heaven, and the laws by which it is governed, is based on this love.
Deut. 7:7 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:
8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Isa 63:7 ¶ I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.
8 For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour.
9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
See also 1John 4:7-21; 5:1-4.
That is why, when Adam sinned, God still sought him out. (Gen3:9) And love was the motivating factor behind God's promise that the damage to the relationship caused by sin would ultimately be undone that the power of Satan and sin over our lives would be undone:and the power of death would be overcome. How was God to accomplish all this while at the same time honouring justice, love, and mercy? Through Jesus Christ. The plan for our redemption was not an afterthought, a plan formulated afetr the fall of Adam. It was a 'revelation of the mystery kept secret through times eternal' (Rom16:25 RV )Forseeing the apostacy of Satan and his deception of Adam and Eve causing their downfall, God had already prepared to meet the crisis. So great was His love for the world that He covenanted to 'give His only begotten Son that whosoever should beleiveth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."(Jn 3:16)
This covenant was to be shown in types and symbols.They were a 'lesson book'for the people of Israel. (Gal.3:24,25), and from them the people would learn (or should have learnt), three vital lessons.
1. Sin results in death,for remission is only possible through the shedding of blood.
Heb 10:[1 ¶ For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
2. The constant shedding of innocent blood was to teach an abhorrence and hatred for sin, and thus encourage the people to turn away from it.
Isa 1:[11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
16 ¶ Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
3. The symbols and prophecies pointed to a coming Saviour.
Gen 22:8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
Re 5:6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
And so how were these promises, this covenant, to be appropriated personally? By faith.(Heb 11). Was Israel at any time justified or saved by works of the law? No. A big error they made however was to trust in the works of the law rather than in the grace and mercy of God.
Rom 10:1 ¶ Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
3 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.
Habb 2:4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
What then, does all this mean for us? God's love has not changed, nor His purpose in undoing the works of Satan.(1 Jn 3:8). Therefore it is the method by whichj He is to fulfil His purpose that has changed. Why? Because the old covenant was based on faulty promises. God's promises? Surely not, no., but rather the peoples promises.
Heb 8:6 ¶ 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.
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
They had misjudged the part they were to play in the covenant. In Ex. 19:5,6 God promised (again) to make of Israel a mighty nation and a holy people, an d they answered 'all that the Lord hath spoken we will do.'(vs 8). Unfortunately, they had little idea of what they promised. God said He
would perform and establish His covenant: they people promised they would perform His covenant. Thus God made a new covenant based on better promises.
Heb 8:9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
10 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:
See also Rom 10: 1-10
therefore today, as always, the just shall live by faith.(Rom 1:117 Heb 10:38)
The old covenant, the old method by which God was to save His people and establish righteousness and obedience to His commandments was through the Mosaic law. Circumcision, sacrifices and burnt offerings, the annual sabbaths and services of the tabernacle etc. (Heb 9:1-7). The new covenant is still by faith not in a coming Saviour which the services and annual sabbaths pointed to, but in a risen Saviour, who writes His holy moral law in our hearts and minds.(2 Cor 3:3)
Thus through Jesus, Satan is conqured and his power over us broken. Jesus gives us the new birth experience and the power to overcome sin.( 1Jn 3:9 2 Peter 1:3,4). He dies in our place, and we, by faith, die in Him. (Rom 6:1-7). And the result is what Adam and Eve had in Eden before the fall: a loving relationship with God.
Note carefully that the law did not change. Only it's address. The law was the substance of the old covenant, and it remains the substance of the new.
The law was not the old covenant. The law was not faulty.
It is not the law that needed to be changed. It is us. It is us, who are at first rebellious and sinful and disobedient to the law, who need to be changed to loyal, sinless and obedient doers of the law.
OBEDIENCE IS NOT LEGALISM. OBEDIENCE IS A LOVING RESPONSE TO HIM WHO SAID "IF YOU LOVE ME, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS"
