The Cross of Jesus Christ 6
The New Covenant
THE OLD COVENANTS
A covenant is a contract or binding agreement between two parties. The Old Testament, contained in the first 39 books of the Bible, is the sum total of all the covenants God made with man from Adam until Christ appeared on the scene. Each of God's covenants contained three parts:
The promise of God.
The sacrifice involved with the promise.
The sign or seal of that promise.
1. THE ADAMIC COVENANT
The Promise: Satan's destruction through the Seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15).
The Sacrifice: The institution of animal sacrifice as a substitute for the sinner (Genesis 4:4).
The Seal: the "garments of skin" (Genesis 3:21) .
2. THE NOAHIC COVENANT
The Promise: the earth would not again be destroyed by water (Genesis 9:8-17).
The Sacrifice: Genesis 8:20-22.
The Sign: the rainbow (Genesis 9:12-16).
3. THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
The Promise: salvation and blessing through his seed (Genesis 12:1-3).
The Sacrifice: pictured in the offering of Isaac and the substitute ram (Genesis 22:1-18).
The seal: circumcision (Genesis 17:1-14)
4. THE MOSAIC COVENANT
The Promise: release from bondage and entrance into the land of rest - including the Law on Mt Sinai (Exodus 6:1-8; 20:1-17).
The Sacrifice: the institution of sacrificial law (Leviticus 1-5; Hebrews 9:19-22).
The Seal: the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11).
5. THE DAVIDIC COVENANT
The Promise: an eternal throne and dominion (2 Samuel 20:8-11).
The Sacrifice: 2 Samuel 6:17-19; 1 Kings 8:62-64.
The Sign: the continuance of day and night (Jeremiah 33:17-26).
THE CLIMAX OF GOD'S COVENANTS
The New Covenant, detailed in the last 27 books of the Bible, fulfils and supersedes all God's previous agreements with man. The Cross of Jesus Christ represented:
THE END OF THE MOSAIC COVENANT
"For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another . . . By calling this covenant 'new', he has made the first one obsolete . . . " Hebrews 8:7,13 (see also Galatians 3:23-26; Romans 7:1-6).
THE FULFILMENT OF ALL THE OTHER COVENANTS
Jesus Christ was the seed of the woman of the Adamic Covenant, the deliverer from judgement of the Noahic Covenant, the promised Seed of the Abrahamic Covenant, and the eternal Kingly Son of the Davidic Covenant.
THE NEW COVENANT
The New Covenant was not to be one with the Law engraved on tablets of stone as had been the Mosaic Covenant, but one in which God would put His righteousness into our very hearts by His Spirit.
THE PROMISE
" 'The time is coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I WILL MAKE A NEW COVENANT with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,' declares the Lord. 'This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after that time,' declares the Lord.
'I WILL PUT MY LAW IN THEIR MINDS AND WRITE IT ON THEIR HEARTS. I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY WILL BE MY PEOPLE.
No longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying "Know the Lord", because they will ail know me, from the least of them to the greatest,' declares the Lord. 'FOR I WILL FORGIVE THEIR WICKEDNESS AND WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE' " Jeremiah 31:31-34.
The time spoken of in this promise came as Jesus Christ hung upon the Cross. In that moment a legal transaction between heaven and earth was in process. God made a new covenant with man !
THE SACRIFICE
The sacrifices of all the other covenants pre-pictured the once-and-for-all sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.
"For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place (of the Temple) every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself" Hebrews 9:24-26 (read the whole chapter).
THE SEAL
When we, by faith, receive for ourselves what Christ has accomplished on the Cross for us, a miracle takes place in our lives - we are born of the Spirit of God. The gift of the Holy Spirit indwelling our hearts is God's seal of the New Covenant He has made with us.
"And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession - to the praise of his glory" Ephesians 1:13-14.
HOLY COMMUNION
The Communion Table has been given to us as a continual reminder of the New Covenant God has made with us ( 1 Corinthians 11:23-26).