Rev. Ronald Hanko
Rev. Hanko is a minister in the
Protestant Reformed Churches in America and has authored a number of books,
including (among others) the following: Doctrine According to
Godliness: A Primer on Reformed Doctrine (2004), The Coming of Zion’s
Redeemer: Commentary on Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi (2015).
He was also the joint author of Saved by Grace: A Study of
the Five Points of Calvinism (1995) and its
accompanying study guide (all of which can be purchased at http://www.cprc.co.uk and http://www.rfpa.org).
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To speak about the nature of the covenant and to
trace its development through Scripture, it is necessary to show that there is only one covenant—an
everlasting covenant of grace which God has established with His people in
every age through Christ. To see that,
however, one must have a proper conception of God’s covenant.
God’s Covenant: Not a Contract or an Agreement
What, then, is the covenant? Scripture speaks of it often, and it is
necessary to know what Scripture is talking about.
Most would define a covenant by speaking of a
contract or an agreement. They would say
that God’s covenant with man is of the same sort as a human covenant, such as
that between Isaac and Abimelech (Gen. 21:27-32), with various duties, promises
and penalties.
Such a covenant is made by two parties or
sides, depends to some extent on each, and can be broken by either. Adam, so it is said, was the original
covenant-making party with God, but now that Adam has fallen, Christ has
replaced him. If the covenant is of such
a sort, it is not “everlasting,” for when the agreement has been fulfilled it is
voided and discarded like any other agreement or contract. My contract with the bank for a loan to
purchase a house does not continue when the bank has fulfilled its obligations
in loaning me the money and I have fulfilled mine in repaying the same with
interest.
God's covenant with men is not such a covenant. Not
only is such a covenant not an “everlasting” covenant, but man can never be a
party with the living God in making a covenant of that sort. Because God is GOD and man is a creature,
owing his very existence to God, there are no duties man can assume by way of a
special agreement, beside those duties that he is already obliged to perform,
simply because he is God's creature.
Nor can man ever merit anything with God in
such a covenant by his own works or by fulfilling certain conditions. When he has done all that is required of him,
he is still an unprofitable servant:
So likewise ye, when ye shall
have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable
servants: we have done that which was our duty to do (Luke 17:10).
Certainly, he could not (as some teach) merit
eternal life in the covenant. Eternal
life comes only through Him who is the Lord
from heaven, our Lord Jesus Christ:
The first man is of the
earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are
earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly (I Cor.
15:47, 48).
God’s Covenant: A Relationship of Friendship
Scripture, then, teaches that the covenant is
not an agreement, but a sovereignly established bond or relationship
between God and His people in Christ.
This is clear from those often-repeated words of Scripture by which God
reveals His covenant, “I will be thy God and ye shall be my people:”
And I will give unto thee,
and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land
of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God (Gen.
17:8).
And I will take you to me for
a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your
God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians (Exod.
6:7).
And what agreement hath the
temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath
said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and
they shall be my people (II Cor. 6:16).
And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will
dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be
with them, and be their God (Rev. 21:3).
These words, found in slightly different forms,
become a kind of covenant “formula” throughout Scripture. They show us that a particular passage is
speaking of the covenant and remind us, too, that the covenant is a
relationship between God and His people.
Other passages actually describe such a
relationship between God and His people:
And Enoch walked with God
after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: and Enoch walked
with God: and he was not; for God took him (Gen. 5:22-24).
These are the generations of
Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked
with God (Gen. 6:9).
And the LORD said, Shall I
hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely
become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be
blessed in him? (Gen. 18:17-18).
The secret of the LORD
is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant (Ps.
25:14).
And the scripture was
fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for
righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God (James 2:23).
I in them, and thou in me,
that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou
hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me (John 17:23).
That which we have seen and
heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our
fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ (I John 1:3).
This relationship is sovereignly established by
God—He makes and guarantees the relationship.
In no sense of the word does it depend on man as a second party, but is
wholly the work of God and all of grace. The covenant is always a covenant of grace.
The Covenant with Adam
There is only one passage of Scripture that
speaks explicitly of a covenant with Adam, Hosea 6:7:
But they like men have
transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.
The word there means either “men” or “Adam”
(they are the same word in Hebrew). But
however one translates it, the verse speaks of a covenant with Adam by referring
either to a covenant that Adam transgressed personally or that mankind
transgressed in him. We believe that this
covenant with Adam was not a separate covenant but the first revelation of the
one, everlasting covenant of grace.
Indeed, if the covenant is everlasting, there can only be one covenant.
We might note that the breaking of the covenant
is called “treachery” here. That
suggests that the covenant is indeed a relationship between God and His people,
for the opposite of a traitor is a faithful friend.
This first revelation of the covenant showed,
then, what the covenant is all about. In
it, God showed that He is the divine Friend of His people and how He lives with
them in blessed fellowship. In that
first revelation of the covenant, God also showed what man’s calling in the
covenant is: the calling to live in thankful (not meritorious) obedience.
That this was already a revelation of the one
covenant is clear from the fact that Scripture speaks of our being reconciled to God after Adam
transgressed. The word reconciliation is
very much a covenant word and not only implies a previous relationship which
has been damaged, but implies that the relationship has not been completely destroyed.
It is possible to speak of reconciliation only where the previous
relationship has not been ruined entirely.
In marriage, reconciliation is possible only where the marriage
relationship has not been completely destroyed.
If it were not so, we would have to speak of
God being frustrated and having to change.
His first covenant and purpose would have been utterly ruined and He
frustrated, made to change His purpose, and forced to start over again with a
new covenant.
But how could the covenant with Adam, before he
fell into sin, be a covenant of grace?
We should remember that grace is undeserved favor. All that Adam was and all that he had were by
the undeserved favor of God. What had
Adam done to deserve anything when God established His covenant with him? What could he ever do to deserve anything
from God when he owed his whole existence to God?
It was grace, too, that maintained the covenant
relationship and insured that it would not be destroyed by Adam’s fall. As soon as Adam fell into sin, God came to
Him and put enmity between the devil and the woman, thus renewing the covenant
relationship of friendship between Himself and His people. They, in Adam, had chosen the friendship of
the devil, but God who had chosen them to be His own, would not allow them to continue
as friends of Satan.
God’s dealings with His people are always and
only of grace. There is no other basis
on which the eternal God can deal with us.
The Covenant with Noah
We believe that the different covenants of the
Old Testament are in fact only different revelations of the one covenant of grace. If the covenant is everlasting (Gen. 17:7),
there can only be one covenant.
In each of these revelations, God shows
something new and wonderful about His covenant of grace. Thus, in the first revelation of the covenant
to Adam, God showed that His covenant was a covenant of friendship.
After Adam, the next great revelation of the
covenant was to Noah. In that revelation
of His covenant, God showed its universal
character—i.e., that the covenant would embrace the whole of the world He had
created. The covenant, you see, is not
just made with man, but with “every living creature of all flesh” (Gen.
9:15). It is a covenant with the day and
with the night (Jer. 33:25). The
universality of God’s covenant, therefore, is not a universality which embraces
all things or all men without exception,
but it does embrace all things without
distinction, so that, in the end, all things shall be renewed and
represented in the new heavens and earth.
That covenant is well symbolized by the rainbow
as it arches over the whole of God’s creation.
It is a covenant that will finally be consummated in the new heavens and new earth. It is a covenant in which even the creature “shall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom.
8:21).
This, we believe, is one of the reasons why the
Bible, in speaking of God’s purpose, speaks of His purpose concerning the world (the cosmos):
The next day John seeth Jesus
coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin
of the world. (John 1:29).
For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
In the end, the whole of God’s world will be
redeemed and saved, though not every single creature or person.
This must be so. God will not allow His purposes to come to
nothing. He will not allow man, by his
sin, to steal away from Him the world that He created for His own glory. He saves His world.
All this is very important in understanding
such passages as Isaiah 11. Reading such
a passage, many conclude that there will be a future earthly kingdom in which some of the effects of sin will be
overcome, but Scripture promises no such thing.
It is speaking of the new heavens and the new earth in which
righteousness dwells—a kingdom in which the wolf will indeed dwell with the
lamb, for “the creature also shall be delivered ... into the glorious liberty
of the children of God.” And what a
glorious day that will be.
Nevertheless, even Genesis 9 shows that the
covenant with Noah is part of the one, everlasting covenant of God by using the
covenant formula (v. 9), by speaking of a covenant that included Noah’s seed
(v. 9) and by explicitly referring to this covenant as an everlasting covenant
(vv. 12, 16):
And I, behold, I establish my
covenant with you, and with your seed after you ... And God said, This is the
token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature
that is with you, for perpetual generations ... And the bow shall be in the
cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant
between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
The Covenant with Abraham
Scripture shows clearly that the covenant with
Abraham is the same as the covenant with Noah.
When God made His covenant with Abraham, He made it also with his seed,
and told Abraham that it was an everlasting covenant:
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. (Gen. 17:7)
There are several notable features about the
covenant with Abraham. The first, and
most important is that the covenant with Abraham (and thus also with Noah and
with Israel) was very much a covenant of grace. This was displayed in the great revelation of
the covenant in Genesis 15.
To understand Genesis 15, one must know that in
those days a covenant was sealed, not by drawing up a contract and having it
legally attested, but by walking together between the cut-up pieces of an
animal or animals. Jeremiah 34:18 also
describes this solemn ceremony.
That ceremony was only used for important
matters and was a warning that anyone who violated the covenant deserved to be
cut in pieces and his body cast out as food for the beasts and birds. Thus, God threatened Israel when they broke a
covenant they had made among themselves (Jer. 34:19-20):
The princes of Judah, and the
princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the
land, which passed between the parts of the calf; I will even give them into
the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and
their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the
beasts of the earth.
Since a human covenant is between equals, it is
also an agreement (a bilateral or two-sided covenant), and therefore all those
who were involved in making the covenant walked together between the pieces of
the animals. God’s covenant is different
because God and man never act as equals in the covenant. The covenant between God and Abraham shows
this.
That covenant, according to Genesis 15, was
very much a one-sided (unilateral) covenant established by God alone.
When God covenanted with Abraham by walking between the pieces of the
animals, Abraham was fast asleep (cf. v. 12).
Abraham had nothing to do with the making of that covenant. In no sense did it depend on him. It was, indeed, a covenant of grace.
Not only that, but by passing between the
pieces of the animals, God declared symbolically that He alone would suffer
the consequences of any covenant breaking, as indeed He did in the death of His
Son:
He was taken from prison and
from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of
the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he
stricken (Isa. 53:8).
Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is
every one that hangeth on a tree (Gal. 3:13).
For our sins in the covenant, God, in Christ,
suffered the penalty by being cast out and cut off: “My God, My God, Why hast
thou forsaken me?” Thus, the covenant of
grace, revealed to Abraham, was fulfilled in Christ.
The Covenant and the Land Promise
Genesis 15 shows clearly that God’s covenant
with Abraham (and through Abraham also with true Israel and with us) is a
covenant of grace. That same chapter,
however, reminds us of another notable feature of the Abrahamic covenant, i.e.,
that it involved a promise of the land.
The land promise, however, is very often
misunderstood. It is that promise which
leads many to look for some future restoration of the nation of Israel in the earthly land of Canaan. We believe this to be a vain hope.
The covenant with Abraham shows just how vain
that hope is. For if the covenant with
Abraham was a land covenant, involving the promise of an earthly land,
then that promise was never fulfilled
to Abraham himself.
The Word tells us in Acts 7:5 that God gave
Abraham no inheritance in the land,
not so much as to set his foot on. Yet
as Acts 7:5 says, God promised it not only to his seed, but also to him.
There cannot be, we believe, clearer proof, that the land promise and
all such promises in the Old Testament had a spiritual fulfilment. The
promise of the land, therefore, was always essentially the promise of a heavenly inheritance.
Hebrews 11:8-16 confirms this. When Abraham, by faith, left Ur to go to the land God had promised him, he “looked
for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (v.
10). Isaac and Jacob, too, always “confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims on
the earth” (v. 13) and declared that they were seeking “a better country,
that is, an heavenly” (v. 16). In fact,
if they had been looking for an earthly inheritance, they might have had
opportunity to go back to the land from which they first came (v. 15), but that
was not their hope. Nor is it ours.
Because the land promise to Abraham was really
a promise of spiritual and heavenly things, all the true children of Abraham
(Rom. 3:28-29; 4:16-17; Gal. 3:29), both Jews and Gentiles, shall enjoy the
fulfillment of that promise and of all the other promises of the covenant that
God made to Abraham and his seed. Not
one shall fail to obtain what was promised; not Abraham himself, not those
believing Jews who were scattered after the captivity and never returned to
Canaan, not the Gentile believers who are also true children of Abraham by
faith.
Thus, all Abraham’s children inherit, with
Abraham, something far better than the hills and rivers and cities of the
earthly land. They enter that blessed
inheritance of which Hebrews 12:22-24 speaks, and there is none better.
The Reformed Baptist contention, therefore,
that the covenant of God with Abraham and later with Israel was different in
some essential points, i.e., that it involved material blessings and the
promise of an earthly land, is wrong.
That is dispensationalism.
The Covenant with Israel
That God had a covenant with Israel is clear
from Scripture. How that covenant is to
be understood is a matter of much dispute.
The great question is whether the covenant with
Israel was a different covenant from the covenant God establishes with His
people in the New Testament, and how the Old Testament (Covenant) and the New
Testament (Covenant) are related to each other.
Are they old and new in that they are different kinds of covenants made with two different groups of
people, or are they older and newer revelations of one covenant?
Dispensationalism answers such questions by
teaching that the old and new covenants are completely distinct from one
another, that they concern different groups of people, have different promises,
and different fulfilments. In its most
extreme forms, it even teaches different ways of salvation for Israel in the
old covenant and for the church under the new covenant (cf. the Scofield
Reference Bible notes).
There are also those who reject
dispensationalism, but who still hesitate to identify completely the two
covenants. Some find a difference
between the promises of the old and new covenants and their fulfilments
(premillennialism and postmillennialism), that is, that at least some of
the old covenant promises have a fulfillment that is earthly, in distinction
from the promises of the new covenant which are spiritual and heavenly.
Others (the Baptists) make some distinction
between Israel and the church especially as regards the covenant and its sign. They would say, for example, that Israel is
only a type of the church and would refuse to identify circumcision and
baptism—the signs of the old and new covenants.
Others make a disjunction between law and
grace. They teach, in one way or another,
that the law has no place in the life of a new covenant believer
(antinomianism). In contrast to all of
this, the Reformed faith insists that there is only
• one covenant;
• one covenant people, for Israel is the church of
the Old Testament:
This is he, that was in the
church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount
Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us
(Acts 7:38).
• one sign of the covenant, for circumcision and
baptism are essentially the same (Col. 2:11, 12)
• one Savior and one way of salvation:
Neither is there salvation in
any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby
we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
• one promise, the promise of eternal life:
Then Peter said unto them,
Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to
your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the LORD our God
shall call (Acts 2:38, 39).
• one spiritual fulfillment of all that belongs to
the promise:
These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded
of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims
on the earth. For they that say such
things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that
country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have
returned. But now they desire a better
country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their
God: for he hath prepared for them a city. (Heb. 11:3-16).
It even insists that there is unity between law
and grace under both covenants:
And this I say, that the
covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four
hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the
promise of none effect. For if the
inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham
by promise. Wherefore then serveth the
law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom
the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a
mediator. Now a mediator is not a
mediator of one, but God is one. Is the
law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law
given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the
law (Gal. 3:17-21).
The Reformed faith insists on a complete unity
of the two Testaments (Covenants) as a reflection, finally, of God’s own
unity. No more than there is division in
God can there be any division between the old and new covenants. When God established His covenant with Israel,
He made it clear that He was only keeping the covenant that He had already made
with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exod. 3:15, 16).
That means that what was true for Abraham in the covenant was
also true for Israel. And, since all who believe are the true seed and
children of Abraham, what was true for Abraham is also true for us. There is but one covenant of God.
One People of God in the Covenant
Many would vehemently dispute the teaching that
Israel is the church of the Old Testament and that therefore God’s covenant
with Israel is the same covenant that He has with His church in the New
Testament. For this reason, we need to
prove carefully from Scripture what we have said.
That Israel and the church are the same is
clear. True Israel in Scripture is not
an earthly people and a carnal nation, but the
spiritual people of God, as is the church.
In Romans 9:6-8, the Word of God tells us that
they are not all Israel that are of Israel:
Not as though the word of God
hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:
neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In
Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is,
They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God:
but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
It makes a clear distinction between those who
are only of Israel and those who
truly are Israel. Everyone who belonged to the nation was of Israel but only those who were born
by the power of the promise (born again by the living Word of God) were counted
as the seed, that is, as children of Abraham and children of God. They were a spiritual people.
Romans 2:28, 29 confirms this in a remarkable
way. It says plainly that they are NOT Jews who are only Jews
outwardly. But a person is a Jew who is
one inwardly, that is, who is circumcised in heart and spirit:
For he is not a Jew, which is
one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but
he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in
the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God (cf.
Col. 2:11).
This should mean, according to the biblical
definition of a Jew, that even the believing Gentiles are counted as children
of Abraham and as Israelites. That, too,
Scripture teaches. Romans 4:11-16 makes
it clear that Abraham is not only the father of believing Jews, but of
believing Gentiles as well. He is the
father “of us all,” that is, of one spiritual people. Galatians 3:7 also plainly says, “Know ye
therefore that they which are of faith,
the same are the children of Abraham.”
In fact, the New Testament makes it clear that
believing Gentiles are more truly Jews and more truly circumcised than
unbelieving descendants of Abraham.
Those who are only Jews according to the flesh are called in Philippians
3:2, “the concision,” that is, mere “mutilators,” because though circumcised
outwardly, they are unspiritual. In
contrast, the Philippians (who were Gentiles) are called “the circumcision” (v.
3), that is, those, who, even though they did not have the outward sign of
circumcision, nevertheless had the spiritual reality.
But there are other passages as well. Galatians 3:1-7 makes it clear that the
church of the Old Testament and New Testament are one by comparing them to one person, growing from infancy to
maturity. Galatians 3:16, 29, make it clear
that there is only one seed, that is,
Christ and those who are in Him. Hebrews
12:22-24 identifies Jerusalem, Mt. Zion, and the church of the living God. To come to one is to come to all.
This is critical. Our participation in all the blessings and
promises of the covenant depends upon it.
There is only one covenant to which believers both in the Old and New
Testaments belong and in which they share in all the blessings of God’s grace,
through Christ.
Law and Covenant
The unique feature of the covenant with Israel
was, of course, the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. What is the relationship between the law and
the covenant?
Fundamental to an understanding of this
relationship is Galatians 3:17-21:
And this I say, that the covenant,
that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and
thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none
effect. For if the inheritance be of the
law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added
because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was
made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but
God is one. Is the law then against the
promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have
given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
This passage shows (1) that the covenant with
Abraham (400 years before the giving of the law) is the covenant that was “confirmed
in Christ,” that is, the one everlasting covenant of God; and (2) that the
giving of the law could not disannul this covenant (v. 17), indeed, that it is
not even against the covenant (v. 21).
Exodus 24:7 goes so far as to call the law the “book
of the covenant,” i.e., the book in which God makes known His covenant with His
people:
And he took the book of the
covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the
LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.
If the covenant to which it belonged is the
covenant that was confirmed in Christ, the same covenant to which we belong,
then the law is still the book of the covenant, though much has been added to
that book since.
According to Galatians 3:19, this written law
was added to the covenant because of transgressions, until Christ should
come. This means that the law, by
revealing sin, shows us our need for Christ.
It was, in that way, “our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we
might be justified by faith” (v. 24).
Romans 10:4 says much the same thing:
For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
It does not say that Christ is the end of the law in the sense that He
takes it away, but that He is the end of the law as goal and purpose of the law.
The law was given with Christ as its goal, and it accomplishes its
purpose, when, by discovering sin, it showed true Israel its need for Christ
and for justification through faith in Him.
That it continues to have this function, Romans
7:7 shows clearly: “I had not known sin, but by the law.” Galatians 3 also proves this when it says
that the law was not only the Jews’ schoolmaster, but ours also (v. 24).
We have no difficulty, therefore, in saying
that the law was and is part of the covenant.
It certainly was in the Old Testament.
According to Galatians 3:19, it was added to the covenant at that
time. That it still belongs to the
covenant is implied in the fact that it continues to have the function for
us. The only thing that has changed is
our relationship to the law within the covenant, but that is another subject
entirely, the subject of Galatians 4:1-7.
The point is that there only one covenant, a
covenant to which the law has always belonged, a covenant to which we, as well
as the true Israel, belong—a covenant of grace in Christ. The law was not, is not, and never will be
against that covenant.
The Law’s Place in the Covenant
In the last section we showed from Galatians
3:17-21 that the law was given as part of the covenant of God and that it still
remains part of the covenant. This is to
say, of course, that law and grace are not against each other (Gal. 3:21). The law is not against the covenant or its
promises.
We also showed that in the covenant the law has
the function, first, of discovering sin (Gal. 3:19, 24). With this, few would disagree.
But that is not the only function of the law as
“the book of the covenant” (Exod. 24:7).
In the covenant, the law also functions as a guide for the life of
thankful obedience that Christians are called to live as God’s covenant
people.
According to this function of the law, the believer
calls the law “a lamp unto my feet and light unto my path” in Psalm 119:105
(cf. also Prov. 6:23). It is a sure and
safe guide along life’s pathway.
For this reason the law can also be called “the
royal law of liberty” (James 1:25, 2:8, 12).
That this royal law of liberty is the law of the Ten Commandments is
clear from James 2:8-11:
If ye fulfil the royal law
according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do
well: but if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of
the law as transgressors. For whosoever
shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of
all. For he that said, Do not commit
adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou
kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law [note the reference to the 6th
and 7th commandments—RH].
It is not a different law, as some
suggest. As the royal law of liberty,
given by the King of kings, it defines and sets boundaries to our liberty and
thus keeps our liberty in Christ from becoming licentiousness (Gal. 5:13, 14):
For, brethren, ye have been
called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by
love serve one another. For all the law
is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself.
This is always the case. In a free country, liberty is guarded by
law. It is law that sets bounds to
liberty, so that liberty is not destroyed by every man doing what is right in
his own eyes. When law is discarded, as
it is today, and every man does as he pleases, then finally a person does not
even have the liberty to leave his own house and walk the streets without fear.
It is the law, therefore, which gives structure
and order to the life of God’s covenant people.
It defines their relationship to Him so that He is glorified by their
life. The law is able to do this because
it reveals the nature and attributes of God and so shows what a God-glorifying
life is.
The law does not bring them into a covenant relationship to God, nor does it
give the necessary grace to live a God-glorifying life. For this they must always go to Christ:
Wherefore the law was our
schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith (Gal.
3:24).
Nevertheless, it is still the “book of the
covenant” revealing how God’s covenant people may please Him and be thankful to
Him, not only in word but also in very deed.
This is not to deny, however, that the believer’s
relationship to the law has been changed by the coming of Christ. He is no longer “under the law” but under
grace.
The Covenant with David
The last great Old Testament revelation of God’s
covenant was that made to David in II Samuel 7.
As a revelation of the covenant, it also has some notable features.
For one thing, it shows again the marvelous
grace of God (it is a gracious covenant).
The revelation came in response to David’s desire to build a house for
God. God told David he might not do that,
but in His great grace promised that He
would build David a house (v. 27)!
For thou, O LORD of hosts,
God of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee an
house: therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto
thee.
What is more, that house was the house in which,
not David but, Christ is Lord.
Psalm 89, which commemorates these events, makes that clear. The Psalm speaks of God’s covenant with David
(Ps. 89:3):
I have made a covenant with
my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant …
But the Psalm makes it clear that it is Christ
especially with whom that covenant is made (Ps. 89:26, 27):
He shall cry unto me, Thou
art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Also I will make him my firstborn, higher
than the kings of the earth.
David is only a type of Christ.
Second, we have here again that covenant
formula that makes it clear, that for all the different circumstances, this is
still the one, everlasting covenant of God. In that covenant, He promises to be the God
of His people and to take them as His own people (II Sam. 7:24):
For thou hast confirmed to
thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee for ever: and thou, LORD,
art become their God.
That is always what the covenant is about.
This revelation of the covenant is unique,
however, in several respects. For one
thing, it brings together covenant and kingdom and shows that they are very
closely related.
That relationship of covenant and kingdom shows
the orderly structure of the covenant.
In that covenant, God’s people are citizens of a kingdom, and have each
his proper place. That whole structure
centers in the throne (II Sam. 7:13), which is really always God’s throne, even
when a man like David sits on it:
He shall build an house for
my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.
On that throne, Christ now sits (Luke 1:32,
33):
He shall be great, and shall
be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the
throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for
ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
He was the one through whom that throne was
established forever and the King whom God promised. As king, He is the cornerstone of the
kingdom, the one upon whom the whole “house” is built, and the one in whom each
citizen has his proper place.
It is in this revelation of the covenant,
however, that God reveals more clearly than ever before that the great King who
was promised and who now sits on that throne forever (II Sam. 7:13-16; Luke
1:32) would enter His kingdom not in the way of battle with sword and spears,
but in the way of suffering and shame:
I will be his father, and he
shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men,
and with the stripes of the children of men: but my mercy shall not depart away
from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee (II Sam. 7:14, 15).
If his children forsake my
law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my
commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their
iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my
lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to
fail. My covenant will I not break, nor
alter the thing that is gone out of my lips (Ps. 89:30-34).
It is not armies and weapons that had to be
defeated, but sin!
That word that hung over Christ’s head,
therefore, on the cross, spoke truly, though those who put it there meant it in
mockery. He was, in His suffering, the King of the Jews, that is, of all
true children of Abraham. As such He is
also the Head of the covenant!
The New Covenant
Since we have already dealt in chapter 13 with
the relationship between the old and new covenants, we will only review here:
The New Testament is called the “new covenant”
in Hebrews 8:6-13 (indeed the word “testament” is the same word as “covenant”). According to Hebrews 8 the new covenant
replaces the old.
From this, many conclude that there is some
essential difference between the old and the new—that they are different
covenants. The Baptists come to this
conclusion in their defense of believer’s baptism (the covenant sealed by
circumcision is not the same as the covenant sealed by baptism). The futurists come to the same conclusion in
defense of their belief that there is still a special earthly future for Israel
(one covenant promise for them, another for us).
We believe that the new covenant replaces the
old only as a newer and fuller revelation of the one everlasting
covenant of God. The differences are
only differences of administration.
Hebrews 8 itself makes this clear.
Notice:
1. Verse 10 uses the ordinary covenant formula
(“thy God … my people”) to show that the new covenant is not essentially
different from the old. At that most
important point, they are the same.
2. The reference to the law confirms this. In the new covenant, the law is not removed,
but rewritten on different tables—the
fleshly tables of the heart (II Cor. 3:3).
Law and covenant still go together.
In fact, the giving of the law (though differently written) is the “giving” of the covenant, both in
Deuteronomy 4:13 and here in verse 10.
3. Also, in both, according to verse 11, the
essential thing is knowing the Lord, though there is a difference in how we do
know Him. Verse 11, we believe, speaks
of the New Testament as a time of realization and fulfilment. It is a time, therefore, in which God’s people
know Him directly, and not anymore through the “teaching” of priests and
Levites (cf. Mal. 2:5-7).
The new covenant, then, is not something
completely different, but new in the same way that the heavens and earth shall
be new when Christ comes again. The
heavens and earth are not annihilated,
but renewed.
The passing of the old covenant does not,
therefore, bring in an entirely new covenant, but the last revelation of
that one covenant in which God is the God of His people and takes them to be
His own. It is the last and fullest
revelation of the covenant through the coming of the things promised, rather
than through pictures and types.
That new covenant is “better” and more glorious
because it brings us Christ instead of the types of Christ. Only the final consummation of the covenant
shall be more glorious.
The differences between the old and new covenants,
then, are only in administrative details. It is only in respect to these details that
one is “old” and the other “new” and that the old perishes and passes away.
How, then, are they different? According to Hebrews 8, in three ways:
1. There is a change of mediator (v. 6)—Christ
replaces Moses. This is not an essential
difference, however, because Moses was a type
of Christ. In Hebrews 3:5, he is even
called “a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after.” Also, in Deuteronomy 18:15, he himself speaks
of Christ as one “like unto me.” This
difference, therefore, is only administrative.
A new prime minister is a change of administration,
and a new government in that sense, but not in the sense of a change in the
type of government or of the constitution.
2. There is also a change in the way the law is
written (v. 10). As we pointed out in
the last section, the law itself is not taken away, but only rewritten
on fleshly tables of the heart instead of tables of stone. But this, too, is only an administrative
change, though it has great significance for the New Testament believer.
Something rewritten is not something
different and separate from what went before.
This second point is especially important because the giving of the law
is called the “giving” of the covenant both in Deuteronomy 4:13 and in Hebrews
8:10. One cannot, then, argue that,
though the law was the same, the covenants are different. They are identified
in Deuteronomy and in Hebrews.
3. Finally, the new covenant also brings a
fuller and more complete revelation. This
is what verse 11 is talking about. That
fuller revelation is of such a kind that all God’s people know Him directly, and not any longer through the
intervention of earthly mediators. There
is not under the new covenant the need of teachers like the priests and Levites
of the Old Testament (cf. Mal. 2:6, 7 for proof that they especially were the
teachers of the Old Testament). This is also an administrative change. The new covenant does not bring a new
(different and separate) revelation of God, but a better revelation
(Heb. 8:6), that is, one that is completed and which reveals the realities
which were only prophesied under the old covenant.
There is only one, everlasting, covenant of
God.
The Consummation of the Covenant
One reason we do not believe that the covenant
is an agreement or contract by which salvation is brought to God’s people, has
to do with the consummation of the covenant. The consummation of the covenant is its final
realization and glory in the everlasting and heavenly kingdom of Christ our
Lord.
If the covenant is a contract or agreement to
bring salvation, then at the consummation, when we receive the fulness of our
salvation, the covenant is cast aside and discarded in the same way that any
other contract would be finished and done with, when all that had been
contracted was completed.
But this cannot be. For one thing, the covenant is everlasting. It is not something that is only useful for a
time and then set aside as a contract or agreement would be. It must, then, be something other.
We insist, therefore, that the covenant is a
relationship or bond between God and His people in Christ. That relationship is described in Scripture
by the covenant formula: “I will be your God and ye shall be my people.”
If that is indeed the essence of the covenant,
that God is ours and we are His, then in heaven the covenant will not be left
behind or set aside but fully realized.
That is what heaven is all about—that we will be with God to glorify Him
and to enjoy Him forever.
And that is exactly how Revelation 21:3
describes the glory of the new heavens and the new earth:
And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell
with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them,
and be their God.
When all is new, there will be no more tears,
no more death, no more crying or sorrow or pain. How wonderful that will be!
But even more wonderful is that which the voice
from heaven foretells: “Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will
dwell with them, and they shall be his
people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God.”
Notice that this passage has in it the same
covenant formula that is used throughout Scripture: “I will be your God, and ye
shall be my people.” There is nothing more
desirable or wonderful than that!
Notice, too, that the passage speaks of God’s tabernacle. In the Old Testament, that was the place of
His covenant, the place where He dwelled with His people and revealed Himself
as their God (Exod. 29:42-46):
This shall be a continual
burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation before the LORD: where I will meet you, to speak there unto
thee. And there I will meet with the
children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory. And I
will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar: I will sanctify
also both Aaron and his sons, to minister to me in the priest’s office. And I will dwell among the children of
Israel, and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the LORD their
God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among
them: I am the LORD their God.
That Old Testament tent was a type and shadow
of better things, for it pictured the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, in whom and
through whom God dwells with us and is our God, and by whom He reveals Himself
to us in all His glory. In Christ, He meets
with us and speaks with us. In Christ,
He dwells among us. In Christ, we know
Him as the Lord our God.
Summary
We believe that we have showed from Scripture,
in this chapter, that the different covenants mentioned in Scripture are not
separate covenants, but different revelations of the one everlasting covenant
of God. In this last section on the
doctrine of the covenant we wish to summarize what we have written in this
chapter, listing the different covenants and what each of them shows as a
revelation of that one covenant.
1. The first revelation of the covenant was to
Adam in paradise. That covenant might be
called The Covenant of Life, since it revealed the essential character
of the covenant. It showed what the
covenant was, it revealed God as the sovereign Lord of the covenant and clearly
delineated man’s place in the covenant (cf. Gen. 1-2 and Hos. 6:7).
2. The
second great revelation of the covenant was to Adam after the fall. That covenant could be called The Covenant
of Promise. It revealed God as the
faithful covenant-keeping God who maintains His covenant with His people by the
power of sovereign, redemptive grace (cf. Gen. 3, esp. v. 15). In it, Christ is revealed as the promised
Seed and the great Sacrifice (Gen. 3:15, 21).
3. The third important revelation was to
Noah. The covenant, at this juncture, is
best remembered as The Covenant of Creation. In it, God revealed the universal character
of His covenant—not all men, but all creatures (cf. Gen. 9:1-17). In it, Christ is revealed as Reconciler and
Lord of all (Gen. 9:15, 16, Col. 1:20).
4. The fourth revelation was to Abraham. That covenant could well be called The
Covenant of Families, since it showed more clearly than ever before that
God’s covenant is very much a family covenant (cf. Gen. 15 &
17). Here Christ is revealed as the
Elect and the one in whom all God’s people are chosen and called (Rom. 9:6-13).
5. The fifth great revelation was to
Israel. Since the giving of the law was
the main feature of that revelation, that covenant should be called The
Covenant of Law. In it, God revealed
that law and covenant are not opposed, but belong together (cf. Exod. 19-20 and
Gal. 3-4). Here we see Christ as
Mediator (Gal. 3).
6. The sixth and last revelation in the Old
Testament was that to David and might as well be remembered as The Covenant
of the Kingdom. In it, God revealed
especially the orderly structure of His covenant (cf. II Sam. 7 and Ps.
89). In this revelation, Christ is shown
to be the Sovereign Head and Lord of the Covenant.
7. The whole New Testament itself is called, in
Scripture, the New Covenant. It
is this, not because it is an entirely different covenant, but as a new
revelation of the covenant, not of types and shadows, but of the realities
to which those types pointed (cf. Heb. 8).
Here, finally, Christ comes with all His blessings and fulfils the types
and shadows.
8. Finally, we wait yet for the day when the
covenant will be realized in all its fulness, when the tabernacle of God will
be with men, when He will dwell with them and be with them as their God, and
they shall be His people (Rev. 21:3).
It should be added, here, that if the old and
new covenant are essentially the same covenant under different administrations
or revelations, then Deuteronomy 29:10-13 makes it crystal clear that infants
are included in that covenant. It
says:
Ye stand this day all of you
before the Lord your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers,
with all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that
is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water: that
thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath,
which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day: that he may establish thee to
day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath
said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac,
and to Jacob.
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