2: New Testament and Old Testament: 2nd (En)
Today we continue to introduce the translation and summarizing of the worship message of Power City Church on February 19, 2022.
This paper is the second part. In the first part, the Old Covenant, or the Old Testament, was the covenant in which no one could escape punishment because it is the covenant of "finding fault," or looking for man's sins. On the other hand, the New and perfect covenant by the blood of Jesus, is the covenant that God's judgment on all man's sins fell on Jesus, and we received this benefit which is called grace.
In the second part, we will consider the example of Abraham, who was even earlier than that old covenant, the time of Moses.
🟢The first covenant - the Old Covenant, was given to the Israelites in Exodus 12. Now, that means that there was no Old Covenant in Genesis.
When the first and the old covenant was made, Abraham and the others before him were not there. And now, with the coming of the New Covenant, the first covenant has been retired as the “Old” Covenant.
So, if there was no first/old covenant in Genesis, on what terms did they relate to God?
🟢Now listen carefully. Actually, God does not have two covenants. Prepare to listen a little more carefully. God has only one covenant. God does not have a dual nature. God is consistently the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
God has only one covenant. And that covenant begins before time began and continues until the end of time. Therefore, if there are two covenants, one is from God and the other is from man.
God has only one covenant, which reflects His character. And it is also the reflection of how God relates to human beings.
So, what covenant did God give Abraham? The old covenant, the first covenant? Or the new, better, eternal covenant? What was it that God gave to Abraham? Definitely a new covenant.
Abraham functioned under the New Covenant. The New Covenant preceded the Old Covenant. The New Covenant is older than the Old. But you may be confused, how can the new precede the old? How can the new one existed before the old covenant? Let us see how the Apostle Paul clarifies the issue.
“13 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: 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. 15 Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.”
📖Galatians 3:13-15 KJV
Did you see this? “Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant(testament) that has been duly established(v15, NIV)”
“The promised Spirit(Japanese version)” (the English expression is "Spirit of Promise") is the expression "the promise, that is the Spirit" in the original, which means "we can receive the promise, that is the Spirit.” It is the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of sonship.
We received the spirit of sonship as the fulfillment of a promise. To whom was this promise made? Abraham. The promise to Abraham was not made by the law, but a promise made with a precondition that God will fulfill His promise, and this was the promise that the Spirit of His Son will indwell into man.
“16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. 17 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. 18 For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.”
📖Galatians 3:16-18 KJV
So, the promise was made to only one man, Christ Jesus. Therefore, the promise was not made to Abraham, rather, made to Jesus, and was spoken to Abraham as the good news of the promised grace.
“8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.”
📖Galatians 3:8 KJV
Paul calls it "the promise, that is the Spirit (v14)”. Was it promised only to Abraham? No, it was for all believers.
“29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
📖Galatians 3:29 KJV
🟢No act or deed of people under the law can undo God's promise of Christ's resurrection. Paul calls God's promise to Abraham "the covenant that was confirmed before(KJV) / the covenant previously established(NIV)”(v17).
So there was the covenant before the law, and that covenant was in Christ. So the important question is which came first, the old or the new? The new covenant! In other words, the new is older than the old.
The meaning is that, after 430 years of the New Covenant, the Old Covenant interrupted the New Covenant, but since it is called "the first covenant," it is indeed the first or old covenant. Because when that covenant (the Old Covenant) worked, what worked for Abraham was still the "promise" in its stage.
🟢It was not yet a complete covenant. A covenant is an oath or agreement between two or three parties. One person cannot unilaterally make a covenant. That’s why God was not able to make a covenant with Abraham.
Abraham is unfit to make a covenant with God. Abraham is mortal. God is immortal. Abraham is fallible, and God is infallible(inerrant: completely no mistake). Therefore, God and Abraham cannot make a covenant.
So what did God do was that, He made a "promise" to Abraham, and then God walked out of Him. Then God turned to God, and God said to God, so the Lord said to my Lord (Psalm 110:1).
In other words, He became two natures, God on earth and God in heaven, and He came to act for man and died in debt for man. Therefore, He became "the God of who is God" and "the God of the Son of Man”.
Between God and God, the God of the Son of Man is the representative of man. Therefore, the covenant between God and God is unchangeable because of the unchangeable nature of the two.
God in Christ cannot err. And God in His divinity (God the Father) can never err. Therefore, since the covenant is made by two infallible Persons, it is perfect and unbreakable.
🟢Those who come from Christ and those who follow Him are not a member of the covenant. They are beneficiaries (recipients). Therefore, in the covenant now agreed upon between Jesus and God the Father in Christ Jesus, we are here only to receive, to give thanks, and to enjoy.
The covenant is not based on my morality or perfection, but on God, and God who became a man - Jesus.
Now, the covenant was made between God and God, which means that man is not a covenant partner with God. So the term "First/old covenant, Old Testament" describes the covenant of Moses.
The covenant that Moses gave to Israel after they left Egypt, that was the covenant of Moses, the covenant by man.
That is, the terms and words "new" and "old" of the covenant were used not to indicate that the new came after the old, but to indicate that the “Old” was obsolete, no longer in use, while the “New” was true, perfect, and eternal.
That is why the author of Hebrews calls the Law a shadow.
“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.”
📖Hebrews 10:1 KJV
Yes, it was the shadow of the substance, the shadow of the "new covenant in Christ," added for sin (Galatians 3:19). It was not God's plan.
God's plan has always been the New Covenant, and God does not use contradictory double standards. Even in the time of the Old Testament age, God operated the New Covenant, and has continued to operate the New Covenant to this day.
Therefore, Jesus came to fulfill the promise and carry out the New Covenant. “who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” (2 Corinthians 3:6) Hallelujah!
So, the New Covenant was existed as a promise before the Old Covenant. And as the result of the New Covenant, now we are God's family, His children. Praise the Lord.
“1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4 that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
📖Romans 8:1-4 KJV
(From the tract distributed on April 2nd, 2022)
