No. 828
“For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.” (Heb. 6:13-14)
Christendom in general recognizes only two Covenants, the Old or Law Covenant, with Moses as its mediator, and the New Covenant, with Christ as its Mediator. When rarely they recognize the Abrahamic Covenant at all, they identify it with the New Covenant. Gradually, we have come to see that the Abrahamic Covenant, the original one, is the grandest and best of the three, and that from it the other two proceeded.
St. Paul pointed out to us most distinctly that the original Covenant made with an oath to Abraham was in every way the superior one and that it, being a one-sided Covenant, an unconditional promise, has no mediator. St. Paul tells us that the Law Covenant was “added” to the Abrahamic Covenant in God’s dealing with the nation of Israel. It is called a Law Covenant because the benefits of that Covenant were offered only to those who would keep the Law in all its requirements. He called it the Hagar Covenant, because it was a bondage. Neither faith nor grace affected their Covenant, which was hard and fast and demanded obedience to the works of the Law – “That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.” (Rom. 10:5) Since none could do perfectly, that Covenant of works brought only condemnation. It had a mediator, Moses, but he was unable to accomplish anything for the people, because of their imperfection through heredity.
Hagar’s child, Ishmael, typed natural Israel and was born before Sarah’s child, Isaac, who typed The Christ, Head and Body. In like manner, the nation of Israel, Moses and all the people baptized into him in the sea and in the cloud, the “house of servants,” were developed before Spiritual Israel – Christ and the members of the house of sons.
As the Sarah Covenant (also called the Covenant of Grace) existed before the Law Covenant was added to it, so it continued to exist after the Law Covenant was set aside as a covenant, its prize of life eternal having been won when Jesus gave Himself a ransom for all. The Covenant of Grace (Sarah), which preceded the Law Covenant (Hagar) four hundred and thirty years, continued alive during the whole period of the Law Covenant, but without children, and then brought forth the Head of the Seed, Jesus. The Law Covenant was then cast aside.
From the Scriptural standpoint the resurrection is the birth. For instance, our Lord is the “first-born from the dead” and the “first-born among many brethren.” Those referred to as His “brethren, His “members,” and His “Bride” (three different names for the “elect” Church), must all be brought forth from the dead, all be “changed” to spirit condition before the Seed of Abraham will be complete. “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Gal. 3:29) This is the Mystery – the selection of the Church as the Bride of Christ during the Gospel Age, to be sharers with their Redeemer in the sufferings of that time, and also in the glory to follow. (Col. 1:27; Eph. 5:32)
Not until that “First Resurrection” is finished will the Seed of the Sarah Covenant be fully born. This is quite in accordance with the prophetic statement, “Shall I bring to the birth [deliver the Head], and not cause to come forth [the Body].” (Isa. 66:9) The intimation is that so surely as Jesus, the Head of the Body, was brought forth in the Resurrection, born from the dead, so surely will all the members of His Body share with Him His glorious “change” from mortality to immortality, from earthly to heavenly nature.
The Apostle showed that the children of the bond-woman could not be heirs with the children of the free-woman: “Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” (Gal. 4:30; Gen. 21:10) How, then, did the Apostles and others who were Jews (Israel according to the flesh) come into relationship with Christ and the Sarah Covenant (of grace)? The Apostle explained that as a human marriage is dissolved by the death of one of the parties, so those of the Jews who could recognize by faith that Christ’s death had fulfilled the terms of the Law Covenant could realize that Covenant was dead, and hence, that they were freed from it and could become married to another – united to Christ. On the contrary, any Jew who does not recognize that Christ, by His death, has made an end of the Law, “nailing it to His cross” (Col. 2:14), and who still continues to believe in that Covenant, is as firmly bound thereby as though the Covenant were still alive, just as a woman whose husband is really dead, but she believes him to be alive, cannot in good conscience marry another.
TWO SEEDS OF ABRAHAM
The Apostle explained that all of that nation who lacked proper faith in Christ were cast off, they were “blinded,” not forever, but until the completion of spiritual Israel – The Christ. (Rom. 11:7, 25) But, if they were “blinded” did God not deceive the nation of Israel when He entered into the Law Covenant with them at Sinai? He knew that they could not keep it, and could not get life under it, and yet permitted them to put themselves under that bondage. Are not the Lord’s ways just and equal?
Yes! When understood, the full scope of the divine purpose is glorious in its harmony. Now we perceive that God intends to recognize two seeds of Abraham, the one heavenly, like unto the stars of heaven; the other earthly, like unto the sands of the seashore. The attempt of the Law Covenant to bring forth the natural seed first was a failure. The spiritual – Christ Head and Body, partaker of the divine nature, heir of all things – must come first, and then God’s favor will return to natural Israel.
The Law Covenant completed its purpose and was demonstrated to be unattainable because of the weaknesses of the flesh, and so God purposes to make with that nation, and with that nation alone, a New Covenant. Not a single statement of Scripture identifies the New Covenant with the Gentiles. It is Israel’s New Covenant given to displace the Old or Law Covenant. The great mass of the early Church were Hebrews and the Apostle’s references to the New Covenant are almost exclusively in his epistle to the Hebrews. One exception is in Rom. 11:27-29, where the Apostle, although addressing Christians of Gentile birth, told them that natural Israel was cast off for their sakes, but is still beloved for the fathers’ sake, and is again to have divine favor, under a special Covenant. The other (2 Cor. 3:6) refers to the royal priesthood as able (qualified) servants of the New Covenant – dying with Christ for its sealing. (Mal. 3:1)
The more closely we investigate the New Covenant, the more we must be convinced that it belongs to Israel alone, including the two nations into which they divided at the death of Solomon – Israel and Judah. Note the statement of the Prophet: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant [the Law Covenant] that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.” (Jer. 31:31-32) As the Apostle pointed out, God speaking of this as a New Covenant implies that a preceding Covenant (the Law Covenant) had become old, valueless, and was preparing to pass away: “In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” (Heb. 8:13)
THE OATH-BOUND COVENANT SURE
There were two old covenants – the Grace or Sarah Covenant, and the Law Covenant. Which did the Apostle mean has become old, valueless, and would pass away and give place to the New Covenant? Surely there can be no doubt on this point – he meant the Law Covenant, for he said so. (Heb. 9) He did not mean the Grace or Sarah Covenant, for he pointed out that our claim to relationship with God is under that original Covenant. (Gal. 3:29) Our Lord Jesus became heir of all by His obedience: heir of the original Covenant and heir also of the Law Covenant.
None of the people were with Him, neither Jews nor Gentiles, but by the grace of God provision was made that any Jew recognizing that the Law Covenant was dead – “nailed to the cross” – might become betrothed to Christ. They did not need to wait for the New Covenant, the provisions of which apply only to those on the earthly plane. Instead, by a faith justification and a consecration unto death, they were counted worthy of begetting to the new nature. Similarly, Gentiles favored of God by the hearing ear and seeing eye of faith, were subsequently privileged to go through the same process, except that they did not need to reckon themselves dead to the Law Covenant, because they never were under it. Otherwise, recognizing Christ’s death as the blood of the original Covenant, typified by Abraham’s offering up his son, they also were reckoned justified. Presenting their justified bodies to the Lord as sacrifices, they were begotten of the same Holy Spirit as the Jews, to be fellow-members of the same Body – the Body of Christ.
But what provision has God made for those Jews who bound themselves under the Law Covenant, from Moses’ day down to the First Advent? And what provision has He made for those who since then have not discerned the death of the Law Covenant, and who will not be made aware of it until after the spiritual seed is completed and glorified? The answer is that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and others before the Law Covenant were not bound by it, yet they were not in the fullest sense justified to life until the Abrahamic Covenant had been established at Calvary. Their faith, then, entitled them to a share in the merits of that sacrifice.
Likewise, throughout the period of the Law Covenant, before it was annulled at the cross, there were Ancient Worthies who lived by faith. (Heb. Chap. 11) Although bound by the Law, they had above it a living faith in the original Oath-Bound Grace Covenant. Although they lived while the Law Covenant was alive, they foresaw its death and trusted instead in the superior Covenant of Grace. They realized that no matter how much they tried, they could not keep the Law Covenant because of inherited human frailty. Consequently, they will in due time come forth to a life resurrection – not because of their relationship to the New Covenant, of which they knew nothing, but because of their relationship to and faith in the original (Sarah) Covenant of Grace. Thus, the Scriptures account for the faithful ones of the past under the Covenant of Grace.
What about those earthly Israelites who did not live on that higher plane of faith? Were they all deceived? Will they get those special blessings? No, we answer, “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance . . . For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.” (Rom. 11:29, 32) He knew the end from the beginning – knew exactly what Israel would be and do, and was not disappointed. All the plans for and promises to that nation were made from the standpoint of this knowledge. Although our Lord Jesus laid down His human nature completely to secure the chief feature of the Sarah Covenant, nevertheless, it was the divine arrangement that the blood of Christ, the merit of His sacrifice of all earthly things, must accrue to the benefit of the natural seed of Abraham, because it all goes to seal the New Covenant, which belongs exclusively to fleshly Israel.
Although natural Israel had been counted as enemies for the sake of the High Calling, the only opportunity for gaining that great prize was in connection with the sealing of a New Covenant between God and Israel. (Jer. 31:31-33) How beautifully the features of the divine program balance! Natural Israel’s loss was Spiritual Israel’s gain, and that gain, attained through sacrifice, will become Natural Israel’s gain. Altogether, the Lord will be glorified! The New Covenant will not be sealed until the sacrifice of The Christ is finished, closing the work of this great Day of Sacrifice and Atonement. With the second presentation of the blood of Atonement in the Most Holy at the end of this age, the New Covenant with Israel will be sealed and the Lord will begin to bless Israel. “For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.” (Rom. 11:27)
ABRAHAM THE FATHER OF MANY NATIONS
The original promise indicated two seeds of Abraham – one as the stars of heaven, and the other as the sands of the sea. (Gen. 22:17) St. Paul elaborated this thought when he said of the promise, “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations).” (Rom. 4:16-17) The blessing of mankind was to come through the promised seed of Abraham: “For salvation is of the Jews.” (John 4:22) We see that Abraham, as a type of God, is the father of the spiritual seed. We see that the Jewish nation, dead under the Law Covenant, is to be regenerated by The Christ, the Mediator of the New Covenant; and that this regeneration will commence at the close of this Gospel Age and the opening of the Millennial Age.
But since the Church, “the holy nation,” and the Jewish nation, the “chosen people,” are only two nations, how are all nations to be blessed? (Gen. 22:18) We cannot say that the Body of Christ, the bride class, fulfills this prophecy, because, although they were taken out of the nations, they are not all nations, and do not represent all nations. They each first died to their earthly estate and nationality before being begotten of the Holy Spirit to become a member of the Holy Nation – spiritual Israel. The Scriptures distinctly show that Christ and His Church, spirit beings, must constitute the Kingdom class, but they also show that the Ancient Worthies, and through them the nation of Israel under the New Covenant, will become the representatives of the Heavenly Kingdom among men.
Since God’s favors are thus marked out for the Heavenly and Earthly seeds of Abraham – the earthly favors coming through the heavenly – it follows that the blessing of the other nations will come about through their affiliation with them. In other words, the divine government established in Israel in the hands of the Worthies will be the center of divine favor, and the people of other nationalities must come to this center for their supplies of truth and grace. As the Prophet stated: “And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain [kingdom] of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion [the spiritual kingdom], and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem [the center of the earthly kingdom].” (Micah 4:2)
All nations, peoples, kindreds and tongues will thus be brought gradually to an appreciation of the divine plan. They will all be blessed with restitution privileges and opportunities and with enlightenment from the rays of the Sun of Righteousness which will be flooding all the earth through the appointed channels (the Worthies and natural Israel). The original Covenant will thus be fulfilled, first in spiritual Israel (Christ, Head and body), then secondly with fleshly Israel under the New Covenant. Through these all the families of the earth will be blessed, so that all the willing and obedient may gradually attain to the standards of the children of God, possessing the “liberties of the sons of God” – freedom from sin, sorrow, pain and death. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” (Rev. 21:4) As the Old Law Covenant was with Israel only, so the New (Law) Covenant will be with Israel only. Other nations will share it by becoming Israelites, not under the Old Law Covenant, but under the New Covenant. (Ezek. 16:60-61)
THE EVERLASTING COVENANT
Both the Abrahamic Covenant and the New Covenant are Scripturally styled “The Everlasting Covenant,” in contrast with the Law Covenant, which passed away, a failure because of its “unprofitableness.” (Heb. 7:18) The one is perpetuated in the other, even as the spiritual Seed (spiritual Israel) will rule and bless through the earthly Seed (fleshly Israel). Note the Scripture testimony that the original Grace (or Sarah) Covenant is everlasting. (Gen. 17:7,13,19; 2 Sam. 23:5; Psa. 105:8-10) Note other Scriptures which apply the same term prophetically to the New Covenant. (Jer. 32:40; Jer. 31:31-33; Ezek. 16:60) Note carefully the context in each instance, that the reference is to the Millennium.
The blood of the Everlasting Covenant is the “blood of Jesus,” His sacrifice, through the merit of which believers are now “justified by faith” under the Grace or Sarah Covenant (not by the New Covenant which does not yet exist and which is to be made only with Israel). The blood or sacrifice of Jesus is the “blood of the New Covenant,” yet to be established with Fleshly Israel, just the same, only that by the Father’s good pleasure Jesus has now accepted the “little flock” as His members and counted their sacrifice or blood as a part of His own.
Let us now briefly refer to Scriptures which mention the New Covenant, that we may note their full harmony with the foregoing:
“But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant [not better than the Grace or Sarah Covenant, but better than the Law Covenant], which was established upon better promises.” (Heb. 8:6) Moses could offer only imperfect sacrifices, but Christ, by antitypical sacrifices of the bullock and goat (Himself and His Body), makes satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, and prepares to mediate the New Covenant, which God has promised will be His channel for blessing Israel and the world.
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. (Heb. 8:8) In support of his argument that there is a better covenant, the Apostle here quoted the Old Testament promise to Israel of a New Covenant. (Jer. 31:31) Clearly this does not refer to Spiritual Israel (or to any others of the Gospel Age).
“Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers . . . 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.” (Heb. 8:9-10) This is part of the same Old Testament quotation and also clearly does not refer to Spiritual Israel. (Jer. 31:32-33)
The days referred to in the above text are “after” the days of this Gospel Age. The Apostle went on to say, “And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” (Heb. 8:11-12; Jer. 31:34) This is a description of what will take place during the Millennium, and not a description of what we see about us today. God has not yet put His laws into the hearts of the house of Israel, and they are not His people, as they will be when the New Covenant becomes operative. (Compare Acts 15:15-16)
“In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” (Heb. 8:13) Notice that the Apostle did not say one word about the New Covenant being for the Church of Christ. His readers understood very well that they came in under the Sarah Covenant. Certain Judaizing teachers insisted that they must be under the Hagar Covenant, as well as under the Sarah Covenant, and this is what the Apostle disputed. He made clear that the (Hagar) Law Covenant would not continue, but perish, and that, in God’s due time, He would provide a New Covenant to take its place with Israel.
“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” It was necessary that Jews be redeemed from the “dead works” of the old Law Covenant and that a new one be made for them by Christ – Head and body. The old Law Covenant was sealed by the blood of bulls and goats, but the New Covenant by “better sacrifices.” (Heb. 9:14-23)
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.” (Heb. 10:16-18) The Apostle was arguing along general lines. He would have his hearers understand that when an acceptable sacrifice has been offered to God for sins, the transaction is a closed one, and the sacrifice needs no repetition. He showed that this will be so in the future for the world. When the “better sacrifices” sealing the New Covenant have been offered to God by our Redeemer, and accepted by Him, it will mean the cancellation of all condemnation.
“For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.” (Rom. 11:27-28) There is no room to doubt that the Apostle here referred to Israel’s Covenant, the New Covenant, which God will make with them after this Gospel Day. The Apostle said the Covenant will be made at the time that the Lord will “take away their sins.” That time has not yet come. Israel is still under divine condemnation, though we are now privileged to speak comfortably unto them and to assure them that the time for their deliverance is near. Then He will become, as intended and declared, the great Mediator of the New Covenant between God and mankind in general – the Church being the exception, under the Covenant of Grace. Then He will begin His Millennial Kingdom: “For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” (1 Cor. 15:25-26)
“But ye are come unto mount Sion . . . the heavenly Jerusalem . . . To the general assembly and church of the firstborn . . . And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling.” (Heb. 12:22-24) Jesus is the Mediator, but He has accepted the Church as His Bride, His Body, and waits for her arrival. The picture shows that the New Law Covenant will be established as the old Law Covenant was, only on a higher plane and through a greater Mediator and by better sacrifices. (Heb. 9:23)
Not one of these references to the New Covenant makes the slightest suggestion that it is applicable to the Church. A reference to the prophecy of Ezekial shows that it could not apply to the Church, for there the Lord says, “I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh.” (Ezek. 11:19) This is exactly the restitution work which will begin with Israel and extend to all the families of the earth, but it is not at all the work of the Gospel Age, which is far higher. The Lord has not given the “little flock” hearts of flesh, but, justified by faith, has allowed them to sacrifice the flesh, and begetting them to a new nature, the glorious Seed of Abraham, through which all the families of the earth shall be blessed, by the inauguration of the New Covenant, sealed, made operative by the merit of the blood of Christ.
(Based on Reprint 4318.)
____________________________________________________
PERVERSIONS – PAST AND PRESENT
We have often directed attention to the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Laymen’s Home Missionary Movement regarding their attempt to displace the Jews as the chief earthly restitution class under the New Covenant and the Worthies. The Roman Church pursued much the same policy during the Dark Ages - except with much more force and abuse. They often concentrated persecution against the Jews - much the same as they did against the Gentile Christian protesters. But in recent years, recognizing that their dominion is tottering, they are beginning to read the unmistakable “handwriting on the wall,” and their attitude toward the Jews has softened considerably.
However, there are other “Christian” organizations now making themselves heard by their antagonism toward the Jews. A member of one such sect once returned our paper on the Jewish situation, with which they enclosed one of their booklets. They took caustic exception to our Scriptural interpretation concerning the present and future status of the Jews. Here is a little of what their booklet contained:
“The evidence proving the present-day ‘Jews’ are NOT ‘The house of Israel’ is endless. History gives abundant proof that the White, Caucasian Race sprang from dispersed Israel. WE ARE ISRAEL.”
In substance, the Witnesses teach the same thing: They are God’s Israel; they are the “chosen people.” They are ready to proclaim Brother Russell as the founder of their movement, and boast about him even as they grossly and persistently revolutionize against his clear and persuasive interpretation of those prophecies that emphatically designate “to the Jew first.” Likewise, although in lesser degree, the LHMM teaches the same, with the exception that they apply these Jewish promises to their new converts since 1954. They teach that their present-day converts will be “first and chief” next to the Worthies, instead of the Jews - thus taking away from the Jews their God-given promises, as they usurp those promises.
Perhaps it is well to recall here the usurpers all during this age have prevailed in numbers, power and prominence. As our Lord said, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” (Matt. 7:22) This will all be changed under the coming Kingdom reign. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear!”
(By John J. Hoefle, excerpt from No. 219, September, 1973, with minor editing.)
Write to us at: epiphanybiblestudents@gmail.com