Characteristics of the New Covenant
HOR Book 5 Dawn Service Series • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 185 viewsNotes
Transcript
Scripture reading: Hebrews 9:13-16
Scripture reading: Hebrews 9:13-16
Hebrews 9:13–16 (ESV)
For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.
This study is taken from the fifth book of the History of Redemption series, entitled, ‘The Promise of the Eternal Covenant: God’s Profound Providence as Revealed in the Genealogy of Jesus Christ (The Postexilic Period). The book talks about how God’s covenant from the very beginning was built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, and without Jesus all the previous covenants in the Old Testament are only a ministry of death and of condemnation.
Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.
Jesus is the proper context of the covenants in the Bible. Jesus is the One to whom all the covenants point. Jesus is the beginning and the end of redemptive history. And this fifth book of the History of Redemption Series explains how God prepared the way for Jesus through the four hundred years between the Old and New Testaments. And the proper context for locating God’s actions is a covenantal context: God acts according to His promise.
Last week we began on the third chapter in the book, entitled Salvation and Covenant. And we concluded that the law of the old covenant acted as a tutor to Christ by teaching us about our sin, and by teaching us about the character of God; a character we see mirrored in Jesus Christ Himself.
This morning, we continue with the third chapter and we will look at the new covenant which Jesus Himself mediated. Whereas the law taught us to relate to God by works, the new covenant of grace teaches us to relate to God by grace.
What is the new covenant?
What is the new covenant?
The defining characteristic of the new covenant is that it is a covenant of grace, mediated and fulfilled by Jesus Christ.
and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
How did He establish it? It was through his blood, offered to His disciples, and shed on the cross.
And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
So let’s have a look at some characteristics of this new covenant.
The new covenant is a covenant written on the heart
The new covenant is a covenant written on the heart
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
What does it mean for a covenant to be written on the heart? You’ve probably guessed it by now, but it’s a metaphor that tells us of God’s law being within us, as opposed to being outside of us. And not only is the act of inscription metaphorical, but so is the heart, which refers to the seat of our mind, will, and emotions. What is God’s law? God’s law is His heart for us. And so to say that the law of God is inscribed on our heart is to say that we’ve undergone heart replacement surgery. This was David’s prayer.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
By revealing to us the true meaning of the law, Jesus engraved the Word on our hearts and fulfilled the new covenant of Jeremiah.
The new covenant is a covenant previously ratified by God
The new covenant is a covenant previously ratified by God
This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.
The Apostle Paul here talks about the law of Moses, given at Mt. Sinai in the year 1446BC. And so if we count backwards and add 430 years to 1446BC, we get 1876BC, which was the year that Jacob and his family moved to Egypt. However, God ratified that covenant with Abraham back in 2082BC, when Abraham was 84 years old, just before he had Ishmael. So did the Apostle Paul make a mistake? Not if we look at it from a covenantal point of view. God had ratified the covenant with Abraham and had told him about what was to happen to his descendants. They would be slaves in a foreign land for 400 years (Gen. 15:13), God would judge the nation, and they would come out with great possessions (Gen. 15:14).
But what happens with Jacob is that God comes to him in his fear and anxiety, just as he’s about to leave for Egypt, and God reaffirms the covenant of the torch with him.
So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.”
So when the Apostle Paul says in Gal. 3:17 that the law came 430 years after the covenant, he is saying that the actual fulfillment of the covenant of the torch began during Jacob’s time. Abraham had but received a foreshadowing, a glimpse of the future, but Jacob was the one to live out the story.
This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.
The phrase ‘previously ratified’ in Greek is προκυροω and is a compound word made of προ (in front of, before) and κυροω (ratify, confirm, validate), and means ‘ratify beforehand’ or ‘validate in advance.’
So what is the Apostle Paul saying? He’s not saying that God changed plans. Plan A didn’t work, and so now God comes up with a new plan B. The promise didn’t work, and so now it’s time for the law. That isn’t what he’s saying. He’s saying that the law regulates or guides the covenantal people. He’s also emphasizes the dynamic that’s going on between the covenant of the torch and the covenant of Moses: the latter covenant expounds upon the former. And in this same dynamic, the new covenant mediated by Jesus Christ expounds and even reveals itself to be the foundation of all the prior covenants. It is the new covenant. New in the sense that it is eternal and never gets old. It has been and always will be relevant.
The new covenant is an eternal and perfect covenant
The new covenant is an eternal and perfect covenant
But wait a minute. The author of Hebrews says something that seems to run contrary to this.
In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
Why does he say that the first covenant becomes obsolete in light of the new covenant? This is what he’s saying. He’s saying that any covenant that does not have Christ is obsolete. Why? Because Christ is the essence of every covenant. The point of every covenant is Jesus.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
And so the author of Hebrews says this about the previous covenant.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
The Greek word here for ‘faultless’ is αμεμπτος, meaning ‘blameless’ or ‘faultless.’ This means that the first covenant was imperfect. In what way was it imperfect? The first covenant brought about the awareness of sins, but did not bring about the forgiveness of sins. Only the covenant mediated by Jesus could bring about forgiveness of sins. This is why the Apostle Paul, as we saw earlier, calls the first covenant a ministry of death (2 Cor. 3:7)
Conclusion: The new covenant is a covenant of complete forgiveness of sins
Conclusion: The new covenant is a covenant of complete forgiveness of sins
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
The old covenant couldn’t bring about the forgiveness of sins because all the sacrifices, all the offerings back then were christological symbols. Their job was to foreshadow and point toward the true sacrifice whose death meant the salvation for all, Jesus Christ. And only the blood of Jesus can bring about the forgiveness of sins.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Back then, the high priest had to enter into the holy of holies one day a year to procure the forgiveness of sins. The people had faith in the blood of the animal that procured God’s forgiveness, as per instructed in the law. But that blood of the animal sacrifice functioned as a symbol of the blood of Jesus Christ, whose death many years in the future procured the forgiveness of sins of the people in the Old Testament. And by having faith in the blood of the animal and the work of the high priest, by having faith in the old covenant, the people were indirectly having faith in Jesus Christ, who is not only the fulfillment, but the very foundation of the old covenant.
The forgiveness and grace that Jesus procured on the cross flowed backwards in time to those who had faith in the old covenant, and flows forward in time to us this morning. And when that grace washes us today, we will also be made new.c