How do the covenants in the Bible interrelate? Peter Sammons explores.
Setting the Scene
Our Saviour God is a covenant-initiating and a covenant-sustaining God. On that basis we praise Him every day, and receive full assurance that, in spite of the fact that we too often break our side of His of the relationship, God never breaks His.
Why is all this important? There are numerous covenants in the Bible – the One New Man Bible lists some 20 in its glossary. There are four, however, that express God’s over-arching salvific purpose. It seems that some Christians are confused by this, and others who opine that the “New” covenant somehow extinguishes the earlier convenants. Your author recalls receiving a stroppy email from a Christian bookshop manager who had taken exception to David Pawson’s splendid “Defending Christian Zionism” which explores the key covenants. My stroppy interlocutor said “there’s just one covenant – the new one!” His view is probably widespread amongst a Christian generation that seems ill at ease with God’s unfolding Salvation plan, and instead want to “cut to the chase” and make room only for their New Covenant.
Progressive revelation ….
In the Old Testament God unveils His plan of Salvation. From its pages we learn about the origins of this world, of Mankind, of sin and rebellion against God, of choosing of a representative People and of the special place of Israel in God’s righteous plans. “At the very heart of the love story running throughout Scripture”, writes Australian author Kelvin Crombie, “is the principle of covenant. Covenant is the vehicle, the arrangement (or legal channel) God has ordained in order to have relationship or communion with us, His special created beings.” Crombie usefully explains that the major theme running through the Bible is God’s desire for relationship with humans. Harmony in the Garden of Eden became a broken relationship, as Adam and Eve defied the one command God had given them. From the very beginning God communed with Mankind through a legal framework – a commandment (Genesis 2:17). That God should communicate with us through a legal framework should not be a great surprise, as God’s entire created order is part of a structured and well ordered system. God only reveals Himself and His criteria for right living through such an orderly system. As Crombie notes, “the orderly manner, or perhaps we could term it, ‘the legal manner’, God adopted in order to present Himself and His Kingdom principles is through the principle of covenant.”
The foundations for two groups of people in the world today are based upon being in a covenant relationship with God. First, the Jewish people as a nation and second, individuals, both Jewish and Gentile, who confess faith in Jesus and are consequently in covenant relationship with Him. The identity of the Jewish nation is based upon the promises made by God to Abraham, which were later confirmed to his son Isaac and grandson Jacob. Of the many promises given to Abraham, most relate to physical descendants. Of these numerous promises, we need to note especially three:
- there would be a People from Abraham’s loins
- this People would inherit a piece of land called Israel
- all families on earth would be blessed through Abraham
Each male Hebrew (Jewish) child born thereafter would be circumcised on the eighth day in a ceremony known as the brit mila. The Hebrew word for covenant is brit (pronounced b’rit). That child is known as a son of the covenant. The whole identity of the Jewish people is based upon this covenant. Jewish and non-Jewish people who enter a covenant relationship with God through Jesus are partakers in this same promise. It is an amazing thought that when disciples of Jesus partake of the rite called holy communion they often recite: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:25). They are remembering precisely that, as individuals, they are in covenant with Jesus.
As Kelvin Crombie notes, “Covenant is not just a word, it is a real and tangible concept and is the very foundation of our identity as followers of Jesus. We only enter into the Kingdom of God because of our covenant relationship with Jesus whereupon we are then sealed with the Holy Spirit.” (Op Cit, page 3).
There is a sense in which covenant, like any formal agreement, must have a purpose, a direction and a destination. In the accompanying illustrations, we depict the Bible’s covenants as an arrow from left to right. (There is no particular significance in this. It might equally have been depicted from right to left, but to Western readers in particular, the left to right sequence implies temporal progression, and this is precisely what is implied here in regard to the covenants). There are four covenants that relate to God’s purposes for His chosen people (and in that term we mean both Jew and Gentile, but in differing ways). Let us consider them:
Through Israel God has a plan and a design that brings blessing to all Mankind, whether Jew or Gentile. Each covenant is directly associated with Jesus the Messiah – but we will not fully explore that aspect in this article! We can affirm, however, that each covenant adds progressively “finer detail” to God’s overall salvation plan.
God promises to Abraham to make him into “a mighty nation”. God promises to Moses that the Hebrews will become a Nation of Priests, to the blessing of the entire world. God promises to David that he will, forever, have a descendent reigning on his royal throne. And finally, in the Messianic promises, God points towards what the role and the office of the Messiah will be. (Genesis 12: 2-3) (Exodus 19: 5-6) (2 Samuel 7: 13-16) (Jeremiah 31: 31-37). Each covenantal promise adds progressive detail and colour to the preceding. Schematically we might depict it in this way:
The covenants are each working towards a definite end point, to the incarnation of the Messiah as a human being, Who will be Prophet, Priest and King. (When we say Priest, in fact we can clarify this as not “just” any Priest; He is in fact the High Priest, who alone is authorized to enter into the very presence of God the Father). How does biblical Christianity relate to these covenants and the promises that they contain? We can perhaps begin to see, in a simple way, that these are different aspects of God’s Salvation plan.
Enlarged
So which covenant is “enlarged” so as to encompass and bless all mankind? In one sense all four key covenants are enlarged to encompass all who place their faith and trust in Jesus. But we might say that “operationally” it is the Abraham covenant that is truly enlarged. To Abraham was given the promise of a mighty nation extending to the ends of the earth. Disciples of Jesus are “adopted” by God the Father to be a part of that spiritual nation, encompassing both believing Jew and believing Gentile.
It is perhaps relatively “easy” to see how these covenantal promises impact the Jewish people as a Nation. It may be less easy to see how they relate to those who are true disciples of Jesus, whether Jew or Gentile. The apostle Paul in his letter to the Roman church – and especially in its eleventh chapter – gives the clearest picture of how the covenant promises work together, and how “Gentiles” benefit from them. Paul builds the case that the true Israelite nation are those who have been “adopted” by God as His special (chosen) people, marked out by their being given the glorious covenants (9:3). We note that Paul uses the plural – covenants – indicating that each covenant builds upon the previous one. They are to be understood as a ‘package’, to use a modern business term. Paul goes on in chapter 9 to emphasise that “not all Israel are Israel” (9:6) as he unveils the spiritual truth that some Jewish people would emphatically reject their Messiah, and some non Jewish people would accept and receive the Jewish Messiah – these too are children of adoption by God. It was always God’s plan that His chosen people would be enlarged with members drawn from across the face of this planet!
Romans chapters 9 and 10 explore the apparent failing of the Chosen People to respond to God’s call of sacrificial love. Romans 10:10-12 provides one of the most straightforward statements of the Christian faith found in the entire Bible: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” How, then, do non-Jewish people partake of the covenant promises? In response to, and in recognition of, the rejection by the (majority of the) Jewish people, so God’s gracious invitation will be extended to all Mankind – everywhere on planet earth.
Paul employs his olive tree metaphor (Romans 11:17) as a description of how this works in practice. The olive tree in this context is a metaphor for Israel. Paul reminds the “Gentiles” that it is because of Israel’s rejection of Messiah that the invitation is extended to them (11:11) and that this “loss” for the Jewish nation results in “riches” for the Gentile nations (11:12). The Jewish rejection results in “reconciliation for the world” (11:15). It is in verse 17 that the “mechanics” of this becomes apparent; if some of the cultivated olive tree branches have been broken off, this has been done to make room for “wild olive” branches to be grafted in. There is a warning for Gentile believers in this too: they should not be proud and think that in some way they have “replaced” the Jews in God’s affections. These proud Christians are reminded of two things: firstly, the root supports them, they do not support the root (11:18). Secondly, God may break them away from the olive tree in precisely the same way He broke off the cultivated olive branches (11:21) if, like Israel, they fall into the world’s way of thinking and behaving.
In the second and final instalment (November), we consider the outworking of the Covenant stream.
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This subject is explored in-depth in Peter Sammons’ book “The Messiah Pattern”, available here: https://christian-publications-int.com/default-23.html?ID=142
A Prophecy Today Review is here: https://www.prophecytoday.uk/study/resources/item/712-review-the-messiah-pattern.html
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