 |  |
etymology of the Greek word or by its use by pagan Greeks. The word is employed in
the LXX version to translate the Hebrew berith, which is translated in the A.V. O.T.
"covenant" 260 times, beside "confederacy", and "league", all, or any of which
translations imply an agreement made by two parties or more. It is amazing to ponder the
different way in which many believers act when engaged in the business of this world, as
over against their strange dealings with Scripture. No man in his senses would go to a
Bank, an Insurance office, or a Building Society and act as though he had every right to
that which was in some specific covenant, simply because he lived next door! Yet
Christian men of understanding and integrity can read, both in the O.T. and in the N.T.
that the New Covenant was made by the Lord "with the house of Israel, and with the
house of Judah", whose identity is further made clear by the added words:
"Not according to the 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: 32).
God never led the "fathers" of any Gentile reader of these words out of Egypt to the
foot of Mount Sinai, and all pretensions to rights and claims of blessing under the New
Covenant are invalid and foolish. This new covenant falls into two parts:
(1)
The forgiveness of sins (Jer. 31: 33, 34).
(2)
The restoration of Israel to their land (Jer. 31: 36),
and with this restoration, their entry into the position of a kingdom of Priests, which
formed part of the broken covenant of Sinai (Exod. 19: 5, 6) which was forfeited, but
which will be their blessed position by virtue of the blood of the New Covenant shed by
Christ (Rev. 1: 5, 6).
At the close of the Passover feast, which the Saviour commemorated with His
disciples before He was offered as the true "Lamb of God", He took the cup, and gave
thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it:
"For this is My blood of the NEW COVENANT, which is shed for many for the
remissions of sins" (Matt. 26: 28).
This is repeated in the epistle to the Corinthians (I Cor. 11: 25), for it was the Divine
purpose that through Israel, all families of the earth should be blessed, and the
forgiveness of sins was a sine qua non, before Israel could reach to their ultimate position
as a Kingdom of Priests, or be restored as a nation. The first phase of the New Covenant
was in operation all the while that Israel remained as a people before God, i.e. up to the
end of the Acts. When, however, Israel were dismissed, and became lo-ammi "Not My
people" (Hosea 1: and 3:) the New Covenant was suspended, for how can it operate when
one of the parties is out of commission?
We can see that the New Covenant is in force as long as Israel is in covenant
relationship with God as His people. It is confirmed in the Gospels, by the offering of
Christ, it is in course of fulfillment under the ministry of Peter, Paul, James, John and
Jude (see I Pet. 2: 5); it lapsed at the close of the Acts, which date line was followed in a
few years by the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple under Titus, and it will be