The Covenants

—From Genesis to Hebrews

Andrew Fountain – Oct 20, 2015

The Covenants

What is a Covenant
The Old Covenant
The New Covenant

1. What is a Covenant?

A relationship (often friendship or family), not merely a legal contract.
- today we have legal contracts, enforced by putting our signature on the bottom (e.g. story of DirectBuy)
- the only things in our society which are like covenants are marriages and adoptions
- even they are not quite the same as a covenant
The Covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15
- We are going to read a passage from Genesis about God making a covenant with Abraham
- Before we read this passage, it might seem strange to you, but this was the common way making a covenant.
- In ancient times, suppose a king went to war against another king of a smaller nation
  - after a time the king surrendered
  - The two kings would often make an agreement
  - I will promise to pay you tribute of 1000 talents of gold every year
  - I promise to be loyal to you
  - The big king would promise to defend the small king against attackers
  - Then they would cut some animals in pieces and the two of them would walk between the pieces
- What do you think the walking between the cut up animals symbolized?
- We see a mention of this in Jeremiah 34:13–20 Where God is going to punish them for breaking the covenant by causing them to die like the animals.

Jeremiah 34:13–20

“The LORD God of Israel has a message for you. ‘I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt where they had been slaves. It stipulated,
“Every seven years each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you for six years, you shall set them free.” But your ancestors did not obey me or pay any attention to me…

Jeremiah 34:13–20 cont’d

I will punish those people who have violated their covenant with me. I will make them like the calf they cut in two and passed between its pieces. I will do so because they did not keep the terms of the covenant they made in my presence.
I will punish the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests, and all the other people of the land who passed between the pieces of the calf.
I will hand them over to their enemies who want to kill them…

Genesis 15

Note that this was a special covenant with Abraham, not what we call the Old Covenant or the New Covenant
- why does only God go between the pieces (not dependent on Abraham)
So this is what a covenant is:
- very serious affair: life and death
- not just a legal agreement, but brings two people into a relationship
The covenant we have just read about was the original covenant with Abraham
- It was a picture of the New Covenant, as I will explain in a minute

2 The Old Covenant

God made a covenant with the whole nation of Israel in Old Testament times
He gave them a lot of laws and commandments
- If they kept them, then he would give them
  - financial blessing
  - health and long life
  - lots of children
- If then broke them then
  - He would punish them
  - He would take away all the good things
  - Ultimately the nation would be destroyed
It was all based on their performance
- It was gracious (they were totally undeserving)
- But that is not the same as saying it was a covenant of grace
It was mostly external
- (this is an oversimplification because mixed in with these laws were promises of a new covenant)
What does it mean to be living under the Old Covenant?
- They related to God as an authority figure
  - who would judge them if they failed
  - The Jews would never call God “Abba” (daddy)
- Blessings and cursings: Deut 27, 28, 29, 30 (e.g. Deut 28:1–2 & 28:15)

Deuteronomy 28

Hebrews 8:6–13

But now Jesus has obtained a superior ministry, since the covenant that he mediates is also better and is based on better promises.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, no one would have looked for a second one.
But showing its fault, God says to them,
‘Look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant that I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt…

For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord.

A. God’s law written on our hearts	I will put my laws in their minds and I will inscribe them on their hearts.
B. We will belong to him and he will belong to us	And I will be their God and they will be my people.
C. No need for priests between us and God	11. And there will be no need at all for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, “Know the Lord,” since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest.
D. Our sins are all forgiven	12. For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer.

When he speaks of a new covenant, he makes the first obsolete. Now what is growing obsolete and aging is about to disappear.

This is a quote from Jeremiah 31:31–34

A. God’s law written on our hearts

In Galatians Paul tells us that no matter how many laws you make, it can’t change the heart.
- Just imagine that the government passed a law that everyone must love each other—no more hate!
But the Holy Spirit produces fruit in our lives: [Gal 5:22–23]
- “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
However, it is not just that we have a new heart, the old one has been removed
- we have had a heart-transplant—we don’t have to carry on with our old lifestyle
  - [get volunteers to demonstrate a heart transplant using a large stone, bag of wheat (& pen), and scalpel]
- we are free to serve Christ
- Recently I saw a trapped butterfly, under a piece of glass on our deck.
  - If you throw a caterpillar up in the air and say “fly! fly!”, it won’t work
  - but a butterfly naturally flies (unless it is trapped, and there are things that can ensnare us but that is another subject)
Relationship to the law
- Moses brought the 10 commandments
- How many commandments did Jesus give?
  - Someone has cataloged the commands in the N.T. and come up with 1,050 !!
  - Did Jesus have a higher standard?
  - So do we end up replacing the OT laws with more and harder laws?
- Some teach that Jesus just gave us some more commands to add on to Moses, but that is a total misunderstanding
- The replacement for the law is not a new law, but a person, Jesus himself!!!!
- He says “follow me”, do what I do, think how I think, love others like I love others
  - Moses never said “follow me”!!
- Goes far beyond a written list of rules
- Can we do it ?
  - Not in our own strength, but Jesus is actually living in us through the Spirit.
    - Moses never said “I will come and live in you!”
  - We are united with him
  - he has defeated the power of sin and he is living within us
- e.g. girl who was recently saved. Her family started hostile, but stopped being antagonistic within days when they saw her change of life, and eventually were saved.
  - It wasn’t that she now had more laws to obey!!
- lovers outperform servants (Mike Bickle)
So what does this mean in practice?
- Two ways of thinking: old heart (legal) or new heart:

Here is a key idea: what has changed is not the law
- but our relationship to the law
How does this make a difference in my life and your life on Monday morning?
- Another practical example:
  - Law says “Thou shalt not steal”
  - It is so easy on your income tax, if you are self-employed, to “forget” some of your income
  - It totaly changes things if you think
    - “it’s his money
    - “It will bring joy to his heart if he sees me being honest with it”
    - “He can so easily bring me more anyway”
  - This takes all the resentment away
- Another example from the workplace I heard about recently
  - woman who was about to be disciplined for messing up her work
    - was probably going to lose her job
  - boss was a Christian and took the blame: “I should have given her better training”
    - She heard about it and went to him and said, “No, it was my fault”
    - He said, I’m a follower of Jesus and he says good leadership is servanthood
      - I failed to serve you in this
  - She was so impacted she ended up getting saved (and keeping her job)
Let me ask you a question
- Could we run the country like this: not by laws but by grace
  - no speed limits, just tell people to drive in a way that would please Jesus?
- (He is not in their hearts)
- What about our children—can we run a family like this?
  - Do we need rules in a home?
  - Need to model grace as much as we can
  - some books on bringing up children are pure behaviourism
If there is one thing to remember it is this:

One thing to remember

It is not the law that has changed, but our relationship to the law

Story of the maidservant (get a couple up)

B. We belong to him and he belongs to us

The essence of the New Covenant:
- brought into God’s family
- we were enemies, in rebellion. Now we are brought into his family
- He is “ours”, in a sense he belongs to us as a possession, and we belong to him
- This is like love language, isn’t it:
  - “I am my beloved’s and my beloved’s mine” [SongSol 6:3]
- secure!!!
Three pictures or aspects of this relationship in the New Testament:
1. Servants (Paul calls himself a “bondslave of Jesus Christ”)
2. Children / Father (Adopted as “sons”)
  - Jesus taught us to call the father “Abba”
  - The Spirit puts that cry into us [Rom 8:1]
3. Bride / Bridegroom
  - A marriage is probably the closest thing we have today to a covenant (we don’t usually do the parts with the blood)
  - Our wedding rings are the seals (get Anne to hold her hand up)
  - What do they symbolize (all that is mine is yours)
  - What is the seal of the New Covenant? (The Spirit e.g. Eph. 4:30)
    - That is why it is so important that we experience being filled in a tangible way
How do we live?
How does this affect us on a Monday morning?
- It is so important that we regularly have a tangible touch from God
- Daily devotions can become a chore, a duty
- But think of it like this: Imaging a wedding ceremony
  - (Get a couple up)
  - Duty of spending at least 10 mins a day talking to him!
  - Must kiss him at least once a day!
- But what if I never touch my wife or kiss her?
  - So, back to Monday: regular times with God are not chore, they are the life-blood of the relationship
I think the most important element of this part of the N.C. is that it is unshakable
- Think of God going between the animals
- Not dependent on our feelings
- Whole point of the book of Hebrews is “better promises”
- This is what we can hang onto in the storms of life
  - “an anchor within the veil”

C. We can all hear God for ourselves and don’t need to be totally dependent on “priests”

God still gives teachers to his people
- but they are to be listened to with discernment
- Since we have the Spirit, we can discern truth from error
There is a fundamental difference between the O.T. prophet and the N.T. prophet
- They spoke into a community who didn’t have the Spirit in the same way we do and so could not weigh their words
- Most people couldn’t read anyway
- Totally dependent on the priests to speak the truth
  - (That is why it was so serious when O.T. prophets spoke falsehood)
- In the N.C. we all have a responsibility to test what we here
- Not just from prophets, but from teachers as well
God’s written Word is our primary authority
- but in the New Covenant we can all read it and understand it for ourselves!
- Because all of us have the Spirit
In O.T. times if someone wanted to know God’s will, they had to go to a prophet,
- Even King David did (e.g. at Ziklag)
- but in the New Covenant, Jesus says “my sheep hear my voice”
This is a responsibility that many of us would rather not have
- It is much easier to have a priest who will tell you the answer to every question
  - Tell you how to live without you having to think it out yourself
- This is how cults get going
- Something in us wants to follow a leader
Christ is our leader—he leads us all directly
- This gives us encouragement
- “I thought something was not quite right, but I never liked to question the leader”
- You are empowered to disern the truth
But of course leaders should be honoured—they are gifts to the church

D. Our sins are all forgiven

You might say at this point, “how was anyone in the Old Covenant saved”
- Actually the O.C. never saved anyone:
  - Heb 10:4 “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
- They were saved under the “promise” of the N.C.
  - They didn’t clearly understand it apart from what the prophets said
  - Jesus hadn’t died yet, but they were saved by faith in the promises
No Assurance
- In the Old Covenant you could never be sure that you had kept even the most basic laws
  - You could spend your life worried and anxious about whether God would accept you.
- But many Christians today live lives full of
  - condemnation
  - guilt
  - anxiety over their failings
  - feelings of being inadequate and failing God all the time
  - A sense that God is angry with them and is judging them
The covenant God made with Abraham was a picture of the New Covenant in that it was unconditional
- A free gift
- We don’t have to do anything to earn it -> It was received by faith
But God says: “I will forgive their wickedness, and their sins I will remember no more.”
- Don’t you get it? God is not counting your sins!!!!
- If you mess up today, he will have chosen to forget it tomorrow!
  - (That doesn’t mean their are not consequences—if you get drunk and crash your car, you may find the police remember it.)
  - (Also, God is committed to helping us get out of sinful lifestyle, but he will not ultimately count it against us)
  - Once I was taking a course and just about to go into the exam when I added up my marks and realized I had already passed!
    - What a relief! I didn’t even need to take the exam!
    - You can imagine how it took the pressure off!
    - We have already passed—Jesus has earned us a 100% grade
Scandalous
- Terry Virgo was preaching this once and a man at the back of the church interrupted him and shouted out:
- “That is the most scandalous thing I have ever heard!”
- “Then you very nearly understand it, Sir”
- People are offended by this teaching (and were when the Apostle Paul taught it), saying it will lead us into more sin...
  - This truth is almost dangerous (why is it actually safe?)
  - If it were not for the new heart and the relationship then it would!
  - But the New Covenant is a package
    - If someone does use it as an excuse for sinning freely, then they probably don’t actually have the new heart
We need to take this truth and apply it to our relationships
- Not “remembering”
family: when children mess up, and it is dealt with, don’t “remember it”
friend who brought something up.
- “I asked you to forgive me, and you said you did! so why are we talking about it...”
If you are a supervisor in the workplace, it is very freeing when someone makes a mistake to someone to say
- “Let’s pretend this didn’t happen—I’m just going to forget about it”
- (I’m not saying that people should not be corrected or disciplined, but when we are able to do this...)

Summary:

If you are a member of the New Covenant:

You have a new heart, that like a butterfly wants to soar
You are God’s beloved and he is your beloved. You are secure in the relationship
You relate to God directly, not through priests
You are totally forgiven and God is never judging you or condemning you

The Covenants

—From Genesis to Hebrews

The Covenants

Jeremiah 34:13–20

Jeremiah 34:13–20 cont’d

Genesis 15

Genesis 15

Deuteronomy 28

Hebrews 8:6–13

Hebrews 8:6–13 cont’d

One thing to remember

Summary: