Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “The New Covenant”. In Wednesday’s lesson, our quarterly asks, “Where did the fault lie in the old covenant?” And of course the answer is, the fault is with “them” (Hebrews 4:2), meaning the people. And the problem or fault is because we are sinners. We misunderstand God, misunderstand sin, misunderstand any covenant with God… actually misunderstand most things. We think God is obliged to put us to death because we are sinners, we think sin is wrong-doing, we think any covenant from God entails a mutual work from each party. Actually, God is not out to get us but is our greatest advocate and friend, sin brings its own natural consequence, sin is not the presence of wrong-doing but the absence of love, and any covenant with God is not on equal terms. He promises all and supplies all… we are but to believe his promises (have faith).
The New/Everlasting covenant was full and complete in the days of Adam until now. It did not start with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. He is the “lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 3:15). Meaning, God stepped into the breach sin made between humankind and Himself… at the moment of sin. Else man would’ve died outright. And then Adam and Eve thought they could negotiate on equal terms with God (old covenant understanding) But they had no credible standing from which to negotiate (just like all of us ever since the “fall”). This is evident from the actual story itself… elaborated upon by EGW. “After their sin Adam and Eve were no longer to dwell in Eden. They earnestly entreated that they might remain in the home of their innocence and joy. They confessed that they had forfeited all right to that happy abode, but pledged themselves for the future to yield strict obedience to God. But they were told that their nature had become depraved by sin; they had lessened their strength to resist evil and had opened the way for Satan to gain more ready access to them. In their innocence they had yielded to temptation; and now, in a state of conscious guilt, they would have less power to maintain their integrity. In humility and unutterable sadness they bade farewell to their beautiful home and went forth to dwell upon the earth, where rested the curse of sin. The atmosphere, once so mild and uniform in temperature, was now subject to marked changes, and the Lord mercifully provided them with a garment of skins as a protection from the extremes of heat and cold.” (Patriarchs and Prophets Pgs. 61-62). Here we see that Adam and Eve had damaged and weakened their integrity. Any “promise” they would make would have little or no value at all. All the action must be on God’s part. And all the action on man’s part is having faith in the God of the promises.
The New/Everlasting covenant was repeated and expanded-upon to Abraham. And he repeated the same error… thinking he could perform the promises of God. Even though Abraham was “as good as dead” (Hebrews 11:12), he still tried to fulfill what only God could do (the promised child by Sarah and Abraham). Once he finally “believed in the Lord, (God) accounted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). This illuminates the proper response of us sinful humans to the covenant promises of our Creator-God. The only reasonable response from us sinners to God’s covenant is to have faith in Him who is able. Not to make brazen promises out of our total ignorance and sinful pride.
In this we see what the problem always has been with any of God’s covenants. The problem over the decades and centuries has always been man stepping-up and making promises that he cannot fulfill because our “nature ha(s) become depraved by sin” (quoted above) and because we are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). God knows this about us, but we do not. We do not realize the depth of our own depravity. We think sin is out there… in the world. But what is seen in the world is but the “sin” that is in each of our hearts. Sin is in our mind/hearts. And this is, and always has been, the problem.
Sin in our mind/heart leads us to mistrust God and to make god of ourselves. Therefore, each time God offers His covenant over the centuries, it always must have an element of illumination in it. Illumination that may not always be apparent to us sinners. But illumination nevertheless. Illumination that leads us to search-out the inner true meaning of His covenant… if we will. And this true meaning does not come naturally to sinful man (we naturally, sinfully, interpret all things from a “me” perspective; from a self-protecting perspective; a self-aggrandizing perspective). Not from a real or true knowledge of ourselves or God. So whenever we read of God offering His “covenant”, we must always see it in context and we must always ask “why” and “how”… not just “what”.
In every offering of this covenant, we can see our God just like Jesus. Every time. With Adam, with Noah, with Abraham (and on and on over the centuries) we see God just like Jesus. Offering us Himself. Sometimes He offers Himself with firmness and love. Sometimes with tears and love. But each time it is offered in-truth and in-love. As EGW so wisely states, “The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its very inception, sin has brought to the heart of God… ‘In all their affliction He was afflicted: . . . and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old.’ Judges 10:16; Isaiah 63:9” (Education pg. 263).
Here we see that the incarnation of the Son, is but the incarnation of God Himself. And that incarnation is but the revelation of God that others through the ages had previously seen. Abraham saw Jesus… “and the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed’” (Galatians 3:8). Abraham had the gospel preached to him. He saw Jesus. “Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”(John 8:36) declared Jesus with great emphasis. Therefore, the so-called “new” covenant was preached to Abraham (the Everlasting covenant). He saw Jesus. He saw God as He is… like His Son.
He may not have seen the Son crucified on a cross. But Abraham saw God who carries us, bears us, is afflicted with us, and loves us. Abraham’s “prayer that he might see Christ before he should die was answered. He saw Christ; he saw all that mortal can see, and live. By making an entire surrender, he was able to understand the vision of Christ, which had been given him. He was shown that in giving His only-begotten Son to save sinners from eternal ruin, God was making a greater and more wonderful sacrifice than ever man could make” (Desire of Ages pg.469).
Therefore, the New Covenant was as full and complete in Abraham’s day as it was in Christ’s day. For He verily saw God in His Son, who makes “Himself of no reputation…He humble(s) Himself and becomes obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:7-8). This is our God.
Let us not make the same mistake as our Christian brothers and sisters in other denominations. That mistake? To maintain that the New Covenant needed to wait until Jesus came in the flesh. Jesus was but the manifestation of God as revealed ever since sin arrived in the universe. Therefore, the New Covenant was fully seen and understood by a few in the Old Testament. And if only one in the Old Testament could understand, then any could. But most did not want to understand. And so the New Covenant in Christ’s day comes as a new revelation to most of us. But it is not a new revelation. It is as old as creation, as old as sin. “The Son of God is the center of the great plan of redemption which covers all dispensations. He is the ‘Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.’ (Revelation 3:15) He is the Redeemer of the fallen sons and daughters of Adam in all ages of human probation. ‘Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.’ Christ is the substance or body which casts its shadow back into former dispensations” (Signs of the Times, February 20, 1893). Salvation since the beginning of sin has always been the same.
With brotherly love,
Jim
Next week we will look at the sacrificial system. We so often take the earthly service and transport it to heaven without really asking what it all means. Because the issue with sin is not in heaven. It is in the heart/mind of each of us. So what transpired in that earthly service, which typifies what our God is doing now, must have something to do with our own mind/heart. Let us always ask “why” and “how”. God wants us to be “intelligent Christians” (Signs of the Times, February 22, 1888).