GOD DEALING WITH MEN continued

THERE IS A NEW COVENANT

Heb 8:7, 8

We have written about 7 Covenants. They were all covenants made by God. It is important to note that neither of the covenants made void a previous covenant. For instance the Mosaic Covenant, in which Israel was given the Law, did not void the Abrahamic Covenant of Promise (Grace). This New Covenant does not void the covenants before it; it adds to them and improves them. Again for instance the Abrahamic and Palestinian Covenants are made sure by the New Covenant. It is sometimes contrasted with the Mosaic Covenant especially. Heb. 7:19 says, "For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did;..." We read in Rom. 7:12, "Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." So the problem was not with the Mosaic Covenant. In Rom. 8:3, 4 we read, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Again the problem or weakness is not the fault of the law. It says it was weak through the flesh. The Law has no relation to flesh. This is speaking of the weakness of fallen flesh in its inability to keep the law. It goes on also to speak of the righteousness of the law being fulfilled in us. In the New Covenant God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. He had no sin, but He came in the likeness of sinful flesh. In His coming He condemned sin in the flesh. The New Covenant then is better because righteousness is more effective in us through the Spirit.

I think it was C H Spurgeon who said this of the new covenant. “Heb. 8:6 The Lord Christ is the mediator and surety of a vastly superior covenant. The new covenant as collecting into one all the promises of grace given from the foundation of the world, accomplished in the actual exhibiting of Christ and confirmed in His death, and by the sacrifice of His blood, thereby became the sole rule of new spiritual ordinances of worship suited thee unto being the great object of the faith of the saints of the OT., and is the great foundation of all our present mercies.”

The New Covenant is founded on better promises. In Exo_19:5 God through Moses said, " Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be mine own possession from among all peoples: for all the earth is mine:" Their belonging to God was upon their obedience in the Mosaic Covenant. The promise of the New Covenant in Heb. 8:10, 12 is stated, "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after these days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." Thus the New Covenant is based on better promises as God says, I will. Also Israel will come to 0obey out of a willing heart. What think ye of this?