A clear distinction needs to be made when speaking of the terms covenants and law. There is so much confusion and improper teaching on these terms and the associated subjects. Especially rampant today is the dispensational heresy with all its variants that confuses the covenants.
The same is true for the word law, Israel, and Jew. When these come up in scripture we need to first make sure that the hearer or reader knows what aspect of the law we are referring to, or that scripture is speaking about, or the nation of Israel on earth or the House of Israel as the elect of all nation and all ages, the Jew as one outwardly or one inwardly, the visible church and covenant or the invisible. These all must be understood as we read the scripture and made distinct as we speak.
For example, in scripture we see there are two main covenants, works and grace. But to simply say old and new or law and promise in referring to them is confusing. Since the Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic and Davidic are all old covenants but they were all administrations of the Covenant of Grace. And that which is referred to as the new covenant is also the covenant of grace in its more clear and fulfilled administration after the true atonement which the old covenant of grace sacrifices typified.
The original covenant was the covenant of works, which was with Adam, as the representative head for all people, to be tested and procure eternal life or to curse all mankind by the fall and bring judgment of death and hell.
This covenant of Works was made with all people through Adam. He broke the conditions of it, the punishment is past on to all of us, and the covenant is ended. Every one else has ever since been under the curse and punishment of the covenant of works. But no one else could ever earn salvation or eternal life by perfectly keeping a law or doing any works. No one else has a neutral will and sinless nature that Adam had; all people since have a will that is bound to our sin nature, or limited by the sin nature.
Humans don’t have completely free will either. We cannot fly because our nature is not that of a bird or swim like a fish. Our will is limited by our nature. With the fallen sin-nature we cannot do true good, as God tells us in Rom. 3:10-12, man cannot even seek God, he is separated from God by his sin. So there is no possibility that anyone could fulfill a covenant of works and merit salvation. The only hope for man is if God first chooses to give a person a new nature that can have faith and a will that seeks and pleases God and can understand spiritual things.
So from Adam on the only covenant that offers salvation to mankind has been the covenant of grace. Yet we are under judgment from Adam’s fall until that is removed by Christ on our behalf and we are put into the invisible covenant of Grace.
The Jews were never offered The Covenant of Works as a means of salvation, though some people now as well as some of the Jews, may have thought they were under a covenant of works. The Mosaic covenant was actually part of the covenant of grace, though it was delivered in the form of a covenant of works, and only for a temporal period of time and with temporal promises of peace, prosperity, land and the Lord’s mercy. But this was a type and foreshadow of the new or better administration of the Covenant of Grace and God’s mercy through Christ the lamb to come. These OT covenants were mainly for instruction and pointed to the heavenly promise and ultimate administration of Covenant of Grace and continuing on to heaven itself. The mosaic covenant was a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ. It showed them their sin and inability to be perfect or earn eternal life. It pointed them to look at the Noahic and Abrahamic promises and covenant of grace.
Even though it was ministered as a covenant of works, it was really an administration of the covenant of grace. No one could have ever merited life or communion with God through that covenant. It was shadows and types and ordinances pointing them to the Messiah and grace as their only eternal hope. Many Jews only saw its temporal nature and the physical blessings of land and prosperity. They did not see by faith that which it typified. Mistakenly some today think as did the Pharisees, that the Mosaic covenant was a covenant of works for salvation, that they could be saved in law-keeping and holy living. Rather than as it is explained in the NT, that one could never be saved by the blood of bulls and goats and that true believers saw this as a type and longed for a spiritual country. The true believing Jews did not see the temporal as the great promise. See Heb 9:13 and Heb 10:1 –
So the mosaic covenant and the 10 commands were not The Covenant of Works. It was only a short-term aspect of the Covenant of Grace where they could earn temporal blessings in the land. The Mosaic covenant was never a covenant of works where salvation could be earned Like the Adamic Covenant. It was a partial revelation of God’s spiritual promise of heaven and an atonement, in types and shadows and temporal promises for that time that Israel was the type of heaven. Israel was the visible church or visible covenant people that God worked through, some truly converted, many not; just as we have in the visible church today. The only covenant of works was with Adam. Since then followers of God have been under one administration or another of the covenant of Grace.
The Jews failed to keep their image as pure, holy and separate, so they lost the inheritance of the land and were exiled and dispersed. This was the judgment and curse of the temporal covenant administrations. Then God ceased to work though that type and only the nation of Israel as prophesied and the covenant of grace in its new administration is expanded to include all people of al nations not just Jews.
There is no longer a land that is a type of heaven needed. There is no more need for the animal sacrifices and temple worship style as types; Christ has become the sacrifice. So Israel of the flesh, and the temporal nation are no longer the boundary of the covenant people. Now we are told to see the real meaning of Israel; the spiritual seed of faith and promise, not of flesh, that inherit the real spiritual promises that were only foreshadowed for a time in the fleshly Israel.
Heb 9:22 And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. 23 Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; NKJV
Since Christ came it is called the new covenant because it has better administration and blessings.
When we look at Galations, we see the Abrahamic promise or covenant referred to and also the covenants with Hagar and Sarah. These may be referred to as old covenants; but that is confusing. Again, Hagar is that covenant of laws, which was to give temporal blessings for the visible covenant people if they as a nation or majority of them kept it. It may have typified the ineffectiveness of the Covenant of Works in a way, but it was not the Covenant of Works. When too few of the Jews kept it to keep them distinguished from the world as a pure nation, which pictured the heavenly people, it was of no more practical use. So the people were removed to exile and judgment or a type of excommunication from the church, they were put out of the camp, the land; even a shadow of hell to come.
But the Abrahamic covenant, which was represented by Sarah, was a covenant of redemption looking to a spiritual fulfillment. Though it also had some temporal fulfillment, which also were types and shadows for us, it was about the promises to come to the seed of faith of all nations and all ages. Two of these temporal fulfillments were; that there would be many people in the nation and a promised land. But the people of Israel were numbered, the spiritual Israel is full of so many people they can’t be numbered. So this also points to the spiritual seed that can’t be numbered. And Hebrews tells us Abraham was looking for a spiritual country not just a physical one. So he knew that the land of Israel was not the ultimate purpose of the promises and covenant. Likewise, Sarah represented the covenant of faith or promise, rather than by works or birth.
Heb 11:14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. NKJV
So the old Abrahamic covenant was really also part of the covenant of grace and promises to true believers.
The terms old and new are confusing for many to follow a train of thought, especially those who have been confused with dispensational teaching in their past.
Many dispensationals teach that the old covenant was the covenant of works and all were under this from Adam to Christ’s 1st coming. They think the Jews were under The Covenant of Works to earn salvation. That they had to do sacrifices to get saved. This is the same way some look at the 10 Commandments. They think Jews had to keep them to be saved; so now they think in the New Covenant of the New Testament, that the 10 Commands are done away because we now are saved by faith not by law keeping. They mix the terms law and 10 Commands and with the erroneous thinking that Jews were saved by works, they confuse much of the NT teaching on law and covenants. Even the ones who know that no Jew was saved by law keeping still do not see the distinction between the eternal 10 Commandments and the civil and ceremonial laws, which were designed for the temporal Jewish nation while it was the church and visible covenant believers on earth.
When they see Mosaic law, Hagar’s covenant, circumcision, keeping of days and months and sabbaths, and sacrifices, they see all of them as one system of law and works that have all been abrogated in the NT or new covenant; which they think came into being with Christ. They do not see the covenant of Grace as having been made with Adam and renewed with Noah, Abraham then Moses. Nor do they see that the other laws and works that were brought in were just different ways of administration of The Covenant of Grace.
They don’t see that the elimination of civil laws and ceremonial laws and temple worship rules are all that has been done away, and not the 10 commands. That Circumcisions was replaced with Bapatism, the priesthood has been replaced with Christ, and the Passover with the Lord’s Supper.
The 10 Commands were always to be kept by God’s people before Moses and after. Long before they were written in stone for Moses to show their eternal nature, they has been revealed to God’s people as a way of life. They were never only a covenant of works that one could be saved by if he kept; nor were they only part of the mosaic covenant for Israel. They were written in stone by God Himself and delivered to the people by Moses because of their sin and not living according to God’s rules, nature and character. This made them more visible to the sinful people as a means of restraining evil and pointing them to their need of a savior. They are still a rule of life to the people of God today in the same ways they were then. They convict of sin and our need of a savior and the Spirit’s changing our hearts and desires or we will not now obey them. Ask yourself, was it OK to lie or steal or worship another God or even not rest on the Sabbath before Moses? Of course not. All people knew the law of God. Cain knew he broke it when he killed Abel. The 10 commands reflect God’s moral character and all men of all times are to live by them. God instituted the Sabbath at creation not with Moses and the 10 commands in Israel. You will even see the sin of violating the Sabbath in scripture before Moses got the 10 commands in stone. Exo 16:25 Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field. 28 And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
The sabbaths, feast days, holy days were added as part of the national ceremonial law. Those sabbaths are what ended when Israel as a nation ceased to be the visible gathering of believers, and it went to all nations in an international gospel which has no more concern for what nation one lives in or is born in.
Christ has come. He is the already part of the already not yet that we now live in. The not yet is final judgment and the new heavens and earth. We now experience the reality of what Israel typified. There is no need ever to go back to types. They are done with as the reality takes place of types and revelation is clearer.
We are more easily understood when we speak of these covenants by name and purpose so these confusions do not interfere with a clear understanding of our explanations.
Law in much of Galatians refers to this Mosaic system or temporal covenant allowing them to stay in the Land of Promise and prosperity. It does not refer to the 10 Commandments in any other way than that they were also obligatory during the Mosaic Law and covenant. But they are not only a part of the Mosaic law, they are a stand alone Law also. It is evident this is what Paul is referring to by other references to things like: circumcision, days and months, etc.
Eph 2:15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances,
Col 2:20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations– 21 Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” 22 which all concern things which perish with the using–according to the commandments and doctrines of men?
Heb 9:9:1 Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary.
Heb 9:8 the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. 9 It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience– 10 concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation. NKJV
These civil and ceremonial laws were all part of the system of law for the nation Israel that was abrogated now that Christ has come and the nation of Israel no longer has a relation to the people of God. They were the old or 1st covenant way of administering the covenant of grace. But the 10 commands, which existed before these temporary ordinances or law for Israel the nation, are not abrogated or abolished. Or else what law is god speaking of when He says that in the newer covenant or coming administration of the covenant:
Jer 31:31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, …33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
This now is the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham to make him a spiritual father of many nations. But only that which pertains to the nation is gone with the nation. That which was not exclusively part of the temporal system remains. Obviously the 10 commands were not just for the nation of Israel and did not start with the nation but continue to the entire House of Israel of faith from people of all nations. All believers are grafted into the House of Israel of faith, the true Israel of promise, the True Jew Paul speaks of.
We see Jesus teaching the fuller light and clearer revelation of the new administration of the 10 commands; the much stricter, that if a man even looks upon a woman to lust he has broken the command to not commit adultery. All these show the more heart nature, motive and spiritual reality actually demanded in the 10 commands than only the external superficial concepts of the Jews. These all the more clearly show the depths of our sin and the holy demands of God upon mankind now newly explained and clarified as the law gets written on the hearts of true believers.
So Paul is trying to help the Jews understand that since the fulfillment has come the types are no longer needed. All that was typological is done away. This was hard even for Jewish believers because they had such a strong culture in living with theses laws and ordinances. But it was sin to continue in sacrifices and forcing circumcision, and washings etc. after Christ came. This was not to be anymore. Now they were to embrace the reality of the Messiah having come and His work done and complete and worship Him in the newer covenant way. Things like eating meat offered to idols or celebrating sabbaths, feast days, or holidays became a matter of Christian liberty of conscience, rather than the national laws. The Lord’s supper had replaced the Passover that pointed to the work of Christ. Now we remember it, not look forward to it as though it had not come.
Baptism replaces circumcision as the sign of the covenant so that now women can be elevated to a more equal place spiritually; and a less bloody mark be used. A mark is now used that has less emphasis on the seen and physical and points more to the spiritual unseen aspect of the covenant; the Spirit being poured out on us, sprinkling us clean and coming down from above upon us all signified by pouring and sprinkling of water Baptism. We do not know who is truly a believer and we can’t baptize only believers because we don’t know who are true or false believers. We, just as the Jews did, mark all those who join the visible covenant people. Obviously this includes their children or we would have heard an outcry from the Jews on this? How is it a better covenant administration if our children no longer have the promises and benefits of being in the covenant? But we hear none of this since the covenant mark continued as it had before been given to whole households if one adult professed faith. Here how the covenant promise is made and offered by God in scripture.
Gen 17:7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. NKJV
Gen 17:10-12 This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; 11 and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. NKJV
The covenant was always with believers and their children, even slaves who were under the authority of the head of the house were circumcised as a sign they were also in the covenant in the visible sense.
There was no certainty that a circumcised child or slave would be truly saved or a true believer, it was only a sign they were in the visible church or covenant. Note how this is expressed in the NT
Acts 2:39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” NKJV
1 Cor 7:14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. NKJV
Acts 16:14-15 The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. 15 And when she and her household were baptized,.. NKJV
Acts 16:30 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. NKJV
So we see that just as in the OT God dealt with His covenant people through heads of households, so He still does today and better. Even a wife whose husband is not a believer sanctifies her child and husband. Now of course sanctifies or holy here does not mean converted, it can only mean set apart for the Lord covenantally as God has always dealt with people. Even adults who profess Christ and are baptized may not be true believers. We don’t know how true believers are, we only baptize into the visible church or visible covenant not into the invisible spiritual House of Israel or true believers.
This continuing covenant of grace is now much clearer in the new administration or New Testament. So clear that we call it New Covenant. But it is not new in the sense of not having existed before. It is new in administration. There are fewer types and shadows and more clarity of understanding. Jesus made it clear that previously in the covenant of Grace, His people were not to commit adultery. But because there was no provision in law to punish one who lusted after a woman in his mind anyway, this aspect was not spelled out for them. But now in this new administration, Jesus makes it clearer how people are to live. So obviously these laws are still as binding on us to obey as they were on the Jews. No more, no less, no differently. They did not merit salvation by keeping it, nor do we! It is a rule of faith that those who love God live by. To not murder is also to not be acting in anger or call a brother a fool. Christ also clarified and brought to bear on the heart the inner demands of the other 10 Commands. To not divorce a wife for any reason except adultery; and other aspects of the law He clarified for us to live by. To show us more clearly what heaven will be like, and how we are to keep the 10 commands now in a more strict way, not to abrogate these laws.
The only other understanding is that the Sermon on the mount was for the Jews only and not for Christians today. This means Christ was teaching Judaism and not Christianity, which is absurd. We would have to say none of Christ’s words have application to us because it was merely explaining how Judaism should have been. We would have to throw out much of the NT as well when it is teaching us about the new covenant, like Hebrews 8, if this was all for some later age of Jews and not for followers of Christ now.
Christ came to teach Christianity, how believers should live, not how the people of a no longer existent nation, that is no longer the visible people of God and no longer a type, should have lived. God is done with Israel as a nation. He has continued His covenant promise to Abraham to make him a father of many nations and to bring in the gentiles, all part of His original plan and promise.
The 10 commandments are clearly still a rule for us to live by as they were in the past administrations of the covenant of Grace. But now with more light in the newer aspect of the covenant there is a more strict call to the inward obedience from a heart desire to obey and not just the outward and visible acts.
The problem that many epistles addressed was that some Jews who professed to be in the way, or followers of Christ, taught that we still had to keep some parts of the Mosaic covenant. They were so attached to the last administration that they did not want to let go of the holy days or sabbaths, circumcisions, washings, etc.. The error that being corrected in scripture was not that they were telling people to keep the 10 commands and now the apostles were teaching this was wrong. It was to abrogate the Mosaic laws as necessary for believers of all nations. It was to show that those laws were only for the nation of Israel when it was a type and contained the covenant people. To make the break with Israel the nation and embrace equally all people.
Some did not see the distinctiveness of the other laws, which were given by angelic administration and through a mediator to show their lesser value whereas the Abrahamic covenant made by God directly and permanently. The 10 commandments continue as they always had even before Moses, being written by the finger of God and being part of the Abrahamic covenant of promise not just the Mosaic covenant of national laws.
So though we can say the 10 commands were included in the Mosaic covenant, yet they were really distinct from the other ceremonial and civil laws that came at the inception of this Mosaic administration of the Covenant of Grace. The 10 commands of course could not be abrogated or done away or made old. As Christ said, not one jot or tittle of this law shall pass until all is fulfilled. Certainly all has not been fulfilled until the 2nd coming and the establishment of the new heaven and earth.
Christ, in His keeping the law, fulfilled and obeyed them all perfectly so that He could be the new representative for all His people in fulfilling the original Covenant of Works. We all were under the curse and penalty of the covenant of works and due judgment since Adam failed as our representative head. But because Jesus kept or fulfilled them does not mean we do not live by them. Shall we sin that grace may abound? God forbid! This is Paul’s statement. The fact that Christ had to become our federal head and fulfill all demands to redeem us does not remove our obligation to live according to the 10 commands. Christ also had to pay a penalty for all our actual sins so we could be forgiven them in a just manner, but this does not mean we can continue to sin because He lived perfectly and paid the penalty. That is to willingly crucify Christ again, for which there is no forgiveness. Heb 6:6 and 10:26-27
So the 10 commandments were from the beginning; they were binding all mankind as well as on the people of God during the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant and still today in the current administration of the Covenant of Grace or newest covenant. They are a permanent part of the covenant of grace under all its administrations. Since Adam, they were never a law that one could be saved by keeping perfectly. They were not only for Jews or Jews after Moses. They were not abolished by Christ; just the opposite, He taught more clearly how to keep them in the new covenant. Whereas, circumcision and sacrifice are done away just as is the nation of Israel and any distinction of Jew or Gentile, since we are all one Abrahamic nation of promise, not by race but by faith. All who come to faith of all races are seed of Abraham and heirs of His promises. There is not a seed of Jews and a seed of Gentiles. There are not two bodies of Christ, only one! There is only one seed. There is not a seed according to flesh that will have anything to do with the spiritual kingdom of God. The Jewish picture of a pure people separate from the world is over. Believers now show their separateness by their lifestyles, not geographical location or race as in the time of Israel the nation.
There is no more a need for a temporal physical picture of heaven in outward ordinances and a physical country. That is now done away. We are to manifest heaven from our inward hearts and love we show in actions. We show that though we are from many temporal nations yet we are all one body in Christ, under His Kingship and rule, one new Nation. One new invisible spiritual Israel made up of people from all nations. Therefore, all Israel shall be saved. This means all the spiritual seed of Abraham by promise and faith will be saved. Not the entire race of Jews, not even all Jews at any one period of time past or future. All the elect of God, all the spiritual seed of faith and heirs of Abraham by faith are Israel. The Gentile believers are thus said to be graft into spiritual Israel. The true Israel that was typified by the earthly temporal kingdom, is the spiritual tribe of Israel which is made up of people from many races and nations into one invisible body. So we are still in the same Covenant of Grace as Abraham, saved by grace.
The New administration of the covenant of Grace is so much better and clearer. But it is not totally a new covenant. It is newer than the older Mosaic and Davidic administrations of the Covenant of Grace. It is so much better and clearer it is as if it is new. It is new in it clarity and the reality of Christ having come and finished His work, rather than just a foreshadow of it to come. This is the newness of it.
2 Cor 3:6-10 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. NKJV
This Paul argues to help the Jewish believers see the better glory of this new administration of the covenant of grace so that they will leave the old administration behind. Note how he says, in vs 7 passing or fading away. It was a process for the Jews to transition from the last administration to this one and let go of the smaller glory in the old.
When the Word was written to tell these Jewish believers that they were not bound to law, obviously what was referred to is that the believers since Christ are not to follow the old national laws. They do not need to force national and ceremonial laws of the Jewish administration on believers in this new administration. There is no Israel as a nation anymore in respect of God’s kingdom and His saving the elect and bringing them into the church. The Jewish believers did not need to make new Gentile believers become part of the Jewish nation with its laws. Each could remain under the laws of Rome or whatever nation they were. This was the error that was being corrected in the teaching in scripture. It was not telling Christians they did not have to keep the law of the 10 commands and that it was OK to lie, steal disobey parents and not go to church or work on the Sabbath. There can be no confusion on this, because all true Christians in the new covenant have this law written on their heart so they desire to keep this Law!
Another meaning of not being under the law was to be understood that they were not under the judgment of the law. Not being under the curse and penalty of the law any longer. They were being freed from the fear of the Law and judgment, the quaking of Sinai etc.. They were being granted assurance because of Christ’s payment of the Law’s judgment and that they were not under its judgment any more. Not under Law in this sense is the salvation message. It is not describing how we live and are holy by not having to obey His law. If we were not obliged to keep the 10 commandments, then why did Christ have to keep them for us to impute that righteous obedience to us? He could have done all else without sin. No, we are to keep them and He has fulfilled this since we won’t perfectly.
So terminology is vital since old does not mean the same thing to all of us. Old to some means Covenant of Works, to some 10 Commands or 10 Commands as a covenant of works etc. Old may mean Mosaic system or Ceremonial and Civil laws. Or old compared with new covenant or new testament.
Covenant to some is covenant of works for Jews, or The Covenant of Works, or Mosaic covenant of works for a visible temporal blessing.
Law may mean 10 commands, or Mosaic covenant, or civil and ceremonial law, or all of this.
We need to make sure we give a distinct sound. Those in Paul’s time knew well the issues he was addressing and which laws he was telling them were removed and that these typological ceremonies and laws were fulfilled in Christ. They never doubted that they still had to keep the Sabbath, not lie, and not steal. They struggled with the change from the 7th day to the 1st day in the keeping of the Sabbath and some kept both days. No one stopped keeping any Sabbath day. They stopped only the numerous ceremonial sabbaths of Israel, the feast of tabernacles, Passover, etc., that were foreshadows of Christ until He came.
They were already circumcised and they got the new sign of the covenant baptism, and as new children were born there was no need for circumcision they were only baptized.
The errors from today’s false teachings are not always the same or the only errors these NT saints had.
The Mosaic covenant was also a type of the Covenant of Works for us, to show us the demands and curse for failure to keep the Covenant of Works. It shows us what we are in Adam; under the law and not keeping it, under judgment, punished and exiled from God.
Some also see a Covenant of Redemption that the Father made with Christ as different from the Covenant of Grace made with Adam and the elect. Christ had faith in the Father and kept the law and was punished for His people to pay their debt. We have faith in Christ and His work and are brought in by grace.
Some say that the new covenant is not just a new administration of the Covenant of Grace, but a completely new and separate covenant. Not new in the sense it is a better and more clear ministration and instead of shadows looking forward to the atonement we have the reality and fulfillment.
So the questions are:
What exactly are the contents of this old covenant? What was the contract agreement?
Obey and live, disobey and die?
This was the covenant for the nation; if people did not obey they were put to death or kicked out of the nation. But do you really think people earned their salvation by works and sacrifices?
So if this is not the contract what was the covenant agreement with Moses and Israel and God?
There was no change. It was the same eternal covenant of Grace. Look at what didn’t change.
Matt 5:17-”Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. NKJV
Nothing changed here.
The 10 commandments are still a rule of life for us to obey.
Gal 3:6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. 8 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.” 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. NKJV
Nothing changed here. It is still, Just as it was.
The Gospel was preached to them, the nations coming in was always part of this covenant not a separate and different plan or covenant. Still all under the covenant of grace by faith.
Gal 3:15 Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: Though it is only a man’s covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. 16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made . He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ. 17 And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. 18 For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise. NKJV
Nothing changed here.
Can’t annul the covenant or the promises it contained. All is still the same. This is the covenant with Christ made with Abraham. Same covenant of redemption, cov of grace
Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. NKJV
Nothing changed here. Never was a Jew one outwardly in God’s eye speaking spiritually. The true Jew was one of the heart. This was cov of grace. Still is. Law written on heart.
Rom 4:13 For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, 16 Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed , not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all 17(as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) NKJV
Nothing changed here.
Same by faith cov of grace with Abe and all his seed of faith then and now.
Rom 9:6 But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, 7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” 8 That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. NKJV
Nothing changed here.
Could it be clearer? The covenant of Grace and promises Never were for ethnic Jews; the cov of Grace and Redemption was always only with those of faith.
God had no eternal covenant with the unbeliever, with ethnic Jews. No future or eternal promises for ethnic Jews, only those of faith.
The earthly Jews got the earthly aspect of the promise, only by virtue of at least staying in the visible earthly covenant; they got the land etc.
Rom 11:24 For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? NKJV
Nothing changed here.
We who are being saved now, ethnic Jew or Gentile are all being graft back into the old covenant, the old root of promise made to Abraham, the covenant of grace.
2 Cor 3:7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. 10 For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. 11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. NKJV
Now the administration specifics of that period of the covenant of grace changed,
1. it was mainly for Jews, now all races
2. it was in one nation, now all nation can worship
3. it had shadows of things to come, many have now been fulfilled.
4. so the sacrament of Passover looking ahead is replaced with the Supper to remember, and the sacrament of death and bloody sacrifice of circumcision as a sign of visible covenant membership has been replaced with a new sign of visible outward covenant membership,
And if not Baptism, then what is now the sign of being a member of the covenant people, not all of whom were then or are now converted, or even elect.
So Adam failed the cov of works for all of us, and all of us are under the covenant of works,
and so from that point on, Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses with all the seed of faith, seed of those in Christ, have been in the covenant of grace.
I don’t know what could be clearer or simpler to follow.
Christ fulfilled the cov of works for al of those in Him, in the one SEED, in the covenant of Grace, by faith.
So only the outward circumstances of the cov of grace have been changed at times, Noah had to build and get in an Ark. Abraham had to have a child of miracle and then sacrifice his 1st born, and Moses was given the laws for a nation to live under as greater numbers began to come into the visible outward covenant people. They were called people of God, Children of God, My People etc. but these are outward covenantal terms just as today we can call a church member brother and yet he may not be converted.
The outward covenant or membership is controlled by the judgment of man and based on works. The covenant of grace is governed by God infallibly and is by faith perfectly visible only to God.
Nothing has changed except the outward covenant membership has grown and has gone from Noah, to Abe to his descendants to Moses and the nation and now to all nations.
Is it not a glorious incredible plan??? Once you see the full beauty of this one single plan unfolding in perfect harmony all of scripture is so much clearer and God is so much more amazing.
2 covenants, several ways they are administrated in the outward, and all along only one way were they administered in the reality and inward, Faith.
So though the Jewish nation was given laws that had a similarity or form like a covenant of works, this was incidental and secondary, to the real covenant of Grace that was at work.
Just as we have the appearance of a covenant of works today, continue in sin and not obeying the Lord, and you are excommunicated, put outside the covenant people.
But we are not saved by these works. This is the error of the FV, they don’t understand the covenants and that judging by works is the work of man for the outward visible covenant.
We are converted and saved by faith alone. And so no man can judge the heart but God. No man knows the state of an infant or youth dying. Our profession and works can be legal and not from saving faith so even those with a credible profession to get into the visible church may not be in the invisible.
Only God knows.
So we can not baptize only believers, because we can’t know for sure.
We baptize those in the visible outward covenant, those who have a credible profession by words and works, and their children.
Still today as in the previous testament, the covenant allows for, and the gospel preached includes:
Acts 2:39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” NKJV
It is the same promise. Though our children are still included in the visible covenant membership obviously, there is no other way to function as a family, being called My People, and to encourage them to pray to their God, than this covenant language, else we would say they were not the children of God, an their prayers would be sin and not heard and God is angry with them until they repent, but this is not How god deals with us.
He deals with us and has us deal with each other not according to the covenant of grace, but according to the visible covenant people.
So we have promise and hope to the right to tell our children god is their Father and to pray to Him and raise them in the nurture and admonition of the lord, though not all may come to saving faith. And some may be born again from the womb.
We do not know when a child was regenerated, for we only can see outward visible signs of this as they become reasonable and old enough to give evidence of belief and good works.
But God did not change this aspect of the outward covenant else we would have had direction that our children were no longer children of God, not to be told to pray to God as abba Father, and that the promise was not to them.
But what saith the scripture, to you and your children are the promises.
My friends this is NT language, and even if you see the newness of the covenant not because it is better, but as a whole new covenant then still the children are in it. 1 Cor 7:14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. NKJV
The following verses can only be understood in this covenantal outwardly “holy” language? Do you think no one in the OT was saved by the covenant of grace?
Was the old covenant void of Christ and His work?
Were they only saved by a covenant of works and sacrifices?
Then exactly what were the conditions of the OLD covenant?
Do this and you shall live, do not obey and you shall die? Of course not else not could be saved. That may have stood for the justice system to really kill them or drive them out of the nation in some case, but this was not the salvatory covenant they were under. What were the particulars of the contract of the OT that a man could be saved by?
It was the same cov of grace
The following verses can only be understood in this covenantal language? Do you think no one in the OT was saved by the covenant of grace?
Was the old covenant void of Christ and His work?
Then better covenant and hope etc. can only mean new in the sense of better or more clear, and easier, more fulfilled and completed by primarily the completion of Christ’s work.
Heb 7:19 for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. NKJV
Heb 7:22 by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. NKJV
Heb 8:6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry , inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises . NKJV
Was not Abraham promised as good an inheritance in eternity as we? Then it is not a different covenant of grace, but a better ministration of it with more clarity and less shadow, in the fulfillment of it, rather than the expectancy.
This is the Jewish figurative language.
One Lord, one faith, ONE Baptism.
For the One body, One temple, one holy royal priesthood.
Not two bodies, not one saved by works or sacrifice, all of grace, all part of one covenant, manifested in several ages in several ministries.
Amen
