THE one is connected with Mount Sinai (Heb. 12:18-2118For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, 19And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: 20(For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: 21And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) (Hebrews 12:18‑21)).
The other is connected with Mount Sion (Heb. 12:22-2422But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22‑24)).
The one stands for demand. The other stands for supply.
The one was glorious, even as one may look at the star-spangled sky on a dark and cloudless night and see worlds upon worlds — a veritable galaxy of glory.
The other is superlatively glorious, like the rising of the sun. The stars in their millions continue to shine in undiminished splendor, but not one is seen when the sun of our system rises and pours such a glorious flood of light on the scene. “For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth” (2 Cor. 3:1010For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. (2 Corinthians 3:10)).
When Moses came down from the holy mount, the skin of his face shone so gloriously that he had perforce to wear a vail. The children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which was to be abolished. And even to this day the vail is on their hearts.
But in the case of the Mediator of the better covenant, our Lord Jesus Christ, all the glory of God shines in His face, and so wonderfully is every question settled for God and for us that the believer can look upon that glory with infinite delight. No vail upon His face; no vail upon our hearts, “but we all with open face beholding... the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:1818But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18)). What a contrast!
The one was law.
The other is grace.
How lightly, with no sense of the responsibility of their act, did the children of Israel say when the law was given, “All that the LORD hath spoken we will do” (Ex. 19:88And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord. (Exodus 19:8)). Who could keep the law? The flesh in man resented its every ordinance. No one could keep it perfectly, and nothing short of perfection will do for God.
The principle of the law was “This do, and thou shalt live” (Luke 10:2828And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. (Luke 10:28)). It was not, “Do your best,” as people are so fond of saying, but “THIS do” it was to be 100% or nothing, 99% would not do, it must be perfection or — condemnation.
And seeing the law demanded, and only demanded, its only movement was to condemn, and the only condemnation it knew involved death. It was indeed a ministration of condemnation and death.
Why then was the law given? It was only given to one nation, but it was given to one nation as a sample of the bulk, anti it has a world-wide, a universal lesson to teach. Just as an analytical chemist might take a few pounds of material from a rubbish heap weighing thousands of tons in the hope that he might discover something in it of commercial value, some by-product that would pay, but finding nothing but valueless rubbish in his sample, he would condemn the bulk.
There is then no hope from the first covenant. It does its work when it brings us to that conclusion.
Moreover, the law pure and simple was never given to man. Along with it was given the ritual of the sacrifices.
The former for convenience we call the moral law, the latter the ceremonial law.
What meant these sacrifices, the sin offerings, the trespass offerings, the peace offerings, the burnt offerings? What meant the day of atonement? What meant the altars of sacrifice? They were all types of God’s gracious provision for man’s need in the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You will remember when the law was first given, and Moses was returning from Mount Sinai with the two tables of stone containing the ten commandments in his hands, he heard the sound of singing. He knew too well what it meant. Israel was breaking the first and foremost commandment, “Thou shalt have no other god before Me” (Ex. 20:33Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3)). The singing was the accompaniment to the idolatrous dancing round the golden calf to the blasphemous refrain, “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt” (Ex. 32:44And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. (Exodus 32:4)).
As Moses neared the camp, and saw what was going on, with rare intuition and courage lie hurled the two tables down the mountain-side and brake them. To bring a naked law into the camp in the circumstances would have meant death to all in it.
Instructed to come up to Mount Sinai to receive the law a second time he was told to bring with him an ark of shittim wood, and into this ark the tables were deposited (see Deut. 10:1-51At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. 2And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. 3And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand. 4And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the Lord gave them unto me. 5And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the Lord commanded me. (Deuteronomy 10:1‑5)). In this we see that God could only go on with man on the ground of Christ and His finished work, for the ark was typical of Christ.
So we read, “the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith “(Gal. 3:2424Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. (Galatians 3:24)). A new translation makes the meaning of this verse clearer, “The law has been our tutor up to Christ.” It is not that the law brings us to Christ, but that it was teaching its lessons until such time as Christ came. There was a two-fold lesson to be learned: — (1) our inability to keep the law, and (2) that the system of sacrifice pointed on to the sinner’s only hope, Christ and His finished work. Thus the law is a tutor, a schoolmaster, till Christ appears on the scene.
We thus see that the new covenant was not an after-thought, brought in when the old covenant failed. God knew the end from the beginning. The new covenant was in His mind from the very first. “He taketh away the first that He might establish the second” (Heb. 10:99Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. (Hebrews 10:9)). Again, “In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away” (Heb. 8:1313In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. (Hebrews 8:13)). Hence the word new does not merely mean new as opposed to old, but that the new displaced the old-they cannot abide side by side!
What then is the new covenant? It is not a covenant between God and man — God demanding and man lightly saying, “All these things will we do.” It is a covenant between God and Christ in which man is blessed in sovereign grace-no demand made, but a ministration of righteousness and of the Spirit — righteousness, setting the believing sinner in God’s presence in favor; the Spirit, enabling the believer to respond.
We read of the Apostle Paul and Timothy, “God... hath made us able ministers of the new testament” (2 Cor. 3:66Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. (2 Corinthians 3:6)). The word testament and covenant are the same in the original. What then are the terms of the new covenant? It was promised in Old Testament times, and Paul refers to it as something familiar to his readers.
Jeremiah 31:31-3431Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32Not 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; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: 33But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:31‑34) and Ezekiel 36:24-36,24For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. 25Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. 28And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. 30And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. 31Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. 32Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. 33Thus saith the Lord God; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. 34And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. 35And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited. 36Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it. (Ezekiel 36:24‑36) enlighten us. The new covenant is to be made publicly with Israel, the fulfilment of God’s unconditional promises to Abraham, 430 years before the law was given. For this Israel must be gathered back to her own land, and the public ratification of the new covenant will be coincident with the millennial reign of Christ.
Its terms are: —
(1) New Birth.
(2) Forgiveness of sins.
(3) Gift of the Holy Spirit.
The sprinkling of clean water upon the people is symbolic of the new birth. This is followed by what emphasizes it, viz: a new heart and a new spirit granted to them.
But the reader will say, these three blessings are what believers know now. Exactly!
The death of Christ is the righteous foundation of the new covenant. Unless that atoning death had settled the whole question of sin righteously for God, He had no ground on which to act in grace.
New Birth is evidently God’s sovereign act. As the Durham miner put it bluntly, “No man can born himself again.” And yet God must have a righteous ground for this, and He finds it in the death of Christ. A new heart, a new spirit is thus given.
Forgiveness of sins could not he procured by law-keeping. On the face of it, when a man needs forgiveness, it is a proof that he has broken God’s law. Forgiveness of sins can only be on the ground of faith in Christ and His finished work.
Of course, the believer in this dispensation of the heavenly calling gets a fullness of blessing which the saint of the earthly calling does not enter upon, blessed and, glorious as that is. Yet all believers, of whatever dispensation, have this in common, that their blessing is on the ground of the death of Christ, which enables God to bless in righteousness.
An illustration may help. Take three coins a sixpence and cover it with a shilling, and cover that again with a half-crown. Evidently the shilling covers the sixpence and more; and the half-crown covers the shilling and more. Let the sixpence stand for the Gentiles blessed under the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom after the Church is gone. They will, however, not be as fully blessed as the Jews, who will have the presence of the Lord in the restored temple, and all the glory of being the head nation of the world with the Lord Jesus as their King.
But if the shilling stands for the Jews, so wonderfully blest in the future day, the Christian has still larger blessings represented by the half-crown. He is called with a heavenly calling, brought into relationship with God as his Father, and into relationship with Christ as belonging to the Church, which is the Lamb’s wife.
But as the half-crown covers the shilling and the shilling the sixpence, so these three circles have common ground in the blessings of the new covenant, that everyone blessed must be
(1) Born again.
(2) Forgiven.
(3) Receive the Spirit.
There is no demand here it is supply. It is not law but grace. God takes the, initiative in sovereign grace — “the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:88The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)). Forgiveness of sins is ministered when the sinner believes in Christ, and the Holy Spirit (given in a special way in the Christian dispensation) is given as the seal of this.
Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day, when we respond to the dying request of the Saviour in the remembrance of His death, we have before us His own words concerning the cup, “This is the blood of the new testament [covenant] which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt. 26:2828For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. (Matthew 26:28)).
What a day it will be for this world when that new covenant shall be publicly inaugurated; when,
“He’ll bid the whole creation smile,
And hush its groan.”
Meanwhile we Christians enjoy its blessedness, though our blessings reach still further beyond.
A. J. POLLOCK.