Re
your letter of
30th April, I see that I have previously replied to
you on Five
Doves on the subject of Abraham, but I have been unable to
find the url. I
thought it was posted in December 2021.
The
Abrahamic Covenant
(circa 1913 BC) concerned the inheritance of the geographical
land of Canaan by
Abraham and his descendants, the multiplying of his seed, and
the promise that
God would be a God to him and his seed after him. It was a
covenant of
grace—unmerited by Abraham—and initiated by God while Abraham
was sleeping.
(Gen.15:12–18; 17:2, 19, 21; 18:17–19; 28:10–16; 35:9–13.) It
was dependent
upon their observance of circumcision.
I think your letter (30 April)
referring to Abraham and the Old
Testament promises made to him by God, when Abraham’s
belief [faith] was
counted as righteousness, is quite a distinct and different
subject from the New
Covenant of salvation for the forgiveness of sin for the
Jews, promised in the
Old Testament by Jeremiah 31:31–34, which was fulfilled
by Jesus in New
Testament times. See
my Comparison
of
God's principal Covenants (fivedoves.com) posted
on 2 April 2023.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hebrews 8 to 10 is a discourse
(written to the Jews/Hebrews)
showing how the New Covenant promised long ago by Jeremiah
31:31–34 [which is
quoted in its ‘then future tense’], for the
forgiveness of sin for
the Jews, was fulfilled by Jesus Christ (historically)
in the New Testament,
who said to His Jewish disciples on the eve of His
crucifixion…
For this is My blood
of the new covenant, which
is shed for many for the remission of sins. (Matt.
26:28)
The
writer then explains
that the new covenant (fulfilled by Jesus) has totally
superseded the old covenant
of law given by Moses. The whole argument is that Jesus has
fulfilled all that
is required for the salvation of any Jew who believes,
(according to
Jeremiah’s ancient promise of what God was going to accomplish
for the Jews). Having
‘finished’ the work He came to do, Jesus is NOW acting as the
Great High Priest
seated at the right hand of the throne of God interceding for
anyone who calls
on His name. Thus, He dwells in the Holy of Holies where He
officiates for us.
Garry,
the
quotation about the New Covenant (Heb. 8:8–13) that you put in
your letter is
not to be fulfilled at some nebulous time in the future!You left out the
context that begins the author’s
argument! The
passage starts with…
Now this is the main
point of the things we
are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the
right hand of the
throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the
sanctuary [Holies] and
of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man…
But now He has
obtained a more excellent
ministry, inasmuch He is also Mediator of a better
covenant, [Jeremiah’s New Covenant] which was established
on better promises,
for if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place
would have been
sought for a second. (Hebrews 8:1–2, 6–7)
Then
the writer quotes
directly from Jeremiah 31:31–34, [exactly as Jeremiah
had written it down
centuries ago] to prove that it was Jeremiah’s New Covenant
that made the first
[covenant] obsolete (Heb. 8:13). To prove the point and so
readers would know
it was an old quote, the whole New Covenant passage is
printed in italics
(NKJV). The argument is that if the covenant of law had been
faultless, then
there would have been no need for a second (i.e., the New
Covenant), to be brought
into operation, which was Jeremiah’s promise.
There
is a second
quote which puts this Covenant in its past historical context.
The writer is
simply quoting Jeremiah (circa 586 BC); not promising a New
Covenant in the end
times.
“This is the covenant
that I will make with
them after those days, says the LORD; I will put My laws
into their hearts, and in
their minds I will write them,” then he adds, “Their sins
and their lawless
deeds I will remember no more.”(Heb.
10:16–17)
The
words after those
days (above) are
referring to the context of Jeremiah’s statement, i.e., that
during a ‘non-specific
period of time’ after the Jews’ exile in Babylon had come
to an end, [i.e.,
after those days] and after the Jews were restored to
their homeland in
Judea, God would introduce His New Covenant. That is what
Jeremiah’s letter and
book (Chs. 29–33) is all about, and Hebrews 8–10 is arguing
the New Covenant’s
efficacy for the Jews because of what Jesus has done:
But Christ came as
High Priest of the good
things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle
not made with
hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of
goats and calves,
but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place
once for all, having
obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls
and goats and the
ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for
the purifying of the
flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal
Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your
[Hebrew] conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new
covenant, by means of
death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the
first covenant, that
those who are called may receive the promise of the
eternal inheritance.
(Heb. 9:11–15)
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…so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.
To those who
eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart
from sin, for
salvation. (Heb. 9:24, 28)
For by one offering
He has perfected
forever those who are being sanctified. (Heb.
10:14)
Jesus
is NOW the
Mediator of the New Covenant. This is a wonderful truth that
we can all access
here and now. It is for all who believe on His name, both Jew
and Gentile.