The Old and New Covenants

From: Things Which Must Shortly Come to Pass By: Algernon James Pollock

• 2 min. read • grade level: 10

The Old Covenant is the law given by Moses. The New Covenant is yet to be made with Israel. It is promised in 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); the time of it and the terms of it are explicitly laid down in Ezekiel 36:24-38²⁴For 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. ³⁷Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock. ³⁸As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the Lord. (Ezekiel 36:24‑38).

The Old Covenant was one of demand, and though “ordained to life,” was in result one of condemnation and death (see 2 Cor. 3).

The New Covenant to be made with Israel, following on her deep repentance at the end of the great tribulation, and synchronizing with the personal reign of Christ in the Millennium, is one of pure sovereign grace, consisting of new birth, the forgiveness of sins, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. What a day will that be for Israel!

The righteous foundation for this New Covenant is already laid in the death of Christ, and though not ratified with Israel as a whole, it has been antedated in God's dealings in blessing with His saints from earliest times. Apart from new birth there can be no link with God in blessing. The forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit were alike promised in Old Testament times.

As to Christians, though not formally under it, they have the blessings of it already. The cup at the Lord's Supper signifies “my blood of the New Testament [Covenant]” (Matt. 26:28²⁸For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. (Matthew 26:28)). The Apostle Paul and his companions were made “able ministers of the New Testament [Covenant]” (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 Christian has, indeed, larger and fuller blessings than those of the New Covenant, but as the greater includes the lesser, so do Christian blessings include the New Covenant blessings.

Meanwhile these blessings are found in connection with the Church, but when the Lord comes for His people, and Israel is set up under Christ, as Priest and King upon His throne, the New Covenant will be made with Israel in a public way.

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