Monday: New and Renewed
Compare Hebrews 8:10-12 with Deuteronomy 6:4-6, Deuteronomy 30:11-14, and Jeremiah 31:31-34. What does this teach us about the nature of the new covenant?
Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com
The promise of a new covenant in Hebrews refers back to Jeremiah. According to Jeremiah, God’s promise of a new covenant was, in fact, a renewal of the covenant that He had first made with Israel through Moses (Jeremiah 31:31-34). It could be argued, then, that Jeremiah 31 was not strictly speaking of a “new” covenant but of a “renewal” of the original covenant with Israel. In fact, the Hebrew word for new, hadashah, can have both the sense of “renew” and “brand new.”
The issue with the old covenant was that the people broke it (Hebrews 8:8-9). The covenant was not faulty; the people were. If Israel had seen through the symbols to the coming Messiah and put their faith in Him, the covenant would not have been broken. Yet, to be fair, there were many believers throughout Israelite history in whom the purposes of the covenant were fulfilled and who had the law in their hearts (Psalm 37:31, Psalm 40:8, Psalm 119:11, Isaiah 51:7).
While the new covenant is a renewal of the old covenant, there is a sense in which it is, indeed, new. Jeremiah’s promise of a “new covenant” did not simply envision a renewal of the conditions that existed before the exile, which had been broken and renewed several times because the nation had lapsed several times into apostasy. And that’s because the people were simply unwilling to keep up their end of the covenant with God (Jeremiah 13:23).
Thus, God promised to do a “new thing” (Jeremiah 31:22). The covenant would not be like the covenant that God had made “with their fathers” (Jeremiah 31:32). Because of the unfaithfulness of the people, the promises that God made under the Mosaic covenant were never fulfilled. Now, in virtue of the guarantee given by the Son (Hebrews 7:22), God would fulfill the purposes of His covenant. God did not change His law or lower His standards; instead, He sent His Son as a guarantee of the covenant promises (Hebrews 7:22, Hebrews 6:18-20). This is why this covenant does not have curses. It has only blessings because Jesus fulfilled it perfectly, becoming a curse for us (Galatians 3:13).
| Read 2 Timothy 2:13. What can we learn from God’s faithfulness to His people and to His plans as we consider our relationships with others and our plans? |
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In 1997 I was in the midst of doing my research degree and as part of the program, I had to write research papers and present them at conferences. I wrote a paper and had it accepted for a conference held in San Francisco. I took Carmel along and we spent a few days sightseeing after the conference. We decided to visit Yosemite National Park.
Now I had read all about Yosemite. We didn't have Google Earth in those days, but I had read the National Geographic articles and I thought I knew what it looked like. We drove from San Francisco to Yosemite, and quite suddenly we were there. It was quite a surprise because it was completely back to front to how I had pictured it. It took just a little while for my brain to wrap around the new reality.
What had changed? Yosemite was just that same as it had been for as long as humans have known about it. What had changed was me. Previously I had only seen pictures and read descriptions, but now I had experienced it. Previously I had seen images of Half-Dome and El Capitan, but now I stood in the valley and looked up at their great height as I heard the trickle of the Merced River flowing past my feet. I went back to Australia with a new vision of Yosemite in my memory.
In a small way, this illustrates the need for a new covenant. Nothing has changed except the viewpoint. The plan of salvation has stood rock solid for eternity, but the intersection of that plan with time at the cross changed our viewpoint forever.
God has not changed but our viewing point has.
A significant part of my 'work' involves progressively educating people about complex concepts they are unfamiliar with. So I have to start with finding out what they are familiar with and gradually build their understanding from there. I use lots of metaphors (and diagrams) because that is essentially all that is available. The metaphors I use do not portray the literal reality I am working to develop understanding of - they only symbolically convey certain aspects of the reality. For example, one time I was trying to assist a concrete worker to understand that in relationships with others, sometimes we need to allow others time to get used to change, and if we try to hurry that along, we risk compromising the outcome. To illustrate this I referred to the need to allow concrete the amount of time it needs to cure properly in order for it to achieve its maximum MPA strength and reduce the risk of cracking. This metaphor assisted this person to understand the concept, but this does not mean that relationships or people are literally cement. Again, metaphors only symbolically convey certain aspects of the reality - they are not the reality itself (Hebrews 10:1; Colossians 2:17).
God is in a similar position - needing to help us understand His higher ways and those of His Kingdom (Isaiah 55:8-9) that are unfamiliar to us and our 'lower' ways that are way more 'fallen' from their original design than we typically realise (1 Corinthians 13:12; Romans 12:2). Amid this, God is limited (by limitations within us) to using concepts we are familiar with as the starting point of understanding. But because that is only the start, we then need to grow beyond our understanding of the 'lower' ways of this world to instead progressively learn to see the actual 'form' that is the reality of God's "higher" (different) ways.
Covenant is a metaphor. It conveys aspects of God's orientation to us and relationship with us. But the actual reality of God's orientation to us - and relationship with - us is above and beyond our human notion of covenant. And because we live within a dynamic reality that changes, God is constantly adapting to meet us in those changes - including updating our understanding where relevant (Hebrews 1:1-2).
I will leave you to ponder what I have outlined and consider for yourself the implications to this symbolic metaphor we understand as 'covenant' - but the actual reality of which is far beyond what we know as 'covenant':
* What aspects of what we understand as covenant are reflective of God's orientation to - and relationship with - us?
* And, equally importantly, what aspects of what we understand as covenant is NOT reflective of God's orientation to - and relationship with - us?
It makes God 'small' when He 'constantly adapting to meet us in those changes'. I thought I should be adapting. Just curious.
By way of a metaphor, picture a complex disaster rescue scene where the disaster is ongoing and therefore dynamically changing. Maybe a burning building that is collapsing. Which would be the 'smaller' rescuer response? Where the rescuer adapts to the changing nature of the danger in order to actually get to the trapped person and do what it takes to enable them to be freed and brought to safety? Or where the rescuer maintains the same approach that therefore requires the one trapped to adapt and bring themselves to where the rescuer is?
Am I saying or implying that we should not be growing and changing? No. But God's adapting to us and meeting us where we are at enhances our capacity to, in turn, grow and develop to become progressively more and more Christ-like. So, yes, we are meant to be adapting/growing too.
I am so pleased to read in the lesson that under the Sinai version of the Everlasting Covenant the LORD's promise and intention was from the beginning to write His laws in their hearts.
Deut 6:5-9
you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
6 These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.
These repetitions would engrave them in their hearts and minds.
When we remember that the Law of God is a revelation of His will, a transcript of His character, the expression of divine love and wisdom.
Patriarchs and Prophets pg 52.3
and we put it together with the verses that say be holy because I am holy, I am the LORD who makes you holy, and to top it all, keep the Sabbath because it is a sign that I am the LORD who sanctifies you - it is clear to me that writing His law - His character - on their hearts was part of the Sinai version of the Everlasting Covenant.
Lev 11:45, 19:2; 1Peter 1:15-16; Lev 20:7-8; Ex 31:13
Thank God because He never changes! Because He is love! May we be prudent and take advantage of this love to our own growth! He knows how much we still have to change to reach Christ's likeness, thus it is better we try what we can... and when we find ourselves frustrated, He is always faithfull to finish what He Himself started on us!
King David says in Psalm 40:8 that God's Law was within his heart. Yet, in that very Psalm further to verses 11,12 he very clearly says that his iniquities took hold of him and that they were more than the hairs of his head.
I think that the Apostle Paul also indicates that he delighted to do God's will according to his inward man but goes on to say that "how to perform the good was not there for him." I think that wherever scripture talks about no one teaching another to "know God," is still a thing of the future fulfilling after Jesus returns and we all have eternal and incorruptible bodies.
Ellen White writes about the old and the new covenant:
This would indicate that there were two, not one covenant.
Patriarchs & Prophets 370-372
Patriarchs and Prophets 370 to the end of the chapter.
Larry Edwards
In addition, the terms of the covenants were different:
Larry Edwards
If the New Covenant is a renewal of the 'heart' of the Old Covenants, what was the Old Covenants' weakness? What was it that their design was unable to produce, and why was it therefore needful to transform them into the 'New Covenant' – was it to show that the Love of the Creator is at the core, the heart of all that is being communicated?
Is the stirring up of love in the creature for its Creator the ultimate purpose of all Covenants?
Therefore, could the believer say:
The acceptance of the teachings of the Son of God, embodied in the form of the man Jesus, is the Father's final and ultimate Covenant-form to demonstrate the Creator's Love for His human creature and to enable him to love Him back; His last attempt to show man how to find purpose for his living soul/life, and with it the restoration of true Life within him?
- Heb.7:18-19NKJV - ”For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, (v.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.”
- Heb.8:12 - ”For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
What does the Father demonstrate/show to mankind with this renewed Covenant based on a new heart and Spirit? Has He shown us how to live and filled us with His Spirit and can this new heart now love Him and be faithful to Him and to His Son who was sent to show us how to love and be faithful?
If Jesus “embodied the obedience of the new covenant”, His obedience clearly showing that He was motivated by Love of the Father and his fellow man, if this is true, should we not do likewise?
The weakness of the "old covenant" was the blood of the animals and also the priests themselves had to offer this on their own behalf too and they died also and had to be replaced by new living priests etc. But the "new covenant" has better promises in that Jesus Himself was and is God and High Priest and also sacrificed His own life and spilled His Own Blood and died but rose again to continue His High Priestly Ministry and had no beginning of days or end of life (other than when He was in the grave for three days and nights) and did not and has not any need of replacement but lives even now next to His Father to intercede in our behalf.
Is Deut 6:4-6 taught in the church any more now that the church has adopted a trinity doctrine?
Seventh-day Adventist Christians believe there is one God.
And that this one God is three co-eternal beings who work together in unity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have always been, and always will be.
There is one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a unity of three coeternal Persons. God is immortal, all-powerful, all-knowing, above all, and ever present. He is infinite and beyond human comprehension, yet known through His self-revelation. God, who is love, is forever worthy of worship, adoration, and service by the whole creation. (Gen. 1:26; Deut. 6:4; Isa. 6:8; Matt. 28:19; John 3:16 2 Cor. 1:21, 22; 13:14; Eph. 4:4-6; 1 Peter 1:2.)
This is from the website, Trinity, where you can get more details on this fundamental belief.
Compare with the ORIGINAL FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES of the SDA Church.
I. That there is ONE GOD, a personal, spiritual being, the creator of all things, omnipotent, omniscient,
and eternal, infinite in wisdom, holiness, justice, goodness, truth, and mercy; unchangeable, and
EVERYWHERE PRESENT BY HIS REPRESENTATIVE, THE HOLY SPIRIT. Ps. 139:7.
II. That there is ONE LORD JESUS CHRIST, the Son of the Eternal Father, the one by whom God created all
things, and by whom they do consist; that he took on him the nature of the seed of Abraham for the
redemption of our fallen race; that he dwelt among men full of grace and truth, lived our example, died
our sacrifice, was raised for our justification, ascended on high to be our only mediator in the sanctuary
in Heaven, where, with his own blood he makes atonement for our sins; which atonement so far from
being made on the cross, which was but the offering of the sacrifice, is the very last portion of his work
as priest according to the example of the Levitical priesthood, which foreshadowed and prefigured the
ministry of our Lord in Heaven. See Lev. 16; Heb. 8:4, 5; 9:6, 7; &c.
Trinity is just a word that means "Three." There are 3 (three) persons in the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But God is "1" (One) Creator and sustainer of all life and all the universe. This is a great mystery just like Jesus as God's Son and Second Person of the Godhead said about the Holy Spirit and Third Person of the Godhead when talking to Nicodemus about the New Birth of the Christian, in so many words that even though we cannot see the Holy Spirit's work in a born again believer, we can see the life of that believers' new life of self sacrificing love for other etc. And Jesus also said about He and His Father being "One." "One" God but "Three personalities" in that One God.