

## How To Read The Bible

## & Not Get Confused

Published by Gavin Cox at Smashwords

Copyright 2016 Gavin Cox

A SoMuchGoodNews Initiative

www.SoMuchGoodNews.com

(To keep in touch follow the link above and subscribe)

#  Dedication

For Craig, James and Randall and your families.

Our family says thank you!

# Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Part I - Background and Basics

Chapter 1 - Seven Covenants

Chapter 2 - What's in a covenant?

Chapter 3 - Books and Testaments

Chapter 4 - Law and Grace

Part II - The Seven Covenants

Chapter 5 - Eden

Chapter 6 - Adam

Chapter 7 - Noah

Chapter 8 - Abraham

Chapter 9 - Moses

Chapter 10 - David

Chapter 11 - Jesus

Chapter 12 - The Eternal Covenant

Part III - Implications and Application

Chapter 13 - Towards a New Covenant Hermeneutic

Chapter 14 - Where the rubber meets the road

Chapter 15 - New Covenant jump-start

Chapter 16 - The Church and Israel

Postscript - Some Uncommon Sense

Publishing Information

Other books by Gavin Cox

# Foreword

I will never forget the day that I was sitting in the congregation and Gavin walked to the pulpit, grinning as only Gavin can grin. There was a sanctified mischievousness in his smile which suggested the unsearchable riches of Christ were about to be made manifest. He opened the Word and inspired us with heavenly oratory. It was as if the dew of heaven was on his shoulders and the divine endorsement of the Father's pleasure shone through his eyes. The subject was the seven covenants.

Gavin has an uncanny grace to summarise volumes of truth into condensed clarity. The Bible is a supernatural sequence, a progressive unfolding revelation of Jesus that could take a person years to link together. Gavin has a skill, graced by divine craftsmanship, that has distilled this glorious panorama into a beauty that can be grasped at a glance, and leaves you gasping with wonder at the clean air of clarity. A jigsaw puzzle takes a long time to put together if you don't start off with the full picture on the box lid in mind. In this book Gavin proves that he has seen the full picture, and he puts the pieces together in an immensely impactful way that will set people free from ever blurring or confusing the seven covenants again. The entire time I read this book, not only was I encouraged, but I kept thinking "Oh Lord, if only all of your people understood this truth". In my opinion there are too many optical distortions that parade themselves as legitimate Christianity but still leave people confused. This book will evaporate so much misery that precious brothers and sisters carry as a burden that they think is from God, but is not. It will demolish cynicism and feelings of hopelessness, and flood people with confidence in God.

This is not to say that this book is only for personal peace, for it is also prophetic and pivotal in establishing the true nature and dynamic expression of the church worldwide. It is a herald announcing a massive shift in motivation that is already spreading across the earth. It is about how wonderful our Father is, and how perfectly He relates to us in Christ Jesus. .

I recommend this book to any church that wants the fresh winds of heaven to blow upon them. Use it in small groups as a study guide. Use it in Bible schools. Use it in the pulpit. Read it several times over and inspire others to get it.

Well done Gavin!

With much love

Rob Rufus

# Preface

Please don't underestimate this little book. Dynamite comes in small packages. Its power-to-weight ratio is extraordinary, and it punches well above its weight division.

The big idea is simple. We're supposed to understand the Bible. It is an account of seven covenants. A covenant is a contract, and terms and conditions apply. Knowing which terms and conditions apply, and to whom, when, where and how, is essential to interpreting the Bible correctly. Even more profound is the fruit of this clarity. The Gospel promises righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, which is at odds with the guilt, exhaustion and insecurity all too common amongst Christians. Getting clear on the Bible gets us clear on the Gospel, and being clear on the Gospel allows it to deliver on its promises.

The Gospel is much better news than I ever imagined. My Bible tells me so!

Every blessing.

Gavin Cox

Gonubie, South Africa

February 2016

# Part I

## Background and Basics

Getting to grips with the big idea of the Bible and its seven covenants.

# Chapter 1

## Seven Covenants

The Bible is an account of seven covenants.

This piece of information is absolutely essential to us interpreting it correctly. The Bible's times, cultures, contexts and languages were all very different from our own, so background information in all of these areas is helpful, but no other background fact has more impact on the meaning of the text than being clear on the covenant to which it applies.

Let's imagine for a moment that you have three vehicles parked in your driveway. The first was a cash purchase. You paid for it and you own it outright. The second has been financed by your bank and you are repaying the loan. The bank is thus the title deed holder and you have been obligated to insure the vehicle. The third is a leased vehicle effectively hired from a third party. You will never own it, and at the end of the lease term the vehicle will revert to the lessor. The vehicle is covered by the lessor's insurance broker. Imagine the potential for confusion if you are unclear about the terms and conditions of the respective contracts. A theft, fire or bumper bashing would quickly reveal just how debilitating confusion around a contract can be. The first step towards resolving the situation would be to get clear on who is liable for what, where, when and how, for each vehicle respectively.

Just so, many Christians live confused about the contracts of Scripture. Off to church they go, Bible under arm, all seven contracts neatly filed between its covers. From their point of view the paperwork is in order, chapter and verse. Yet this is obviously not the case, because even though each of the seven contracts applied to someone somewhere sometime, only one fully and finally applies to the person carrying the Bible. Then, when pressures come to bear on their life, their confusion becomes evident. Family and friends join in, helpfully misquoting terms, conditions and clauses (verses) from one contract or another, randomly applying bits and pieces from here and there because they seem to somehow fit the situation. Contradictions abound. No one seems to know for sure what God's will is in the situation. Vague thy-will-be-done prayers are prayed, but no one is sure who is at fault, or how reparations will be effected. Everyone has an opinion but no one seems really to know!

The good news is that there is no need for any of us to be confused. All Christians are New Covenant people. The other covenants are helpful for our instruction, but only one covenant applies directly to our lives, and that is so in any and every situation. There is only one set of terms and conditions to get our heads around, and when we do, we can be substantially clear on where we stand, no matter what happens.

We're not talking about picking and choosing the verses we like and conveniently disregarding the rest. That would be unhelpful as we would be manipulating the Scriptures to get them to say what we want them to say, deceiving ourselves in the process. After all, you can find a verse for just about anything! That's not what we're talking about here at all. What we are talking about is distinguishing between the seven covenants, disentangling their terms and conditions one from another, and then applying the terms and conditions of the New Covenant to our lives to the exclusion of all else. Because this is the only covenant that applies to those who have placed their trust in Jesus, doing so is the most sensible thing imaginable.

This little book has been written to help you do just that. No more and no less! It won't tell you all there is to know about covenants. That would take many books. But it will give you enough to ensure that you are established on the firm foundation of the work of Christ wrought on our behalf just outside Jerusalem some two millennia ago.

# Chapter 2

## What's in a covenant?

Covenants are contracts.

That said, any contract with God is likely to be just a little bit special! A closer look at the words used for covenant in the Bible's original languages will help us get clearer on the precise nature of these contracts, and on the terms and conditions that accompany them.

The first Bible word for covenant describes one without God in the equation. The Greek suntithemai refers to a contract as we would typically understand it today - a negotiated agreement between two parties. This word is not used when God is involved, because with Him involved the terms and conditions of the covenant are decreed rather than negotiated. Things are understandably a little one-sided because He is God after all. For that reason it is the Greek word diatheke that is used to describe covenants between God and man. It is accurately translated covenant, but can also be translated as testament or will. Diatheke, then, is the idea of a unilateral set of terms and conditions, instituted greater-to-lesser, and with the implication of a death putting the agreement into effect.

The Hebrew, beriyth, is also helpful. It refers to an agreement made by passing between pieces of flesh. For this reason one speaks of cutting a covenant. The Bible teaches us that by God's design the life of any creature is in its blood, which is also why the eating or drinking of blood was always prohibited. With the shedding of blood as an integral part of entering into a covenant, it's unsurprising to learn that a beriyth was typically life-long, often binding on the entire household, and frequently included descendants as well. Unmistakable in the cutting of such a covenant was the implication that death was the appropriate penalty for a covenant breaker.

When we use the term covenant, then, we're describing serious, God-decreed, life-long, life-for-life agreements. The stakes for those in these agreements have always been high - life or death, blessings or curses, union with God or separation from Him. Covenants also cannot simply be swept aside, amended, or replaced at will. The way they come to an end is either by being fully and finally fulfilled, or by being replaced by a superior covenant. If not fulfilled or superseded, they remain in place in perpetuity.

That in turn helps us to understand why the New Covenant in Christ's blood is the last covenant that will ever be instituted. Superior in every way, it draws the others to conclusion as it folds them into itself. Jesus is God's final word on His dealings with mankind.

There are matters yet outstanding in the outworking of the New Covenant, but how outstanding matters will be resolved has already been specified in its terms and conditions. Examples include land given to Abraham for his flesh-and-blood descendants, the promise made to the planet to which every rainbow testifies, and the subjection of all things to Christ. The "it is finished" of the Gospels will become the "it is done" of the book of the Revelation, and all matters already settled in heaven will be settled here on earth. There is much ground yet to be taken. All sickness and suffering must end. All tears must cease. Mortality must yield to immortality and the temporary to the eternal as all things are brought manifestly under Christ's rule. Even death and the grave must forever be destroyed, as must all evil.

Christians are not always agreed on exactly how and when all of this will happen, but we are agreed on the inevitability of it happening. Christ's cross and His ratifying resurrection have guaranteed it so.

***

This primacy of the New Covenant needs to be firmly established in our thinking right from the outset. It dictates how the seven covenants of the Bible relate to one another. Its superiority is by definition obvious. It is, after all, the Christ covenant. Who would conceive of Christ as under Noah, subservient to Abraham, less than David, or as subject to Moses? Impossible, of course! Every other contract has yielded to this great redemptive masterstroke of God. Jesus was our substitute. He is fully God, but lived as we, fully man. He lived sinless, as we cannot, and died as a sinner, which He was not. He received all that sinful men and women like you and I deserve, in order that we might receive, freely, that which only He deserves. That is the Gospel!

The New Covenant establishes salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone! It fulfils and/or supersedes all of the other covenants of Scripture, and it alone provides for us the terms and conditions of salvation by which we may live.

# Chapter 3

## Books and Testaments

The Bible is a compilation of sixty-six books in two Testaments.

The inference is strong - and wrong - that the Old Testament is somehow about the Old Covenant, and that the New Testament is about the New Covenant. The truth is that all seven covenants are referred to in both Testaments, and the divide between Old and New Testament has more to do with timing than covenant. The Old Testament was written before Christ's birth, mainly in Hebrew, and the New Testament was written quite a few decades after His ascension, and in Greek. The only Bible which Peter, Paul and Jesus had was what we now call the Old Testament, and they preached the New Covenant from that in magnificent fashion.

The books have been arranged within the Testaments so as to help us locate them easily. The sequencing is logical and by genre. That helps us find the books, but it does almost nothing to help us understand them.

The Old Testament's thirty nine-books are sorted by history first, poetry and wisdom second, and the prophets third. There is a basic chronology to the first two groups - Genesis to Esther and Job to Song of Songs. The prophets are grouped into major prophets and minor prophets, which has to do with how much they wrote, rather than when they wrote or how important their writings are.

The New Testament is similarly sorted according to genre. The four gospels were written relatively late and are grouped first. They represent a unique genre of literature by the way. Historical Acts follows, and then come the letters. Paul's are first, those to churches ahead of those to individuals, and arranged longest to shortest in these two sub-groupings. The letters from all other authors follow and are arranged longest to shortest. Hebrews heads this group with single-chapter Jude at the rear. The prophetic book of the Revelation slots in right at the end.

The logic is clear, and once you know how the Bible hangs together it's easy enough to find the book you're looking for. Unfortunately, from an interpretation point of view, it's a bit like sorting jigsaw puzzle pieces by shape and then not providing a box lid. Building the puzzle the first time takes quite a bit of homework, but once you've put in the effort, you discover that the picture on the box lid is the account of seven covenants. The people, places and events of Scripture all take their place within this covenantal framework. And as you hold the big picture at arm's length, so it becomes clear that the whole thing is one cohesive multi-faceted masterpiece, and His name is Jesus.

Once you have a working knowledge of the covenants (this book will do that for you), take an evening and sort out which prophet goes with which king at what stage of Israel's history. Then take another and get to grips with how the Gospels run alongside each other. Matthew, Mark and Luke are substantially parallel chronologies; John is thematic. While you're at it, blend the letters into the book of Acts. All the while you'll be getting a very good idea of what happened where, when and why, and who wrote to whom under what circumstances, and for what reasons. It's a much simpler task than most people think because there is so much good reference material that is readily available. And as you do, use your learning from this little book to slot things into their rightful place from a covenantal point of view.

***

Chapters and verses are also worth a mention here. Considering the thousands of years over which the Bible coagulated into its current form, these are very recent additions indeed. They could only (rather obviously) have been added once the Bible was complete, and together with the index page, they help us find our way around the book quickly and easily. That said, they often do more harm then good when it comes to our understanding of the Scriptures. This is because words group into sentences, and sentences in turn group into paragraphs. That's the way language works when it's written down. Groups of sentences belong in the same paragraph because they are part of the same thought. That's why paragraphs vary so dramatically in length. Adjoining paragraphs then either flow on from one to the next as they develop a progression of thought, or else they signal a distinct change of idea. Mapping groups of paragraphs into natural sections and subsections gives the skeletal structure of the piece of literature, and is the best way to subdivide it for study to ensure not violating its flow.

Chapters and verses, unfortunately, will rather stubbornly have none of that. At times chapters begin mid-paragraph, clearly fragmenting the author's flow. Verses all too often do even more violence to the natural structure of the piece. Consider this a great Bible study tip - always contemplate the text a paragraph at a time and within the structure and flow the text itself reveals.

***

Studying your Bible is easy!

The box-lid-and-puzzle-piece analogy is helpful. It provides a framework for tracking the historical and geographical data. A little bit of supplementary investigation helps fill in ethnic and cultural blanks. Prioritising paragraphs ahead of the chapters and verses simplifies some of the grammatical challenges, and there is plenty of reference material available for insight into the Greek and Hebrew terminology. In other words - the good, solid, well-established basics of responsible Biblical interpretation are straight forward, logical, and easy to do due diligence to. Who wrote what to whom, from where, when, why, how, and with what result are all good questions, and should be responsibly answered. This meat-and-potatoes historical-grammatical approach to Biblical interpretation is always a better option than taking flights of fancy and treating everything as allegorical.

But much more important than historical-grammatical detail is identifying which covenant/s apply. You could unpack all of the historical and geographical detail behind the text, master its ethnic and cultural intricacies and unbundle the wonderful nuances of the original languages - and completely miss the point! This is bigger than big deal if your situation is anything like the woman who was caught in adultery and hauled into the temple courts before the religious leaders of her day (John 8:1-11). In moments like that covenants are all important. Moses (the Old Covenant) said to stone her. Jesus (the New Covenant) did not condemn her. Big difference. Life and death!

Working your way through this book will provide the foundation you require in order to start interpreting the Scriptures accurately through their covenantal framework.

# Chapter 4

## Law and Grace

The seven covenants are ...

The Edenic covenant. This was God's covenant with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and which they violated through their disobedience.

The Adamic covenant, which God instituted to save Adam and Eve from the full consequences of their actions. Instead of putting them to death He restored them to fellowship with Himself.

The Noahic covenant is God's covenant with the entire planet. Established in Noah's day, the Lord promises to never destroy the whole earth by floodwater again.

The Abrahamic covenant. God made this covenant with Abraham and his descendants. It gave rise to the nation of Israel and provided the nation and context into which Jesus was born.

The Mosaic, Sinaitic or Old Covenant. Also called the Law of Moses, or just the Law. This covenant was added to the Abrahamic covenant at the time of the Exodus (the Israelites leaving Egypt). It served as a placeholder until the coming of Christ.

The Davidic covenant is an exquisite addendum introduced while the Old Covenant was in effect. It is God's covenant with David, assuring him that he will always have a descendant as successor on the throne. This promise is fulfilled in Jesus, our Forever-King, who descended from David in both paternal and maternal lineage.

The New Covenant. God's great redemptive work in and through Jesus, and the means of salvation for all who believe.

***

All seven covenants fall into one of two distinct categories.

This is a fact that cannot be overemphasised. As distinct as men are from women, as day is from night, cats are from dogs and land is from sea (humour me here), as distinct are covenants of law from covenants of grace.

They are also mutually exclusive. It's always either-or; never both-and. They cannot be blended or balanced. They are not the opposite sides of the same coin, nor do they complement each other in any way. It is never on-the-one-hand and on-the-other-hand with covenants of law and grace. They are different kinds of agreement with distinctly different terms and conditions. Never should the two be confused!

Covenants of law have conditions attached. They are about what has to be done (or not done). They are about deeds. They are also commonly referred to as covenants of works. Covenant keeping (or breaking) boils down to behaviour. In a covenant of works the parties involved evaluate each other's performance. Good performance is rewarded and poor performance penalised. Do good, get good; do bad, get bad. We are surrounded by contracts of this nature. It's the way things work in this world.

The problem comes when a covenant of law or works demands perfection, carries the death penalty, and when the other party is Perfect God. Perfect God never makes mistakes. He never defaults. He never reneges on His side of the deal. Sinful man, on the other hand, is guaranteed to perform poorly at some point. He will inevitably make a mistake, fall short, or do the wrong thing. Consciously or unconsciously, sinful man will inevitably be the covenant breaker. From a human point of view, covenants of law between God and man are recipes for disaster. They set up failure. They are very fair. Everyone gets what they deserve. Which of course is the problem! Because of humanity's inherent frailty, covenants of law can never ever save.

Two of the seven Biblical covenants were covenants of law. The covenant in Eden was the first. The terms and conditions were straight forward. Obey and be blessed, or disobey by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and die. We all know how that went. The second was the Sinaitic or Old Covenant. A good deal of the Old Testament documents life under this covenant. Again, not the best result. Israel's history is awash with failure, disqualification and retribution under this covenant. Do good, get good; do bad, get bad! Covenants of law are not good news at all!

We'll examine both of these covenants of works in subsequent chapters.

***

Covenants of grace could not be more different. As is the case with all covenants involving the Lord, they are also instituted unilaterally, with Him deciding on their terms and conditions. But unlike covenants of law, grace covenants operate independently of the performance of the people involved. They do so because the terms and conditions are met by a substitute of the Lord's appointment. Covenants of grace are foolproof because they circumnavigate human frailty. By introducing a substitute of His choosing, the Lord takes the responsibility of fulfilling both sides of the contract, His part and ours.

For Adam, Noah, Abraham and David the substitute was an animal. These carefully selected, innocent creatures, received the dues for the sins of the people for whom they were substituted. It cost them their lives. These animals were placeholders in time, pointing to a perfect substitute. In the New Covenant, Jesus is that perfect substitute. He lived the sinless life that sinful men and women like us cannot. His obedience was obedience unto death, fully submitted to the will of God. In His death He was our substitute also. He received the just dues that sinners like us deserve.

The Gospel is nothing other than the Good News of what Jesus has accomplished on our behalf, and anyone who hears that news and believes in it, in so doing enters into an exchange. In the moment they believe, all of their sin is removed from them, and all of Christ's obedience is credited to their account. This transaction is actioned by the Holy Spirit, who creates new life within, even as He literally takes up residence in them. That is why the Bible speaks of being born again and of being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. That's also why the Bible teaches that all Christians are essentially spiritual.

Covenants of grace are actions of mercy. Their beneficiaries do not receive what their sins deserve. Grace is unmerited favour, and describing the beneficiaries of grace as such is most apt. Read the stories of Adam, Noah and Abraham and see just how blessed of God these people were, even when they so clearly deserved otherwise. Not to mention us New Covenant people. Jesus received what we deserve and we receive what He deserves! What mercy! What grace! And God decreed it so. We are blessed because Jesus fulfilled the terms and conditions of the covenant on our behalf. Fair? No. Fair would be our demise. Just? Yes. God appointed the Perfect Substitute on our behalf. Glorious? Immeasurably so! How great is the love of God!

***

Covenants of grace can also be described as covenants of faith. They are not entered into by pledging obedience and meeting required standards, but are entered into by appropriating the work of the substitute in a personal way. Faith appropriates the grace on offer, and what happens then might not be good grammar, but sure is good theology: Christians literally believe "into" Jesus when they put their trust in Him. Holy Spirit actions the transaction and His story becomes our story. We are united with Jesus in His death, burial and resurrection. Having believed, we are found in Him, and He in turn takes up residence in us by His Spirit.

We are in Him and He is in us! What glory!

# Part II

## The Seven Covenants

The Bible is an account of seven covenants. Two of law and five of grace. All culminate in the New Covenant.

These seven covenants are interwoven throughout Scripture and are referenced in both Old and New Testaments. There is something of a chronology to them in that they were instituted one at a time. We'll examine them in that order.

# Chapter 5

## Eden

God's covenant with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden was a covenant of works.

You can read about it in Genesis 2 and 3.

Adam and Eve were created by God and given to each other. Their brief was to colonise the planet. The terms and conditions of the covenant were clear enough, and a number of positive factors facilitated it. Firstly, they had access to the tree of life, not for their daily sustenance as were a host of other plants, but as the tangible source of their immortality. Secondly, they were given authority, which made the planet and its other inhabitants subject to them. Adam even got to name the animals. And thirdly, they found themselves in a well-established and spacious garden, which provided a magnificent environment in which to settle and learn, and a significant head start in the colonising process. In a nutshell, Adam's responsibilities were sheer pleasure - work the garden, be fruitful and multiply, colonise the planet - and all of this in unfettered fellowship with the Creator.

There was only one other significant clause in the contract. They were not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Not under any circumstances or for any reason. This tree stood in dramatic juxtaposition to the tree of life. To feast on the tree of life was to trust God and honour the covenant. The result was ongoing participation in all things Eternal. To eat off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was to distrust God, violate the covenant, and vest all hope in self. The penalty for this act of unbelief and rebellion? Death!

Adam and Eve would not have had much concept of what death was. It could not have been anything more than an abstract idea to them, for they lived exclusively in life. Although cautioned, they would not have known just how mortifying the consequences of their sin would be - for themselves, for the planet, and for the rest of mankind. Their innocence cocooned them from any notion of evil, until their disobedience removed the barrier, and that from which they had been shielded came crashing into their lives. The knowledge of good and evil is much more than information. It was for them a total reorientation away from God-centredness and to self-centredness. This is why even the good of the knowledge of good and evil is destructive. Innocence had been lost, replaced not just by information, but by carnal knowledge. Adam and Eve were now fleshly in essence and their very being corrupted on every level.

Here are a few thoughts on what death meant for them ...

Death meant relinquished authority. What God had delegated to them had now been re-delegated to the deceiver. Their choices made them, and all that had been subject to them, subject to another. Stewards became slaves and pioneers became prisoners.

Death meant exile. They were evicted from the Garden.

Death meant forfeited access to the tree of life. They were now mortal, as was the rest the planet.

Death meant a change of nature. They had been created righteous. Sin rendered them unrighteous. They were now fallen in nature and sinners in essence.

Death meant condemnation. They had violated the covenant. They were deserving of punishment.

Death meant shame. They were instantly aware of their nakedness.

Death meant strife. Accusation overtook them. Blaming and blame-shifting was instantly woven into the fabric of things. Adam immediately blamed Eve and she in turn blamed the snake. This disinclination to take responsibility has remained in evidence in humanity ever since.

Death meant loss of fellowship with God. This can also be described as spiritual death. Sin detached them from life. Light had become darkness. The default would now be running away from God rather than running toward Him.

And death, of course, meant death as we most obviously know it. Adam and Eve would've been corpses on the spot if God had not stepped in and provided a substitute.

***

The implications were enormous and have impacted on all of us. We were all in Adam's loins at the time, and so, as it went with them, so goes it with us. Adam and Eve had been created in right relationship with God and had foolishly opted out. We now make our start in life in the aftermath of their choices. We are born mortal, spiritually dead sinners, who are condemned, estranged from God, and vulnerable to the deceiver. Our selfishness is evident to all, as is our powerlessness to do anything about it. The fallen planet reflects our collective fallenness alongside the destructive wickedness of him who usurped the authority over it. Rebel planet earth has been a very good description of this celestial ball ever since.

Thankfully not all was lost. Creation mercifully still bears the fingerprints of Him who created it. And He is altogether good. Even in the worst of us can be seen moments of beauty that better represent vestigial Him than actual us. Much more than that, God loves His world and has consistently provided a way of salvation for it. In that post-fall moment He stepped in to save and has never stopped doing so. Everyone born since, and that's all of us, has come into a world in which a God-provided redemption has been an option. Grace has always been available.

One final lesson from the Edenic covenant. Men and women, even under perfect circumstances, are far too fickle to walk with God in a covenant of works. No wonder those who self-righteously claim to live in ways pleasing to Him attracted His rebuke. Humanity is simply not equipped to please God without His help. We, the pinnacle of His creation, made in His image, are nought without Him. That is how it is. This is how He has made it to be!

# Chapter 6

## Adam

Adam and Eve should have died.

They should've died, but they didn't. They should have died, but animals died instead. Animals died at the hand of God as substitutes, and their skins were fashioned into garments which the Lord then used to clothe Adam and Eve, hiding their shame.

Read about it in Genesis 3:21 and 4:1 onwards.

They should have died. They should have remained naked and ashamed. They should have remained estranged from God. But they didn't! Their lives did change radically. Their sin had devastating consequences. Gone was life in the Garden. Gone was access to the tree of life. Now it was enmity with the devil, pain in childbirth, gender issues, work as toil, glaring mortality, and ubiquitous condemnation - new experiences all, and none of them good. They had changed their lot and ours (see Genesis 3:14-19). This is to speculate, but perhaps the most painful thing of all was watching their children. Sin was tragedy, not only because of what it had done to them, but because of what it had done in them. Disobedient Adam to murderous Cain in just one generation, and as the generations unfolded, so the manifestation of mankind's all-pervasive depravity intensified. Adam lived a full nine hundred and thirty years, and undoubtedly many were his tears as he watched the consequences of his actions unfold.

Great was their loss, but great also was their redemption. Animals died, blood was shed, and in the midst of their turmoil Adam and Eve found themselves alive and well, still having each other, clothed, forgiven, restored to fellowship with God, and getting on with their mandate to populate and colonise the planet. We must resist thinking of Adam as some sort of backslidden unbeliever. God had stepped in redemptively right at the fall, and from that time onwards substitutionary sacrifices were a part of Adam's life, and he and Eve walked with God. The covenant of works of Eden had immediately been replaced by a covenant of grace. Life had been received when death had been deserved. God is merciful!

Cain and Abel learnt to offer sacrifices and to worship from their parents. Intimate worshippers they were too, receiving seemingly immediate feedback from God on the acceptability of their offerings. Cain knew it when Abel's offering was acceptable to the Lord and his was not. These were not unbelieving people, but imperfect people just like us, who walked with God in a covenant of grace. Even murderous Cain received mercy despite jealously slaying his brother. And while depravity increased over time, the Adamic covenant was so full of grace that it enabled some people to live in what we, even today, would consider extraordinary fellowship with God!

Enoch is an excellent example. He walked with God, prophesied powerfully into the unrighteousness of his day, and fathered a son who was a powerful prophetic sign. To top it all off, Enoch circumnavigated death because the Lord took him (Genesis 5:21-27 and Jude 14-15). Another example is Noah. We'll look at his life a little more closely in the next chapter. And there were many others besides, whose names we do not know (Genesis 4:26b). Together they give us the earliest glimpses of the power of grace. If the shed blood of these first substitutes could produce an Enoch, how much more can the shed blood of the Perfect Substitute do. We have that perfect substitute. He is Jesus, the Lamb of God!

# Chapter 7

## Noah

The Adamic covenant was the covenantal placeholder for many hundreds of years. It was never repealed but only superseded by covenants that more clearly revealed grace. Adam till Jesus is therefore against this backdrop.

This first sacrificial system, as given to Adam, shows up so clearly with Noah. Noah knew exactly what God meant when He referred to clean animals. These went into the ark in sevens, for dietary and sacrificial reasons, whereas all the other animals went into the ark in twos. And the first thing Noah did when he got his feet back onto dry land was build an altar and offer some of these clean animals in worship.

You can read Noah's story in Genesis 6 to10.

Many of Adam's descendants, sinful by nature and living in a fallen world, surrendered themselves to sin and to satan. So unthinkable did the wickedness become that evil spirits joined themselves to Eve's daughters and produced offspring called Nephilim (giants). So great did the wickedness become that at its height, the Lord was deeply grieved and regretted making man. Despite His warnings over years through the likes of Enoch, Methuselah and Noah, the downward spiral of depravity continued and He had to step in. First He shortened life spans, and then obliterated the wickedness by unleashing a deluge (Genesis 6:1-8).

Yet even amidst cataclysmic judgement, we so clearly see mercy. Pure grace was at work in the lives of Noah and his family. They did not earn their passage on the ark by self-righteousness any more than anyone else could. They too were descendants of Adam and no more righteous than the rest of us. Yet the Lord viewed Noah as a righteous man (Genesis 6:8-9, II Pet 2:5). The Scriptures teach us that this was so because Noah was a man of faith (Hebrews 11:7). As it would be with Abraham and others later on, Noah believed God, and God credited this to his account as righteousness. Noah's righteousness was as much a gift as Adam's and Enoch's. He believed in the goodness of God, and in the way of salvation that God had provided. He believed that the animals he sacrificed atoned for his sins. He believed the Lord, and in faith obeyed the Lord and built the ark.

This is so important for us to be clear on. No descendant of Adam was ever righteous other than by receiving that righteousness as a gift. All born into Adam's lineage are sinners. None are able to qualify as righteous through their own deeds. For this reason Jesus was born of a virgin. Jesus was never in Adam, and so a sinless life was a possibility for Him. It is not for us. Noah, then, believed God, and his righteousness was by grace through faith. He and his family believed and were saved.

Grace is further evident in the Lord's patience. He is slow to anger and abounding in love. Remember Enoch, Methuselah's dad? He encountered the Lord in his sixty-fifth year in a special way. That was the same year in which Methuselah was born. The Scriptures speak of him as having lived for sixty-five years before that time, but as walking with God from then onwards. That is a significant change. The book of Jude tells us that Enoch prophesied against the godlessness of his day. These fragments of the account of Enoch's life gel beautifully when we apply a bit of maths to the equation. Methuselah was Noah's grandfather, and Methuselah died in the same year that the floodwaters came. And here is the extraordinary thing \- Methuselah lived longer than any other human being. He lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years.

Can you see the grace and the mercy, even in times of judgement? Enoch received the revelation of the judgement to come at the tender time of the birth of his son. That baby, Methuselah, became a living countdown clock, heralding judgement should the hearts of the people not change. And the boy lived, and lived, and lived, and lived! All the while he lived he was a reminder of his father Enoch's impassioned preaching. Then, in the last decades of Methuselah's life, a boat was built. Noah's voice was added to his grandfather Methuselah's. The message of the day was a call to repentance. Methuselah was into his tenth century, and his lifelong message had been one and the same: repent or perish. The ark itself took years to build, and as it did so it embodied grace. This boat was a salvation boat. It was big. Anyone could get on to it. The fact is that those who died in the flood were part of a company of people who had hardened their hearts against the Lord for nearly a thousand years. They had literally lived in the shadow of their salvation for decades without yielding to the voice of the Lord one iota. How merciful is our God. How kind. How patient. How reluctant to judge and how desirous to save!

***

Noah set foot back on dry land with his heart full of faith. We know this because the first thing he did was to build an altar and worship the Lord. It's helpful for us to again notice that the sacrifices on the altar were blood sacrifices; clean animals preserved on the ark in their sevens for just this purpose. In doing this, Noah was telling everyone who would ever hear his story that he was fully aware that his righteousness was a gift from God, and that he did not deserve to be saved. The lives of him and his family were spared because they believed in the goodness of God. They knew Him to be gracious, and their faith had seen that grace extended to them in extraordinary ways. Noah was grateful for his salvation, just as we should be for ours.

The Lord's response to Noah's faith was threefold, all of which were grace upon grace. The first thing the Lord did was bless them. This is His way. It was also the first thing He did to Adam and Eve immediately after creating them. It was what He did to His Son, Jesus, right at the beginning of His ministry. Everyone who is righteous enjoys the approval of God and His unmerited favour. Here with Noah, as is His way, God showed His heart and blessed him and his family.

The second thing the Lord did was pass on Adam's and Eve's mandate. "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." God's plan had not changed, and the testing times, now behind them, left His purposes unaltered. It was not for Noah and sons to look back. The past held nothing for them. It was for Noah and sons to look forward, confident in the grace of God. Theirs was to live lives full of vision and purpose. The world, literally, was at their feet.

And the third thing the Lord did was institute a covenant. Everything that had transpired was against the backdrop of the Adamic covenant, and that would continue, but to this God now added a promise. The promise was made to Noah and his family and to every living thing (that's us). He would never destroy in judgement in the same way again. To the promise He added a sign. A sign that shows itself when the skies are dark and heavy and the ground already soggy underfoot. The rainbow is there to remind us, even when it's raining so prolifically that there is some localised flooding going on, that the rain is not the judgement of God.

The next time nature wreaks havoc and carnage results in your neck of the woods, remember the rainbow! No matter who says it's an act of God, tell them about the rainbow and explain that Adam's sin placed the planet under destructive governance. The storms, waves and earthquakes are not God treating us as our sins deserve. He has promised not to do that. Rather, this is fallen creation protesting and rebelling as it is subject to sin and death and provoked by the fallen angels to which the fall enslaved it. These natural disasters are a consequence of sin indeed, but not punishment for sins. Tell them also that Jesus calms storms, and that He has given us authority to do what He did, and even greater things than those.

# Chapter 8

## Abraham

"Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness". That is the most quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament (Genesis 15:6 quoted in Romans 4:3, Gal 3:6 and James 2:23).

You can read Abraham's story starting in Genesis 11:31 and continuing through 25:11.

God's covenant with him unfolded over decades. It started with a promise (Genesis 12:1-3), was formalised as a covenant (Genesis 15:1-21), sealed with the sign of circumcision (Genesis 17:1-27), and confirmed by an oath (Genesis 22:19). The oath was God's response to Abraham's faith-filled obedience.

Key benefits to this covenant with Abraham included righteousness, blessing, nationhood, land, innumerable descendants (stars and sea-sand measures), and universal blessing of others through him. We know with hindsight that the innumerable descendants are those who are children of Abraham by faith, and that the universal blessing came through Jesus, a saviour to all, and the saviour of all who believe (Galatians 3:7-9).

As were the covenants with Adam and Noah, God's covenant with Abraham was a grace covenant. That means that it was accessed by faith, and that Abraham's righteousness was a gift, facilitated by substitutionary sacrifice.

***

Abraham's righteousness was by grace through faith. This is so evident when we read his story. Amidst incidents of delightful obedience are great dollops of disobedience. God told him to leave his family and go. Abraham took Lot, his nephew, along. He lied about his wife. Twice! He took destiny into his own hands as, in collusion with his wife, he fathered Ishmael by the concubine Hagar. The Lord had promised him an heir through Sarah; he produced his own by alternative means. His unbelief was palpable as he demanded a guarantee from God when the promise was a long time in coming. Were his righteousness dependent on his performance, or the blessings of the covenant dependent on obedience, Abraham would have been disqualified again and again.

Obedience and disobedience, God blessed him. When Abraham obeyed, God blessed him. When he disobeyed, God blessed him! He even got to pray for healing for Abimelech and his household when it was his, Abraham's, sin, that placed innocent Abimelech in a compromised situation before the Lord. Through it all God also formed and fashioned His children. Abram became Abraham and Sarai became Sarah. These changes of name heralded growth in maturity and stature and growth in character. God is a faultless parent and brings His people to maturity as they walk with Him.

The New Testament accounts confirm the fact that Abraham's righteousness was by grace through faith. Paul makes much of Abraham as he expounds on the New Covenant in Romans (see Romans 4:1-25). The interesting thing is that Abraham's story as recorded in Romans completely ignores his indiscretions. There Abraham reads as sinless saint, which we know he was not. The reason Paul presented him so is because that is exactly what the gift of righteousness does for anyone made righteous by it. Abraham was justified by God because he believed. To be justified is to be made not guilty! Abraham's story in the great faith chapter reads in the same way as it does in Romans, sanitised of sin beyond that of any other normal human being (Hebrews 11:8-9). Our story reads the same in heaven, for we who have believed into Jesus have been rendered righteous in Him also. In Christ we are what we on our own could never be.

Understand then why the Lord had to put Abraham into a deep sleep when it was time formally to cut the covenant (Genesis 15:1-20). Abraham (still called Abram at that stage) prepared the sacrifices. Had this been a covenant of works then Abram would have been required to meet the Lord amidst the bleeding carcasses. There each of them would have promised to fulfil their side of the agreement. In so doing Abram would have been effectively signing his own death warrant. Any contravention of the terms and conditions of the blood covenant, inadvertent or not, and imperfect Abram would have rendered himself a covenant breaker, deserving of punishment. But this was not a covenant of works; it was a covenant of grace. There were no terms and conditions at all for Abram to fulfil. All that was required of him was to have confidence in the covenant's initiator, which by default includes confidence in the contract. This kind of confidence in God is what we normally call faith! All that Abram needed to do was believe, because the promises were his by grace alone through faith alone.

The same sacrificial system that had provided for Adam's and Noah's righteousness provided for Abraham. As we've already observed, these substitutes were the earliest promissory shadows of the cross. They received what sinners deserved in order that the sinners, believing, could be made righteous. It was a life-for-life exchange. These early sacrifices had such power because they were placeholders for a perfect sacrifice yet to come. They rendered Enoch righteous, and Job righteous (Job was a contemporary of Abraham), and went on to render Isaac and Jacob and Moses and David and Elijah and Elisha and Isaiah and many others righteous. These all believed and were saved. Their righteousness came to them as a gift. The mechanism of its appropriation was their faith.

***

Abraham was as human as the rest of us. That said, his godliness and obedience were also noteworthy. Reading his story we are touched by his selfless dealings with his nephew Lot, his intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah, and his agonising pursuit of good outcomes with Hagar and Ishmael. Through it all we get a sense of just why the Bible refers to this man as a friend of God.

His finest moment must surely have been his willingness to offer Isaac to God. The account shows his obedience as considered (he knew what he was doing), intentional (he chose to do it) and meticulous (he did it to the best of his ability). It involved the gathering of the wherewithal, three days travel and some tricky interpersonal exchanges, not to mention the breathtaking courage of the follow-through. The Bible tells us exactly what was going through his mind while he did this all: Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead (Hebrews 11:17-19). So convinced of this was he, that when God stopped him from plunging his knife into the boy, to Abraham it was a resurrection moment. By stopping him, to Abraham it was God literally giving him the boy back from the dead.

To some this incident is repulsive. To the Christian it is captivating. It is something of the ultimate dress rehearsal. A father offers his only son on an altar - an innocent, undeserving, obedient and altogether delightful son at that. The striking difference between dress rehearsal and opening night is that when Jesus was on the cross there was no voice from heaven to halt proceedings. Nobody shouted stop! The perfect sacrifice had to be offered, once for all, and for the sake of many.

Abraham's oh-so-dramatic act of obedience teaches us much about grace, faith and obedience. Abraham's obedience was a result of his faith, and Abraham's faith was a result of God's grace. He had experienced the unmerited favour of God again and again. When Abraham did good, he got good from God. When Abraham did bad, he still got good from God. This gave him an unshakable confidence in his God. God was for him, and God would only do him good! The grace of God so shaped him that there was nothing that he would not do when the Lord commanded it. He would even be the first father ever to sacrifice his own son. Paul refers to this kind of obedience as the obedience of faith (Romans 1:5 and 16:26).

That's not to say that grace guarantees obedience. Grace needs to be mixed with faith in order for it to produce its abundant harvest of good fruit. When it is (mixed with faith) and does produce fruit, the results are extraordinary! The Bible records a great many accounts of believing people, loved by God, who did the extraordinary in obedience to Him. The well-known faith chapter (Hebrews 11) provides example after example. It is rightly referred to as the faith chapter, but what it actually documents is the extraordinary, sacrificial obedience of those who believed.

Grace does not guarantee obedience. But then neither does guilt, manipulation or condemnation. And where grace does produce obedience, that which it produces is incomparable in its quantity and quality.

***

There were two distinct aspects of the Abrahamic covenant. The first had to do with nationhood and land, the second with promises and faith.

Abraham was the father of the Jewish nation. This was through Isaac, and through Isaac's younger son, Jacob. Abraham also fathered other nations. He did so through Ishmael, and he did so through the children of Keturah, as well as through Isaac's elder son, Esau (Genesis 25:1-34). This all makes for very interesting study, but the lineage that interests us is that of Isaac and Jacob onwards, because Jacob's sons became the heads of the tribes of Israel (Israel was Jacob's other name). They were the ones who inherited the land as first promised to Abraham, and they were the ones through whom the Messiah was given. These promises were part and parcel of the Abrahamic covenant and were by grace through faith for this line of Abraham's descendants.

The second and greater aspect of the Abrahamic covenant was that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him. This promise was fulfilled through the same bloodline, but was for all of the nations of the earth. In other words, the nation of Israel was the recipient of all of the promises to Abraham, but they were not the exclusive or automatic beneficiaries of the most important aspect of the covenant. Its beneficiaries would be so by faith and not by natural birth. Jews by birth inherited citizenship and land, yet only those who believe are heirs of the salvation that came through Jesus the Messiah.

Paul was at pains to explain to the Galatian Christians that it is only those who believe in Jesus who are the heirs of salvation (Galatians 3:1-29). By Paul's day this distinction was essential because between Abraham and Jesus another covenant was added. It was called the Moses or Sinaitic or Law or Old Covenant. It was a covenant of works and it underscored the promises of nationhood and land. It did so in the interests of preserving Israel as the nation through whom the Messiah would come. Unfortunately the Jews misunderstood. They then thought that the Messiah who would come through them would be exclusively for them.

This entirely inappropriate sense of entitlement pitted many of the religious Jews of the day against Jesus and His followers. There are numerous incidents which reveal that Jesus regarded the religious leaders who opposed Him as being Moses-people but not Abraham-people. To Jesus true Abraham-people were people of faith, whereas Moses-people were Law-people who relied on their own self-righteousness.

We'll pick this up in Chapter 15: The Church and Israel.

# Chapter 9

## Moses

The law was added (Galatians 3:19).

It was not a substitute. It did not replace anything, but was added.

The law was added to the seamless succession of grace-based covenants that had started just after the fall. Grace has continued ever since as the only basis of salvation. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, and right up to the present day. Substitutes died, sinners lived, and those who believed were counted righteous by God.

Salvation has only ever been by grace alone through faith alone. There is simply no other way to be saved! Even under the perfect circumstances of the Garden of Eden, humanity in its frailty was unable to honour its part of the deal in a works-based covenant. The standards required for union with God are just too high. Only perfection will do!

***

The law was added because of transgressions (Galatians 3:19).

The wages of sin has always been death. What the Law did was to calibrate that. It quantified wrong and prescribed appropriate consequences. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The Law was thus not added to save, but to kill. Its ministry was one of condemnation and death (II Corinthians 3:1-11). It underscored the sinfulness of sin. It ensured that sinners received what they deserved. It was the basis of accusation against the transgressor, and acted as judge and jailer, condemning sinners and imprisoning them in their sinfulness. Under the Law, sinners were forever awaiting judgement.

Paul cleverly likened the Law to the most horrific a spouse imaginable - an unrelenting and lifelong partner who noticed every wrong, pointed the finger in ceaseless accusation, but was incapable of lifting that finger even a tiny bit to help (Rom 7:1 to 8:4). Even worse, aided and abetted by the sinner's weaknesses, the Law actually empowered sin, stirring it up all the more. Rather than reduce or suppress sin, the Law actually promulgated it all the more (I Corinthians 15:56).

The Old Covenant was first introduced to hard-hearted Israel just after their exit from Egypt. They came out of oppression and into freedom in gross unbelief, grumbling, complaining and rebelling every step of the way. (You can read the account in Exodus 11 to 19 and Deuteronomy 1 to 11). Their hard-heartedness was staggering, especially when one considers that their deliverance from Egypt had been all of grace. All they had to do to exit captivity was appropriate the Passover sacrifice, put the blood on the doorpost, eat the meat with a side-dish of unleavened bread, and do so with bags packed. This simple action of faith protected them from judgement, and then took them from being impoverished slaves and established them as wealthy citizens, all in less than a day. Yet instead of rejoicing in gratitude, their hardness of heart quickly revealed itself through their grumbling.

The Law's first job, then, was to help the Israelites recognise their sinful unbelieving state. It did so by prescribing appropriate consequences to their actions. Somewhat ironically, that giving of the Law is celebrated by the people of the Law on the day of Pentecost, which is fifty days after the Passover. That celebration by default simultaneously commemorates the death of three thousand idolaters who received what their adoration of the golden calf deserved (Exodus 32). In this the Law showed its ministry of condemnation and death to be effective, and immediately so. How different the Christian celebration of Pentecost, this also fifty days after the Passover (which was the time of year of Jesus' death and resurrection), and which was also the day on which the Holy Spirit was poured out. The New Covenant is a covenant of life, and on the day of its inaugural celebrations three thousand were saved (Acts 2).

The Law's ministry was consistent from Sinai onwards. The historical books of the Old Testament tell us much of the story. The wisdom literature of the Old Testament, with the exception of Job, was written from within this covenantal framework. The prophets of old were all under the Old Covenant as well. Their ministries were thus Law-enforcement ministries. Those who prophesied extensively about the coming New Covenant also warned those under the Old Covenant of judgement due for sin. Even the Gospels include examples of this condemnatory dynamic. Remember that Jesus was born under the Old Covenant, and as such often interacted with people who had placed their confidence in law-keeping. Jesus confronted their self-righteousness in law terms, revealing the Law's exacting standards and the inadequacy of their law-keeping efforts. Even on the lips of Jesus the Law's ministry remained the same - condemnation and death.

Paul was definitive when he addressed these matters. No one was ever made righteous through their obedience to the Law (Galatians 2:15-16). Righteousness is by faith alone, and the Law is not of faith (Galatians 3:11-12).

***

The Law was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come (Galatians 3:19).

The Law was added until Jesus. The Old Covenant was only in effect until the New Covenant had been instituted.

Adding the Law was not an exercise in cruelty, but in fairness. The Law was both substantially fair (fair in outcomes) and procedurally fair (fair in judicial process). It ensured that men and women received what they deserved for their transgressions. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Just reward. And at times just reward can be brutal. Families, for example, were expected to deal with one another around issues of idolatry. Given that in this instance execution by stoning was involved, the brutality of the Law revealed itself when parents and siblings were expected to cast the first stone, and do so without pity at that (Deuteronomy 13:6-11).

The Law was a relentless master, but that is not to say that it was bad. On the contrary, it was by nature perfect and good. It was given by God - it was His finger that literally inscribed its essence onto tablets of stone, remember - and it revealed His righteousness. It was absolute and put an end to any possible confusion about right and wrong.

You'll recall that the history of mankind is largely one of depravity, decline and decay. That is thanks to the in-Adam-ness of us all, not to mention the serpent's opportunism. No one has to teach the cute toddler to sin. In other words, we do not become sinners when we sin; we sin because we are born sinful (Romans 1 to 3). But sin we do, and because we do, we deservedly share in its consequences. It's not as if the mess is just Adam's fault; we're adding to it all the time. The inevitable downward slide into depravity, decline and decay, is the way of nations and people groups as much as families and individuals. But for the gracious intervention of the Lord, the future always unfolds in this way.

The Law was introduced into this milieu as God's gracious gift. Into the ticking time-bomb of humanity on self-destruct came a preservative. In that respect the Law has worked just as intended. It has indeed proven itself to be salty salt. As other nations and empires waxed and waned, Israel has remained intact for millennia, albeit with chequered history. The wilderness wanderings and Assyrian and Babylonian exiles were all consequences under Law for hard-hearted unbelieving disobedience, but because of it the nation survived.

At just the perfect moment, by God's timekeeping, Jesus was born. He was born a descendant of Abraham, an Israelite, born under the Law, and born thanks to the Law. He was born thanks to the Law because the Law had kept the nation of Israel intact from Moses to Jesus. It did so for all our sakes, for Jesus came for everyone. Paul did an excellent job of explaining this when he described the Law as a guardian. He unbundled the thought in two ways: The Law was the jailer who kept Israel safely behind bars until such time as true freedom came. It was also the nanny that kept watch over childish Israel until they came of age. We know from the Scriptures that this freedom and coming of age of theirs was a covenantal thing, not a national thing. It was accomplished through the Messiah, Jesus, and a change of covenant (Galatians 3:23 to 4:7).

This saltiness of Law has important application in our modern world. God's Law remains a gracious gift to lawless planet earth (Romans 13:1-7). An independent judiciary in Judeo-Christian mould is the best thing possible for any nation. Remember that God's Law is substantially and procedurally fair. It's morally wholesome, and motivated by justice rather than retribution, unlike some of the other legal systems of our day. Christians are not lawless or antinomian (anti-law). We are under God's government, which is mercifully a government of grace, and which goes beyond demanding righteous living to enabling the same. But where lawlessness prevails, and where we have any influence on government, we contend vociferously for an independent judiciary and the rule of Judeo-Christian law. In a fallen world, law preserves.

***

The Law was added in a fascinating way. The whole arrangement pulsates with the wisdom of God. It was added in such a way as to function in tandem with a salvation that remained by grace alone through faith alone. The way that this was accomplished was by writing salvation by grace into the statute book. It became law.

On the Day of Atonement sacrifices were offered for the sins of the people. It was a day of solemn assembly, with fasting, and everyone had to take part. (You can read about it Leviticus 16:1-34). No other day was more important on the annual calendar. It was the only day on which the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies. It was the day of mediation, bringing together God and man. On that day animals died and their blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat in the Most Holy Place, and their blood was also sprinkled on the people. Can you see the parallels between that and the earlier picture of two individuals cutting covenant amidst the split carcasses of the sacrifice? Everyone involved emerged from the event blood-spattered.

The Hebrew word for atonement literally means to cover over, and on that day, the preceding year's sins were covered over by the blood of the sacrifices. As a further part of the ceremony a live scapegoat had hands laid on it. By this gesture the sins of the people were imputed to it, and it was then driven out into the desert, taking with it their uncleanness. This scapegoat was a wonderful prophetic shadow of the risen Jesus, who today is at the right hand of the Father, and who lives to intercede for us. For the people who gathered at the tabernacle on the Day of Atonement all those years ago, their sins were not yet completely removed in the fullest sense. They would be back to repeat the process the following year, but at least their past sins were covered over. Their slates were clean and their hearts rejoiced.

***

Now that we've gotten to grips with the Old Covenant, this is a great time to take a step back and see how these things all fit together.

Imagine for a moment that an enormous concrete slab had been thrown as the foundation for a magnificent building. Imagine that it was thrown to precise specification and with exacting standards. It was layered, reinforced and cured, using the finest engineering techniques, and was awaiting the most exquisite architecture imaginable to be set upon it, as per the master plan. Now, imagine that instead of going ahead with the permanent structure, a temporary structure was first erected on that foundation. There was nothing wrong with the temporary structure built. It was solid, secure, well constructed and functional, and seamlessly anchored to the slab. Nonetheless, it was at the same time fundamentally at odds with the foundation on which it was built. This addition complemented the foundation in a strange sort of way. It did so by contrast. It enhanced in antithesis. Imagine further that at some point the temporary structure was dismantled, replaced at last by the magnificent building prescribed in the original drawings. See in your mind's eye how everyone breathed a giant sigh of relief. With the masterpiece complete, the temporary structure was revealed for what it was. Everyone now delights in the masterpiece, and should no longer be puzzled by the temporary structure that was.

The Law was added to the foundation of salvation by grace laid over centuries. In and of itself the Law was an admirable thing, flawless in fact, but stood in stark contrast to grace. It functioned for a period, yet we can see now how inappropriate it would've been to keep, and just how magnificent in its perfection the completed New Covenant is.

The analogy is helpful, but it does have shortcomings. The first is that the succession of grace covenants preceding the New Covenant found their consummation in it. They were not its foundation but its back-into-time extension. They did set the scene for Jesus, but they were literally prophetic shadows of the Christ Covenant, cast backwards through the ages. Christ's work transcends all, and these covenants were reflections rather than forerunners. The shed blood of animals had no power to atone without their "borrowing" against the blood of Jesus.

Understanding this helps us when interpreting these shadows. A shadow lacks detail and distorts reality. This isn't a problem at all, because folks don't study the object's shadow in order to get to know more about the object. They study the object itself. In the same way, the Christ Covenant teaches us about the others, and not the other way around. To get clear on grace, look at Jesus.

The transcendence of the Christ Covenant is essential to grasp as it prevents our view of history from fragmenting. Dispensationalism wrongly compartmentalises God's dealings with man into that-is-for-then and this-is-for-now just a little too much. Truth is that Jesus is the final word in God's dealings with man, and a final word which was uttered before the world was created (I Peter 1:20) Everything before Jesus finds its explanation in Him, just as does everything since. He is the unifying factor. All things were made by Him and for Him, and He is the One who holds all things together (Colossians 1:16-23).

***

Once the New Covenant had replaced the Old, the Law did not cease to exist.

The Law is by nature eternal. At its core, it is nothing other than a declaration of what is right and what is wrong in God's eyes.

In expanded version, the Law addressed every detail of life. The ceremonial aspects have little traction today as the Old Covenant's tabernacle, temple and priesthood have been done away with. The civil aspects have seen necessary review also, as we have far greater need to legislate motor vehicles than oxen in our day and age. But the great heart of the Law, which theologians refer to as the Moral Law, remains forever. It is right and wrong as decreed by God, and will remain so eternally. It is absolute, unchangeable. This must be so, for it emanated from His very nature.

But here's the thing! The Law doesn't apply to Christians. Not at all! Christians are not under Law. They are under grace. They are not under Law because they have died to the Law. Jesus fully and finally fulfilled all of its demands on their behalf, and did so once-for-all (Matthew 5:17-20). This takes us back to Paul's illustration from marriage. The Law was an eternal, perfect, accusing spouse; missing nothing, never helping, always disqualifying. But when we placed our faith in Christ, we were united with Him in His death and resurrection. His story became our story, and our death-and-resurrection-through-faith discharged us from our marriage to the Law. The Law will never die, but we died to the Law (Romans 7:1 to 8:4). We are now married to another - to Christ - and can never retrace our steps. The righteous requirements of the Law have not only been met for us, but because we are in Christ, they have even been met in us!

Folk can react a little the first time they hear this. "What! Are you saying that the Ten Commandments don't apply to Christians?" Yes. That is exactly what I am saying!

The Law is a composite whole. In covenantal terms it is one body of legislation. There are moral, civil and ceremonial aspects, but they are all part of one covenant. Laws concerning the Sabbath illustrate that perfectly, because the Sabbath made it onto all three lists. Sabbath-keeping under the Law is a moral, judicial and religious matter. The Law can never save, not only because of its unattainable standards, but also because it forms this composite whole. Violating the tiniest part of it makes you a law breaker (James 2:10).

What the law does exquisitely is reveal the Perfections of God. It's eye for eye and tooth for tooth because He values both eyes and teeth. As such we can learn from it, but Christians must never apply it to themselves in any kind of contractual way. Its statutes are the terms and conditions of the Old Covenant, not the New. To say this is not to be antinomian (anti-law). All Scripture was given us and we appreciate it all. We learn of the Perfections of God as we read the Law, but we learn even more of the magnificence of Jesus. He fulfilled the Law on our behalf, and in so doing rendered the Old Covenant obsolete (Hebrew 7 to 10). We dare not ever bring Christians back under Law by applying Old Covenant terms and conditions to them ever again. That would be sheer folly! It would condemn and kill, imprison and enslave, and exacerbate sinning to top it all off. Christians are not under Law but under grace. They are led by the Spirit, and as such will live out the Perfections of God in Christ's strength, and do so far better than if they tried to do it in their own strength.

Christian, the Law is not your master. You have died to it. You are not under it. You are in Christ and under Christ, and the Law is now Christ's servant to you, revealing to you your need of Him and His all-sufficiency for you. Read it as such. Love it as such. But be sure to relate to it as such as well!

***

What extraordinary bedfellows these - the Day of Atonement and the rest of the Law!

The Law increased sin. It underscored it, fanned it into flame; even empowered it. But where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more (Romans 5:20)! The Old Covenant prevailed from Moses to Jesus, but throughout that time there were still men and women who walked with God by grace through faith.

Those who were also under the Law, and who fell short of the Law's requirements, paid a heavy price for contravening it in their daily lives. Their punishment, though, should not be regarded as synonymous with salvation lost. Atonement was theirs by grace through faith and made eternal salvation possible. Daily life was by the Law's cause and effect, making life demanding and burdensome, and inevitably precipitating sin's unenviable consequences.

Moses' story illustrates this perfectly. He dishonoured the Lord. He lost his cool and struck the rock a second time in sheer frustration. His disobedience cost him dearly because the covenant he was under was a covenant of works. It was do good, get good; do bad, get bad. In his frustrated rock-striking, Moses did bad. His disobedience caused him to forfeit entry into the Promised Land, but he certainly did not forfeit his salvation. That was by grace alone through faith alone, and as such remained secure.

David is another excellent example. His indiscretion with Bathsheba cost him dearly, as did his unauthorised census of Israel's armies. The covenant he was under was a covenant of works - do good, get good; do bad, get bad. In these things, David did bad. His punishment was severe. Yet this same David is commended by the Lord as a man after God's own heart, and his Descendant holds a throne which remains forever. This is so because he lived by faith and was the beneficiary of great grace.

Let's let David and Paul give us the closing thoughts here. David called blessed the man against whom the Lord would not count his sin (Psalm 32:1-2). Paul quoted him thus, and taught us that David was not that man, even though David saw that man prophetically from afar. Abraham, Paul then went on to say, was an earlier example of that man (Romans 4:1-25). David had lived under law and paid dearly for his sins. Abraham had lived under grace and enjoyed blessing upon blessing, even when he sinned. Both were saved. Both were saved in the same way. Both were counted righteous by grace alone through faith alone. Same God. Same salvation. Different covenants, though, and very different consequences for disobedience.

And best of all? All Christians are "that man"!

***

By way of application, let's understand that few Christians place themselves under the Law of Moses as such. For most, their mixture of law and grace is a blend of snippets of the Law and a host of other church-manufactured or self-imposed laws. Just because you are not living by the Law of Moses does not mean that you're not living under law. The dynamic is one and the same - do good, get good; do bad, get bad. In other words, legalism has many faces, and none of them can save!

# Chapter 10

## David

God's covenant with David was a covenant of grace.

Read about it in II Samuel 7.

David was a remarkable man. He was a warrior of note. Skills that protected sheep in his youth later defeated the Philistines in the person of Goliath. From there David went on to a distinguished military career. He was also a multi-talented worshipper. He was poet, songwriter and musician. His vision gave rise to the tabernacle of David, a place of twenty-four-seven worship, which is a far better picture of heaven on earth than what Moses' tabernacle ever was. Moses' tabernacle was a hive of activity, with priests, offerings, sacrifices, feasts and festivals. David's was a place of adoration and of song. To top it all, the man was a competent and benevolent king under whose wisdom the nation prospered greatly.

Don't get me wrong - David was a remarkable man who loved the Lord - but he was a normal human being just like the rest of us; he was born in Adam. He had his issues and paid rather dearly for his transgressions, but as you read his writings you see just how full of faith he was, and how he could fling himself on the mercy of God in times of need. David prophetically saw the New Covenant, as is so clearly evident from his magnificent Psalms, a number of which are Messianic.

So much could be said about David. He was a shepherd-king. How unusual is that. There are only three of them in the Bible by the way. David, Solomon his son (a possibility, depending on conclusions gleaned from the Song of Songs), and Jesus.

Even more interesting is David's lineage, and this where we get into the covenant stuff. Jesus was the Son of David, remember, on both his father Joseph, and his mother Mary's side of the family. Well now, David was from the tribe of Judah, which fittingly means "Praise". The noteworthy thing is that Judah was neither the kingly nor the priestly line in the nation of Israel. Saul, David's predecessor and first king of Israel, was a Benjamite (tribe of Benjamin). In appointing David his successor the Lord redefined Israel's royalty. David's significant contribution in things priestly was equally paradigm-shifting. Moses and Aaron were from the tribe of Levi, and the priestly line in the nation had consequently always been Levitical. So what was this fellow from Judah doing setting up a tabernacle and hosting God's Presence? Answer - he was preparing the way for a new priestly line and a new priestly order; an eternal one after the order of Melchizedek.

By the time the Lord covenanted with David guaranteeing him a throne in perpetuity, all of the necessary groundwork had been laid for our Eternal Shepherd-King High Priest, Son of David, Jesus. The beauty of the prophetic shadows-before displayed in David's life are breathtaking in their beauty. We only begin to grasp their revelatory significance as we understand that each of the covenants take their place in a seven-fold progression in revelation, unveiling the beauty of the Eternal Covenant, agreed upon in the Godhead before time began. More about that later. Suffice for now to revel in their wonder and join the great company of God's people in heaven and on earth and "Praise"!

# Chapter 11

## Jesus

The New Covenant stands alone in its efficacy. Nothing compares. There is a very good reason for this. His name is Jesus!

Two technical terms describe the dynamics of atonement - propitiation and expiation. Propitiation leans towards God's side of the equation and refers to the satisfaction of the demands of His holiness. The wages of sin is death, and these wages are due the holiness of God. Propitiation describes the payment of these wages. Salvation by grace has always only been possible because this payment was made by a substitute. Expiation, on the other hand, leans towards the sinner in the equation. Because the wages of sin have been paid in full, the sinner is discharged from the debt. The sinner is a sinner no longer, for thanks to propitiation, sin and its attendant torments of guilt, shame, condemnation and judgement are removed. Expiation of sin is sin taken away.

Remember the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:1-34). On that day animals died and their blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat and on the people. That was propitiation. And remember the scapegoat, to which the sins were imputed by the laying on of hands, and which was then driven out into the wilderness, taking all uncleanness with it. That was expiation.

But remember also that the Day of Atonement was a shadow. Animal sacrifices could never be adequate propitiation or expiation. If that were the case then the vestiges of these sacrifices, which still show up in all sorts of ways in tribal or cultic contexts, would be effective even today. This is certainly not the case. The Day of Atonement was a gracious, God-given shadow of a much greater reality. Because of the reality to come it was as though propitiation and expiation had taken place. What had actually happened was that, in the economies of God, sin had been covered over by the blood of the substitutionary sacrifices. (You'll recall that the Hebrew term for atonement literally means to cover over).

The repetitive nature of the earlier substitutionary sacrifices, Adam to Jesus, point to their inefficacy (Hebrews 10:1-18). Their relative powerlessness should not surprise us. Two shadow-based analogies will help us make the point. Firstly, shadows accomplish little. Ever tried flying using the shadow of an aeroplane? Fortunately, with God involved, shadows can accomplish more than you would think. Peter's shadow healed the sick. That's the way it was with those back-in-time prophetic shadows. They were useless in and of themselves, but in the mercy of God, they were endued with sufficient power temporarily to deal with sin by covering it over, all the while pointing to the real propitiation and expiation to come.

***

The Gospel writers wrote of the cross rather matter-of-factly. The horrors of crucifixion were known to them and their readers, and they had no reason to go into detail. Isaiah wrote quite differently. He wrote graphically and poetically, for he wrote prophetically (Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12). He wrote many years before crucifixion was a commonplace means of execution, and seven centuries before Jesus was born.

The striking difference between accounts is not the detail though, but the perspective. What Isaiah described was not crucifixion at the hands of Rome, but propitiation and expiation at the hand of Almighty God. The Day of Atonement was a shadow. The cross of Christ did not appear to be propitiation or promise expiation. It was propitiation and expiation! Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

The English word atonement is found in both Testaments, but it does not mean the same thing in the New as it does in the Old. In the Old Testament the Hebrew for atonement means to cover over sin. In the New Testament the Greek for atonement means to completely resolve the sin problem. It has within it full and final propitiation and expiation. Christians who have been atoned for by the cross of Christ have had their sins paid for in full and their sins completely taken away.

***

When the Lord bound Himself by grace covenant to believing Adam, Noah, Abraham and David, the benefits for them were significant. All lived in fellowship with God. All received eternal life. Adam continued with his mandate - populate and colonise. Noah and his family were saved from the flood and continued what Adam started. Abraham became the father of a nation (and nations), inherited land, and has become a blessing to everyone through Jesus. Today he has innumerable faith-descendants. David's throne also continues to this day.

The benefits to Christians, however, to whom the Lord binds Himself in the New Covenant, are far more. They literally receive all that Jesus deserves!

The best way to explain this is from the perspective of federal headship. It all has to do with representation and identity. A great example of how this works is David and Goliath. The contest was between two warriors, but the outcome impacted on everyone, because everyone on the battlefield that day was either "in David" or "in Goliath". On a far grander scale, every human being on earth is either in Adam or in Christ.

Jesus is another Adam. Not a second Adam, but the last Adam. There will never be another one. First Adam is the federal head of all human beings. We are all his descendants, born under his federal headship, or born in him. From the get-go we are therefore sinners all. Last Adam is the federal head of all the righteous. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit. As such, He was fully Divine. Born of the virgin, He was also fully human, just as we are. But unlike us, Jesus was never in first Adam. He was not born a sinner. He is another Adam. He went on to live a sinless life, and was obedient unto death, even death on a cross. The first Adam sinned. The last Adam lived sinlessly. The first Adam deserved death, but did not receive what he deserved. The last Adam did not deserve death, but died in first Adam's stead (Rom 5:1-21).

What happens when someone puts their confidence (believes) in Jesus is truly astounding. In that moment of faith, His story becomes their story! This is instant and supernatural. It is something that God does to them. Provocatively put - before believing, Jesus died for us; having believed, Jesus died as us. Believers have been absorbed into Him as it were, and the Scriptures are definitive on this - having believed, we died, and having died, we have been raised to new life in Him!

In the moment of faith you went from being dead in your sins (in first Adam) to being alive in Christ. Made righteous with His righteousness, you were instantly seated with Him in heavenly places. Every advantage which that implies became yours in that moment (Ephesians 1:3-2:10). You are no longer in Adam. You are in Christ. It was old to new, sinner to saint, death to life, darkness to light, temporal to eternal.

And that's not all. His story also became your story within you. Just as He was born as last Adam by the Spirit, so too are you born into last Adam by the Spirit. All who believe in Jesus are born again. A brand new nature is conceived within. This new life is spiritual and perfect, just like Jesus. If it were not for the Spirit's regenerating and indwelling, then faith in Christ would be a change of status only. A change of citizenship as it were, moving from one federal head to another. But it is that and much more besides. Christians are not only in Christ, but He is in them! Believing changes status and state, position and condition.

Baptism celebrates all of this. It is death and resurrection - a funeral for the old life and a heralding of the new!

***

Father God has only ever treated one Son in the way he did Jesus. He did so in order never ever to have to treat another child of His in that way ever again (John 3:16-17). This redemptive plan had been agreed on in the Trinity before the world was created (I Peter 1:20). Our God has never had any illusions about us. On the cross Jesus literally became a sin offering as the iniquities of us all were laid on Him. He did so in an exchange of life. Sinners who embrace His sacrifice become righteous with His very righteousness just as He became sin with their sin (II Corinthians 5:16-21). God, who is supremely patient, passed over former sins (those covered over by the blood of animals) in order to deal with them fully and finally on crucifixion day. Jesus was the Perfect Sacrifice, offered at the perfect moment in time, once-for-all (Romans 3:21-26).

Once for all! Let's take some time to think this through. Jesus' sacrifice was once for all (Hebrews 8:1 to 10:25). That means that it was sufficient for all the sins already committed, which God in His forbearance had passed over. It also means that it was sufficient for all future sins - those not yet committed at the time of the sacrifice, and even those not yet committed at the time of your reading this.

In Christ, Christians are much more than forgiven. They are not only forgiven, but they are justified. This is not splitting hairs or playing with words. Forgiveness is experiential and looks back, dealing with sins already committed. Justification looks both backwards and forwards. Justified people are people whom God has declared to be not guilty! Ever! This is life-defining. God does not regard people who are in Christ as sinners, nor will He ever do so again, even when they behave in sinful ways. Having believed, those who were once sinners are now saints!

***

The federal headships of the two Adams are mutually exclusive. Everyone who has ever lived is in one or the other. The once-for-all-ness of the cross makes this all retroactive. Furthermore, there is only one way to move between the two - by grace through faith. Anyone in first Adam is a sinner. No amount of doing the right thing can change that. It's not a "doing" thing, but a "being" thing. Any such sinner who believes is instantly relocated and transformed from in Adam to in Christ, and Christ is in them. There they are no longer sinners, but saints (righteous people). No amount of doing the right thing can make them any more righteous or saintly, and no amount of sinning can ever make them any less righteous. It's not "do", but "am".

This brings us to two closely related thoughts. The first is that God is the one who makes Christians. It's all of grace, and it happens in the moment of faith. For that reason it is irreversible.

The second is that most Christians do not recognise that they have been given a new nature, and that what has been done for and to them is irrevocable. Yet their new life in Christ is wrapped in a fleshly Adam-suit. God is sovereign, but He is not controlling, and so Christians have as many choices to make as anybody else. And for as long as their identity remains in their flesh in their own thinking, they will be inclined to behave accordingly. Sinners sin. Simple as that.

For that reason, getting clear on the glories of the new Covenant is essential for us. The Gospel (the Good News of what Jesus has done) is as much for the Christian as for those yet to be evangelised. As the Christian is clear on the New Covenant, and as his Bible reinforces these truths, so Christ within manifests. Christians are not transformed through behaviour modification. Christians are transformed through the renewal of their minds by the power of the Spirit.

# Chapter 12

## The Eternal Covenant

We've approached the seven covenants in the sequence in which they were instituted, Eden to Jesus.

This idea needs a bit of a tweak, though, because the New Covenant should equally be regarded as the Eternal Covenant (Hebrews 13:20). So far we've presented the New as the pinnacle of a progression, the End so to speak, which it is. But it is also the Beginning! The Jesus who was born of a virgin two thousand years after Abraham is the same Jesus who said, "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58).

God's eternal purposes in Christ Jesus were established in a tribunal that took place before creation. Our Bible's start at Genesis; the annals of God start earlier, before time, and we have no detailed account of this caucus. The Scriptures do give us glimpses of it, but what with our inability to even conceive of God's three-oneness, anything our imaginations could conjure up of that event will be hazy at best. Our God is outside of time and space. We have a past and a future; He has nought but a present. We have a here and there; He is everywhere. Always!

The cross of Christ was thus already blazing brightly by the time God said, "Let there be light". The implications are immense. The Lord took full responsibility for saving us before ever creating us. Father, Son and Holy Spirit knew that should first Adam be created with free moral agency, a second Adam would be necessary. They also knew all that would be required of that second Adam, were He to be redemptive of first Adam and his progeny. In ways too lofty for us even to imagine, each member of the Trinity committed themselves to the redemption-plan, and to their respective role in it. Nothing was left to chance. No one was put at risk. God Himself, unilaterally, guaranteed the redemption of everything redeemable!

You and I are saved because of an agreement the Father, Son and Holy Spirit entered into before the beginning. The crucifixion had its date and time, as did the moment in which we believed. These two events make our salvation factual, anchoring it in history. This is good. Even better is that history itself has an anchor in that which predates it – our Triune God. History, correctly understood, will always be His Story.

***

This answers an all important question, which we've touched on, but can now tackle somewhat more decisively. Why is God so good to us, and unconditionally so? Is this not all too good to be true?

God treats us the way He does because we are beneficiaries of the Eternal Covenant. We have been included in Christ, and our inclusion has been facilitated and sealed by the Holy Spirit. As such, we are heirs of the Father and joint-heirs with the Son. We are fully-fledged children of God.

However, while we are included in the covenant and are beneficiaries of it, we are not in it in the sense of being one of its covenant partners. This covenant has never been between us and God; it has always been between God and God. As such, every aspect of the covenant represents Him alone, and Him perfectly! The New Covenant is eternal because God is eternal. The New Covenant is perfect because God is perfect. The New Covenant is Holy because God is holy. It is loving because God is love, kind because God is kind, merciful because God is merciful, and all-sufficient because He is the source of all things. It is true because He is Truth, and so we can confidently believe it.

Furthermore, each member of the Trinity can be completely relied on to do exactly as they have promised, because before ever promising anything to us, they first promised it to each other. God is a covenant-natured God; His word is His bond. (So much so that He has even revealed Himself as His Word. Jesus is the Word of God). Understand, then, just how secure we are as the beneficiaries of this Eternal Covenant. The Father will always accept us because He promised Jesus and the Holy Spirit that He would. The Holy Spirit will never leave us, will always lead us into truth, and will always be our Counsellor and Comforter. Holy Spirit promised Father and Jesus that He would do this before He was to be found brooding over incomplete creation. It was on the basis of Father and Spirit's assurances that Jesus laid aside His majesty and took on a human nature in all of its helpless simplicity. He subjected Himself to the womb of a virgin for He knew that the other members of the Godhead would do all that they had said. He went to the cross to lay down His life knowing full well that His Father would raise Him up again.

The Lord reveals these things to us through those Scriptures that declare the supremacy of Christ and the glories of God's eternal purpose in and through Him. There are many examples, and they fill us with wonder and awe (Colossians 1:15-20, Ephesians 1:3-10, Romans 8:18-25 and I Corinthians 15:20-28 to mention but a few). Studying these passages might not make us that much clearer on the unfathomable dimensions of the Perfections of God that lie so far beyond our ability to comprehend, but what they do is make us secure in a salvation that is anchored in the immutability of our God. Because He does not change, we do not perish. And because he never will, we never will!

# Part III

## Implications and Application

The New Covenant is all-encompassing and all-embracing. The Gospel affects everything! It should be our basis for understanding our Bibles and be the linchpin of our belief systems.

# Chapter 13

## Towards a New Covenant Hermeneutic

This little book is about interpreting the Bible correctly.

Its thesis is simple. The Bible only has one message, and that's Jesus. We'd be equally happy to say that it's the Gospel or the New Covenant, because in this context those are one and the same thing.

This chapter is for consolidation purposes. We're taking time to get the big idea clear in our minds before moving into any more application. Here is that big idea again: The Bible is all about Jesus and His work. When it comes to understanding the Scriptures, this is the great game-changer. The Bible should be read this way, understood this way, proclaimed this way, and applied this way!

***

The popular belief - wrongly so - is that the Bible is true in all that it purports to teach.

This hermeneutic (view on how to understand the Bible) correctly makes allowances for the many things recorded in the Bible that are not at all true. These included the devil's lies, and the accurate record of inaccurate or misguided statements. To embrace any of these would most obviously be folly.

This hermeneutic also makes allowances for those statements that are substantially true, even if not technically accurate. For instance, we know that the earth is a planet revolving around a star (the sun). That doesn't stop the Bible from (accurately) asserting that the sun rises and sets (Ecclesiastes 1:5). We can all see that this is the Bible addressing our lives and not some sort of lesson in astronomy or physics. Much of the Bible is poetry, parable or prophecy, which are all genres of literature that speak to the heart as much as to the mind. No problem there.

The problem comes in when the terms and conditions of the various covenants are lumped together as equally applicable to everybody. People who interpret their Bibles in this way - the Bible being true in all that it purports to teach - look up all of the verses on the subject and then try to somehow make sense of it all. They end up with a skewed view on just about everything, and a belief system riddled with contradictions. Worst of all is that it comes with chapter and verse attached. "The Bible says", they say.

With this obviously flawed approach people end up believing the darnedest things. They'll curse their enemies even though Jesus said we should bless them. Remember that those magnificent Psalms that seek the obliteration of our adversaries were written under a covenant that prescribed retribution. The Psalmists were purely calling for what they perceived to be the will of God. Others will embrace sickness as the will of God, believing it to have been given them by God for educational purposes, which makes no sense in the light of a gracious God who has revealed Himself as our Healer.

Deep inside we intuitively know that these views are nonsense, but until we can explain why, we can do little to help correct them and free those bound by them. As has already been said, we're not advocating a pick 'n choose approach to Scripture, but a point of departure that accurately represents the Lord and His loving-kindness as expressed through Christ Jesus our Lord.

# Chapter 14

## Where the rubber meets the road

A Christian who confuses the covenants is a confused Christian.

Confused Christians are vulnerable to manipulation and control. They risk unnecessary discouragement and disappointment. Too many are guilt ridden and exhausted. The devil takes full advantage of their misbeliefs, and misdirected brothers and sisters who are equally confused can be less than helpful.

Right believing leads to right living. Right believing results in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That's not because right believing puts things right, but because right believing accesses the right God-provided solutions. The hard work has been done. Jesus did it. Faith simply lives in the good of already-given grace. The foundation of the way forward for all of us is not what we must do, or what God will do, but what God has already done.

Here are four examples of common wrong-believing. At root the error is the same in each case - confusion around the covenants and a resultant mixture of law and grace in the belief system. These examples are common across a broad swath of the Christian community. This is real rubber meets the road stuff. As you digest what follows, I'm sure that in the back of your mind you'll be thinking through numerous other examples of your own.

***

The first example is of Old Covenant terms and conditions which are frequently misapplied to Christians today. It's broadly applicable because it involves money.

The Old Covenant came with tabernacle and temple, priesthood and sacrificial system. The overheads were considerable. In support of these overheads was a comprehensive system of tithes and offerings. The sacrificial system was written into the covenant's terms and conditions.

Prophet Malachi, upholder of the Law, rebuked the people. They were under a curse and their resources were being devoured because they had not kept the terms and conditions of the covenant. They were law breakers, and were receiving what their disobedience deserved. By not tithing and offering to specification, they were in fact robbing God. Malachi went on to reassure them that if they changed their ways, the Lord would restore their fortunes, and that they would enjoy the blessings of obedience once again (Malachi 3:6-15).

Malachi's rebuke applied to them. Then. Then, they were under the Law. It does not apply to us now! The curses that accompanied disobedience to the Law do not apply to us. Jesus delivered us from the curse of the Law. Furthermore, the Christian is the New Covenant temple, and we are all kings and priests. Any local church that extorts financial support from its membership using this passage is in error, even if this is done with the best intentions by sincere leaders. Do not permit anyone to use this passage, or any others like it, to condemn, control, manipulate or cajole you into giving, attending or serving in any way.

This is not an anti-giving position. Grace is generous. The early shadows of the cross had Adam's and Eve's sons giving from their respective harvests. Noah took extra animals onto the ark for sacrificial purposes. Abraham tithed on the spoils of war. If the shadows set that tone, how much more generous should New Covenant people be (II Corinthians 9:6-15).

It is also not an anti-tithing position. Believers are not guided by rules and regulations, but by the Holy Spirit. One Christian tithes; another gives offerings only. Neither is wrong. Both give in joy and faith as the Holy Spirit instructs. Every believer wants to see their local church well resourced and its leadership well cared for. Every believer also wants to see everyone around them blessed, Monday to Sunday. Sunday's giving is no more spiritual than Monday's, and the offering box no more sanctified a receptacle than the beggar's palm. All giving is worship when in response to the goodness of the Lord. Let's not get hung up on terminology or percentages, or limit giving to something that happens in church. Let's just rather get on with being generous, and rejoice in it!

The same interpretive guidelines apply across the board to the other blessings and curses passages of the Old Covenant. Deuteronomy 28 is another classic. The blessings listed in that passage are gifts to those who are in Christ, and the curses invoked by disobedience to the Law simply do not apply. Passages like these were all written for us. We learn from them. But they were not written to us. The terms and conditions that apply to us are those from a different contract altogether. Believe that and you'll decline bad and receive good. Both are on offer, and serpent and misguided saint do us a great disservice when they confuse us on these matters. Let's remain clear - Christians are New Contract people!

***

Our next example, the Sermon on the Mount, is an example of a New Testament passage often wrongly applied (Matthew 5 to 7).

These are the very words of Jesus. Red-letter stuff. And because they are an ensemble of do's and don'ts, they are all too frequently applied to Christians in legalistic ways. They are taught as some sort of Christian standard, higher than the standards of Moses of course, because Jesus is greater than Moses. The flaw here is that to regard Jesus' teachings as Christian standards is to think of the New Covenant as a covenant of works, which it is not. To do so is to believe in turn that Christians are proven acceptable to God on the basis of their performance, which they are not. This kind of thinking typically defaults to an initial salvation that is by grace, but to a Christian life that is by law. This is exactly what had happened to the churches in Galatia, and Paul rebuked them strongly for starting in faith but continuing by their own efforts (Galatians 3:1-6 and onwards).

Others unhelpfully declare these teachings of Jesus to be extrapolations of the Old Covenant. Their reasoning is that Jesus was born under the Law and did most of His preaching pre-cross. These passages are therefore pure law, and Christians have died to the law. These passages therefore do not apply to them any more than the Law of Moses does. Christians dismissing the teachings of Christ in this way seems a little odd, and it is. The logic is flawed because it is dispensational in view. The Law of Moses was an extrapolation of the Perfections of Heaven. It was the shadow of a greater reality. In other words, Jesus didn't get His standards from Moses; it was Moses who got His standards from Jesus! The Sermon on the Mount is therefore not the Old Covenant on steroids. It is loftier than that. It is Jesus revealing the Perfections of Heaven, and explaining how they should play out in this fallen world.

We see so clearly in these teachings our need of the Saviour. The sermon's pithy self-summary half way through illustrates this perfectly. "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). Just as with the Law, only more so, the enormous gulf between holy God and sinful man is unveiled here. The only way in which this gulf could ever be breached was through the sinless life and substitutionary death of Jesus.

Let's use a second snippet from the Sermon on the Mount to illustrate this further. Jesus said, "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Matthew 6:14–15). Clear enough. Only those who forgive others are qualified to receive God's forgiveness. Clear, but impossible for any of us to do! Thankfully, Paul said something quite different a little later on. "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32). Forgive as you've been forgiven. And between these two contradictory statements, an all-important event: Jesus, on the cross, praying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). Jesus did what we couldn't for us, so that in Him, He can now do what we couldn't, and do it in and through us!

The Sermon on the Mount was written for us. As we read it, it disdains all self-righteousness as woefully inadequate, and exalts Jesus in His sinless altogether-otherness. Only in Him can righteous living ever be approximated, as He enables by His grace.

***

There is no need for a Christian to be insecure about the will of God.

It's a two-sided coin, this one, and both sides distort when covenants are not clear.

The one side of this coin fusses over finding the will of God. It's all about where to live, whom to marry, and what to do with our time and talents. Some people in the Bible got it wrong with frightening consequences. They lost kingdoms, were swallowed by large fish, forfeited promises, squandered inheritances, and died painful and unnecessary deaths. As the fear rises, two interpretive factors are overlooked. Firstly, most of these were living under the Old Covenant. Do good, get good; do bad, get bad. When calamity struck it was unsurprisingly in keeping with their transgressions. And secondly, although their losses might have been great, disobedient believers do not lose their salvation. A host of Old Testament greats suffered significant loss and yet were saved. Adam and Eve, Moses, Saul, David, Solomon, and Jonah, to name just a few.

Christians are of the New Covenant, however. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Peter are better yardsticks for us. Their stories unfolded under a government of grace. They were no different to those who lived under law. At times they were as weak, unbelieving, and just as downright sinful in their behaviour as the rest of us. But like us, they got good from God, because like ours their contract was do good, get good; do bad, get good! Let's be clear that sin is never a good idea. Sin has consequences, folly costs, stupidity causes pain, and carnal (fleshly) living will seed a harvest of destruction. But that does not change the fact that we are in Christ, and as such God has made up His mind about us. He has decided to do us good (Romans 8:1-39).

The other side of this will-of-God coin is about what is done to us. It's about how we make sense of things. At the very least, life happens to all of us. At the very worst, the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, and has some successes. In an attempt to resolve this mystery - the dissonance between the abundant life promised in Jesus and the less-than-that of our experience

Christians who are confused about law and grace reach some astounding conclusions. They wrongly confuse sovereignty with control. They believe that God is personally responsible for everything that happens. Everything has a reason. Many Christians are plundered by the enemy because of this kind of wrong believing. They're forever growing in character, having a wilderness experience, being disciplined by the Lord, being tested, or in a season of spiritual warfare, etc. Their faulty premise is that God is doing or allowing the bad things in order to produce good results.

I'm not suggesting that God does not use bad things for our good. It is His absolute commitment to us to work for our good in all things, and so He often turns the darkness to dawn or brings honey out of the carcass. That's His way (Romans 8:1-39). But that should not have us conclude that He sent or willed the calamity. That's just not true! The Lord does not treat us as our sins deserve. He was wounded for our healing and impoverished for our supply. He received our punishment. His once-for-all all-sufficient atoning sacrifice was not for just some of our sin, some of our lack, or some of our diseases. It was for all. The trials about which Scripture warns us are therefore much better understood as persecutions than as arbitrary sufferings of all kinds.

As someone has said: It's just not complicated. God good, devil bad! Believing anything else is just downright illogical by the way. If God gave you those headaches to build character then why take a pill. If sickness is God-ordained then the only acceptable response is to submit to its unmitigated ravages so that it can do a better job of its intended purpose. Why dilute the will of God with modern medicine, insurance policies, credit cards and doorlocks. If the stealing, killing and destroying is God, then let's allow Him to work! What absurd folly. Wickedness is in this world because of sin. Satan is an opportunistic squatter, preying on the consequences of Adam's lax use of delegated authority, and preying on its ongoing legacy. The havoc in our lives is therefore not all Adam's fault, but it is also Adam's fault. On his fallen foundation each and every one of us plays our own depraved part, be it consciously or unconsciously. There is always a root of sin behind suffering, be it our own selfishness or the irresponsibility of the drunken driver coming the other way. No matter which way you slice and dice the mess, behind it all is sin.

But behind every redemptive action, directly and indirectly, is the Lord!

***

For our final example we're going to tackle a well-known Bible word - repentance.

The word literally refers to a change of mind. From there it carries the import of a change of direction, a turning around, or a stopping of one thing and the starting of another. Nevertheless, at its core it's about a revision in thinking; a modification of belief system, if you like.

Correctly understood, walking with God is a lifestyle of repentance. To say this is to state the obvious! Put perfect God, who never changes, in a relationship with an imperfect person who is inherently changeable, and something's gotta give. As has been said, if the cat keeps getting rubbed up the wrong way, let the cat turn around.

We get this one all tangled up in any number of ways. Here are a few examples ...

Under a covenant of works repentance typically showed itself in behavioural change. This was because a change of mind was closely linked to a change of behaviour in that context. It therefore appeared to mean stopping sinning. The ministry of John the baptiser illustrates this well. Repent! Share your stuff. Deal fairly. Stop extorting money (Luke 3:10-14). Stop doing the bad stuff and start doing the good stuff. The first problem with this understanding is that some sin is enslaving and some disobedience irreversible. For example, has the drug addict only truly repented once he is no longer addicted, or is the young girl who eloped in rebellion only repentant once she leaves her husband? This misunderstanding of repentance has many a believer trapped in guilt.

Confusion further sets in when repentance is regarded as synonymous with sorrow, or at the very least regarded as inauthentic without it. Repentance and sorrow can well be close bedfellows (II Corinthians 7:8-13), but this need not always be so. Amalgamating the two leads to the unhelpful misbelief that repentance is about feeling bad. Anyone who has not felt sufficiently bad for his sin has therefore not truly repented. As with a host of other religious daftnesses, how much bad feeling is enough, and who determines that enough-ness? While repentance may be steeped in regret on occasion, Jesus inclined it more towards joy. He taught us that both sinner and Heaven are ecstatic when repentance takes place (Luke 15:1-10).

Still others think of repentance as a form of cleansing ritual. In their minds repentance is what moves them from dirty back to clean. There is a certain logic to that view within a framework of law. It speaks to contrition and re-alignment; to taking responsibility for what is wrong and doing everything possible to set it right. The problem is that obedience to law can never save. Salvation is only by grace through faith. It is the blood of Jesus that cleanses us, and not our own repentance.

The fact remains, then, that repentance has to do with a change of mind or mindset. As such it doesn't even always pertain to sin. God Himself has been known to change His mind (and, mercifully, not send the promised judgement). Jesus underwent a baptism of repentance. It had nothing to do with sin, but it did mark a significant change of orientation for Him. He went into the water under the tutelage of the Law, but came out of the water a changed man, Spirit-filled and Spirit-led.

Can you see that on the day of Pentecost when Peter was preaching the Gospel? What Peter meant when he told the people to repent had everything to do with mindsets and belief systems (Acts 2:37-39). In that context repentance involved no longer rejecting Jesus but trusting Him instead. It means the same for us. Repentance is changing our minds and agreeing with God.

The Scriptures teach us that transformation is by the renewal of the mind (Romans 12:1-2). This is a description of repentance. Repentance is about coming into agreement with God. It's about unbelief yielding to faith, flesh yielding to Spirit, hard hearts becoming teachable, and independence yielding to reliance on God. In the mix also is darkness to light and death to life. Repentance is a good thing. A desirable thing. May the reading of this book bring you to repentance, and may every day see you repenting more. And may it be in joy.

It's His kindness that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). That's no surprise. He loves us!

***

Clarity about the New Contract affects everything!

Innumerable examples could have been used. Jesus is the man in the gap (Ezekiel 22:23-31). The rich young ruler was told to sell all he had because he was relying on his inadequate self-righteous law-keeping for salvation (Luke 18:18-30). Jesus is not going to have to apologise to Sodom and Gomorrah if He doesn't judge our nations, because judging our nations is not on His agenda. Saving us is (John 3:16-17). Christ is our Sabbath, and so there is no need to fight about Saturday and Sunday (Hebrews 4:1-10).

Welcome to a lifetime of discovering just how good the Good News is!

# Chapter 15

## New Covenant jump-start

We'll spend eternity discovering the glories of the New Covenant. Its ramifications are infinite.

That said, the New Covenant is not complicated. Even a child can understand it!

Our objective thus far has been to be as clear as possible. Someone clear on the New Covenant is likely to interpret any passage of Scripture reasonably accurately. There will always be passages that have us flummoxed, but clarity on the fundamental tenets of the New Covenant goes a long way towards resolving most contradictions and perplexities quite adequately.

The thinking behind this chapter is to expand the interpretation toolbox quickly and easily. Two factors make this possible. The first is that the Holy Spirit speaks picture-language. As a result the Bible is a book of dreams, visions, stories, role models and analogies. Each metaphor comes with its own imagery and terminology. What follows are glimpses of five salvation metaphors that are to be found all over the Scriptures. All that is on offer here is the briefest of glimpses, but these will no doubt be helpful in better understanding the New Covenant in all its richness.

***

Those who are in Christ are justified. That's law court terminology. It's not acquittal. It's not that we are actually guilty, but that we got off because the prosecution couldn't make the charges stick. Justification is a declaration of innocence. Anyone who is in Christ is not guilty. In Adam - guilty; in Christ - not guilty! No condemnation. No punishment due. There is also no conviction of sin. It's true that the Holy Spirit convicts people who are not in Christ of their sin, which is unbelief (John 16:8), but He never convicts Christians of sin, because Christians are in Christ. There, in union with Him, they have already stood trial, been judged, and have already been punished through Heaven's vicarious judicial system. Holy Spirit helps believers live in victory over sin in many ways, but conviction and accusation are not His method of operation. That is how law works, and believers are not under law, but under grace. This metaphor was the driving force of the Reformation a few hundred years ago. We continue to rejoice in it today. Christians are justified. Not Guilty!

Those who have believed have also been reconciled. That's family-speak. Christians have been put into right relationship with God. They are His children, and brothers and sisters one of another. We're members of God's household of faith. Good theology uses four prepositions, which are unobtrusive but relationship-defining little words - with, through, in and by. We are with the Father. This is all in and through Jesus, and by the Holy Spirit. We can never be separated from the Lord ever again. He will never leave us nor forsake us. There's a multiple-grip-thing that is going on. We're connected to Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and we can rest secure in our salvation because it relies on Him holding onto us, and not on us holding onto Him. Father, Son and Spirit are the ultimate three-stranded cord that cannot be broken, and they are that cord that binds us to our Triune God. As such, we are heirs of the Father and joint-heirs with the Son.

In Christ there is redemption. That's a commercial idea. In the slave markets of yesteryear, redemption amounted to purchasing a slave's freedom. Christ has redeemed mankind from slavery to sin and satan, from the dominion of this fallen world, and from the curse of the Law. We who believe are no longer prisoners but freemen. Christ purchased us. He has paid the ransom price in full. That means that technically we are now His. But our new Owner is not a controller. Because He is no slave-master He has released us. Our freedom is His gift to us, and it is freedom in the fullest possible sense, for He has released us from all that once held us captive. Anyone who now stays in a servant-relationship with Jesus does so as a bond-slave. They are volunteers. "Want to's", and not "have to's". That is grace in action.

Jesus faced many challenges and won many a victory. Ultimately there was one great showdown going on - satan and sin versus Jesus. The world's system, flesh and the Law were all involved. Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tested. He was tested like that so that none of us will ever have to face that kind of testing. This is fortunate, for first Adam was tested under far better circumstances in the Garden of Eden, and he failed. So would we have; and so would we now. Jesus was tested in a garden also. In Gethsemane He chose to lay down His life rather than save it. This was all in outworking of God's words to Adam, Eve and the serpent at the time of the fall (Genesis 3:13-21). In the enmity between the serpent and the offspring of the woman, the serpent would bruise His heel (the cross), but the Son would crush his head (total defeat). At the cross this was so. Jesus is Victor. He is the Lion of Judah. The cross was war, and Jesus won!

And finally, the cross was worship. There Jesus taught us about destiny, meaning, purpose, fulfilment and vocation. The will of God was everything to Him. It involved sacrifice and surrender. It offered joy in its outcomes. The cross was not just a task to perform or a job to do. It was the will of God and Jesus' reason for living. Many mistakenly pursue self-actualisation in the search for meaning, but what the Gospel shows is that the place in which men and women truly find themselves is the same place in which they truly lose themselves. Thy will be done is my life lived best. In Adam people search; in Christ people find. In Adam we are self-serving, even when we are serving others. In Christ we worship, and in worship we find true fulfilment. It is in Christ that the redeemed discover that for which they have been created.

***

A second helpful tool in the interpretation toolbox is contrast. Christians are new creations and in a New Covenant. If there is a new, then there was an old!

This list has grown over the years. It's a work in progress. Feel free to add to it as you discover additional facets to the Jewel that is Jesus and His perfect work. I call this list the Great New Covenant Proposition.

Not of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but of the tree of life

Not of Hagar but of Sarah

Not Ishmael but Isaac

Not of Moses but of Abraham

Not of the fig tree but of the olive tree

Not in Adam but in Christ

Not of the will of man but by the will of God

Not of perishable seed but of imperishable

Not fragile but indestructible

Not a work of human effort but a work of God

Not from below but of above

Not temporal but eternal

Not of earth but of heaven

Not of this age but of the age to come

Not defined by the past but defined by the future

Not according to facts but according to truth

Not aligned with things seen but aligned with things unseen

Not old but new

Not dead but alive

Not entombed but exalted

Not darkness but light

Not separated from God but reconciled to Him

Not far away but those brought near

Not condemned but justified

Not guilty but made innocent

Not unclean but clean

Not sinful but made holy

Not of old nature but having a new nature

Not held to ransom but redeemed

Not God's enemy but God's friend

No longer a sinner but now a saint

Not neglected but attended

Not bound but free

Not of random happenstance but predestined and chosen

Not lost but found

Not disqualified but qualified

Not disowned but affirmed

Not a slave but a son

Not under law but under grace

Not cursed but blessed

Not to be pitied but to be envied

Not hopeless but hope-filled

Not sick but healed

Not oppressed but delivered

Not poor but rich

Not rejected but accepted

Not shamed but glorified

Not in scarcity and lack but in abundance and amply supplied

Not orphaned but adopted

Not fearing men but fearing God

Not weak but strong

Not powerless but empowered

Not barren but fruitful

Not alone but in community

Not disenfranchised but belonging

Not useless but useful

Not the tail but the head

Not beneath but above

Not purposeless but having good works prepared in advance for us to do

Not cast aside but incorporated

Not by accident but on purpose

Not confused but clear

Not blind but seeing

Not deaf but hearing

Not lame but leaping like a deer

Not broken but made whole

Not inadequate but adequate

Not anxious but confident

Not complaining but rejoicing

Not down but up

Not inconsolable but comforted

Not ashes but beauty

Not variable but constant

Not temporary but permanent

Not of works but of faith

Not of striving and human effort but of rest

Not mourning but gladness

Not disgraced but dignified

Not accused but vindicated

Not defeated but defended

Not under the dominion of satan but under the government of God

Not out of this world but not of it

Not anticipating judgement but rendered unpunishable

Never deserving, but awash in mercy

Not fearful but bold

Not for victory but from victory

Not anxious but confident

Not burdened but light of yoke

Not unlovable but lovely

Not ugly but beautiful

Not unrighteous but righteous

Not in turmoil but at peace

Not irrational but of sound mind (in fact, we have the mind of Christ)

Not disinherited but the heir of the double portion

Not in the flesh but in the Spirit

Not fading away but from glory to glory

Not inept but enabled (the Helper dwells within us!)

***

The great metaphors of Scripture are beautiful things. So too is the list above. As we grow in the New Covenant, no doubt will our grasp of these grow with us. More importantly, may they saturate the deepest levels of our psyche. As our minds are renewed in an ongoing way, tools like these facilitate and enable, and as they fashion the framework of our thinking, so they help unlock the treasures buried in the Scriptures for us as we turn to our Bibles in whatever context.

# Chapter 16

## The Church and Israel

Sometimes the best that can be done, in the interests of clarity, is to admit that something is unclear.

A fault line runs through both Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants. It is the dividing line between literal flesh-and-blood lineage, and those who were included in the covenants by faith. Both have an inheritance, but that inheritance is not one and the same thing. Every by-natural-birth Israeli is a son of Abraham. To these God gave the land of Israel. This inheritance was further ratified by Moses. Yet not every Israeli believes in Jesus. Therefore, not every Israeli has the salvation that is in Christ alone. Conversely, every Gentile who believes Jesus is a faith-son of Abraham. Reborn in Christ, they are heirs of the promises that were given to Abraham, but that does not mean that they have any claim on the land.

Exactly how all of this works and where the fault-lines run have been a matter of debate amongst Christians over the centuries. Most people are on one side of the fence or other. Some are on the fence - clear that they are unclear.

Those on the one side of the fence believe that the church is the new Israel. In other words, in Christ the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants were fully and finally consummated, and the nation of Israel is therefore no more special than any other nation on earth. This is sometimes referred to as replacement theology, and is fully vested in the New Covenant to the exclusion of all else. There is certainly Biblical support for such a view. Challenging the view is the dissenting voice of world history that claims a special place for Israel. End-time prophecy also seems to give her something of a starring role at wrap-up-time. Broadly speaking, folks in this camp seem to tend towards being of liberal persuasion in their views.

On the other side of the fence are those who take a more dispensational position. They're convinced that Israel has a very special part to play in world history, and consider temporal aspects of the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants still to apply in a significant way. These folk might urge their churches to pray very specifically for Israel, lobby their governments to keep strong supportive diplomatic ties with her, and or lean towards a Judeo-flavoured Christianity. Broadly speaking, folks in this camp seem to lean towards fundamentalism in the expression of their faith.

Get folks from these camps together and fire up the debate and you can be in for some interesting times. Do that in the congregation and it can spell disaster as religio-political pyrotechnics follow and the one view is the paraffin to the open flame of the other. As a pastor, I can never seem to really get comfortable in either camp. Israel certainly holds its head high on the stage of world history in ways difficult to ignore, and yet there is something disturbing about the Hebrew-murmuring Gentile believer who loves Jerusalem but has no time for the person in the pew next to him.

In Paul's letter to the church in Rome, which is his great theological magnum opus, he does not in my view place himself in either camp exclusively. I would argue that as a died-in-the-wool Israelite who pioneered the Gospel to the Gentiles, it's worth our noting that he certainly proclaims a Gospel of grace, faith and Christ alone. Yet Romans makes clear that his own people were a source of anguish for him, and his expectation was that the natural olive branches will be grafted back into the root stock of salvation by grace (see 11:24). In other words, God isn't finished with Israel yet.

Thank God that He isn't finished with any of us yet, and that in a good way. That much is clear!

***

PS. There you have it - the one chapter everybody will disagree with!

#  Postscript

## Some Uncommon Sense

Those of us who have lived a while know that good old common sense is not all that common after all.

Let's wrap things up by reminding ourselves of some useful basics that are nothing more than common sense. They're here in no particular order, and the list is not exhaustive. The reason I've included the chapter is to discourage dogmatism and the division it brings. Some things are worth fighting for, but there aren't many. In our quest for accurate Bible interpretation - and that's worth fighting for - let's not cause more problems than we solve. After all, God doesn't love us because we're right or because we're lovely. He loves us, and that's what puts us right and makes us lovely.

The Holy Spirit wrote the Bible. The Holy Spirit preserved the Bible. The Holy Spirit led us to the Bible. Let's trust the Holy Spirit to help us understand the Bible. We can study, but only He reveals.

The wisdom of the centuries is tried and tested. Let's not jettison the best we've got. Context, context, context. Who said what, to whom, why, how, and with what results - these are good questions all. Paragraphs are units of thought. Disciplined historical-grammatical consideration of the text is a good thing. We're not looking to our Bibles to say something new or faddish. We're relying on them for truth.

There's a big difference between getting things straight, and getting everything straightened out. The first is a good idea, the second a zealot's ideal that is beyond any of us. If you think you've finally figured it all out, that's a sure sign that you've lost the plot. When you quote your Bible, do so with humility.

A significant percentage of the Bible is poetry. Read it like that. Let it speak to the heart first and the head second. There will always be as many interpretations as there are churches and people. Diversity is a good thing. Keep the main thing the main thing and don't sweat the peripheral stuff.

Use the tools available. That includes your brain. Computers have put sophisticated study tools and valuable research within the reach of just about anyone. Ignorance is no more necessary than confusion.

Befriend your Bible. Absorb the Word of Life. Read, study, memorise and meditate. These disciplines are good and worthwhile acquiring.

Don't pick unnecessary fights. Pitting the Scriptures against its critics is not necessarily the best use of time and energy. Christianity and the sciences are not mutually exclusive. Many believers are scientists and many scientists are believers. Atheists and Christians are both people of faith; neither can prove their point. Know what you believe and why, and learn to "let it go". That is sage pastoral advice.

Don't stumble over passages that you don't understand. Rejoice in those you do. Our Bibles are for revelation, not for confusion. Their treasures have not been hidden from us, but have been tucked between their covers for us. As you walk with the Lord, so you will see and understand more and more.

And above all, let the attitude of gratitude prevail. God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that we might become the very righteousness of God (II Corinthians 5:21). The Gospel is far better news than most people ever imagine. The Book (Bible) serves the Gospel (Jesus). Receive it, apply it, and proclaim it as such, and you'll never be far wrong. Jesus is Saviour of all, and in that we rejoice!

# # #

Thank you so much for reading this book!

If it's been a blessing to you, please review it online at the place of purchase. This will lift its visibility and increase the probability of others being blessed by it as well.

Should you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. My e-mail address is listed under Publishing Information.

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Every blessing!

Gavin Cox

# Publishing Information

Published by Gavin Cox

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Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.

Copyright Policy: Three thoughts inform the SoMuchGoodNews copyright policy. Salvation is a free gift from God and it should be shared freely, copyright on e-publications is difficult to enforce, and it is Biblical for those who preach the Gospel to live by the Gospel. So, feel free to copy and distribute this material. Please never sell it. And as you share it, consider purchasing those additional copies or supporting our efforts by making a donation. Directing others to www.SoMuchGoodNews.com would also be much appreciated.

#  Other Books by Gavin Cox

The Not Confused Series

How to read the Bible and not get confused

Why the Gospel is the Best News Ever

Living in the Will of God

Bringing the Bible to Life Series

Welcome Home

Rahab's Place
