Posted by: Bill Hornbeck | September 30, 2012

One Unconditional Covenant

Today’s devotion comes from Hebrews 8:7-13.
 
“7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second.  8 For finding fault with them, He says,
                                 

“Behold, days are coming, says the Lord,
When I will effect a new covenant
With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;
9 Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers
On the day when I took them by the hand
To lead them out of the land of Egypt;
For they did not continue in My covenant,
And I did not care for them, says the Lord.
10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
After those days, says the Lord:
I will put My laws into their minds,
And I will write them on their hearts.
And I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.
11 “And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen,
And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
For all will know Me,
From the least to the greatest of them.
12 “For I will be merciful to their iniquities,
And I will remember their sins no more.”

13 When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete.  But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.”  Hebrews 8:7-13.

———————–

“…I will put My laws into their minds,
And I will write them on their hearts.
And I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.
11 “And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen,
And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
For all will know Me,
From the least to the greatest of them.
12 “For I will be merciful to their iniquities,
And I will remember their sins no more.”  Verses 10-12.

There is no condition to this new covenant.  God “will put My (His) laws into their minds”.  God “will write them on their hearts.”  God “will be their God”.  … God “will be merciful to their iniquities”.  God “will remember their sins no more.”  There is no condition supplied by man that is a prerequisite for God to take these actions.

There were conditions to the old covenant.  If man obeyed God, then he could live.  “So you shall keep My statutes and My judgments, by which a man may live if he does them; I am the LORD.”  Leviticus 18:5 

Here are some more Scriptures which likewise state this condition. 

Leviticus 18:4
“You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them;  I am the LORD your God.”

Leviticus 25:18
‘You shall thus observe My statutes and keep My judgments, so as to carry them out, that you may live securely on the land.”

Deuteronomy 4:1                                                                                                                            “Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I am teaching you to perform, so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.”

Deuteronomy 12:1                                                                                                                         “These are the statutes and the judgments which you shall carefully observe in the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess as long as you live on the earth.”

Deuteronomy 30:16
“in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it.”

 
Although the distinction between the old covenant and new covenant thus helps us to better understand the unconditional nature of the covenant, there is a sense that there is only one unconditional covenant throughout history.  God did not go to “Plan B” after the Fall or after witnessing the nation of Israel sin.  Before the foundation of the world, God chose His elect for salvation and planned and promised to do everything necessary for their salvation.  This is “TULIP”:  “Unconditional Election” through “Preservation of the Saints”.  “When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete.  But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.”   Verse 13.      
 
“Remember the former things long past,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done,
Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure‘;
Calling a bird of prey from the east,
The man of My purpose from a far country.
Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass.
I have planned it, surely I will do it.”  Isaiah 46: 9-11.
 
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.  In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”   Ephesians 1:3-6.
    

The Covenant Protestant Reformed Church has provides a link to resources on the Covenant – Click here: Covenant Baptism Resources

Here are additional articles on the Covenant from the Protestant Reformed Churches denomination under the section titled “Doctrine” –  Click here: Pamphlets and Articles

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