The Two Covenants by M. E. Steward

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jan 12, 1911

The Two Covenants

By M. E. Steward

M. E. STEWARD

THE history of the two covenants reveals plainly how unreliable is man, and how sure and faithful is our divine Lord.

The first covenant:—

1. The first covenant was made with the Israelites at Mount Sinai. God spoke his law, and the people said: “All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.” Ex. 24:7. This was the people’s part of the covenant.

2. The Lord’s part, or promise, was: “If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine; and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” Ex. 19:5, 6.

3. The children of Israel did not keep their part of the covenant. Exodus 32; Heb. 8:9. God forgave them through the provisions of the new covenant. See “Patriarchs and Prophets,” pages 363-373.

Nature of the first covenant:—

1. The condition was, Obey and live; but “cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them.” Deut. 27:26. There was no forgiveness in the first covenant.

2. There was no Saviour in it. The people depended on themselves to keep it.

NOTE.— “Feeling that they were able to establish their own righteousness, they declared, ‘All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.’ They had witnessed the proclamation of the law in awful majesty, and had trembled with terror before the mount; and yet only a few weeks passed before they broke their covenant with God, and bowed down to worship a graven image. They could not hope for the favor of God through a covenant which they had broken; and now, seeing their sinfulness and their need of pardon, they were brought to feel their need of the Saviour revealed in the Abrahamic covenant.”—“Patriarchs and Prophets,” page 372.

The new covenant:—

1. The new covenant is the gospel; it is redemption from the transgressions of the law, through Christ.

2. It was made with Adam in the promise of One who should bruise the serpent’s head. Gen. 3:15. It was renewed with Abraham in the promise of the Messiah and the saints’ inheritance in the new earth; and it brings men to obedience to God’s commandments. Gen. 26:3-5. It was in force during the existence of the old covenant, and embraces every child of God, from Adam to the end of the world.

3. It is called the new covenant because the blood that sealed it—“the precious blood of Christ”—was not shed on Calvary until after the first covenant had been ratified at Sinai by the blood of the sacrifice.

Blessings of the new covenant:—

1. The new covenant was established upon “better promises,” because it provides for the forgiveness of sins, and grace to renew the heart.

2. Christ is ours through the provisions of the new covenant, and in him we have eternal life. 1 John 5:11, 12. We also have the help of the Holy Spirit to enable us to keep the Father’s law.

3. In the new covenant God’s law is written on the loving, reverent hearts of his children.

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.”

The new covenant unchangeable:—

1. The covenant of Dan. 9:27 is the new covenant. “He [the Messiah; verses 25, 26] shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.” A day being a year in prophecy, this week is seven years. For three and one-half years Christ personally taught all the principles of the new covenant, and “he taught them as one having authority.” Matt. 7:29. “In the midst of the week” he caused the “sacrifice and the oblation to cease” by the sacrifice of himself, who was the great antitype of all the Jewish sacrifices. After the death of the Saviour, his disciples continued to labor for the “many”—the Jews—three and one-half years longer. At the end of that time, Peter had his vision on the housetop, and the gospel began to go to the Gentiles. About the same time, at the martyrdom of Stephen, “they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.” Acts 8:4.

2. The new covenant that saves from sin and writes the law in the heart was doubly confirmed by the promise and oath to Abraham, and now it was sealed by Christ’s death. “Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereto.” Gal. 3:15.

3. What about changing any part of the new covenant after the death of

Christ? The law of ten commandments is a part of that covenant; it is, in fact, the foundation of it. Neither Christ nor his disciples changed the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. Yet man attempts to “disannul” God’s Sabbath (Ex. 20:8-11), and to “add thereto” the Sunday sabbath! Those who are loyal to God’s law are given many promises in the Bible, even the last one in it. Rev. 22:24.

Sanitarium, Cal.