RATHER RASH | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 23, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 29.

RATHER RASH.

A WRITER in the Pacific Christian of July 11 makes the following rather rash statements which our readers may meet, and which it may be well to notice:—

“It is an old Sabbatarian dodge that the ‘new covenant’ is the old renewed, but to the person who has given the matter even a little consideration, this argument is lighter than the thinnest air. It is an old Pedobaptist plaster which never did draw a blister.”

“They tell us that a ‘new’ heart is, under the Gospel, not a ‘new heart,’ but a renewed heart. That the ‘new world’ is not a ‘new world,’ but a renewed world. That, moreover, the ‘new covenant’ is not a ‘new covenant,’ but a renewed covenant. It is the Ten Commandments put in the heart, with a promise to keep them, they say.”

And in speaking of Jeremiah’s use of the term “new,” the writer says:—

“More than this, there was a Hebrew word lying before the prophet that meant renew, but the Spirit of the living God did not select it to describe the covenant that God would make with those who believe in Christ and desire to inherit under the new will.”

In the first place, we know of no Sabbatarian who claims that the “new covenant” is the “old covenant” renewed. The only claim, as we understand, that has been made is that God renews that everlasting covenant with every soul that is born into his kingdom. So much for that. The writer has set up a man of straw and unwittingly supposed it to be flesh and blood.

True, whether we say “new” or “renewed,” the renewed heart is new, the renewed earth WILL BE new; the renewed covenant in the heart of every child of God is new; and the law of God thus implanted is but the “old commandment which ye had from the beginning,” “which thing is true in him [Christ] and in you [the child of God], because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.” To the sinner under the old covenant it is a law of condemnation, wrath, death; to the regenerated child of God it is a blessed witness of the righteousness of God by faith, the law of life in Christ Jesus.

But does not the Hebrew word translated “new” (chadash), have the sense of renew or renewed?—Most assuredly. Note: “And renew [chadash] the kingdom there” (1 Sam. 11:14); “And renew [chadash] a right spirit within me” (Ps. 51:10); “Renew [chadash] our days as of old” (Lam. 5:21); “And renewed [chadash] the altar of the Lord” (2 Chron. 15:8); “Thy youth is renewed [chadash] like the eagle’s” (Ps. 103:5); “Thou renewest [chadash] the face of the earth” (Ps. 104:30). So much for this.

But once again, God’s Gospel is “the everlasting Gospel;” his covenant is the “everlasting covenant;” but to every heart who receives Christ, the Gospel comes as new glad tidings, the covenant is renewed with him, and is to him a new covenant. It is all the old, old story, yet ever new and fresh and sweet in the heart watered by the Fountain of Life.