The Two Covenants by John Nevins Andrews

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 29, 1883

The Two Covenants.

By John Nevins Andrews

(Continued.)

LET us now consider the excellence of the new covenant, and learn wherein it is a better covenant than the one which it supersedes. Here are the terms of this covenant: "But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." Jer. 31 : 33, 34.

Certainly, this is "the better covenant," and these are the "better promises." Let us enumerate them. 1. "I will put my LAW in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." 2. "I will be their God, and they shall be my people." 3. "They shall teach no more every man his neighbor; . . . for they shall all know me." 4. "I will forgive their iniquity." 5. "I will remember their sin no more."

This is a very remarkable list of new-covenant blessings. First and foremost in this enumeration, stands a promise concerning the law of God. Surely, this is worthy of our notice. But what is this promise respecting the law? Is it, "I will abolish my law?" No. Is it, "I will change my law?" No. Is it, "I will supersede my law by a better code?" By no means. It is very different indeed from such declarations as these. This is the promise: "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." He will make his law a part of their very being. He will establish it in their affections; he will engrave it upon the table of their hearts. This is wonderful indeed. The law of God is still uppermost in the mind of its Author. The first covenant required obedience to the law of God, but failed to secure it. The second covenant insures obedience by making the law a part of the very nature of those with whom the covenant is made. God does not leave his law till he has accomplished that which he has spoken, the raising up of a people who shall obey him from their hearts. The first covenant was made concerning the law of God. In a still higher sense this is true of the second. The great work of the new covenant is to take away the carnal mind, which is enmity against the law of God, so that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Rom. 8 : 1-7.

And so the Mediator of the new covenant lays down the immutability of the law of God, and solemnly enforces its observance as the condition of entering eternal life. Matt. 5 : 17-19; 7 : 12; 15 : 1-9; 19 : 16-19; 22 : 35-40; Luke 16 : 17. And the apostles, Paul, and James, and John, have faithfully testified to the same great truth. Rom. 2 : 12-16; 3 : 19, 20, 31; 7 : 7-14; 8 : 3-7; 1 Cor. 15 : 56; Eph. 6 : 1-3; James 1 : 25; 2 : 8-12; 1 John 3 : 4, 5; Rev. 11 : 19; 12 : 17; 14 : 12; 22 : 14.

But how is it that the second covenant is so much more efficacious than the first in securing obedience to the law of God? The answer is found in the difference between Sinai and Calvary. At Sinai the law of God entered in terrible majesty, but the hard heart of sinful man is incapable of submitting to the law of God. The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, and, indeed, cannot be. At Calvary enters, not the law of God, but the Lamb of God, as our great sin-offering. Not the condemning law, but the sin-atoning sacrifice, is the central object upon the hill of Calvary. And yet the law was present there to strike the Son of God with the sword of divine justice. Gal. 3 : 13. How astonishing the events of Calvary! The new covenant is given to us in the blood of Christ. We have pardon through his blood: With his stripes we are healed. Mercy and truth meet together in the sacrifice made for us by the Son of God.

The new covenant proposes to save those who have broken the law of God. It is able to forgive their sin, the transgression of the law, and not only to pardon them for violating the law of God, but to put that law in their hearts so that it shall be their very nature to obey it. This is what the Bible means by conversion. Rom. 7 : 7-25; 8 : 1-9; Acts 3 : 19. But the Mediator of the covenant can thus give life to the guilty, only by the sacrifice of his life. We have life from his death. We have pardon from his blood. We have grace from the fountain of his grace. The new covenant is a sys

tem of salvation wherein God is shown to be just, even in the very act of justifying the sinner, and wherein the law is shown to be established even by the doctrine of justification by faith. Rom. 3 : 24-26, 31.

If we place the blessings of the new covenant in chronological order, they will stand thus: 1. The forgiveness of sins. 2. The writing of the law in the heart: 3. The blotting out of sins so that they shall be remembered no more. 4. God fully unites himself to his people, thenceforward forever to be their God, and they to be his people. 5. All shall know the Lord; from the least to the greatest.

But the forgiveness of sins is upon condition of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 20 : 21. Repentance involves (1) Godly sorrow for sin; (2) Confession of sin; (3) Reparation of wrong acts when it is in our power to make it. (4) Change of conduct, so that we cease to transgress, and henceforward obey. And faith in our Lord Jesus Christ views him, (1) As our great sin-offering, and accepts his blood as our only ground of pardon; (2) As our great High Priest to plead our cause when we come to God for mercy and grace; (3) And finally views his life as the perfect example of that obedience which the law of God requires, and the perfect model after which we must pattern.

The writing of the law of God upon the heart is not the work of a moment. When God begins the work of conversion, the first act is to forgive the sins of the past. The next is to write his law in the heart. When this work is fully wrought in men, then they are, in the highest sense, Christians; for they are like Christ. He had the law of God in his heart. Ps. 40 : 8. Then they love God with all the heart, and their neighbor as themselves. Then, also, they observe in truth the precepts of the law written upon their hearts, not less than upon the tables of stone. The whole gospel dispensation is devoted to the work of writing the law upon the hearts of the people of God, even as the whole period of probation with each individual is devoted to this work in each individual case. Our first ideas of God's law are at best but poor. As the Spirit of God enlightens our minds, we have clearer conceptions of the character of the law; and as the work of conversion progresses, these elevated principles become established in our character. Whenever the minister of Christ opens to our minds new and clearer views of the principles of right and causes us to see, as never before, the extent of God's demands upon in his law, then the Spirit of God, if we will co-operate, writes these principles in our hearts. And so the work progresses till the law of God is fully written in our hearts; in other words, till our characters are perfected in virtue.

But human probation does not last forever. The great work of our Lord in saving his people from their sins (Matt. 1 : 21), is brought to a final conclusion when all their sins are blotted out. Acts 3 : 19-21. Then the book of God's remembrance will be as clean from the record of his people's sins as though that record had never been entered therein. Their raiment having been washed in Jesus' blood, so that one stain of guilt remains upon them, last of all, the record of that guilt is removed from the book, and its pages are left as pure as their character has been rendered by the cleansing blood of Christ. And thus it is that the promise of the new covenant, "I will remember their sin no more," has its perfect accomplishment. The record of their sins is washed out by the blood of Christ, and then God himself promises that he will remember their sins no more. The probation of the people of God ends in the perfect recovery of their lost innocence, never again, thank God !, to be lost by them. J. N. A.