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QUESTIONS ON THE COVENANTS

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 10, 1878

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 51, No. 2.

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QUESTIONS ON THE COVENANTS.

By R. F. C.

“Does the expression, ‘my covenant,’ in Ps. 89:28, 34, apply to the law, as in Ex. 19:5 and Deut. 4:13?” A. M. M.
Ans. 1. The law of God is the basis of both the first and the second covenant. Ex. 19:5; Jer. 31:33. Christ, the Son of David, is the person spoken of in this psalm, verses 19–37. The covenant of the “better promises,” the forgiveness of sins and the “eternal inheritance” (Heb. 8:12 and 9:15), “shall stand fast with him.” There are two parts to the covenant, the conditions and the promises. In verse 34, God promises not to fail in the fulfillment of the promises,—“My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips.” It is evident, from verses 30–32, that the keeping of the commandments is the condition of the covenant required of the children of Christ.
2. It is evident that the “strangers” that lay hold of God’s covenant (Isa. 56:4–6), not only embrace Christ and become heirs of the promises through him, but they also keep the Sabbath as a condition; for this is expressed. What Christian will deny that they keep the other nine? since they are to keep their “hand from doing any evil.”
3. From Ex. 31:16, we learn that the “children of Israel” are bound by a “perpetual covenant” to keep the Sabbath. This may not be understood as applying to the old covenant or the new; but this perpetual, Sabbath covenant must endure as long as Israel endures; and from Jer. 31:35, 36, we learn that as long as the sun, moon, and stars endure, Israel shall not “cease from being a nation” forever. They will keep the Sabbath. Isa. 66:22.
4. Moses does not specifically promise eternal life to those that keep the commandments; but a comparison of Deut. 30:19 and 32:46, 47, with Eze. 18:4; Matt. 19:16, 17 and Rom. 6:23, will show that the keeping of the ten commandments is a condition of eternal life.
5. The application of the terms “law of God” and “law of the Lord,” must be determined by the context, whether they apply to the moral or the ceremonial law. R. F. C.