p. 171 | THE TWO COVENANTS by Uriah Smith

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jun 6, 1878

THE TWO COVENANTS.

By Uriah Smith

(Concluded.)

“FOR finding fault with them, he saith, Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” Heb. 8:8.

HAVING now seen with whom the new covenant is made, namely, with Israel and Judah, and how the Gentiles come in to share in its blessing, namely, by joining themselves to the commonwealth of Israel through Christ, thus becoming Abraham's seed, we now inquire,

When was the new covenant made? In Matt. 26:26-30, we have an account of the institution of the Lord's supper. After he had broken the bread, “He took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying; Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” The blood of Christ is the blood of the new covenant, the word testament, as already noticed, being the same as covenant. The disciples present on this occasion were Jews, and there, as representatives of the whole Christian church, they entered into the new covenant with the Lord. God had now set forth Christ as the Saviour of the world, virtually proposing to all that if they would receive him and his offering, on the conditions which he, in his divine teaching for three years and a half, had set before them, they should receive the remission of their sins, as it was for this purpose that his blood was shed. And they by partaking of those emblems, accepted the arrangement.

The next day Christ's blood was actually shed upon the cross, and there the new covenant was ratified and sealed. Paul says, “For a testament is of force after men are dead; otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.” From that moment the new covenant was in force. And right in connection with this fact we call attention to what Paul says concerning the ratification of a covenant: “Brethren, I speak after the manner of men: Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereto.” Gal. 3:15.

When a covenant is once confirmed no change can be made in it, not an item can be added, and not an item can be taken from it. And if this is true of a covenant made by man, how much more of one made by the Lord! After the new covenant was ratified, therefore, upon the cross, no addition whatever could be made to it, and nothing taken from it.

Now we ask where Sunday-keeping comes in. Where was that incorporated into the new covenant as one of its provisions and duties? We have never yet heard the claim put forth that it originated the other side of the cross. It is always placed this side, Then it is too late. It could not be added after the covenant was confirmed by the blood of the cross, on Paul's showing. Even if its origin could be traced back to the days of the apostles, it would avail nothing. We deny that it can be traced to that early date. It is lost in the theological bosh and bogs of the days of Constantine. But if it could be traced beyond that, to the days of the earlier fathers, to the days of the apostles, to the day of Pentecost, even to the day of the resurrection, still “Too late!” must be branded upon its brazen brow, and we must regard it as an interloper, an intruder, a usurper, a fraud, and a deception. It has no place in the new covenant, and we are under no obligation thereto.

But what of the Sabbath? We answer, The Minister of the new covenant was careful to affirm its perpetuity and consequent binding obligation in this dispensation, by affirming in the most positive manner, the perpetuity and immutability of that law of which it is an integral part; that law which is the standard of righteousness, and from which not a jot or tittle was to pass while the heavens and the earth should remain. Matt. 5:17-20.

And the prophecy of the new covenant, itself, has something very emphatic to say about the law. Under this covenant says God, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” As Paul quotes it, it reads, “I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts.” To what law does this prophecy refer? To that which was the law of God in the days of Jeremiah, which no one will dispute was the ten commandments. If it does not mean this, then it should have read, I will put a new law into their minds, and write it in their hearts.

And if, as our opponents contend, the law of ten commandments was the old covenant to be abolished, the prophecy of the change should have read, This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: I will abolish my law, and take it out of their way. Or if the law was not to be abolished, but only changed, that fact should have been noted in some such language as this: This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: I will change my law, and adapt it to the genius of the gospel dispensation.

But it says nothing of this kind, as the reader has sufficiently noticed. It says, I will put my law into their inward parts, and write it in their hearts. I will incorporate it into their very being; I will take away the carnal mind which is not subject to the law of God, so that it will be their delight to keep it in sincerity and truth.

And this is further indicated in the fact that when the Minister of the new covenant came to take away the first and establish the second, he said, “I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea thy law is within my heart.” Ps. 40:8; Heb. 10:5-9. And as he was, in all holy affections and loyalty to God, so must all his followers be.

But if we take the ground of our opponents, what is the difference between the old and new covenants? The old covenant being the ten commandments which people were then to obey, the new covenant is the code of requirements in force under this dispensation. And what are these? The same exactly as the original ten with the Sabbath left out! The old covenant was therefore imperfect and faulty because the Lord had inadvertently put a Sabbath into it; so he undertakes to make a better one by giving the same law over again, leaving the Sabbath out. But as soon as this is done, lo! it is found that the Sabbath cannot be dispensed with; for even man's physical necessities imperatively demand it. Mentally, morally and physically, society would plunge into complete anarchy and ruin, were it not for this beneficent institution.

Now what shall be done? Under these circumstances men step in to remedy this defect which the Lord has made in the new covenant; and the apostles, or somebody else, give to the church a new Sabbath. Then having a Sabbath inserted, is not the new covenant identically the same as the old? Oh! no; for another day is taken, which, as a Sabbath, has no foundation in fact, and no earthly significance whatever, and the Sabbath is put upon that day, and then it is all right! So the old covenant was one with a seventh-day Sabbath, and the new is one with a first-day Sabbath. The trouble, then, was not with the Sabbath in itself considered but only with the day on which it was kept. And the only trouble with the day, we must conclude, was, that it was a day on which God rested in the beginning; for that alone gave it all its significance.

This is a fair statement of the case; but does it look like the work of the Lord? Does it not look like the short-sighted and blundering work of men, or rather like the work of the great foe of all righteousness, who is working behind the scenes, to impel mankind into every species of error and confusion?

If, then, under the new covenant that law which requires the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath is written in the heart of every believer, how does it happen that multitudes who have lived under this covenant, and who have certainly enjoyed the blessing and favor of God, have lived and died in the observance of the first day of the week? This is with many a very perplexing question. But we think it is subject to a fair and consistant solution. We reply, that these persons have had the true principle of obedience implanted in their hearts. And they have kept the first day of the week, because they have for a time labored under a misapprehension of what the law requires. In keeping that day, they supposed honestly they were rendering obedience to the fourth commandment of the decalogue; or in not keeping any day in a true Sabbatical sense, they have supposed honestly that God's law required nothing of the kind at their hands. Had they become convinced that the fourth commandment required of them the observance of the seventh day, whether they were keeping another day or no day, would they not have immediately changed their practice accordingly? Assuredly, every individual of them. Otherwise the principle of obedience was not in their hearts, and they were not in covenant relation with God.

Therefore, leaving them with the Lord, who will deal with all in accordance with the light they have enjoyed, and the sincerity with which they have followed it, it becomes us all to look rather for the truth of our time, and to our own circumstances and obligations. Paul speaks of times of ignorance which God winked at, and other times of greater light when he commanded all men everywhere to repent. Our times are of this latter character. Covering after covering, which the great apostasy has thrown over the law of God and other portions of his truth, has been lifted off, and men are accountable to God for the increasing light. We are living in days of reform preparatory to the coming of Christ, and we have reached the last reform; for we can find nothing higher nor holier than that law of liberty which is designed to develop perfect characters in us, and by which we are to be judged in the last day. Jas. 2:10-12. Friend, you may heretofore have honestly kept the first day of the week for the Sabbath, and have enjoyed the favor of God; but you can do so no longer. The light has now come clearly forth; and before whomsoever it is set, he has no longer a cloak for following the traditions of men.

Blessed be God, for so graciously condescending to take mankind into covenant relation with himself. Reader, are you yet a stranger from these covenants of promise? If so, you are without hope. The present brief scene of turmoil and trouble, and then the regrets, the remorse, and the pains of the second death, for privileges unimproved and mercies abused, are your only portion. In place of this infinite evil, you may have infinite good. Join yourself to the commonwealth of Israel. Christ is the way; and he invites you to come. The promises are of value untold, and will soon be fulfilled. The opportunity will expire by limitation when Christ concludes his work as priest. Come while you may. And soon in that heavenly city, which bears upon the twelve foundations with which it is garnished the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, and upon its twelve gates of pearl, the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, and into which all who have entered into covenant relation with God, both of the literal and spiritual seed, will have a right to enter, you will realize what an infinite blessing was couched in that arrangement through which God condescended to be our God, and took us to be his people. U. S.