THE TWO COVENANTS by Cyrus Simmons

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 20, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 38.

THE TWO COVENANTS.

By Cyrus Simmons

A COVENANT is a solemn obligation or undertaking under seal. The fact of its being a sealed instrument contradistinguishes it from a simple contract. It necessarily has to be written. Two covenants are prominently mentioned in the Scriptures, the old and the new.

The Old Covenant.

The law, or the Ten Commandments, constituting the basis of the old covenant, were first spoken by God from heaven on Mt. Sinai (Ex. 20:1, 22), then they were written with His finger on two tables of stone (Deut. 5:22; Ex. 31:18), and, finally, they were written by Moses in the book of the covenant (Ex. 24:4, 7).

The people, on their part, promised to keep the Ten Commandments: "All the words which the Lord hath said will we do." Ex. 19:8; 24:3, 7; Deut. 5:27.

By promising to keep the law, they obligated themselves to be holy, to be righteous, to be perfect. A tremendous, an impossible, undertaking without divine power.

For obedience to His law, God promised them temporal prosperity; He told them they should be the head, and not the tail, in the governments of the world; that they should lend unto nations, and not borrow. Deuteronomy 28. On His part, He also promised to bless them spiritually; that they should be a peculiar treasure unto Him, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. Ex. 19:5, 6. "And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord." Deut. 28:10. "O, that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!" Deut. 5:29.

This solemn agreement was sealed with the blood of calves and goats. "For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people" (Heb. 9:19), and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words" (Ex. 24:8).

The New Covenant.

In both covenants the contracting parties are the same,—the Lord and the Israel of God. "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah." Jer. 31:31.

The subject matter of the two contracts is the same; that is, the law, or the Ten Commandments. Heb. 8:10. The fault with the old covenant was not found by God in His law, but with His people. "For finding fault with them . . . because they continued not in My covenant." Heb. 8:8, 9.

The great difference in the two contracts is manifestly seen in the manner in which the law is administered.

As we have seen in the old, the law was written with the finger of God on tables of stone. In the new, we find the same law written with the Spirit of the living God in the fleshly tables of the heart. 2 Cor. 3:3. "I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." Jer. 31:33; Heb. 8:10. The ministration in the old covenant is the ministration of condemnation, of death. 2 Cor. 3:7, 9. It is a picture of the righteousness of God without the power to do it. It was "glorious" (2 Cor. 3:9-11) in that it revealed righteousness to man, but not in him.

Its object is to bring the sinner to Christ, his only hope of salvation. "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ." Gal. 3:24. This ministration of death was given that the sinner may see the necessity of a Saviour, and, in a measure, appreciate the great sacrifice in the death of the Son of God, by whose blood (or life) the new covenant is sealed.

How vastly different, also, the executive power in the two contracts!

For its execution, the old covenant rested upon the word of man: "All the words which the Lord hath said will we do."

The new covenant is founded upon the powerful (Heb. 8:12) Word of God. "I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes." Eze. 36:27.

The new covenant is the Gospel of Christ; "for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Rom. 1:16; 8:4.

The new covenant is God in man. It is the mystery of godliness now made manifest to His saints, "which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Col. 1:26, 27.

This mystery is known to the saints. To know the mystery is to know God. The result of the new covenant is to know the Lord. "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.'" Heb. 8:11.

The new covenant is Christ and the law. God is as inseparable from His law as He is from His righteousness. The one is declaratory of the other. Christ is "the faithful and true witness" (Rev. 3:14) of God to man; the law is the witness of God in man. "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets." Rom. 3:21.

Among other precepts of righteousness, the law says: "But the seventh day [or Saturday] is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Ex. 20:10. If we believe in or keep the first day of the week, or Sunday, how can Jesus write all His law on the fleshly tables of our heart? If we do not let Him, are we not guilty? "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." James 2:10. Is not our guilt more assuredly so when the Saviour Himself says: "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no-wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" (Matt. 5:18)?

In the apostolic age it was popular for Pharisatical believers to be sticklers for the law, but it meant persecution and, many times, death to know and to preach Christ and Him crucified. The devil, with his great subtlety and cunning, in the last days, has reversed his point of deception. Many, after a form of godliness, want Christ, but they disclaim any obedience to the law, and look upon it as a Jewish institution which had served its purpose when that people as a nation was scattered to the four quarters of the earth. A careful searching of the Scriptures, however, testifies of both Christ and the law.

To annul the law is to do away with the government of God. To deny Christ is to deny the power to keep the law.

The new or everlasting covenant agrees, by man's co-operation, to keep the law, or fulfil its righteousness in him. Rom. 8:4. Man never did nor ever can keep God's law. But God in man can and will keep it for him if he will only let Him. "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good-pleasure." Phil. 2:13.

The righteousness we do, then, is not our righteousness, but it is "the righteousness of God." "For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His." Heb. 4:10.

Knoxville, Tenn.