No. 684. The Everlasting Covenant.
A CORRESPONDENT (E. B.) sends us the following clipping, and asks for a short answer:— “I WILL make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.” Now you can see that this third point has never taken place. At no time in the history of the Jews has such a covenant existed. For God has turned away from them for many, many years, and has not done them good. And at no time in their history has God put his fear in their hearts, that they have not departed from him. The Jews at this day still reject their Messiah, and as a nation have cast him out. Therefore this covenant is still a thing of the future, so far as the Jew is concerned. The wrong ideas held by many concerning the return and restoration of the Hebrew nation come from wrong conception of what a true Jew or a true Israelite is, and of the nature of God’s covenant and promises. The right conception of these things may best be learned by looking at the earlier prophecies through the later declarations. Only so can we arrive at truth; but if we utterly ignore what is said by our Lord and his apostles, we shall ever interpret Israel and the promises to Israel, after the flesh. In the first place, God’s “everlasting covenant” is the covenant of mercy, which has existed from the beginning, coextensive with “the everlasting Gospel.” It was promised to Adam, confirmed to Noah by the bow of promise, to Abraham by God’s promise and oath, and ratified at last by the death of Christ, the “surety” of that covenant. On God’s part it has ever existed, and it is sure to every soul who will grasp its mighty provisions by faith. The center of this covenant is Christ Jesus. Isa. 55: 3, 4; Ps. 89: 27, 28; 105: 8–10; Heb. 7: 22; 8: 10; 9: 15–17. The “making” of the covenant on God’s part refers to its ratification at the death of Christ, but the promise was sure before. And many hearts that feared God through all the years of the Hebrew nation have been established by it, and have not departed from God all their days. 2. The new covenant in promise and fact is open to all, both Jew and Gentile, seen more clearly since Christ; for thus the Scriptures declare: “How that by revelation was made known unto me the mystery; . . . which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to wit, that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.” Eph. 3: 3–6, R. V. Before the Gentiles exercised faith they were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, but now in Christ Jesus are fellow-citizens with the saints and of the one household of God. See Eph. 2: 11–22. 3. The Jews as a nation rejected Christ and chose Caesar, but the remnant, and those saved out of apostasy have always been a remnant, accepted Christ, a proof that all might have done so. God did not cast them off, as Paul shows in his own person. Rom. 11: 1–5. “Even so then at this present time” (in his day), he says, “there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” 4. The true Jew is the one who is a Jew inwardly, whose heart is cleansed by faith in the Shiloh of the tribe of Judah. Rom. 2: 28, 29; John 4: 24; Gen. 49: 10. The true Israelite is the one who, hearing and forgetting all else, pleads by faith with God, and obtains the victory. Gen. 32: 24–30; Rom. 9: 6–8. And all the prevailers by faith are the Israel, whom God is gathering out of all nations, Gentiles as well as Jews. Rom. 9: 24–26. “Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.” Rom. 3: 29. “For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek [Gentile]; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.” Rom. 10: 12. “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free.” 1 Cor. 12: 13. “What God hath joined together let not man put asunder.”