The Substance of the Two Covenants.
By John Nevins Andrews
FIRST COVENANT. This is stated by Jeremiah in the following words: “Obey my voice and do them, according to all I have commanded you; so shall ye be my people and I will be your God. Jer. 11:4. This is expressly declared in verses 3 and 4 to be the covenant which the Lord made with Israel when he brought them out of Egypt. It has one grand idea in it, viz., obedience to God. The blessings of the covenant are suspended upon this condition. THE NEW COVENANT. This also is stated in express terms by Jeremiah: “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. . . . for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.” Now wherein do the two covenants differ? Not in this, that one pertains to the law of God and the other does not; for the new covenant is even more express than the old in its connection with the moral law. It puts it in the hearts of men. They do not differ in one demanding obedience to his law and the other excusing men therefrom. But the real difference may be thus stated: The one demands obedience to the law; the other by putting the law in the heart secures that obedience. And whereas the first covenant is forfeited by failure to obey, the second has conditions of forgiveness that are honorable to the law, and yet such that they can extend mercy to the penitent sinner.