1. When the earth was prepared for the home of man, what did Jehovah say?
"Let US make man in OUR image, after Our likeness." Gen. 1:26. 2. To whom did the Creator speak?
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1.
"But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him." 1 Cor. 8:6. 3. In whom then was man chosen even before sin entered?
"Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places IN CHRIST; according as He hath CHOSEN US IN HIM BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD." Eph. 1:3, 4. 4. When man sinned, what did God do?
"For God so loved the world, that HE GAVE HIS ONLY-BEGOTTEN SON, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. 5. What part had the Son in this?
"Who GAVE HIMSELF FOR US, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Titus 2:14. 6. Has God changed in His purpose respecting man?
"I am the Lord, I CHANGE NOT." Mal. 3:6.
"With whom is no variableness, NEITHER SHADOW OF TURNING." James 1:17. 7. What awful power does He give man?
"I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore CHOOSE life, that both thou and thy seed may live." Deut. 30:19. NOTE.—The awful responsibility of freedom of choice God gives to all His reasoning creatures, and God Himself will not enter that sacred circle of personal responsibility and free choice without the consent of man's free will. And this is most reasonable; for God demands of man righteous character; but righteous character demands freedom of choice. Compulsory righteousness is a contradiction of terms. God demands love, but love must render willing service. 8. How alone could man choose character, life, and salvation?
"But WITHOUT FAITH it is IMPOSSIBLE to please Him." Heb. 11:6. NOTE.—Faith is not a power to be exercised by man since sin entered only. It is a foundation of character in all ages of human history and conditions. Man had no power to please God apart from faith before he sinned. Had he been able to lead a righteous life of himself, he would have given himself all the glory, and so a race of selfish, differing ones would have been developed. But faith in the Infinite would have developed truest love for the ways of the Infinite. The finite creature would have ever developed toward the infinite God, and would thus progress as in no other way. All would seek God's glory and all would be bound by the law of His life. So life and right-living and character can only be perpetuated by faith, the open channel between the soul and God. The Everlasting Covenant. The Father of the Faithful.
10. With what typical person was this covenant established in his age?
"And I [Jehovah] will establish My covenant between Me and thee [Abraham] and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto them, and to thy seed after thee." Gen. 17:7. 11. How much did God's covenant to Abraham include?
"By Myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and THY SEED shall possess the gate of His enemies; and in thy SEED shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed My voice." Gen. 22:16-18. 12. By what means did Abraham come into this covenant relationship?
"He believed the Lord; and He counted it unto him for righteousness." Gen. 15:6; Gal. 3:6; James 2:23. 13. What did it lead Abraham to do?
"Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws." Gen. 26:5.
"Faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect." James 2:22. 14. How much is embraced in the inheritance promised?
"The promise that he [Abraham] should be the HEIR OF THE WORLD, was . . . thru the righteousness of faith." Rom. 4:11.
"Thy Seed shall possess the gate of His enemies." Gen. 22:17. 15. Who is this Seed thru whom all the covenant blessings come?
"Now to Abraham and his Seed [posterity] were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds [posterities] as of many; but as of one, and to thy Seed, which is CHRIST." Gal. 3:16.
"And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. 3:29. Establishing the Covenant.
16. How was the covenant established to Noah?
By promise and covenant token: "I establish My covenant with you, and with your seed after you." "And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant." Gen. 9:9, 16. 17. How was it established to Abraham?
By promise and oath: "For when God made PROMISE to Abraham, because He could SWEAR by no greater, He sware by Himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of PROMISE the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an OATH: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us." Heb. 6:13-18. 18. When was that everlasting covenant forever confirmed or ratified?
"For this is My blood of the new testament ["covenant," the same word in the Greek], which is shed for many for the remission of sins." Matt. 26:28. See also Heb. 9:14, 15. NOTE.—The covenant is also called a testament, or will, because it is expressive of God's great loving purpose for His children. It is called the "new" covenant, because it was confirmed later by the death of Christ. All God's blessings of all the ages were the blessings of the covenant. As before a man's death he can give of his estate to his children, in harmony with his general purpose, so God, by virtue of Christ's offering and His own love, has ever bestowed His covenant blessings upon His children in harmony with His great and everlasting purpose. When Christ died upon the cross that unchangeable purpose was ratified by His blood for the benefit of His children forever, that they might know the surety of His promises. Unchangeable in love and wisdom was God's purpose before its confirmation by the death of Christ; that death fixes it unchangeable forevermore. When Christ died, that man might never question God's covenant of justice, mercy, wisdom, and love, it was sealed forever by the death of Christ. Heb. 9:16, 17. "Tho it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereto." Gal. 3:15. Whatever was in that covenant prior to Christ's death abides forever. Whatever man has endeavored to introduce into that covenant, even tho it be but a second5this side of His death, is false and fraudulent, whether it be called "Lord's day," or infant baptism, or any other perversion of truth. Christ on the cross forever fixed God's immutable law and Gospel. 19. How is this "new covenant" contrasted with the "old covenant"?
"But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the Mediator of a BETTER COVENANT, which was established upon BETTER PROMISES. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 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: NOT ACCORDING TO THE COVENANT that I made with their fathers, in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord." Heb. 8: 6-9. NOTE.—The making of the "old covenant" between God and Israel is recorded in Ex. 19: 3-8. In it God declared that if they would obey HIS VOICE and keep HIS COVENANT (See Deut. 4: 13), by faith, of course, they would then be His peculiar treasure, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These things were told to the elders of the people, and they declared: "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do."
Then God came down upon Mount Sinai, spoke to them His voice, declared His law, His will, and their sin-filled hearts trembled; but instead of pleading that God would come in and take away their sin, they pleaded that He would not speak to them any more. Ex. 20: 19. Yet when they again had heard the conditions of the covenant, after Moses had written them all out in a book, and read them to the people, they declared, "All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient." Then the book and the people were sprinkled with blood and Moses said, "Behold, the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you CONCERNING ALL THESE WORDS," that is, the words of God's voice which they promised to obey. Ex. 24: 3-8.
We know the sequel: Israel failed. They SHOULD have learned—and we MAY learn—two great lessons: (1) That man is utterly powerless to do God's will in his own strength, or apart from faith. (2) That a covenant made with a whole people can not save individuals. Those apart from Christ, trusting in their own righteousness, are still striving and failing as did Israel; and every attempt to make righteousness by vote or promise is a demonstration that the world has not learned the second lesson. Used in either way, it "gendereth to bondage." Gal. 4: 24.
Yet in God's providence it did serve a purpose; it helped to hold together that people in one nation till Christ came according to the flesh; but it saved no one. 20. Wherein lay the fault of the first covenant?
"Finding fault WITH THEM." Heb. 8: 8. 21. Wherein is the everlasting covenant superior to the old?
It "was established upon BETTER promises." Heb. 8: 6.
NOTE.—The difference between the two covenants is the difference between the weak, puny promises of sinful men, trusting in their own strength, afraid of God's voice, and the infinite promises of God, asking only simple faith and submission on the part of His children. What the New Covenant Does for Man.
22. What will the new covenant do for him who by faith yields to its claims?
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put MY LAWS INTO THEIR MIND, and WRITE THEM IN THEIR HEARTS: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people: 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. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." Heb. 8: 10-12; Jer. 31: 31-34. 23. What would the life of this covenant relation cause man to do?
"A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and CAUSE YOU TO WALK IN MY STATUTES, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them." Eze. 36: 26, 27. 24. In what condition does that covenant relation place the sinner?
"There is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION to them which are in Christ Jesus." Rom. 8: 1. 25. What sets us free?
"For the LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS hath made ME FREE from the law of sin and death." Verse 2. 26. Why could not the law alone do this?
"It was weak thru the flesh." Verse 3. 27. What does the new covenant do?
"God [saved by] sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE LAW ["the requirement of the law," A.R.V.] MIGHT BE FULFILLED in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Verses 3, 4. 28. What mind only hates God's law?
"Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Verse 7. 29. How does the new-covenant mind regard God's law?
"For this is the LOVE OF GOD, that we KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS; and His commandments are NOT GRIEVOUS." 1 John 5: 3. 30. With whom is the new covenant made and confirmed?
"The house of Israel." Heb. 8: 10.
"Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises." Rom. 9: 4. 31. What do those Gentiles become who embrace Christ?
"Now therefore ye are no more strangers ["from the covenants of promise," v. 12] and foreigners ["from the commonwealth of Israel," "having no hope, and without God in the world," v. 12], but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." Eph. 2: 19. 32. What is one of the covenant blessings which God gives to Israel?
"Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throuout their generations, for a perpetual covenant." Ex. 31: 16. 33. What is said of God's remnant people of "the everlasting covenant" brought into covenant relationship thru "the everlasting Gospel"?
"Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. 14: 12.
"And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. 3: 29.