The Old and New Covenants.
A CORRESPONDENT asks for information concerning the covenants mentioned in Hebrews viii and ix, remarking that if the old covenant is the ten commandments he sees not how they can now be binding. "I thought," he continues, "that the covenant that God made with the fathers was the law at Sinai." The first definition of a covenant is the mutual agreement of two parties, to do or forbear some act or thing. Second, the writing containing the terms of agreement or contract. Now what covenant did God make with Israel or what agreement did they enter into, when he took them by the hand to lead them out of the Land of Egypt? It is found in Ex. xix, where God declares, "Now therefore if ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then shall ye be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people" &c. "And the people answered together and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." Here the agreement was made. The people agreed to do all that the Lord had said; and he had said, "If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant." He then proceeds to declare the condition of the covenant, the ten commandments. These the people had agreed to keep, and God had agreed if they would, they should be a peculiar treasure unto him &c. We see then how that the claim that many have instituted on Deut. v, 2, 3, that the ten commandments were given to the Israelites alone, falls to the ground. For reference is here made to the particular agreement entered into by the children of Israel. But "if the first covenant had been faultless," &c. In what respect was it faulty? They transgressed it, they continued not in it; and it offered no pardon for sin. "For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold the days come with the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah." Under this covenant, the law is put into the mind, and written in the heart. This covenant offers pardon for sin. "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." The first covenant had a worldly Sanctuary, and ordinances. These have given place under the new, to the antitypical work in heaven. This covenant carries us forward to the redeemed state; for we read, "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." When will this be? When their sins and iniquities are remembered no more. And when will the sins and iniquities of the righteous cease from remembrance? When the Sanctuary is cleansed, and the sins of the overcomers are borne away forever. Thanks be to God for the new covenant with its better promises.