The Two Covenants

THE Bible is a book of covenants—covenants with Noah, Abraham, David and Israel. It is said there are some seventy covenants in all, mentioned between the lids of the Book. But there are two covenants which tower in importance above all others, even as the great mountains tower above the little hills.

To distinguish them from all others, these two are called “The Covenants.” And to distinguish each from the other, they are called the “First Covenant” and the “Second Covenant”; or, the “Old Covenant” and the “New Covenant.” And the New Covenant is also called the “Everlasting Covenant.” All the practical saving truths of the Bible are clustered around these two covenants, and are included in them. So to understand these two covenants is of the greatest importance.

In the ordinary theology of the day, it is usually taught that between these two covenants there are the following three contrasts:

I.

That the First Covenant, or Old Covenant, was made with the Jews, but the New Covenant, or Everlasting Covenant was made with the Gentiles.

II.

That the Old Covenant was the law, and the New Covenant is the gospel.

III.

That the Old Covenant pertained exclusively to the Jewish dispensation; and that all true religious experience in that dispensation, was only under that covenant; while the New Covenant pertains exclusively to this present dispensation, and that all Christian experience now, is only under this covenant. That the Old Covenant, therefore, was “done away” at the cross, two thousand years ago, and the New Covenant was then ushered in.

It is my purpose to consider these three contrasts in the order in which they are given, and to show that they are without foundation in the true teachings of the Scripture.

I.

It is true that the Old Covenant was made with the Jewish people. Of that there is no question, although we shall later show that it has been made with others since then. But what of the New Covenant? With whom was it made? “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: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.” Jer. 31:31, 32.

Nothing, therefore, could be clearer than that this first contrast is unscriptural. The New Covenant was made with the very same people with whom the First Covenant was made. The inspired writer of the book of Hebrews, in chapter 8:3-12, quotes these very words of the prophet Jeremiah, concerning the New Covenant, as the hope of the Hebrew people.

II.

A covenant is an agreement between two or more persons. The Old Covenant is not the law, and the New Covenant, the gospel; but the two covenants are two different agreements between God and His people, concerning the law. This will appear clearly as we study the record. In Exodus 19: 4-8, we find these words: “Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagle’s wings, and brought you unto myself. Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and will keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.”

“And Moses came and called for the elders of Israel, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord had commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, ‘all that the Lord hath spoken will we do.’ And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord.”

Here is a clear record of a covenant or agreement, between God and His people, resting on their promise to keep the law. At this time they had not heard that law. But, in the twentieth chapter, we have the record of God speaking the law in majesty, from the “holy mount.”

In the twenty-fourth chapter we have the record that Moses came and told the people all the words, and judgments of the Lord, and the people answered with one voice, “All the words which the Lord hath said, will we do.” Moses wrote this agreement in a book, and then “he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people; and they said, ‘all that the Lord hath said, will we do, and be obedient.’”

Then Moses sealed this covenant with blood, and solemn, appropriate ceremonies, and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you, concerning all these words.” In Hebrews 9:18-20, the inspired writer records again this whole transaction, and calls it the sealing, or dedicating of the First Covenant. There can be no question, therefore, that the Old Covenant, or First Covenant, was an agreement between God and His people, resting on their promise to keep the law.

It is true that there are certain passages which speak of the law, itself, as the covenant; but in the light of this complete record of the forming of this covenant, we must consider this simply as a figure of metonymy, the law being put for the agreement concerning the law, with which it is so closely related. In fact, the word “covenant,” while it primarily means the agreement itself, means also, the writing containing the conditions of the agreement.

Having found what the first Covenant is, we desire now to know what the “second,” or “New Covenant” is. The prophet Jeremiah tells us so clearly there can be no doubt. “This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel,” saith the Lord. * * “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. * * And I will forgive their iniquities, and remember their sins no more.” Jer. 31:33.

This covenant God calls, in the thirty-first verse, the “New Covenant.” So, as we have already said, the New Covenant is another agreement between God and His people concerning the law; only this agreement, or covenant, rests not on man’s weak promises, but upon God’s promise, and even, as we are elsewhere told, upon His oath. There is a wonderful difference between the promises of man, and the promise of God. Men often promise sincerely enough, intending to perform it; but afterwards find that they have not the power to do so. But God is almighty, and can, and will perform what He has promised.

There is also an infinite difference between the writing of the law outside of us, on tables of stone, for us to obey; and the writing of the same law inside of us, on the tables of the heart. All that the law, outside of us, can do, is to condemn us because it is not inside of us, regulating our lives. All that the same law inside of us, actuating our inmost thoughts, and desires in harmony with its divine commands, can do, is to witness to our justification, and to Christ’s righteousness in us. His justification and righteousness are obtained and retained “freely by His grace, without the law.” Rom. 3:21.

Thus the two covenants are two agreements concerning the law.

III.

Now, concerning the third contrast; we shall find upon careful examination, that it is as unscriptural as the others. We shall find that the covenants are not dispensational; but they represent two different, progressive stages of personal experience. We shall find that, instead of the Old Covenant being done away for all the world, two thousand years ago, when Christ died upon the cross, it is done away for each one of us personally, when we are “crucified with Christ,” entirely dying to any thought of our own righteousness, or our own ability to keep the divine law; and the New Covenant is sealed with each one of us personally and individually, when we accept Christ—the indwelling Christ—unreservedly, as our “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”

That the covenants mean personal experience is plain from the fact that it is not with the Old Covenant itself, but with the experience of the people under that covenant, where is found by the Lord the “fault” that required a New Covenant. “Finding fault with them, He saith, ‘Behold I make a New Covenant.’ ” And the place where is found the “fault” that makes the New Covenant essential, there is the place where alone the New Covenant must be effective: that is, in the individual experience of the people.

This may be yet more clearly seen by considering who the Israel is with whom God makes both of these covenants. “For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter.” Rom. 2:28, 29.

The Pharisees, in the time of Jesus, could trace their descent back to Abraham with such unerring precision that when Jesus spoke to them of the deeper spiritual truths of His Messiahship, they turned away, boasting, “We have Abraham to our father.” But Jesus said “If ye were children of Abraham, ye would believe on me.” Jesus denied that they were children of Abraham although there was no flaw in their physical genealogy. But when this same Jesus saw the spiritual Nathaniel coming to Him, He said, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.”

It is plain, therefore, that both Christ and Paul, counted the spiritual children, and not the merely fleshly descendants, as the Israel to whom the promises were made. This is in harmony with the origin of the name Israel, and also with its meaning—Prince of God. The second son of Isaac was called Jacob, i.e., Supplanter, because he supplanted his brother. This opprobrious name clung to him for years, through many, and varied experiences. But there came a time in his experience, when he absolutely gave up all hope in himself, and cast himself helplessly into the Everlasting Arms. And then the Lord said to him, “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel, for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” Gen. 32:28. The very word Israel, therefore, originated not in a fleshly descent, but in a spiritual experience; and Israel is called an “Olive tree,” margin, “Son of oil,” i.e., one born of the Spirit.

Paul asks the very question we are considering, namely: Who is the Israel to whom the covenants belong? And answers it: “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? For they are not all Israel who are of Israel. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children of the promise shall be counted as the seed.” Rom. 9:4-8.

Who the children of the promise are is clearly stated in another place. “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gal. 3:29. Isaac was a child of faith, the symbol of all who are “born of God.” Nothing could be clearer, from these scriptures, than that the Israel to whom God gave the law, and to whom He made all the promises, and with whom He made the Covenants, was not the literal seed—not the fleshly descendants of Abraham; but the spiritual seed—those who were born of the Spirit as Israel was, and as Isaac was. But this spiritual Israel is not dispensational. It extends through all ages, and dispensations. The history of this Israel is the spiritual history of the race; and it was to be king of these true Jews, that Christ was born. In the second chapter of the letter to the Ephesians, Paul tells those Gentile Christians that they were once:

“Aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” “Ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God.” So these people who were once Gentiles, and strangers to both the covenants, and to all hope in the promises of God, are now, by a spiritual birth through Christ, become Israel, and heirs to both covenants, and to all the divine promises. And this was said to Gentile Christians in this dispensation. So both the covenants belong to us here.

So in the Jewish age, those who were of faith had the New, or Everlasting Covenant: for this covenant goes back even before the foundation of the world: ‘According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before Him in love.” “Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our words,” i.e., not according to the Old Covenant of works, “but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus, before the world began.”

The true meaning of the sanctuary and its service, was God trying to reveal to the Jews back there, His everlasting covenant. By dwelling in the sanctuary, He wanted to show them how he wanted to dwell in them, and write His law in their hearts, and make their hearts the seat of mercy, and of triumphant love; and glorify their lives by His presence, and guide them where He would have them go. For ‘Ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, ‘I will dwell in them and walk in them.’”

Sanctification is of the New Covenant, and sanctification is simply God dwelling in us as He dwelt in the sanctuary. It is true many of the people back there did not enter into this everlasting covenant, “because of unbelief”; but it was was there for all who would believe, and enter in. It is true it was a “New Covenant” to the Israelites with whom God made it centuries after the time of the giving of the law. It is also true that it is a “New Covenant” with each one of us, when, tired, and discouraged with our own hopeless efforts toward righteousness, we drop into the Everlasting Arms, and, by faith enter into this covenant now.

Thus the covenants are not dispensational. Both covenants extend through all ages, and dispensations; and the spiritual Israel, those who are born of the Spirit, in whatever age they may live, are heirs to them both. Thus the third contrast is as unscriptural as the others.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.

Having shown that the Covenants are not dispensational history, it remains for us to show that they are different stages of personal experience. This we must do, first with the Old Covenant, and then with the New. The man who is going on in sin, willingly disregarding all of God’s requirements, and caring only to live the life of a worldling, is an “Alien from the commonwealth of Israel, a stranger from the covenants of promise, and, having no hope, is without God in the world.”

But God is not satisfied with this relation of the man to Him. He is calling, calling after that man by His Spirit, seeking through every experience of pleasure or pain that comes into that man’s life, to get his ear. And when He has brought that man for a moment, to listen to the divine voice within, that voice says to him, “You are a sinner. You are under condemnation, going down to death.” Perchance the sinner hears this voice. What is his reply? Most likely, “I know it, Lord, I am a sinner. I am not fit to come to you this way. I will do better, and make myself fit to come to you; and then I will ask you to receive me.”

And what is God’s reply to this? “All right, my son, do right, and I will accept you.” “Obey and you shall live.” “If you keep my law you shall be unto me a peculiar treasure.” “He that doeth them, shall live in them.” Jesus said of the law, “This do, and thou shalt live.” This man is now under Old Covenant relations with God, and he starts out trying to be good, that is, to keep the law.

But does not God know that the “Carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be”? Surely He knows this, but the man does not know it, and would not believe it even if God told him so. We are so constituted that we must learn by experience. The little child, in spite of his father’s protest, believes that he could do what he sees the father do, “if only father would let him try.” Only when he tries, and utterly fails, is he willing to accept the father’s word, and let him do it for him. In spiritual things, men are but as children. The Father has to let them try, and fail, until they are willing to confess their utter failure, and loss, and let Him take them just as they are, into New Covenant relations with Him. This is the whole meaning, and use of the Old Covenant.

But why cannot the carnal mind be subject to the law of God? Answer: because the law of God is infinitely pure, and straight, and true; and the carnal mind is impure, and crooked, and untrue; and does not even know that it is thus. Every act is preceded with a thought. We must be able, to think pure, true thoughts in order to do right actions, and we are not able, with our impure, crooked minds, to do this. If a carpenter has a crooked jointing-plane, he cannot with this plane make a true joint. If he had another jointing-plane, which was true, he could, with that, joint the crooked plane straight, so that, with it, he could make a true joint. But, having only one jointing-plane, and that one crooked, he cannot with that crooked jointing-plane, joint itself straight, so that, with it, he can make a true, straight joint.

Having only one mind, and that corrupted and made crooked by sin, we cannot with that corrupt and crooked mind, think pure, true thoughts, in order to do right actions. We cannot even do up to the spiritual level of the imperfect thoughts we can think. “For when I would do good, evil is present with me. The good that I would, I do not; and the evil that I hate, that I do.” “The Spirit lusteth against the flesh, and the flesh against the Spirit, and these two are contrary the one to the other, so ye cannot do the things that ye would.” So, “By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight.”

This is why all the righteousness of the Old Covenant, being our righteousness, the result of our works, is but “filthy rags.” The failure is on our part entirely. God is perfectly willing for us to get righteousness in that way, if we only could. And if we succeeded in doing so, He would receive us: “He that doeth them shall live in them.” But he knows the impossibility, and the Old Covenant experience is so to teach us this impossibility, through utter failure, and loss, that we will gladly accept Christ, and the New Covenant relations with God, through Him.

THE NEW COVENANT OR THE EVERLASTING COVENANT.

Having seen that the Old Covenant is God’s method of personally, and individually teaching men their need of salvation; and that, therefore, represents the beginning of a man’s experience in the things of God, we desire now to ask, what is the New Covenant? Paul calls the New Covenant a testament or will. I appeal to you, fathers, if you had the power to will your son anything you choose, and be sure he would get it, what would be your will, or testament to him. One says, “I would will him a million dollars.” But how foolish to waste that chance on a million dollars. After he had the money, it would be a grave question whether it would be a blessing or a curse. And then, soon after he got the money, it might take to itself wings, and fly away.

I think you will all agree that my choice is best, when I say that given that opportunity, I would will that, in spite of all difficulties, and drawbacks, my son should rise to the full realization of my highest thought for him of all that is splendid and grand, in noblest manhood. Well, God has this opportunity, and the power to realize it in all who will yield themselves to Him; and just this is His Everlasting Covenant for us. Listen, “Now the God of peace * * * through the blood of the Everlasting Covenant, make you perfect in every good work, to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, Amen.” Heb. 13:20-21.

Again, “Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His OWN PURPOSE AND GRACE, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” 2 Tim. 1:9. For in this Everlasting Covenant, “IT IS GOD which worketh in you, both to will and to do of HIS GOOD PLEASURE.” Phil. 2:13. Wonderful thought, God has something for me, which it is “His good pleasure” for me to realize. He had His own purpose for me in His plan and thought, before the world began, and now He calls me, and gives me grace, that it may be realized in my life.

Nay, more, if I yield myself to Him, He wills through my will; and then works through this willing, to “make me perfect to do HIS WILL WORKING IN ME THAT WHICH IS WELL PLEASING IN HIS SIGHT.” This is His Everlasting Covenant, after I have utterly failed myself, and am down and out, and fully realize my failure, to do this splendid thing for me. This is “His inheritance in the saints” the riches of the glory of which, He wishes us to know. Eph. 1:18. God grant us power of head, and of heart to realize the splendor of it.

Why, even men do not work haphazard. When they build, they have a complete plan beforehand. Have you not often seen, when some splendid building was in process of erection, that the stones were all numbered, and marked? That means that the architect who planned the building, not only knew the size and shape of the building itself, and the number, size, and location of the windows and doors, and how many pinnacles and turrets there were to be; but he planned each stone, so that when the workmen cut these stones according to his plan, they will fit together to make the house. This is the way the Temple was builded, so that it all came together without the sound of a saw or hammer. And the plan of this Temple was a heavenly plan—the “pattern of things in the Heavens.” “Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God?”

God is not building this temple haphazard. He has something in the perfection of His perfect plan—some heavenly ideal, that He desires to realize in us. If we let Him and “Work with Him,” He will build us after the pattern of heavenly things.

His church, too, is a collective temple, “Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ, himself, the chief corner stone, in whom the whole building, fitly framed together, groweth into a Holy Temple in the Lord.” He has planned for us a place in that splendid temple. Christ says, “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out.”

Not a pillow for others to rest their heads on, and go to sleep, but a pillar, one of the supports of the structure. And we shall “go no more out.” No more trying, and failing, no more backsliding, under this Everlasting Covenant, while we leave ourselves in the Everlasting Arms. “All thanks to God, who, through our union with the Christ, lead us in one continual triumph.” II Cor. 2: 14; 20th Century Version.

God takes us as rough blocks out of earth’s quarry. Using every experience of pleasure or pain that comes into our lives, making “All things work together for good,” He fits and polishes us, and builds us into this splendid, eternal temple of praise. Will you let Him have you for this building? Reader, will you?

The traveler, exploring the vicinity of the ruins of the wonderful temple of the sun at Baalbec, finds the quarry out of which the magnificent stones were cut—the largest stones ever used in any building. In that quarry there is a stone a little larger than any in the building, all cut out and moved a little from its place, but left there unused. It is moss-o’ergrown, and crumbling back to dust. In some way it did not yield itself to the master-workman’s touch, and so it missed its splendid opportunity. How like the lives of many men! They have splendid opportunities, but they do not yield themselves to God, and so miss their place in this Heavenly Temple.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE WORKING OF THE NEW COVENANT.

JESUS called the disciples from their fishermen’s nets, and from the receipt of custom. What do you think were their ideals which they hoped to realize in their lives? Doubtless they were ordinary human ideals. They wanted to be successful fishermen, and to find a profitable market; and by and by, get to be well off. Matthew had chosen a disreputable calling, because there was money in it. Doubtless he expected to become rich, and to gain the respect men give to riches, no matter how obtained.

Would they have fully realized even these humble ideals, if they had stuck to them, refusing the call of Christ? The writer has often asked in large audiences, if there was a man there who could truly say he had fully realized his youthful ideals. He never found one who would say that he had done so.

What were Christ’s ideals for these apostles, when He called them? First, He meant to make them “fishers of men,” which is surely better than being merely fishers of fish.

Next, He was going to associate their names with His immortal name, sending them on to share with His name the loving regard of all succeeding generations of men.

Third, He was going to build them in as parts of the glorious foundation of this splendid, eternal temple of praise.

Lastly, they were to sit with Christ upon His throne, even as He was to sit with His Father upon His throne.

The Apostles themselves never dreamed of anything half equal to this. It was simply a question whether they should refuse the divine call, and only partly realize their own poor ideals; or whether, heeding the divine call, and giving up entirely their own way, they should, under God’s everlasting covenant, have His divine ideals fully realized in them. They heeded the divine call, and came under the Everlasting Covenant; and all the splendid purposes of Immortal Love will be fully realized in them.

Reader, which would you rather have; your own poor ideals partly realized, or God’s perfect and eternal purposes of love fully wrought out in your life? You can have your choice. Choose now. In Jesse’s estimation, David was so unimportant a member of his family that he never thought of calling him in, when the prophet came there to anoint a king over Israel. And yet David was a poet in embryo, and so doubtless had his dreams. Possibly his ambition was to be a good shepherd, and then, later, a brave soldier in the armies of Israel.

What did God have, in His call, for him?

First, he was to be made, through faith, a really good shepherd—the conquerer of the lion and the bear. David could never have done it in his own strength.

Next, he was to be made a brave soldier—braver than he ever thought—the conquerer of Goliath of Gath, who defied and frightened the armies of Israel, and became a type of all who defy God.

Third, David was to be made musician to the King. He had doubtless never dreamed of a position like this.

Fourth, He was to be made an inspired poet, to write those wonderful Psalms that have stimulated and guided the devotion of all succeeding ages.

Fifth, and lastly, he was to be made King of Israel, carrying that Kingdom to the height of its glory, so making it the type of the future Kingdom of Christ that it should be said, even by the Lord, that Christ should sit forever “on the throne of his father David.”

How much more splendid God’s plan for us is, than our plan for ourselves ever can be! David heeded the call of God, and came under His Everlasting Covenant; and all these splendid and “sure mercies” of God were, and will be, realized in him. I say “will be,” for the purposes of God are eternal, and so partly future.

But, say you, “That was the Apostles and David, and not for such as I?” Listen, God has a plan for each of us in His Heavenly Temple. The calling, yea, the “High calling of God in Christ Jesus” is for each one of us. “Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money”—absolutely nothing to pay—“Come” * * “Incline your ear, and come unto Me; hear and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.” Isaiah 55.1-3.

God is not partial. What He did for the apostles and for David, He will do for you, namely: realize His ideals for you, in your life—build you, into His place for you in His Heavenly Temple. Will you let Him?

This is just how personal, and individual His covenants are. After you, under His First Covenant, have tried your own efforts after righteousness and utterly failed, until you know that you are a failure, and are hungry and thirsty for Him, if you but give yourself to Him just as you are, and drop into His Everlasting Arms just now, on His word, and on His oath, He agrees to make with you the Covenant to take you as you are, and make you as He would have you.

Could anything be more splendid than this? It is for you, NOW. Poor, discouraged, disheartened, hungry soul, who are reading these words. Will you accept this simply by faith and so, NOW, know that He has made with you His Everlasting Covenant? David knew it, and lived in the joy of it ever after.

Listen, “These be the last words of David . . . the man who was raised up on high. The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me. . . . And he shall be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds: and as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.” See II Sam. 23:1-5.

Here in his last solemn words, inspired by the spirit of God, this man, who, under this Everlasting Covenant, was “raised up on high”—that is, taken from the sheep cote into all this glory of which we have spoken—he tells us how God will be to us, under this covenant.

He uses two figures to tell it; The constant increase of the light of the sun, from the first gray dawning unto the perfect day, even a day without clouds. That is the way God will reveal Himself to us under this covenant, if we but perfectly receive it, and constantly hold it, by faith.

Or again, the second figure: “As the tender grass springing out of the earth, by clear shining, after rain.” It is thus, if we but perfectly trust Him, that our spiritual life may flourish under this covenant.

This is the possibility, this is the ideal for every soul under this Everlasting Covenant; for His is the keeping power, and He is Almighty; and “He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”

But, say you, there is no comfort in this for me, because there have been clouds in my sky, and dark days, when the sun did not shine at all, and dry times when the grass did not grow?

Listen, it was the same with David. He did not always leave himself perfectly in God’s hands, and so did not, always realize this ideal. But he did not consciously take himself out of God’s hands completely, and so forsake entirely the Everlasting Covenant, and go back to the old covenant of works, where failure is sure, and utter, and complete. He only learned, through failure, to cling more closely, and trust more completely to the Everlasting Covenant.

Read the next verse, “Although my house be not so with God,”—that is, even if there have been clouds in my sky, and dry times when the grass did not grow—“Although my house be not so with God; yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure; for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, ALTHOUGH HE MAKE IT NOT TO GROW.”

How wonderful and lovingly thoughtful of the Lord to provide this blessed Word for all our needs. It is our privilege to know right now this moment, that He hath made with us, personally, individually, His everlasting covenant, and that it is ordered in all things, and sure. Then let us learn to abide there, and so bring forth much fruit.

CHRIST’S RIGHTEOUSNESS IMPUTED, AND IMPARTED.

All the righteousness of the old covenant, is the result of our own imperfect works, and so is our righteousness, and but “filthy rags.”

All the righteousness of the new covenant, is the result of Christ’s indwelling life growing us into His image; and so is His righteousness, the “white robe,” the “wedding garment.”

From the instant we come under this everlasting Covenant, the divine Spirit uses every experience of our lives as means of imparting this righteousness. The imparting of this righteousness is therefore, a progressive work; it is not always completed even in this life. But, from the instant we come under this covenant relation with God, He sees us no longer in our imperfections, but He sees us perfect in Christ’s righteousness.

To illustrate: An artist is painting a picture. He has only recently begun the work, and you see only a few meaningless daubs on the canvas. Does the artist see more than you see? Surely; he sees all the beauty he is going to put there, else he could never put it on the canvas. It exists first in the artist’s mind, and only as his mind sees it, can his hand put it on the canvas, so that we can see it also.

A sculptor has taken the contract to carve out an angel form in a rough block of marble. He has just begun the work, and you see a rough block of stone with here and there a little chiseling begun on it. Does the sculptor see more than you see? If he did not, he might ruin the whole thing at the very beginning by knocking off the part that he will need a little later to make an ear, or a nose out of. From the minute he starts working, HE must see the angel in the marble; and with every blow of his mallet, and with every chip of his chisel, he seeks to bring out what he already sees, so that you and I can see it also.

God has taken us, rough blocks from earth’s quarry, and He, under His Everlasting Covenant, has taken the contract to carve out in us the perfect image of Christ, and He has begun the work. As long as we leave ourselves under the Master-Workman’s hands, He sees in us the perfect image He is putting there, and counts us righteous in Christ. He could not find fault with us because the work is not yet done; for the job is His, and He is the workman, and He would be but finding fault with Himself.

If He does not find fault with those who are under His Everlasting Covenant, what right have we to find fault with them, and judge them? This man may look very imperfect in our eyes—we who are so wont to see the mote in our brother’s eye, and forget the beam in our own. Yet, for all that we know, he is, as he professes to be, under the Everlasting Covenant relation with God; and “Who are thou that judgeth another man’s servant? To his own Master he standeth or falleth. Yea he shall be holden up, for God is able to make him stand.” “Therefore, thou are inexcusable, O, man whosoever thou are that judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself.” And “With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; with what measure ye mete, it shall be meted to you again.”

We have not even the right to judge, and find fault with ourselves. Indeed, we should not be looking at ourselves; but “Looking unto Jesus, the author and Finisher of our faith.” It is then, and only then, that we can make straight paths for our feet.

When a boy in New Hampshire, the writer remembers, once trying to walk in a straight line across a snow covered field. He fixed his eyes on a post on the other side of the field, and walked toward it. After a while he began to congratulate himself that he had gone in a perfectly straight line. And turned to look, and found that he had done so. On he went again as before, until possessed again, as before, of a feeling that he must turn and look. On doing so, he found that he had indeed gone straight each time so long as he had kept his eye on the goal; but just where he had turned to look he had made a crooked place. Again he went back, and, fixing his eye on the goal, without ever turning at all, he walked in a perfectly straight line across the field.

It is the same in the spiritual walk with God. The more unconscious of self we are, the better. It is ours to be sure that “He hath made with us His Everlasting Covenant;” and then, taking the joy of it into our hearts, and always trying to help others into this same joy, we must fix our eyes on Jesus, and run with patience the race that is set before us.

But, says one, “I have a failing that I can see, and I never can be satisfied a moment until it is taken out of my life.”

A carpenter takes the contract to build me a house. There is to be a bay-window in front, and beautiful, heavy ornamentation on the gables. In two months I come around, and begin to find fault. “This does not look like anything. Where is the bay-window, and those fine ornaments?”

Perhaps the carpenter tells me to take the job and do it myself, if I know more about it than he does. But, if he condescends to explain, he will say, “I have been working around the foundation, where my work does not show very much; but I have been getting it ready to stand the bay-window and the heavy ornamentation.”

Even so in our lives. God sees a thousand faults that we do not see at all. And often He sees that if He took away at once, the one fault that we do see, we would become exalted, and self-righteous, and so everything for us would be spoiled. So He works around the foundations of our characters to get us ready for the one victory we so much crave.

It is best for us to leave ourselves in His hands, and go forward trusting in Him. If we do this, it will be with us as with David. Though there may be imperfections along the way, and some days there may be clouds, and sometimes will be dry so the grass will not grow; yet, in the end, God’s perfect ideal will be realized in us, and we shall sit down with Christ on the throne of David.

It will be seen that in this scriptural teaching of the everlasting covenant, God only imputes to us now, the righteousness that He will fully impart to us in the perfect working of that covenant. The imputed righteousness now, will finally be all imparted righteousness.

There is no place here for the theological dogma of substitution. It is not true that Christ is our substitute in the sense that, as He kept the law, we do not have to do so; or that, as He was righteous, and His righteousness is accepted for us, we do not need to be righteous ourselves. This doctrine of substitution belongs to the antinomian heresy, and should have been rejected when that was rejected.

Christ is our Guide, and “Commander,” and “Captain of our salvation.” His life, here on earth, was lived under this same Everlasting Covenant; and He is the one perfect revelation and illustration of its possibilities for us. For “Unto each one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” Every promise of God is for us, as much as it was for Jesus. But too often we doubt, and hesitate to walk upon the promises, and so retard the work of God, and hinder the realization of His perfect ideal in us. But Jesus accepted by faith every promise of God, and said “Amen” to it in perfect confidence; and so became “The Amen, the faithful and true witness.” Thus he made it possible for God to make every promise a fact in His life. But He did this all, not as our substitute—not in the place of us, so we need not do it—but as “The Captain of our salvation,” to show us the way. Even of his crucifixion, he said, “Except ye take up your cross, and deny yourself daily, and come after me, ye can not be my disciples.”

THE MINISTRATION OF DEATH.

As the covenants are not dispensational, so in this wonderful chapter on the Ministration of Death, and the Ministration of Righteousness, there is nothing dispensational.

It is one of Satan’s pet schemes to turn what God intended as personal experience for each one of us into dispensational history, merely; and so take it out of the experience of all men in all dispensations.

Paul is speaking here (see 2 Cor. 3rd chapt.) of the Ministration of Condemnation, called also, the Ministration of Death; and of the Ministration of the Spirit, also called the Ministration of Righteousness.

It is not two dispensations that are in contrast, nor two laws, as so many teach; but it is two ministrations of the same law. And these two ministrations of God’s law run through all ages and dispensations up to and including the present.

But two ministrations of God’s law, is just what we have seen the two covenants to be.

The old Covenant, bringing the divine law to the consciousness of the individual soul, and showing that soul to itself as a transgressor, under condemnation of death, and utterly unable, of itself, to keep the law, and so, in desperate need of a Saviour—this Paul calls “The Ministration of Condemnation,” and, in another verse, “The Ministration of Death.”

This ministration is called “glorious;” but we are told that it was to be “done away,” and to give place to another ministration so much “more glorious” that this glory was as nothing by comparison.

How can the ministration of condemnation and death be called “glorious” do you say? A boat is drifting down the Niagara rapids. It is filled with a happy, laughing throng, utterly unconscious of their fearful danger in the gripping current. But still there is time if my voice can but reach them with its warning. But wait, they are happy now, and if I call to them, and they see their danger, they will be filled with the misery of fear, and utter consternation. Had I not better keep still? Surely not. With all my might I call: “Boat ahoy! the falls are below you. You are even now in the rapids.” Ah! they hear. Isn’t it glorious that I can make them hear my voice, and so give them a warning, and a chance to escape? Now I send out a life-line, and they grasp it, and are saved.

Such is the glory of the ministration of condemnation and death. Men are unconsciously in the fearful current of sin, going down to the falls of utter destruction, and death. If it were impossible to save them—if the ministration of condemnation and death were to abide, and not to give place to something better, why then we might better let them go unconsciously over the falls. But this ministration is to accomplish its glorious work of warning them, and as a schoolmaster, or child-driver, bring them to Christ and His Salvation; and then it is to be “done away,” and give place to the “better covenant,” founded on “better promises,” even the “Ministration of the Spirit,” the “Ministration of Righteousness.”

THE MINISTRATION OF THE SPIRIT, OR THE MINISTRATION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

All that God requires is perfect obedience—perfect accordance with His divine laws. “He that doeth them shall live in them.” Jesus said, “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” “This do, and thou shalt live.”

We do not have to be saved from God’s will, for His will is always on the side of our salvation. “He wills that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth.” And He “Works in us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”

We do not have to be saved from His damnation, for He damns no one. God is not in the damning business; He is in the saving business, first, last, and all the time. Just as “God tempts no one, but a man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed;” so God damns no one, but man condemns, or damns, himself when he goes into sin until the result of sin, which is destruction, is manifest in him.

“God sent not His son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him, might be saved. But he that believeth not is condemned already. And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.”

We do not have to be saved even from the wrath of God, for the wrath of God is ever only against sin, and it reaches the sinner only as he so inseparably connects himself with sin, that he has to drink the “wine of God’s wrath,” which is against the sin. “But as I live, saith the Lord, I take no pleasure in that. Turn ye, for why will ye die.”

Salvation, therefore, is only from sin, and into harmony with the divine law. And when a man is thus saved, he is safe and free from the wrath of God, and is basking in His infinite love.

Salvation is not escape from hell, nor getting into Heaven, nor any other external thing.

Salvation is purely, and only an internal thing. His name shall be called Jesus, Saviour, for He shall save His people from their sins. In order to do this internal saving, He must come into our lives by His Spirit, and cleanse our soul temples casting out the moneychangers, and every selfish, politic motive, subduing all unto himself, in love. “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, for greater is He who is in you, than he who is in the world.”

“The blood is the life,” and Jesus said, “The words which I speak unto you are spirit and life.” The “blood of the Everlasting Covenant,” through which we are “made perfect to do His will,” is simply His divine in-dwelling Spirit, or Life.

It may be difficult perfectly to define life. But this we do know. Life is the power to act. We call a boy who gets around quickly a lively boy. Physical life is power to act physically; and spiritual life is the power to act spiritually, in harmony with the spiritual law.

“If there had been a law given which could have given life,” this kind of life—spiritual life, the power to keep the spiritual law, “verily righteousness should have been by the law.” All that God requires is accordance with law. If the law itself could have imparted the power to come in accordance with it, verily salvation should have been by the law.

But the law could not do this because it was weak through the sinfulness and weakness of our flesh. “But what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law, might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

This is the abiding, and eternal, and most glorious, “Ministration of the Spirit,” to bring righteousness into our lives, to cleanse the soul-temple, to write the divine law in our hearts, making our hearts the seats of mercy and of abiding love, to glorify our lives by the divine presence, and to abide above, and within us, as a pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night, teaching us where He would have us go, and what He would have us do, feeding us daily, also, with the heavenly bread, and giving us spiritual water from the Rock.

Then, too, the “Spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of God.” So, though God is to us today the highest thought we can think of all that is good, and true, and loving, and beautiful, tomorrow the spirit enables us to think still higher, truer thoughts of Him; and the next day, still a higher, truer glimpse is given, until we, “With open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

And as this wonderful transformation and glorification goes on within, He gives us glimpses without, of what He has reserved for us. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him, but God revealeth even these unto us by His spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things.” Such is the most glorious, abiding, eternal “ministration of the Spirit,” under the new, and everlasting covenant.

Dear reader, this is for you, now. Will you have the joy of it NOW?

THE EXPERIENCE OF ISRAEL.

All Bible students agree that the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and the leading of Israel through the Red Sea and across the wilderness, into the promised land, is a type of our deliverance from the bondage of sin, and a revelation of how God leads us into the eternal rest. “All these things happened upon them for examples, and are written for our admonition on whom the ends of the world are come.”

But we have seen that it takes both the covenants to lead us into rest. And God, back there, had both these covenants provided for Israel, to lead them into rest. No sooner had God revealed unto them His law and brought them into old covenant relations with Him, than He gave to them His Sanctuary, to bring them under new covenant relations, and to sanctify them.

As we have already seen, this was the meaning of the Sanctuary. “What, know ye not that ye are the Sanctuary, ye are the temple of God?” “Israel is my sanctuary, Judah is my dominion.” By dwelling in the Sanctuary, God wanted to show them how He desired to dwell in them; for know ye not, “The Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, but, saith He, where is the house that ye will build me, and where is the place of my rest.”

God, in the Sanctuary, was seeking to show them that He would write his law on the stoniest heart that would submit to Him; that He would make that heart a seat of mercy, and love, and glorify that life with His presence, and guide that soul, and feed it with the bread of Heaven each day.

But all this is New Covenant experience; and it was there for Israel, the minute she, through the old covenant experience, had learned her need of salvation. But the majority of Israel stumbled at the Christ stumbling-stone because this means crucifixion of self; and entered not into the new covenant rest, because of unbelief. We need not be surprised at this, for the same is true even today of professed Christians. Multitudes of them are only “trying to be good” under the old covenant, where only a few have entered in to the new covenant triumph and rest.

Men are the same, and God’s dealings with men are the same in all ages. Just as today, the few back there, entered in to the new covenant relations with God. David entered into the Sanctuary experience until it took all the grumble out of his life, and made him a man after God’s own heart. Others entered in, “For they drank of that Spiritual Rock that went with them, and that Rock was Christ,” and where Christ is, there is the new covenant, and through Him, men enter into rest.

But with the multitude it was not so. Paul tells us how it was with them. “But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because she sought it not by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For, being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

“But the word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, the word of faith which we preach.”

Nothing could be clearer than this. The majority of Israel sought righteousness in the wrong way, and so got the wrong kind. They sought it by the old covenant, and got only the “filthy rags” of their own righteousness; whereas, if they had sought it by faith, through the new covenant, and so submitted themselves to the righteousness of God, they would have been clothed with the white robe—the wedding garment. For Christ, in the new covenant experience, was not far off, but waiting in their very mouth and heart, for them to believe, and enter in. It is the same today. We often go too far to find Christ. He is nigh thee, if thou only believe.

And Israel made all this terrible failure while “zealously” seeking righteousness by the “law of righteousness,” the law which was “Holy and just and good.” There is nothing today so sacred and so good, and so essentially a part of the new covenant, but what, by using it in the wrong way, externally, we may put it into the old covenant, and get only self-righteousness out of it.

It is good to read the Bible; but, if, simply from a sense of duty, because I call myself a Christian, and so think I ought to read it, I, by a high resolve, make myself read so many chapters a day, very soon I get to feeling that I am better than some one I know who does not do this. I thus, actually put the reading of the Bible into the old covenant, and am getting only old-covenant righteousness out of it.

How different, when with a daily sense of soul-hunger, we seize the opportunity to come where God’s table is spread, and to feed upon His Word. The soul-hunger is satisfied, and we rejoice in the Lord, and our hearts go out in longing love for those who do not know this joy.

Even when men eat physically without any appetite, and only from a sense of duty, they sometimes are proud of it. But no man ever got self-righteous over eating when he was really hungry.

When, from no inward call, but merely from a sense of duty, because we are Christians, and feel that we ought to do so, we pray regularly three times a day, we even put prayer into the old covenant, and begin at once to grow self-righteous because we are more faithful in prayer than others whom we know. But when we know, and feel, that prayer is the very Island of the Blessed, wherein the soul of man and the soul of the infinite meet and touch, and find companionship; when we know and feel that prayer is the soul’s breath of life, and we come to it as to a glorified transfiguration summit where we may for a time escape the corrupting breath of the world, and breathe the pure air of communion with God; ah! there is no self-righteousness, and no condemnation for others in such prayer; but only an unspeakable love and pity for all those who have lived without the joy of it.

When this is true of reading the Bible, and of prayer, and of the real law of righteousness, what of those external commandments imposed by ecclesiastical authority, and without divine sanction. There can be only self-righteousness in them; and he who obeys them most punctiliously, will find in his heart the most condemnation for others who do not recognize them.

It was thus that the whole Sanctuary service, all of which was intended to be new covenant revelation, was, by Israel, put back into the old covenant, through her seeking her righteousness by external obedience to its outward forms. Because of this God said, “Bring no more vain oblations,” “Sacrifices and offerings I would not, I am weary to bear them.” “Take away from me the noise of your songs.” “Instead of a sweet odor, there is a stench.” “I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.”

And Paul, contenting himself by telling the “new and living way” through the incarnation and crucifixion of Christ, by which these same new-covenant truths and experiences were all again revealed, did not seek, with the Hebrew people, to resuscitate the old way, but left the Sanctuary ceremonies in the old covenant where the Jews had mis-placed them, saying, “Then verily, the first covenant had ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.”

Christ is the end of all this old-covenant religion, and of all its self-righteousness, to every one that believeth, by writing the divine law in our hearts, and making it the unconscious, and spontaneous actuating power of all our actions, so we can say with Him, “I delight to do thy will, oh my God, yea thy law is within my heart”

Jesus, the Captain of our salvation had this wonderful new-covenant experience: “He abolished in his flesh the law of commandments contained in ordinances,” so that He “Was not made after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.”

Christ imparts to us, when we receive it by faith, this endless life, with all its inner working power. “He that hath the Son, hath the everlasting life.” All this externalism which ministers only to our self-righteousness, and “Is of no value against the indulgence of the flesh,” we, too, must know what it is to have abolished in our experience also, so that we may be yielded absolutely, and only, to the indwelling, transforming, glorifying power of this “endless life.”

Unless we do know this experience, we, like Israel of old, will have only an old-covenant experience, beclothed only with the filthy rags of self-righteousness, and will miss of entering into Christ’s glorious rest.

PAUL’S EXPERIENCE.

Paul, or Saul, was a Jew, and he had the regular Jewish, old-covenant experience. He says, “I was alive without the law, once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” Thus Paul recounts the beginning of his religious experience, when he was first brought under the ministration of death—the old-covenant relation with God.

He continues now to relate his experiences under that covenant. Once, doubtless, he did evil, and consented to it; but now, “That which I do, God, I allow not, for what I would, I do not, but what I hate, that do I.” “If then, I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.” “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity, the law of sin in my members.” “O, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

Here we have Paul’s own record of the way in which the old covenant school-mastered him to Christ, and the new covenant. To understand this, we must know the number of laws here mentioned, what they are, and their relation each to the other.

First, there is the law of God, which commands all good things, being itself, “holy and just, and good.”

Second, the law of the mind, and its aspirations after goodness, by which I consent unto the law of God, that it is good, and through which, I delight in the law of God after my better nature, the inward man.

Third, the law of sin and death in my members, which is simply the law of an evil heredity, and an evil environment, which holds me down, and keeps me in bondage, in spite of the feeble efforts of the law of my mind to uplift me into harmony with God.

Fourth, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which is the new-covenant law of a divine and heavenly heredity, through the new birth, and of a heavenly environment, for “The angel of the Lord encampeth around them that fear Him and delivereth them.”

This law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, is the same thing called in another place “the power of an endless life.” It sets us free from the law of sin and death in our members, and brings us into the relationship of children of God—sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” This divine glory is revealed in us day by day, under all the varied experiences of pleasure or pain that come to us; for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, transforms them all into blessings, making “All things work together for good.”

So here we stand with Paul, under this new, and everlasting covenant, into which the old covenant has brought us, rejoicing in sonship, and in the hope of the glory of God, while “The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.”

“Who is it that condemneth? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifyeth.”

We are willing to suffer with Christ since we shall also be glorified together. “Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that hath loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor heights, nor depths, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”