THE TWO COVENANTS
[p. 214] THE TWO COVENANTS
Galatians 4: 21 - 31; Galatians 5: 1; 2 Corinthians 3: 6 - 9; 1 John 4: 9 - 19
It is a very important point that a great many thoughts which we find in God’s dealings of old, are taken up in the church. It shows this much, that no thought of God lapses. Israel were the people of God upon earth and God made known in connection with them a great many thoughts; but so far as they were concerned these thoughts lapsed. “Lo Ammi” had to be written upon them, and so these various thoughts of God lapsed. Take the thought of the flock of God — that thought lapsed. Take again the thought of Jerusalem — it was the place where God had placed His name — the ark of the covenant was there — the Urim and Thummim were there — the light and glory of God were there. But so far as Israel were concerned, the light and glory departed.
Ezekiel the prophet saw the glory depart. It lingered, but it departed, and it never returned. In the millennium the glory will return (Ezekiel 43: 4, 5). The city was re-built, and the walls, but the glory did not return. Jerusalem became captive, and was trodden down of the gentiles. The Lord wept over it; it was so perverse. Jerusalem is trodden down of the gentiles still. But my point is this, that these thoughts (and I might take up a great many more) have not lapsed. You get the thought of the flock and also of Jerusalem, as both taken up in the church. I do not touch on the flock tonight (I may do so on a future occasion), but the flock is there, and so too is the shepherd. Tonight I shall merely take up the thought of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is taken up as to the moral thought in the church, but these become the means of our education. We are educated by these means; when these things come to pass in Israel, it will not be their education, as [p. 215] it is ours. God has taken up the thought of Jerusalem in the church, and the object is to fit us for the great display in the world to come — the church must be instructed in every way of God.
I want to touch upon the thought of Jerusalem above, and my object is to show you the secret of liberty; that is the moral effect I should like it to produce. People are more or less in bondage, some to one thing, and some to another. Fear brings bondage — that is one kind of bondage. Then there is bondage to the world, and with that bondage people are not really happy, because they have a conscience about it. The point is this — we should appreciate liberty and the ground of it. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage”. The Galatians were getting under bondage to the world, in a religious way; but it really meant bondage to the great world system. There are a great many parts of the great world system. Christendom is part of it, and we may be in bondage to one part of the great world system or the other. There is great happiness connected with liberty. If you want to be truly happy you must be free from bondage. My point tonight is to show the ground of liberty (Galatians 4: 20 - 31). Jerusalem above is free which is our mother. We brethren are the children of promise. What I want to touch upon to make the subject clear is the intimate connection between a city and a covenant. The two covenants were represented by two cities. Jerusalem on earth was connected with the first covenant. But Jerusalem above as connected with Sarah. Liberty is always dependent on your parentage. Ishmael was not free — he was the child of a bondwoman — freedom depended upon birth. The apostle Paul said, “I was free born”, that is he was begotten of a free woman. That applies to us spiritually. Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother. The point I want to make plain is that Jerusalem is our mother. The literal Jerusalem [p. 216] was a Canaanitish city, and all along the line was identified with the first covenant, and the result was all her children came into bondage. They are accounted of as being the children of Jerusalem, but they were in bondage. They could not yield to God what was required. They were under a burdensome system, which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear. God had a purpose in view in bringing it in, but all the same, all who came under it were begotten to bondage. The city was identified with the covenant. Now in connection with Jerusalem above, it is identified with the new covenant, and the children of the city take their character from the covenant, and hence it is they are begotten to liberty. Isaac was free, because he was the son of a free woman, just as Ishmael was a bondman, because he was the son of a bondwoman.
It is important to understand this, if you are to be brought into liberty. It was for that reason I read the passage in 2 Corinthians 3: 6 - 9. We have in it what corresponds to Sarah. The new covenant is what corresponds to Sarah, and all who are begotten of Sarah are born to liberty. The children of the city take their character from the covenant. The character of the covenant is spoken of in the passage read, as the ministration of righteousness and the Spirit — Christ Himself is the expression of the new covenant in contrast to the law. Therefore the new covenant is the ministration of righteousness and the Spirit. Christ is the Spirit, and Christ is the righteousness. Christ is our life, by the Spirit, but at the same time, Christ is our righteousness, therefore Christ is the proper expression of the new covenant. The covenant expresses the conditions under which God is pleased to be with man. The first covenant expressed the conditions upon which God was with Israel, and so too did the covenant made with Noah.
The covenant always expresses the conditions under which God was pleased to be with the people. The [p. 217] new covenant presents the conditions or terms upon which God is pleased to be with man, and Christ Himself expresses these conditions, and hence Christ is the Head of every man, because in Him you get expression of the terms upon which God is pleased to be with man. Christ accomplished redemption, so that in His death the covenant might be ratified, and Christ Himself is the expression of that covenant.
You may get the two things — the Spirit and righteousness. If we live in regard of God at all, we live by the Spirit of Christ. “The water that I shall give him”, etc., and the water is symbolical of the Spirit. If we do not live by the Spirit of Christ, we do not live in regard of Christ at all. “Nevertheless”, the apostle could say, “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”. Christ lives in us by the Spirit. The new covenant is the ministration of the Spirit. So too in regard of righteousness. Christ is my righteousness. I am wholly clear in the eye of God, because He is my righteousness, from every reproach of the world system in which we were. Christ is just as much our righteousness as He is our life, and that is the ministration of the new covenant. But Christ is the Spirit and the righteousness. No one can apprehend the terms upon which God is pleased to be with man, unless they see Christ. In Him the terms are set forth. I live — but how do I live? I live by Christ. The terms upon which God is with Christ are the terms, so to speak, upon which He is with me. I am clear of every reproach which was connected with me, when I was in the world system. Here is my righteousness. I am justified in Christ as regards all that I was involved in by reason of the fall and my connection with the world system. We do not understand the new covenant unless we understand Christ as Head of every man. Christ is towards every man, and those who accept Him as Head, to them Christ is the expression of what God’s mind is in regard of them. Turn to Romans 5: 5 - 8 to illustrate this, “hope maketh [p. 218] not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts”, “God commendeth His love toward us”, “Christ died for us”. Now pass on to Romans 8, the last two verses. Nothing can “separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Thus Christ is the true expression of what God is towards us. “The love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Christ Jesus as Lord is the expression of divine love to man, and nothing can separate us from it.
The new covenant is the ministration of the Spirit and righteousness, and that is Christ; it can be nothing but Christ. The ministry of the new covenant is Christ, and that as the blessed expression of God’s mind towards man. The passage in 1 John 4 is full of it (see verses 9, 10). The expression of God’s love was giving His Son. Suppose the ministry of the new covenant has become effectual with regard to you, then the love of God so far as you are concerned is realised. You have entered into what God’s thoughts are in regard of you. Herein was the love of God manifested, that He sent “his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him”. Now being children of the covenant (Galatians 4), and the ministry of the covenant having become effective in us (2 Corinthians 3), Jerusalem above is our mother. The spring and secret of liberty is the knowledge of the love of God. If you want to be in liberty you must have your heart assured in the love of God.
Deliverance and liberty have been greatly discussed, but the liberty is measured by the acquaintance of love. The liberty of children is dependent upon the love of the parents. If children are assured of their parents’ love, they are in liberty. If we are acquainted with the love of God as expressed in Christ, the necessary effect is we are free with God, we being assured of the love of God. We can say, “We love him because he first loved us”. God has established us in life and righteousness in Christ, and we love Him “because be first loved us”.
[p. 219] We were at the time connected with the great world system; hence we have been delivered from it, by connecting us with Christ as Head, and thus we are set in liberty. Where would man have been had it not been for the love of God? The love of God delivered the world from idolatry, and we should have been steeped in it, but God manifested His love toward the world that we might be delivered from it, and attached to Christ, who is the blessed expression of divine love, and the knowledge of love is the real spring and secret of liberty. It is true in a household. If there is liberty, it is the result of the knowledge of the love of God, and even for that reason that He is the expression of the covenant, the terms upon which God is pleased to be with us. God would have us made perfect in love, to be free from fear, and free from bondage to the great world system. Then it is by love that we can serve one another. We come under the law of Christ. There is no such thing as free will. God had no free will, for He is bound by His own blessed nature — by His love, and what is not possible to God is not possible to any creature. Liberty is emancipation from fear, to love, and from the world system which is contrary to His holiness, because His love is a holy love. We are to stand fast in the liberty, and Christ makes us to take His yoke, which is the service of love. We are to take our part in the service of love; bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Bondage is that people are hankering after this thing and that thing. If our hearts were established in the love of God, we would not care to cherish anything that was inconsistent with the holy love of God. He guides into the abode of His holiness, that we might be acquainted with the holy love of God.
May we be at liberty with God, according to the love of God which is expressed in Christ. May our hearts be directed into the love of God — and again, “keep yourselves in the love of God”. Christians are hindered [p. 220] by the deadly world system, and so do not enjoy the holy love of God, which is the real secret and spring of true liberty, and thus being free to fulfil the law of Christ — by love to serve one another.
Liberty is a very blessed thought in regard of christians, and therefore it is very important that we should come into the true secret of liberty according to God.