THE TWO COVENANTS

^[p. 540] THE TWO COVENANTS

2 Corinthians 3: 6; 1 John 4: 9 - 19

We have two covenants spoken of which only become valid in death. A covenant is an instrument which makes known God’s disposition, and it becomes valid by death. The first covenant only became valid by death — the blood of calves and goats. The new covenant is established in the death of Christ, the death of the Testator, so the disposition of God toward us is shown out. The new covenant becomes thus a means of teaching the disposition of God toward us. There is a great contrast between the two covenants: in the first, man after the flesh was recognised and God was hid. In the second, man after the flesh was annulled and God was revealed. In 2 Corinthians 3 the apostle speaks a good deal about the veil.

Moses could not use plainness of speech, and he had to put a veil on his face; the apostle did not — he used great plainness of speech. God is no longer veiled or hid. The allusion as to “Lord” is more or less in reference to Jehovah of the Old Testament, so you must consider it as equal to God — not of the letter, but of the Spirit, and the Lord is that Spirit; it is not now that we want to be taken up with the terms of the new covenant, we want to get the spirit of it. If you have not the spirit of the truth, the letter would not be much use to you.

The Lord is that Spirit, the nature of God gives character to the new covenant; it is God who commends His love toward us; His disposition toward us is now shown out. That is the spirit of the new covenant and that is what the apostle laboured to present: “who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit”. It is the death of Christ which shows out God’s ^[p. 541] love and His disposition towards us, so if you want to know really what the new covenant is you would look at the death of Christ, not only to Hebrews 8.

In 1 John 4 you have brought out what it is to live in the presence of the love of God. If the believer goes into the world, he is not living in the presence of the love of God. 1 John 4 has no reference to us as to heaven, but as to our life down here. The children of God are looked at in this chapter as in three positions. Firstly, verse 9, we were in death; secondly, verse 16, in the believer’s pathway; thirdly, in verse 17, in the day of judgment.

The love of God annuls death really; death could not stand in the presence of the Lord, who was the expression of God. Your mind must be in accord with the death of Christ. So the apostle could say, “I am crucified with Christ”; his mind was in accord with the death of Christ, and again, “They that are of the Christ have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts”: you are in accord with the death of Christ, and you cannot indulge the flesh in the presence of the love of God, and you live by the Spirit, and by the Spirit the love of God is shed abroad in your heart; it is the Spirit that makes that love good in your heart; the death of Christ showed it, but the Spirit sheds that love in the heart.

“In this was manifested the love of God” — all began with God; when we were dead we were to live by the Son of God, so the apostle says, “I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” — that we might live by Him. Then there is the second point: “we have known and believed the love that God hath to us” — this is present and is in the believer’s pathway here. God has His eye upon us, and all that is in our hearts has to be brought out in the way of discipline; as in Israel, all that is in our hearts has to be brought out, but it is that He may do us good at our latter ^[p. 542] end. God knew all from the beginning, but He wants us to find it out, and He passes us through discipline that we may find out all that is in our hearts.

Then, thirdly, there is the question of the day of judgment. All will come under review at the day of judgment, but love is made perfect with us that we may have boldness then. There is no death in the passage — death has no power in the presence of the love of God. You can even have boldness in the day of judgment; all has reference to the present — “We love him, because he first loved us”; all began with God.

The new covenant really is extremely simple; it is a covenant that is pervaded by the love of God. It is man after the flesh annulled and God revealed. If saints are hankering after the world it is difficult, but not if a saint really desires to go on.