We have seen thus far that God's covenant(s) with humanity emanated from the everlasting, primordial covenant of love that existed within the Trinity and embraces all of God's creation, involving His whole-souled commitment to their ultimate welfare and His expectation of their whole-souled commitment and loving loyalty to Him in return. When Adam and Eve sinned against God's covenant with them, God adapted His everlasting covenant into a covenant of redemption, His plan to save humanity and restore the eternal hope He designed for them.
The details of God's covenant of redemption/plan of salvation were revealed progressively through covenants God made with chosen human agents who were elected by God as stewards to proclaim His everlasting gospel to the world. Each covenant bore DNA markers that characterized it as a fully grace-based, gospel-bearing, faith-inducing, mission-directed revelation of God's covenant of redemption/plan of salvation. God would write His law on believers' hearts, be their God, forgive their sins, and spread through them the fragrance of the knowledge of Himself until the final restoration of all things when all would know Him. Even when the covenants were differentiated, their essential unity as expressions of the everlasting gospel/everlasting covenant was preserved. God was at work by His Spirit, throughout both Old Testament and New Testament times, to reveal Himself to people, convict them of sin, forgive the repentant, and write His law on the hearts of those who responded in faith that they might obey Him in love.
But what about the New Testament claims that the old covenant and law are engraved on stone only, not in the heart (2 Cor. 3:7), and that they are not based on faith (Gal. 3:12)? The law is called the power of sin (1 Cor. 15:56); something we must die to in order to be married to Christ and receive salvation (Rom. 7:1-4; Gal. 2:19); that which will prevent those who try to live by it from ever sharing in the inheritance of the saints (Gal. 4:30); something no longer needed as a tutor to bring us to Christ once we've been converted and come to Christ (Gal. 3:24-25); a letter that kills (Rom. 7:10-11; 2 Cor. 3:6) and engenders a curse (Gal. 3:13); death (2 Cor. 3:7); condemnation (2 Cor. 3:9); spiritual imprisonment (Gal. 3:23); and slavery (Gal. 4:24-25, 30-31). One biblical scholar characterized the covenant God made with Israel at Sinai as "sin-provoking," "sin-inducing," and "sin-producing."[1] Is this the character of the law that the God of the everlasting covenant gave to His people during the Old Testament era? Instead of the law and covenant God gave His people on Sinai being grace-based, gospel-bearing, faith-inducing, and mission-directed, was it instead sin-provoking, sin-inducing, and sin-producing? Was God's law and covenant a divine instrument of salvation or something His covenant people had to be rescued from to find salvation?
The answer lies in part in a crucial distinction between history and experience that underlies the biblical presentation of the old and new covenants. The old and the new covenants each have dual applications: a historical application and an experiential application.
The Historical Old and New Covenants
The plan of salvation by which God saves us is referred to by many theologians as the "covenant of redemption." The covenant of redemption is God's everlasting covenant molded around the needs of fallen humanity for the purpose of reconciling them with God and restoring the eternal inheritance God offered them at creation-that He might be their God and they might be His people.
But the covenant of redemption was itself divided into two historical periods, which may also rightly be called "the two dispensations"[2]--the Old Testament period (the historical old covenant) and the New Testament era (the historical new covenant). "The bond of God with man before Christ may be called 'old covenant' and the bond of God with man after Christ may be called 'new covenant.'"[3] This historical divide was marked by the coming of Jesus. The monumental fact of His presence among us marked the watershed of spiritual history. Before He came, there was no Old Testament or old covenant, historically speaking. But after He came, everything prior to His advent was considered "old" and everything that followed was considered "new." Thus, we live in the historical new covenant/New Testament era.
The Historical Old Covenant
The historical old covenant was characterized by redeeming acts of God; a system of moral and civil laws based on love and the Ten Commandments; and an elaborate ceremonial system eventually focused in a localized sanctuary, administered by imperfect priests, and centered on animal sacrifices that could never take away sin but served as an anticipatory type and shadow of the atoning ministry of the Messiah who was yet to come. The historical old covenant was ratified by the blood of animals (Gen. 4:4; 8:20; 15:6-18; Exod. 24:4-8; 40:29; Heb. 9:22).
The covenant God made with Israel at Sinai-including moral and civil laws, along with the more elaborated ceremonial system through which the everlasting gospel was preached to Israel-came to represent the historical old or "first" covenant (Hebrews 7-10). But this covenant more accurately encompasses the entire Old Testament (2 Cor. 3:14) and covers the full historical period of God's gracious dealings with human beings from Adam's fall to the incarnation of Christ. The historical old covenant was a grace-based, gospel-bearing, faith-inducing, mission-directed covenant encoded with all four promise provisions residing in the new covenant. God purposed with the historical old covenant to groom a people through whom He could reveal His holiness and extend His salvation appeal to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people: "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth" (Isa. 45:22; Ezek. 36:23).
The Historical New Covenant
The historical new covenant era was characterized by several things:
• the once-for-all redemptive act of God in Jesus Christ (the foundational core of the gospel--1 Cor. 15:1-4) for the salvation of the world and the reconciliation to Himself of all things in heaven and on earth (2 Cor. 5:19; Col. 1:19-20);
• an even greater clarification and intensification of moral expectations based on the magnification of love and the Ten Commandments as revealed in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ (Matt. 5:17ff.; 22:35-40);
• a simpler ceremonial system consisting of baptism and the holy communion; a deeper understanding of God based on God's self-revelation in Jesus (John 14:7-9); a new and intensified phase of the Holy Spirit's work based on the superlative, new "raw material" provided Him by the sacrificial death, resurrection, and glorification of Jesus (John 7:39; 17:4); and
• believers' heightened awareness of the availability, role, and work of the Holy Spirit as the convicting, converting, character-producing, ministry-empowering agent of the Trinity (John 3:3-5; 7:37-39; 14:26; 15:26).
The historical new covenant was ratified by the blood of Jesus (Luke 22:20; Heb. 9:22-26). (See table 2 in appendix D for a side-by-side comparison of the historical old and new covenants.)
The Experiential Old and New Covenants
When discussing old covenant/new covenant concepts, New Testament authors, and Paul in particular, often had in mind not the two historical divisions of spiritual history represented by the Old and New Testaments, but rather two vastly different religious experiences.
The Experiential Old Covenant
The experiential old covenant represented an illegitimate and perverted use of God's law/covenant as a system of merit to earn God's acceptance and establish one's righteousness before God--an application of God's law/covenant He never intended.
An old covenant experience is an externalized religion, engraved on stone (in granite) only, not ingrained in the heart. An old covenant experience is going through the motions of religion with an unconverted heart, "having a form of godliness but denying its power" (2 Tim. 3:5). It's a religion of "the flesh," represented by Paul's pre-conversion experience--"as for legalistic righteousness, faultless" (Phil. 3:4-6). It takes the "holy, righteous and good" law of God and converts it into a legalistic instrument of spiritual bondage and death, into a letter that kills: "I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death" (Rom. 7:12, 10-11). When viewed from the perspective of "all who rely on observing the law" for their salvation, "the law is not based on faith" (Gal. 3:10, 12).
Though the everlasting gospel was preached to Adam, Abraham, and Israel through the grace-based, gospel-bearing, faith-inducing, mission-directed covenants of the Old Testament historical era, "not all the Israelites accepted the good news" (Rom. 10:16). "Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works" (Rom. 9:31-32). An old covenant experience is not of faith. It is something we must die to in order to be married to Christ, and it is something that will prevent those who try to live by it from sharing in the inheritance of the saints. It is indeed "a different gospel--which is really no gospel at all," but one designed "to pervert the gospel of Christ" (Gal. 1:7).
The Experiential New Covenant
A new covenant experience, on the other hand, is the real thing. Reflecting on his conversion, Paul wrote:
But whatever [I used to believe] was to my profit [from my old covenant experience of externalized religious formalism] I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything [associated with that former experience] a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. (Phil. 3:7-9)
A new covenant experience involves the acceptance by faith of God's gracious gift of salvation based on the redemptive act of Christ, and the obedience that issues naturally from faith and a restored relationship with God through a dependent reliance on Jesus's indwelling presence through the Holy Spirit. "Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith [new covenant experience]? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law" (Rom. 3:31).
Viewed from an experiential rather than historical perspective, the new covenant represents an internalized religious experience lived by one who has been "born of the Spirit" (John 3:3-6), "lives by the Spirit" (Rom. 1:8-17), bears the "fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. 5:22-25), and exercises the "gifts of the Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:1-11). The Holy Spirit puts God's law in the mind and writes it on the heart of believers (Deut. 30:10-14; Isa. 51:7; Rom. 2:12- 16), establishing it on the basis of their faith (Rom. 3:31) and fulfilling its requirements in their lives (Rom. 8:4). Someone enjoying a new covenant experience delights in and loves God's law (Ps. 1:1-3; 119:47, 97; Rom. 7:22). In the Holy Spirit's hands, God's law is "perfect" (Ps. 19:7). The Holy Spirit uses God's law for "converting the soul" (Ps. 19:7 NKJV), creating true freedom (Ps. 119:44-45; James 2:8-12), revealing sin that we might be drawn ever closer to Christ (Gal. 3:23-24; Rom. 3:20; 7:13), and motivating and empowering "the obedience that comes from faith" (Rom. 1:5).
At creation Adam enjoyed a new covenant experience. Even though he needed no forgiveness at that time (promise/provision 4--justification--of the new covenant), that eventuality had already been provided for in the everlasting covenant: "This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time" (2 Tim. 1:9; cf. 1 Pet. 1:18-20; Rev. 13:8). In every other respect, Adam was like a new covenant believer through faith in his creator. God's law was written in his heart (new covenant promise/provision 1--sanctification); God was his God and he was God's child (promise/provision 2--reconciliation); and Adam needed no one, other than God Himself, to teach him about God, for he knew God personally (promise/provision 3--mission). From this perspective, the new covenant (experientially understood) predated both the experiential old covenant initiated by Adam's fall and God's historical old covenant that was ratified by the blood of animals after Adam's fall. Viewed from this perspective, the new covenant actually preceded the old.
The new covenant experience, as well as the historical new covenant, was also ratified by "the blood of the eternal covenant," for "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" (Heb. 13:20; 9:22).
While dispensational scholars view the old and new covenants exclusively from a historical perspective (equating the old covenant with the Old Testament era, especially from Sinai on, and the new covenant with the New Testament era), other scholars view the covenants strictly from an experiential perspective. Rayburn's views are representative here: "The distinction between the new covenant and the old covenant has nothing to do with the distinction between the situation before Christ came and the situation after or between the religion and revelation before Christ and that after. It is rather the distinction between flesh and Spirit, between the old man and the new man, between death and life, between condemnation and righteousness, and between guilt and the forgiveness of sin. ... In a proper sense, all salvation is the new covenant."[4]
Both of these groups of interpreters recognize an essential dimension of the scriptural revelation of the old and new covenant themes. But both also err in denying either the historical or the experiential dimensions. While not specifically employing the nomenclature, "historical old and new covenants" and "experiential old and new covenants," other scholars nonetheless recognize the need to make this distinction when the context requires it for a proper understanding of the New Testament's attitude toward God's law and the way of salvation in the Old Testament era, and more particularly at Sinai.[5] Sheer logical consistency requires that such a distinction be made. (See table 3 in appendix D for a side-by-side comparison of the experiential old and new covenants.)
Only after both the historical and experiential dimensions of the old and new covenant themes in Scripture are acknowledged and applied can it be seen that the very same beautiful, unified, coherent plan of salvation has been proclaimed throughout Scripture and all of God's covenants-the plan of salvation by grace through faith alone, resulting in obedient discipleship and involvement in the divine mission. Only with the acknowledgement of the historical and experiential dimensions of the old and new covenants can the consistent appeal and warning of Scripture from beginning to end be discerned. It is an appeal to turn to the Lord and be saved through the regenerating work of His Spirit, who alone can ingrain the divine law in the heart of faith. The appeal is coupled with the warning against a humanistic, externalized religion "written in stone" only, consisting of a self-righteous, judgmental attitude that results in an oppressive, dutiful morality of dead works.
Gospel-Bearing Historical Old Covenant, but Legalistic Old Covenant Experience, at Sinai
In His Sinai covenant with the nation of Israel, God renewed the covenant of redemption promises He had given to their forefathers. Israel's overall response throughout their history, however, was summed up in these words of Paul: "Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness" (Rom. 10:3). This old covenant experience of legalism throughout Israel's history will be examined in much more detail in the next chapter. However, early seeds or nuances of their later more matured old covenant experience may perhaps already be detected in their initial response to God's covenant renewal: "Tell us everything the Lord our God tells you. We will listen and obey" (Deut. 5:27). Was this a faith-based, new covenant response, or a legalistically self-dependant one?
Note God's own evaluation of their response as communicated through Moses: "The Lord heard you when you spoke to me and the Lord said to me, 'I have heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was good'" (Deut. 5:28). By God's own evaluation, they spoke the right words.
But there was more to the story. For the very next verse contains these plaintive words of God: "Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!" (Deut. 5:29). Davidson comments:
On God's part, this covenant was a valid covenant of grace-part of the everlasting covenant of God's promised redemption, agreed to by the Father and Son even before the creation of the world, announced to Adam and Eve in the Protoevangelium [first proclamation of the gospel] of Gen. 3:15, promised to Abram in Gen. 12 and codified in the Abrahamic covenant of Gen. 15 and 17. God accepted the people on the basis of the blood of the Lamb of God, "slain from the foundation of the world." On the human side, the people's response contained appropriate wording, but the wrong motivation, and the wrong understanding of the basis of their salvation and ability to stay in covenant relation with God, rooted in their own efforts. On God's part, it was a valid "new covenant" based on the divine promise and the blood of Christ, but on the people's part it was an "old covenant" experience of salvation by works.[6]
Three times the Israelites promised, "We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey" (Exod. 24:3, 7; cf. 9:8; Deut. 5:27). Yet within weeks they flagrantly broke their covenant promise by building a golden calf, likely to worship "the Egyptian bull-god Apis"[7] (Exodus 32; Deuteronomy 9). That experience, coupled with Israel's subsequent overall history of unbelief, lends support to the conclusion that Israel's response to God's covenant at Sinai essentially represented an old covenant experience.
At the same time, that very same verbal response--"We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey"--could also be an experientially new covenant response for those who speak those words in faith and dependence on God as the One who can sanctify them.
This has implications far beyond Sinai. On the one hand, it warns of the possibility of living in a gospel-bearing new covenant age while at the same time suffering a heart deficiency that results in an old covenant experience. On the other hand, it also invites us to depend wholly on God as the One who alone can bring the inner transformation and conversion of heart and mind that will enable us to obey Him freely from a heart of love--"the obedience that comes from faith" (Rom. 1:5). The prayers of the psalmist are always appropriate prayers for the believer: "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me....Grant me a willing spirit to sustain me" (Ps. 51:10, 12). "Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name" (Ps. 86:11). Similarly applicable is Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple: "May the Lord our God be with us as He was with our fathers; may he never leave us nor forsake us. May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep the commands, decrees and regulations he gave our fathers" (1 Kings 8:57-58).
Summary
The old and new covenants are sometimes viewed in Scripture as historical eras and sometimes as contrasting spiritual experiences--contrasting ways of relating to God and His law. The old covenant historical era covers spiritual history before the advent of Christ, while an old covenant experience represents either rebellion against God's law or a legalistic reliance on it as a means of achieving salvation through obedience. The new covenant historical era covers the period of spiritual history that commenced with the advent of Christ, while a new covenant experience represents acceptance of God's salvation by grace through faith and reliance on the Holy Spirit to write God's law on one's heart for the empowerment of loving obedience and faithful witness. The covenant God made with Israel at Sinai was a grace-based, gospel-bearing, faith-inducing, mission-directed historical old covenant that bore all the DNA markers, promises/provisions of God's description of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-33 and Hebrews 8:8-12. On the whole, Israel's response throughout its history to the gospel proclaimed and offered in that covenant was an old covenant experience of overt disregard and disobedience on the one hand and legalistic reliance on law-keeping for salvation on the other. It is just as possible to live in the new covenant historical era, in which we live, and experience an old covenant experience through flagrant, unrepentant disobedience to God's law or reliance on obedience as one's qualification for salvation. Conversely, Scripture affirms that true believers living in the old covenant historical period possessed a new covenant experience (Hebrews 11).
We are now prepared to see the momentous implications this insight provides for interpreting apparently conflicting scriptural views of God's law.
Notes: