It's a pity when a fresh revelation of truth excites opposition among God's people. And it's doubly so when that newly revealed truth is especially "sent" by the Lord for a good reason.
The Good News of the new covenant was an essential part of the 1888 message, but it aroused controversy with years of resistance. Galatians says that the confusion of old covenant ideas "gives birth to bondage."1 Investigation reveals that for years an infiltration of those ideas held the ascendancy among us, yet we seem unaware of the reality. Such widespread "bondage" is one reason why we lose so many of our youth when they come to thinking for themselves.
Ellen White several times says that she was "shown" by the Lord that the 1888 view is the true one, and that the brethren who opposed it were wasting their time.2 She considered it not only to be authentic biblically, but beautiful in its clarity and motivating power.
In 1738 John Wesley chanced on a meeting where someone was reading what Luther wrote about justification by faith. "I did feel my heart strangely warmed," he recalled. Many who have had the privilege of reading the Jones-Waggoner presentations of the two covenants testify the same. The Holy Spirit gave the two young men a brilliant insight into "most precious” truth.
As a newly baptized Seventh-day Adventist teen I went through four years of public high school almost alone in my faith. The Sabbath was a never-ending problem. I heard, “You're a Jew!" "You're under the law!" "You ought to read Galatians, that’ll straighten you out." I tried to read Galatians, but it confused me. On the surface it appeared to support my ridiculing friends, but I knew the Sabbath truth somehow had to be right.
I went to Sabbath school and church every week, even to camp meetings. Then for the first time I entered a Seventh-day Adventist school, a college. Even then no one helped me understand Galatians.
Finally in my senior college year I chanced to discover E. J. Waggoner's long out-of-print The Glad Tidings with its two chapters on the covenants. Never had I seen such Good News in the gospel! It made sense. Only much later did I learn what Ellen White had said about his view. Nevertheless, on the spot I accepted it from Waggoner, knowing nothing of who he was or of the 1888 history. The truth "strangely warmed my heart" as Luther's had warmed Wesley's. I grabbed it. (My conscience had forced me to accept the Sabbath truth on my own nine years earlier when my Presbyterian pastor had tried to dissuade me.)
In this chapter we want to let the Bible unfold this precious message as Waggoner saw it. May your heart also be "strangely warmed."
The New Covenant Is God's One-sided Promise
Long before the "old covenant" came into being the Lord originally made the "everlasting covenant"—God's promise to make His people "complete in every good work to do His will ... through Jesus Christ."3
That is a big project, because all mankind have not only sinned but have fallen into a slavery to sin and ego-centeredness so deep that the roots seem bottomless. The new covenant is the news of how God solves this problem and provides full healing.
There is no need to be confused by artificial definitions. Theologians talk about the "Adamic covenant,""the Noachian covenant," and the "Abrahamic covenant," but these are all the same "new" or "everlasting covenant "that God promised, only under different circum-stances. The principle and the promise were always the same—the new covenant is God's unilateral promise to us.
And that's just the problem why this 1888 truth has been so opposed—fear of the Good News being too good.
This covenant (or promise) was made more distinct and far reaching in the Lord's conversations with Abraham. He virtually promised the old man the sky! In him “all the families of the earth shall be blessed." The promise included land "northward, southward, eastward, and westward.""Count the stars if you are able to number them,” God said."So shall your descendants be."
Staggering! The promises include:
(1) Abraham's descendants will become the greatest nation in the world;
(2) The Messiah will come through them;
(3) In them every family in the world will be “blessed;"
(4) The land of Canaan will be their possession;
(5) Even more, the promise includes the whole world, which must be the new earth;4
(6) Since the earth is to be an "everlasting possession," the "new covenant" must include everlasting life as well in the earth made new;5
(7) Moreover, since only righteousness can dwell in this new earth,6 the new covenant promise includes making righteous all who believe;
(8) The down-payment on all this incredible blessing would be a miraculous birth;7 an "impossible" conception will take place enabling Abraham's aged and sterile wife Sarah to bear a son whose name would be Isaac ("laughter");
(9) The world's Savior is not to come through Ishmael, who is a symbol of a do-it-yourself works program, but
(10) Christ will come through Isaac "the child of promise."This will forever demonstrate that Abraham's true descendants are those only who have his faith.
What Promises Did God Ask Abraham To Make In Return?
If you read carefully, you will see that the answer is—none! The new covenant promise is entirely one-sided. God does all the promising. He does not ask us to make promises to Him, for He knows we cannot keep them.
But was Abraham expected to do nothing? What was his part in the bargain? The answer is an astounding one, that many have trouble with: only one thing, believe. "He believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness."8
Difficult as it may be to confess, we must recognize that all the Lord asked from Abraham was faith. This does not mean that He did not expect obedience or that good works were not important. The Lord was teaching Abraham the principle of righteousness by faith. Once Abraham learned to believe, true obedience would follow as surely as fruit follows the blossom. And it did, for the Lord said later,” I have known him ... to do righteousness and justice."9
The ancient Israelites misunderstood the covenant, but Paul got to the heart of it. Circumcision became for them the symbol of their do-it-yourself, works-and-obedience program. Paul's point is neat: Abraham's faith "was counted unto him for righteousness" before, not after, he was circumcised.10 Brilliant insight! This is how the apostle proved that justification is by faith alone. Six times in Romans 4 we read that Abraham is "our father," the spiritual ancestor of all who exercise faith.
But Paul is not putting down obedience, for the word "Righteousness" includes true justification, which word implies straightening out what was crooked. It is being put right, that is, learning genuine obedience through receiving the atonement. It becomes possible only through faith, but the Good News is that it is not only possible but certain, if like Abraham we will believe God's magnificent promise.
God's Covenant Is Always His One-sided Promise
The 1888 messengers saw a beautiful garden of truth where others saw only a barren desert:
The covenant and promise of God are one and the same.... God's covenants with men can be nothing else than promises to them....
After the Flood God made a "covenant" with every beast of the earth, and with every fowl; but the beasts and the birds did not promise anything in return. Genesis 9:9-16. They simply received the favor at the hand of God. That is all we can do—receive. God promises us everything that we need, and more than we can ask or think, as a gift. We give Him ourselves, that is, nothing. And He gives us Himself, that is, everything. That which makes all the trouble is that even when men are willing to recognize the Lord at all they want to make bargains with Him. They want it to be an equal, "mutual" affair—a transaction in which they can consider themselves on a par with God....
The gospel was as full and complete in the days of Abraham as it has ever been or ever will be. No addition to it or change in its provisions or conditions could possibly be made after God's oath to Abraham. Nothing can be taken away from it as it thus existed, and not one thing can ever be required from any man more than what was required of Abraham.11
What could be more difficult than making dead people come alive? But that's what the One specializes in who promises us the new covenant. He "gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did."12 In other words, He already counts blessings as reality that you have not yet even begun to see. When we learn to believe, we too will "call those things which do not exist as though they did," because the Word of God declares that these apparently impossible blessings will be.
How the World's Best People Invented the Old Covenant
Four hundred and thirty years went by. When the Lord brought Abraham's descendants out of Egyptian slavery, He wanted to impress on their minds the same "new" covenant He had made long before with their father Abraham:
You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep [Heb., shamar, cherish, preserve; see Genesis 2:15] My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.13
The Hebrew word for "obey" means primarily to "listen."14 Any parent knows that obedience is easier if the child will but listen. Since God's covenant is always His promise, to "keep My covenant" means to cherish and to appreciate the promise He made to their forefather, Abraham.
In other words, if Israel at Sinai would believe as Abraham did, they would become a "kingdom of priests, and an holy nation," the greatest on earth. The whole world would beat a path to their door to learn about righteousness by faith which solves all human problems. "If they would simply keep God's covenant, keep the faith, and believe God's promise, they would be a 'peculiar treasure' unto God," says Waggoner.15
To "bear... on eagles' wings" is the meaning of the Latin word from which we get our word "succor." We read in the KJV that Christ "is able to succour them that are tempted."16 The deliverance from Egypt was designed to teach this same glorious new covenant truth—that the Lord saves us like a mother eagle saves her young. Israel did nothing to effect their deliverance from Egypt except to let the Lord do it for them, as a baby eagle lets its mother "succor" it. But the people did not want the lesson. They wanted a works program. So do we!
Obsessed with legalism, unbelief blinded their souls so that they could not appreciate God's grace as Abraham did. Their response was not like his, to believe with a contrite heart. Instead, they solemnly promised to be good, that they would obey: "Then all the people answered together and said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do.'"17 This was the old covenant. It was the promise of the people:
These two covenants exist today. The two covenants are not matters of time, but of condition. Let no one flatter himself that he cannot be bound under the old covenant, thinking that its time has passed. The time for that is passed only in the sense thaft "the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries." 1 Peter 4:3, KJV.18
This promise of "all the people” was a detour occasioned by their unbelief. If the people would not keep step with Him, God must now humble Himself to keep step with them. He must ratify their old covenant with animal's blood and show them the futility of their self-confident legalism. Galatians says that the “law... was added because of transgressions."19 The word "added" means "emphasized," "underlined, "or" articulated." Waggoner makes this passage clear:
The law was given to show them [Israel] that they had not faith and so were not true children of Abraham, and were therefore in a fair way to lose the inheritance. God would have put His law into their hearts even as He put it into Abraham's heart, if they had believed. But when they disbelieved, yet still professed to be heirs of the promise, it was necessary to show them in the most marked manner that their unbelief was sin.... They had the same spirit as their descendants, who asked, “What must we do, to be doing the work of God?" John 6:28.... Unless they saw their sin, they could not avail themselves of the promise. Hence the necessity of the speaking of the law.20
Now must come the terrors of Mt. Sinai, which were completely unnecessary for Abraham with his heart-faith. Since the people had now instituted the old covenant by making their arrogant promise, the Lord is obliged to communicate His law to them through this second-choice method.21
God did not need to frighten Abraham with "thunders and lightnings" and earthquakes, for He wrote His holy law in his humble believing heart. The old covenant depends on fear as its motivation to produce "the works of the law," because the motivation of faith has not yet been realized.
For example, to refrain from illicit sex because of fear of AIDS or shame is old covenant legalism. To keep the Sabbath because of fear of being lost is also legalism. It is good to refrain from illicit sex, and it is good to keep the Sabbath, but the motive that is truly effective is supplied only by the grace of God in the new covenant.
The new covenant is heart-religion, an inexpressible gratitude and awe imposed by grace. The Lord promises,"! will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts."22 This means more than memorizing certain phrases. It means a love affair with grace and truth.
How does the Lord write His law in human hearts? It's easy to give a glib answer, "By the Holy Spirit." But how does He do it? By capturing the affections of the soul, which Ellen White often said is "heart work."
The alienated heart is reconciled to God through that "blood of the cross." When "the love of Christ constrains us," we become new creatures.23 The cold, stony heart we were born with becomes melted; a new spirit fills the heart. We learn to hate the sins we once loved, and we love harmony and reconciliation with the Savior. In short it is heart-appreciation of the love that led Him to the cross.
Under the new covenant, the ten commandments become ten great promises. For example, says the Lord, when you believe that "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage," inexpressible gratitude motivates you. Then "you will never fall into adultery," or "murder," or "steal," or fall into any other sin. An appreciation of that cross cleanses those buried motivations of sin and selfishness that have such deep roots.
The fruit is not the cold "works of the law" that are motivated by fear, but a selfless devotion to Christ which alone is true obedience. "Agape is the fulfilling of the law."24
God's precepts are promises; they must necessarily be such, because He knows that we have no power. All that God requires is what He gives. When He says, "Thou shalt not," we may take it as His assurance that if we but believe Him He will preserve us from the sin against which He warns us.25
The Common but Terrible Bondage of the Old Covenant
Making old covenant promises to God "gives birth to bondage," says Galatians. It's a terrible thing to drag unsuspecting young Christians into this spiritual “bondage."But this is what happens when we lead them to make these vain promises to God.
For example, children and youth are led to promise to keep the ten commandments "every day," and never to go where those commandments tell them “nay."Soon they forget or are enticed into a mistake. They forget to keep their solemn promise, and their failures make them feel alienated from the grace of God. They often abandon hope of salvation. Some few find their way back from the bondage of the old covenant into the liberty of the new, but many others fall and never rise again.
It is not only useless but harmful to lead children to make promises to God to be obedient forever. Not that it is wrong to obey; the problem is that the old covenant is not the way to obey. For example, it is well known that it is useless to lead a cigarette addict to promise never to smoke again, or an alcoholic to promise never to drink again.
If there are still lethal injections of old covenant teaching in our literature for children and youth, the "bondage" thus ministered is one reason why so many become discouraged. Many sincerely unaware teach the same view of the covenants as those who rejected the 1888 message a century ago, that God's covenant was His "contract" with the people.
Here is the root reason why the "contract" idea of the covenant leads into spiritual bondage:
You are weak in moral power, in slavery to doubt, and controlled by the habits of your life of sin. Your promises and resolutions are like ropes of sand. You cannot control your thoughts, your impulses, your affections. The knowledge of your broken promises and forfeited pledges weakens your confidence in your own sincerity, and causes you to feel that God cannot accept you [this is what Paul means when he says that the old covenant "gives birth to bondage"].... What you need to understand is the true force of the will.... Everything depends on the right action of the will.... You cannot change your heart, you cannot of yourself give to God its affections; but you can choose to serve him.... Thus your whole nature will be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ; your affections will be centered upon Him, your thoughts will be in harmony with Him.26
Even some of our beloved hymns are permeated with old covenant concepts that "give birth to bondage.“ The effect is subliminal. Sincere Christians who are bound in depression unconsciously assimilate respected hymns or "gospel" songs that convey "under the law” or ego-oriented messages. They listen to "Christian" radio stations all day and wonder why they are still depressed.
A Hidden Source of Depression
Our Savior administers His new covenant promise through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, but any false doctrine hinders His work. The Pope of Rome claims to be the Vicar of Christ, His representative on earth, taking His place since Christ has ascended to heaven. If that were true, it would be bad news for everyone, for the Pope can do nothing to help you and me. He is too far away and too busy with too many people.
But Jesus said that His true Vicar on earth is the Holy Spirit. He constantly tries to lead us into the new covenant. This is Good News, because He "succors" us even more than Jesus could if He were here in person. In fact, He is called the Spirit of Christ, Christ's Representative, divested of physical limitations, but acting in His stead, encouraging us to believe His promise as Abraham did.
As Jesus is closer to us than popular teaching allows, so the Holy Spirit is closer to us than we have thought. He is as much a Friend as Jesus is. He is on our side, trying to get us ready to enter heaven. To this end, truth is important.
Jesus introduces the Holy Spirit by giving Him a special name— "another Helper."27 He is "another parakletos," that is, a Replacement for Himself sent "in My name," says Jesus. The Greek word means "the one who is called to come and sit down beside you forever"(para, as in parallel—two railroad tracks are parallel, and they always stay together; and kletos, the One called). He will never leave us, although we have power to grieve Him and drive Him off if we choose.
We are closer to Christ today by the Spirit than the Twelve were 2000 years ago when they walked and talked with Him personally. He is also a Master Teacher and Stimulator of our memory, for Jesus said that "He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you."28
The Holy Spirit's Specialty: Teaching the New Covenant
The Good News of the Holy Spirit's work in the new covenant shines brightly in the 1888 message:
It can never be repeated too often, that under the reign of grace it is just as easy to do right, as under the reign of sin it is easy to do wrong. This must be so; for if there is not more power in grace than there is in sin, then there can be no salvation from sin.... Let no one ever attempt to serve God with any thing but the present, living power of God, that makes him a new creature.... Then the service of God will indeed be in "newness of life;" then it will be found that his yoke is indeed "easy" and his burden "light;" then his service will be found indeed to be with “joy unspeakable and full of glory."29
As boundless grace is given to everyone bringing salvation to the extent of its own full measure, then if any one does not have boundless salvation, why is it?—Plainly it can be only because he will not take that which is given.30
It is not you who are to do that which he [the Lord] pleases: but, "It shall accomplish that which I please." You are not to read or hear the word of God, and say, I must do that, I will do that. You are to open the heart to that word, that it may accomplish the will of God in you.... The word of God itself is to do it, and you are to let it. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you."31
Note how Ellen White agrees with this Good News message:
Do not ... conclude that the upward path is the hard and the downward road the easy way. All along the road that leads to death there are pains and penalties, there are sorrows and disappointments, there are warnings not to go on. God’s love has made it hard for the heedless and headstrong to destroy themselves.... All the way up the steep road leading to eternal life there are well-springs of joy to refresh the weary.32
The last page of the Bible extends the final invitation, “The Spirit and the bride say, Come."33 He is appealing to people who we may think are hopeless, and the church which is to be the Bride of Christ is to be in perfect sympathy with Him in His concern for them. Many more than we suppose will respond to the new covenant gospel. God intended that its light should lighten the earth with glory in the 1888 era.
Today, God's true, honest people are still in symbolic "Babylon." They will take the place of those who will leave the remnant church. They have long professed the truth but rejected it in heart, and have resisted the kind of self-crucified-with-Christ devotion that the agape of Christ demands.
Meanwhile: the Holy Spirit Is Holding the Four Winds of Strife
Angels and the Holy Spirit still cooperate in holding back the final outburst of strife and plagues symbolized by the loosing of the "four winds."34 You cannot safely drive down the highway unless God restrains some drunk or drug-crazed maniac from plowing into you. The entire world would be engulfed in ruin unless the Holy Spirit were restraining the evil about to burst loose.
But He is being withdrawn from the world, not because He wants to leave but because mankind are steadily driving Him off. "Today if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts."35 The final sin against Him which is unpardonable is that last choice to reject His pleading when He says, “This is the way, walk in it."
In the meantime, the evidence is clear: the Holy Spirit is powerless to withhold human strife unless His people faithfully proclaim the sealing message, which is that "most precious" new covenant truth. The multiple wars and massacres of the past century cannot have been God's will for the world.
Only one thing seems truly difficult for us—to believe how good the Good News is. Our constant battle is to "fight the good fight of faith."36 Mankind is so held captive in unbelief that nothing can break through those chains except the truth of the cross of Christ and the full reality of the Holy Spirit's constant ministry. He is still the Vicar of the great High Priest whose special work is cleansing the heavenly sanctuary. And the unique message associated with that work is what an inspired voice declared is "most precious."
Let's get in tune with it.
Notes:
- Galatians 4:24.
- "Since I made the statement last sabbath that the view of the covenants as it had been taught by Brother Waggoner was truth, it seems that great relief has come to many minds." "Night before last I was shown that evidences in regard to the covenants were clear and convincing. You ... are spending your investigative powers for naught to produce a position on the covenants to vary from the position that Brother Waggoner has presented. ..the true light which shineth.... The covenant question is a clear question and would be received by every candid, unprejudiced mind" (Letters 30,59,1890, to Uriah Smith).
- Hebrews 13:20, Genesis 17:7; Revelation 13:8.
- Cf. Romans 4:13.
- John 3:16.
- 2 Peter 3:13.
- Genesis 12:1-3,7; 13:14-17; 15:1-6,18; 17:1-8,21; 18:14; Romans 4:11.
- Genesis 15:6.
- Genesis 18:19.
- Romans 4:1-12.
- Waggoner, The Glad Tidings, pp. 71-73. Originally published 1900. The edition quoted here was authorized by the General Conference to be re-published by Pacific Press in 1971 after some panentheistic ideas that were never originally part of the Waggoner message that slipped in, were edited out.
- Romans 4:13,14,16-18.
- Exodus 19:4-6.
- Hebrew shamea, translated in the Old Testament 760 times as hear, 196 times as hearken; 81 times as obey.
- Waggoner, op. at, p. 99.
- Hebrews 2:18.
- Exodus 19:8.
- Waggoner, op. at., p. 100.
- Galatians 3:19.
- Waggoner, op. at, p. 74.
- Exodus 19:16-18; 20:1-20.
- Cf. Hebrews 8:8-12.
- 2 Corinthians 5:14-16.
- Romans 13:10.
- Waggoner, op. at, p. 77; cf. Ellen White, Commentary, Vol. 1, p. 1105.
- Steps to Christ, p. 47.
- John 14:16-18,26.
- John 14:26.
- Jones, Review and Herald, September 1,1896.
- Ibid., September 22,1896.
- Ibid., October 20,1896.
- Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, pp. 139,140.
- Revelation 22:17.
- Revelation 7:1.
- Hebrews 3:7,8.
- 1 Timothy 6:12.