“All Things Are Become New, Part 2” by Romans
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Last week we reviewed and examined the topic, “All Things Are Become New.” I spoke about our having become new creatures in Christ, renewed and reconciled unto God. In the introduction of last week's Discussion, I stated, “In every such instance I will cite in the remainder of this Discussion, the word “new” is used in a positive, mind-altering, heart-altering, life-altering, creation-altering, and even Universe-altering context. But, due to the limitations of time, I did not tag every base. I intend, tonight, to keep my promise, and look at those other New things that are worthy of examination.
One New thing in particular that was mentioned last week as a footnote, but not fully reviewed and examined, that that we would do well to come to understand, and that is the New Covenant. How does it differ from the Old Covenant? What does Scripture tell us about the New Covenant? Perhaps I should ask first, how and why did the Old Covenant even become an Old Covenant?
Better still, let's start out with a definition: A Covenant is an agreement between two parties to provide and perform various things. When someone rents an apartment, the renter promises to pay the rent on time, and keep up the property in various ways, while the landlord offers a place to stay, and a promise to repair leaky pipes and leaky roofs, and make sure the heat works in the winter, and that there is air conditioning in the summer. It is a covenant not in so many words.
God had proposed a Covenant with Israel: If they obeyed His Commands, He would Bless and protect them as a nation... as His chosen people. And Israel promised to obey all of God's commands and statutes that were contained in the Covenant.
Exodus 31:16 identifies that Covenant between God and Israel as “a perpetual covenant.” So what happened? How and why was a New Covenant even necessary?
There was something else that had been going on for centuries on the part of the children of Israel that was also perpetual; we read of it in Jeremiah 8:4-5: ““You shall say to them, Thus says the LORD: When men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return? Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.” Albert Barnes briefly comments, “Slidden back ... backsliding - The same words as “turn” and “return” in Jeremiah 8:4. They should be rendered, “Why doth this people of Jerusalem turn away with a perpetual turning?”
Matthew Henry picks up the thread where Mr. Barnes left off, writing: “Shall a man turn aside out of the right way? Yes, the most careful traveller may miss his way; but then, as soon as he is aware of it, will he not return? Yes, certainly he will, with all speed, and will thank him that showed him his mistake. Thus men do in other things. Why then has this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? Why do not they, when they have fallen into sin, hasten to get up again by repentance?
Why do not they, when they see they have missed their way, correct their error and reform? No man in his wits will go on in a way that he knows will never bring him to his journey's end; why then has this people slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? See the nature of sin - it is a backsliding it is going back from the right way, not only into a by-path, but into a contrary path, back from the way that leads to life to that which leads to utter destruction. And this backsliding, if almighty grace do not interpose to prevent it, will be a perpetual backsliding.
The sinner not only wanders endlessly, but proceeds end-ways towards ruin. The same subtlety of the tempter that brings men to sin holds them fast in it, and they contribute to their own captivity: They hold fast deceit. Sin is a great cheat, and they hold it fast; they love it dearly, and resolve to stick to it, and baffle all the methods God takes to separate between them and their sins.
The excuses they make for their sins are deceits, and so are all their hopes of impunity; yet they hold fast these, and will not be undeceived, and therefore they refuse to return. Note, There is some deceit or other which those hold fast that go on wilfully in sinful ways, some lie in their right hand, by which they keep hold of their sins.”
Jesus phrased it like this in Luke 13:34: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!”
The Preacher's Homiletical tells us of this, “O Jerusalem! etc.—Rather, “which killeth … stoneth … sent unto her” (R.V.). How often.—Reference is here made to visits of Jesus to Jerusalem and of labours there which St. Luke and the other Synoptists do not record.
As a hen.—It has been said that the figure of the eagle in Deuteronomy 32:11-12 is emblematical of the spirit of the Old Testament, and this in the present passage of the spirit of the New Testament. The contrast between “I would” and “ye would not” is very startling: the power of man to resist and defeat the merciful purposes of God.”
Israel, from the time they left Egypt and agreed to abide to the terms of the Covenant, generation after generation, broke God's Laws, trampled His statutes under foot, and committed spiritual adultery. As with the Apartment Lease, if the tenant stops paying the rent, or the landlord doesn't repair the hot water heater, the Lease is void. Israel's rebellion voided the Covenant.
We read in Hebrews 8:8: “For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:”
And we read of that New Covenant in greater detail in Jeremiah 31:31: “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; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, 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.”
This New Covenant is made possible only by the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, by His shed blood. We read beginning in Matthew 26:26: “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”
Romans 11:25: “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”
A Deliverer was to come out of Sion. Centuries of sacrificed animals for sins had not diminished the need for more animals to be sacrificed for, as yet, uncommitted sins. But God had done something new. All of those sacrificed animals pointed the Way to the Lamb of God Who only need be sacrificed once and for all.
We read of that in Hebrews 10, beginning in Verse 10: “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:10-14).
The Sermon Bible writes, “There is an exceeding grandeur—approaching to awe—about everything which can be done only once. This is a great part of the grandeur of death, and of the judgment in their nature, they can be only once. And the atonement is the more grand because it is of the same character.
The cross is magnificently fearful in its perfect isolation. Everything in religious truth, which went before it in ages past, looked on to it. Everything in religious truth which has ever followed, and in ages yet to come, looks back to it. It is the bud of all, the beginning of all, the sum of all.
I. We make sacrifices, and what are they? If we think, in any sense whatever, to offer up anything in the slightest degree propitiatory for sin, we plainly violate the whole Bible. We offer three things: our praises, our duties, and ourselves. These are our only sacrifices. And what makes these things sacrifices? The Christ that is in them. So that still, be we of the Jewish or the Christian dispensation, the same thing is true—there is "one sacrifice for sins for ever."
II. Remember, that marvellous as is the region of the thought in which we are walking when we treat of the atonement, it is all in accordance with the most perfect sense of our understanding, and all lies within the strictest limit of perfect justice; nay, its foundation is justice, and it commends itself to every man’s judgment as soon as he sees it. But such a view as a prospective forgiveness of future sin would violate every principle of common sense.
Holiness is the great end of the cross. Pardon, peace, salvation, happiness, are only means—means to holiness; holiness, which is the image of God, which is the glory of God. Beware of any approach to any view of Christ which does not directly tend to personal holiness. For He perfects—whom? Them that are sanctified." J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 5th series, p. 138.
References: Heb_10:12.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. x., p. 230. Heb_10:12, Heb_10:13.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii., No. 91.”
The benefits of being rescued by that Deliverer is spoken of in Romans 7:6: “But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”
Hebrews 12:24 tells us that Jesus is “the mediator of the New Covenant.” Are there any other mediators? Anyone else involved in seeing to it there there not be a repeat of the failings that befell the first Covenant? No... We are clearly told in 1 Timothy 2:5: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
He is the Author and Finisher of our Faith... He is our High Priest... but He is far more because, as we read in Hebrews 4:15: “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
That is why the New Covenant has the provision that we read in Ezekiel 11:19: “And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”
Jesus' intervention in our lives is what enables the Scripture to call us New Creatures... brand New Creatures.
Let us revisit this by looking at Ephesians 2:10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
Matthew Henry writes of this, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, etc., Eph_2:10. It appears that all is of grace, because all our spiritual advantages are from God. We are his workmanship; he means in respect of the new creation; not only as men, but as saints. The new man is a new creature; and God is its Creator. It is a new birth, and we are born or begotten of his will.
In Christ Jesus, that is, on the account of what he has done and suffered, and by the influence and operation of his blessed Spirit. Unto good works, etc. The apostle having before ascribed this change to divine grace in exclusion of works, lest he should seem thereby to discourage good works, he here observes that though the change is to be ascribed to nothing of that nature (for we are the workmanship of God), yet God, in his new creation, has designed and prepared us for good works:
Created unto good works, with a design that we should be fruitful in them. Wherever God by his grace implants good principles, they are intended to be for good works. Which God hath before ordained, that is, decreed and appointed. Or, the words may be read, To which God hath before prepared us, that is, by blessing us with the knowledge of his will, and with the assistance of his Holy Spirit; and by producing such a change in us. That we should walk in them, or glorify God by an exemplary conversation and by our perseverance in holiness.”
It was not merely a New Covenant, it was a better Covenant, and was called better in a number of places, and for a number of reasons: We read in Hebrews 8:6: “But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.”
The promises of the Old Covenant assured prosperity and safety to God's people on an earthly and physical plane. Everyone who lived under the terms and promises of the Old Covenant, also died natural deaths under the terms and promises of the Old Covenant. The promises of the New Covenant go far beyond living a limited physical existence within the confines of a single geographic area, however blessed that life or land was.
Matthew Henry writes of this: “But the covenant here referred to, was that made with Israel as a nation, securing temporal benefits to them. The promises of all spiritual blessings, and of eternal life, revealed in the gospel, and made sure through Christ, are of infinitely greater value. Let us bless God that we have a High Priest that suits our helpless condition.”
The New Covenant was delivered via a Better Revelation:
We read in Hebrews 1:1-4: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.”
The original covenant was delivered and administered by various men, leaders and prophets. The New Covenant was delivered, made possible and administered and mediated by the Son of God, Whose voluntary sacrifice brought it about to begin with.
The New Covenant provided a Better Hope
Hebrews 7:19: “For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.”
The New Covenant is characterized by a Better Priesthood:
We read in Hebrews 7:20-28: “Hebrews 7:20: “And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest: (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:) By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:
But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself. For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.”
The New Covenant was ratified with Better Sacrifices
Hebrews 9:23: “It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:”
The New Covenant offers Better Possessions
We read in Hebrews 10:34: “For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.”
The New Covenant promises a Better Resurrection
Notice Hebrews 11:35: “Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:”
The New Covenant promises our being Raised from Physical and Spiritual Death
Romans 8:11: “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
Ephesians 2:1: “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;”
Ephesians 2:6: “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:”
Colossians 2:13: “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;”
And lastly Colossians 3:1: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”
We shall appear with Him in Glory. The Old Covenant never came remotely close to a such a Promise for those who lived under it.
The New Covenant speaks of a Inheriting Better Country
Concerning all of the righteous departed named in the opening Verses of Hebrews 11, we read, beginning in Hebrews 11:13: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city” (Hebrews 11:13-16).
What city has been prepared for those under the New Covenant? And why do we need a New City to be prepared for us? That is answered in Hebrews 13:14: “For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.”
Revelation 21:10: “And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,”
Revelation 21:2: “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”
And when that happens, the New Covenant also makes provision for the re-creation of not just the arrival of a New Jerusalem, but of the entire planet and the entire Cosmos as we know it!
And we read of it in both the Old and the New Testaments:
Isaiah 65:17: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”
Isaiah 66:22: “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.”
Revelation 21:1: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away...”
2 Peter 3:13: “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”
The Sermon Bible says of this, “A glorious dream surely is this: "A new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." There is, in fact, something pathetic in the attention that is given to every man who professes to have seen a vision or dreamed a dream provided only it be one that promises to deliver us from the power of that callous selfishness which has made the lives of multitudes so bare of all enjoyment, so full of care and misery, so abandoned to vice and wickedness...
II. It would be useless, indeed, to deceive ourselves into the belief that some marvellous change has come over the spirits of men, that the demon of selfishness has been exorcised, that the lessons of the past have been wisely learned, and that we are about, under the influence of nobler thoughts and purposes, to enter upon an uninterrupted course of reform. In times of depression, looking at the force of opposition which all such changes have to encounter, a feeling of despair comes over the heart.
The inroads made upon the kingdom of selfishness seem but small, and are with difficulty effected. The tendencies which in the past have not been altogether infrequent to reaction awaken the fear that the date of reform must be postponed to a very distant future. But in such moods we show not only a lack of faith, but also an inability to read correctly the signs of the times.
We are progressing; we are in the midst of changes whose full significance we do not yet appreciate. The Church and the world are feeling the living forces of the Gospel as they have never felt them before. The victory is not yet, but the signs of success are many. We, at least, who believe in Christ "according to His promise look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."
J. Guinness Rogers, Christian World Pulpit, Dec. 1892.
References: 2Pe_3:13.—F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. vi., p. 257. 2Pe_3:14.—R. Roberts, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 116; Homiletic Magazine, vol. viii., p. 326. 2Pe_3:14, 2Pe_3:15.—R. L. Browne, Sussex Sermons, p. 15; J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany, p. 214. 2Pe_3:15, 2Pe_3:16.—G. Dawson, Sermons on Disputed Points, p. 166.”
When all is said and done, and everything is new, we read of our place in that New Heavens and New Earth in Revelation 3:12: “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.”
Albert Barnes writes of this: “And I will write upon him the name of my God - Considered as a pillar or column in the temple. The name of God would be conspicuously recorded on it to show that he belonged to God. The allusion is to a public edifice, on the columns of which the names of distinguished and honored persons were recorded; that is, where there is a public testimonial of the respect in which one whose name was thus recorded was held.
The honor thus conferred on him “who should overcome” would be as great as if the name of that God whom he served, and whose favor and friendship he enjoyed, were inscribed on him in some conspicuous manner. The meaning is, that he would be known and recognized as belonging to God; the God of the Redeemer himself - indicated by the phrase, “the name of my God.”
As we begin this New Year, 2022, these are the things that come to my mind when I think of the word "new:"
All things are become "new;"
We are a "new creation;"
Under the "New Covenant,"
We are given a "new heart and a new spirit;" and
We look for a "new city," and a
"New heavens and a new earth."
This concludes this Evening's Discussion: “All Things Are Become New, Part 2”
This Discussion was presented “live” on January 12th. 2022.
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