- Pastor Leyonn Armstrong
- September 13, 2010
- 0 Comments
THE SECOND COVENANT
Having heard the teaching of God’s truth along with my study of the truth and the revealing ability of the Holy Spirit, my eyes were opened to the reality of the second covenant. When I began to examine the complete truth of the second covenant, I could then discern the termination of the first covenant.
When one look’s at the origin of the second covenant, one will see that it’s beginning goes back as far as Abraham. He Heard the prophetic promise from the Lord concerning a seed that will bless all the families of the earth. And because of Abraham’s great faith, the Lord allowed Abraham into His covenant that He made with Himself. Many are of the opinion that God made a covenant with Abraham, but in reality God made a covenant with himself.
God did make promise to Abraham but the strength to keep that promise was not dependent upon Abraham. The binding strength for this covenant was never expected of a man but of God. If God had to bind his covenant strength with a man then God would have to kill that man. Because it is a thousand percent certain that the man will fail his end of the agreement. The book of Hebrews is so insightful in saying,’For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,’ (Heb 6:13). Again, promise was made to Abraham, but swearing is a covenant activity. God made promise to Abraham but swore by Himself.
So God made covenant with Himself and allowed Abraham to be in this covenant that would eventually include the families of the earth. However, this great covenant would not be established until the seed should come. When God let Abraham in His covenant, Abraham had to circumcise himself and his household as token of this covenant. And it is in the seventeenth chapter of Genesis that God’s swearing or covenant language becomes more detailed. God adds the clause,’and thy seed after thee’. Before, God is promising Abraham something he did not have – a seed. And now God is swearing to establish His covenant between Himself and Abraham and his promised seed. It appears that while the promise of a seed is made to Abraham, the covenant will be established by that very seed . This is so cleaver. That is, God wasn’t just saying to Abraham, I’m going to give you a baby boy. But what God was saying was, ‘I’m going to give myself a Son through you and upon him will my covenant be established for all families and kindreds to be blessed by receiving him as the lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.
Here’s the kicker, the distance between God swearing by Himself and the seed actually coming forth, is nearly 2500 years. Here’s a little more kick. The swearing of God was also 430 years before He gave the first covenant to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Talk about special effects. Hollywood has nothing on God. The Lord established the second covenant 2500 years after He made the covenant for Abraham. God made the covenant for Abraham 430 years before the first covenant.
In Genesis 15:5 God is still uttering what he promised saying, ‘And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And when we read some verses later at the end of the fifth-teeth chapter of Genesis it concludes that, ‘In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram,. . .’ God made a covenant with Abraham concerning his descendants. But God did not say ‘my covenant‘, he said he made ‘a covenant‘ with Abraham.
But when we get to Genesis 17:2 The Lord shows ownership as he did with the first covenant and speaks of this covenant as if it already exist and that he’s going to include Abraham in it saying, ‘And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. Typically, if a covenant is created between two parties, that covenant would not belong just to one party of that covenant. It would belong to both parties. It seems that God has already made a covenant with Himself and it is His covenant. He has made promise to Abraham and has swore by Himself – God made a covenant.
Now when we scroll down to Genesis 17:7 the word establish is used saying, ‘And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
So God made a covenant for Abraham and established that covenant with Jesus the seed. This is the second covenant. It is second because it would not be established Jesus’ death upon the cross. It is a cut covenant. The blood of this covenant is the blood of Jesus. The atoning blood of the Lamb Of God is the legal tender that paid the price for all sin.
This covenant states, ‘Their sins and iniquities, will I remember no more.’
Just the opposite of the first covenant that reads, ‘thou shalt’.
This is the covenant that the Lord is excited about and has pleasure in. The Lord tells us just how he feels about the first covenant as He compares it to the superior second covenant saying,’For if that first [covenant] had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.’
‘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:
For finding fault with them? Them, who? The Israelites that were under the law of Moses. The Law proved to be faulty because it found fault in the people. The law couldn’t find them righteous. God can only have relation with righteous perfection. The law taught righteousness but could not produce righteousness in the people. The law taught justification, but they were only justified one sin at a time. The law could not produce a lasting justification.
To Be Continued. . .
Preparing For The Coming Glory
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