The New Covenant Part 1 – R C Sproul – [Covenants Part 7]

The video of this post is from the YouTube site, ISI27:17  [Iron sharpens iron, Proverbs 27:17], links below highlights.

The following definitions are pasted in from the last post on covenants, these are helpful to more fully understand R C’s teaching:

• In the ceremonial law, we saw glorious anticipation of the redemption in Christ
• What is the significance of the rituals / ceremonies?
• Within them were 1) symbols, and 2) types
• Symbol: a symbol represents something other than itself; it points beyond itself to a present reality
• For example: the tabernacle symbolized the presence of God in the midst of the people
• The tabernacle, however, was NOT the presence of God, it WAS the tent of meeting that called attention to God’s promise to be in the midst of His people
• Type: a second dimension of the symbol, referring to something future that reaches a greater fulfillment later on…

If you have time to listen to the 22-minute video, then you can read the points below it as you listen:

 

 

Highlights of R C Sproul’s lecture on the New Covenant, Part 1 [bracketed statements, underscoring and emboldening are mine]:

• The New Covenant in Jesus’ blood is intimately related to the covenants that came before it
• It is the fulfillment of those preceding covenants
• RC read from Ezekiel’s prophecy of the dry bones, in chapter 37; that is the promise of the future restoration of God’s people who had been sent into exile
• RC read from Jeremiah 31 [only a portion of which will be pasted in below] about the promise of God’s intent to make a New Covenant (NC) with His people
• Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 32  not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. 33  But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34  No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” [NKJV]
• We’re not exactly sure what he means by “I will put my law in their hearts rather than on tablets of stone and will forgive their sins”
• How so?
• We understand that salvation was the same in the Old Testament (OT) as in the NT, per the epistles of Hebrews and Romans
• That is, the Holy Spirit operated in the hearts of people in the OT and regenerated people; justification was by faith in the OT [Abraham…]
• We also see that people’s sins were forgiven in the OT
• So why is this NC new? In that their sins will be forgiven?
• It seems that the NC is different in degree
• As the NC grows out of the old covenant, there is continuity between them
• The author of Hebrews calls it a greater covenant; and it’s not enough to call it the NC because the NC is the final covenant; the covenant of completion; of consummation, to which all the other covenants pointed
• People in the OT had forgiveness of sin, typified and symbolized in the feasts, the sacrificial system and Day of Atonement
• The Day of Atonement was an annual feast – repeated every year
• Also, the animal sacrifices, the grain sacrifices… were done over and over again
• But when you come into the period of the NC, you have an offering that was made once for all
• Meaning that the remission of sin for the people of God in the NC is accomplished forever; one time, done, completed
• Therein, the entire ceremonial system of the OT came to a screeching halt when all of its content was fulfilled via the ministry of Christ
• [All of the types and symbols pointed forward to Christ, after He came and performed His atoning work, those types were completed; they no longer pointed forward to anything]
• The NT opens with the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist (JB); the birth of Christ; then the public ministry of JB, calling people to repentance because he was calling them into a new and decisive moment in their history
• JB is seemingly the most underrated dimension of NT theology:
• The voice of prophecy was silent for 400 years, since Malachi
• JB came out of the wilderness, in a manner like Elijah, then he introduced a requirement to the Jews that was never a part of their covenant requirements before
• During the intertestamental period, Jews developed a practice of proselyte baptism for Gentiles who wanted to become Jews: they had to make a profession of faith to Judaism, be circumcised, and undergo a ritual bath of purification
• JB was treating Jews as they had treated Gentile proselytes, suggesting they were unclean
• Jews were outraged by this because they the “children of Abraham”
• [They belonged to the covenant people of God, the covenant God established with Abraham]
• This radical change in the requirements of the people was because of the radical nearness of the emerging kingdom of God (KOG)
• The KOG promised to Abraham, Moses, David…
• JB called them to repent because the KOG was at hand – it was no longer a far-off mysterious event to occur at some future date
• The KOG was about to happen, and JB used metaphors such as:
• Mat 3:10 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire
• And, Mat 3:12 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor
• JB is announcing the breakthrough of the KOG; a new dimension of the reign of God; a mention of the coming King, the Davidic King via which the house of David will be righted, re-established
• When Jesus came into His public ministry, His message was the same; but then there was a shift wherein He said, the KOG is in your midst, is among you
• So much of the teaching of Jesus, prior to the cross, prior to the apostolic exposition of the life and death of Jesus, is Jesus ‘ gospel
• What is Jesus’ gospel?
• The Good News that Jesus announced was not the gospel of Jesus Christ [as the apostles explained it]
• The apostles spoke of the gospel being the good news of all the things Jesus did on the behalf of sinners
• When Jesus spoke of the gospel, He was talking about the ‘gospel of the kingdom:’ that the Messianic Kingdom is Now arriving
• If you carefully examine the parables of Jesus, then you will see that the overwhelming majority of them focus on one concept, describing the KOG
• “The KOG is like…”
• He was clarifying this gospel to the people, but at the same time He was secretive about the term, Messiah, because He knew that their idea of the Messiah was flawed
• The people and the disciples could not fathom the fact that He was simultaneously the Shepherd King and the Suffering Servant
• RC recounted the scripture from Matthew 16 wherein Jesus praised Peter for knowing that He was the Son of the Living God and shortly thereafter called him Satan for trying to keep Jesus from going to Jerusalem to be crucified
• There are parallels between the roles of Moses and Jesus:
• Moses was the mediator of Israel in the OT; Jesus in the NT
• Moses was the great prophet of antiquity; Jesus is the great prophet of the NT
• Jesus is the great prophet that the prophets predicted would come
• Jesus was/is the object and the subject of all prophecy
• Not only is Jesus the Supreme Prophet; but he performs the work of the Supreme Priest, after the order of Melchizedek; and He is the Supreme King, David’s greater Son
• Psalm 110:1  A Psalm of David. The LORD said to my Lord,”Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
• David prophetically spoke about One whom God would appoint to a position of authority greater than David
• A frequently asked question is when does the NC start?
• The actual making of the NC seemed to take place in the upper room, not at Pentecost
• Luke 22:14 When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. 15  Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16  for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17  Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; 18  for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19  And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 20  Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.
• During the above celebration of the Passover, Jesus changed the words of the Passover to apply to Himself
• [The first Passover and the rest were a type of his atoning work]
• The following day, when He shed His blood on the cross, He became the blood sacrifice that ratified the NC which He announced the previous day
• That this NC was established and blessed by God was shown in the resurrection
• It was impossible for death to hold Christ because in Himself He had no sin
• (In our next lesson we will look at Christ’s work in light of the covenant of works and as the new Adam; and we’ll learn more about the resurrection too)
• After His resurrection, He sojourned a few weeks until his Ascension
• What was the point of the Ascension?
• Others had gone to heaven: Enoch; Abraham…
• But the Ascension took on a technical meaning here, to go up to a specific place for a specific purpose
• The place: the right hand of God
• The purpose: His coronation as the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant
• God crowned Him, not just as being in the line of the Davidic kings, but crowned Him the King of kings and the Lord of lords
• To Him, all the nations of the world are under His authority and dominion
• And His reign, as announced by God in the NC, not to last for 400 years like the dynasty of David, but forever and ever…
• That is why it is a terrible thing today that people think of the KOG as being exclusively in the future
• Yes, there is still another chapter to be written, a consummation
• Yes, the Kingdom is now invisible
• Yes, there will be a time when our reigning King will make His kingdom visible, but it is not that it doesn’t exist now
• It has come, in terms of its inauguration
• It is real right now
• At the Lord’s table, we don’t just look back to His death, but also to His ascension, we’re at the table of the King where we’ve been invited to sit down with Him who has sat down at the right hand of God in the Kingdom; with the promise that we will also sit with Him and reign with Him in the consummation of that Kingdom

Links to series and YouTube:

The Promise Keeper series is on sale presently at Ligonier, from $28 to $5:  https://store.ligonier.org/the-promise-keeper-god-of-the-covenants-download-and-stream

Promise Keeper playlist:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6Px2b63vzIENjEGaPZOAMmTTc_s566Cw

Video-page link:  https://www.youtube.com/@ISI2717/videos