Are We Covenant Believers?

Pastor Bill Farrow

Are we related, as NT believers, to God covenantally? This is a question that has occupied my mind from time to time for years. It is, in my mind, a very serious question with very serious and far-reaching consequences. It most certainly is one that must be handled carefully and honestly. If ever there was an occasion for theology to be shaped by the Word and not by our presuppositions this is it! Our commitment must be to the truth and not to our tradition or to some pursuit of consistency or allegiance to a cause or idea.

It is my understanding that the Bible teaches that we are a part of some thing that is greater than Law. Something that transcends the Law. What God has wrought in Christ is all that Israel's legal relationship with God was; and far more. The Church is a part of something that goes beyond anything the old covenant envisioned or provided for. In fact, it is clear that the old covenant itself, in its entirety was but a shadow or a figure of that relationship with God that was to be facilitated by the work of Christ.

It is certainly true that there is a new covenant. Surely no one would dispute that such thing exists or that such a thing is Biblically valid. It surely is. The question is, just what is the new covenant and what is its significance?

It is my position that the new covenant is that which assures believing Israel of the time since Christ, that they have not been abandoned, but that God will fulfill all of His covenanted obligations and promises to them (of which there are many) in Christ. In Christ God was doing a new thing. Yet, He had made promises to believing Israel that carried all of the weight of His Name and reputation with them. They had to be honored. The promises of a seed, a King. A throne, and a land were solemn promises that God's very nature required to be honored. And so, under the new covenant, they will be - as a part of the new work established in Christ. This was what the entirety of the old covenant pointed to anyway!

The new covenant stands as a guarantee to elect Israel that all of God's promises to them will see real fulfillment in the person of and at the hands of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It stands to reason then that the new covenant, like the old covenant, is a function of the Law and belongs to elect Israel and not to non-Jewish church age believers.

It has no significance or force for us. We are already a part of the greater work and need no assurance of or instruction in the completion and accomplishment of the old covenant promises of God. Jewish believers in the Gospel do need such assurance and instruction.

Further, it does violence to the Gospel to describe it in terms of human Law. But that is a matter for another days' reflection.

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