The Glorious Liberty of The New Covenant Experience
The subject of the covenants is very important. Yet in spite of all that God has revealed in His Word there is much misunderstanding in this matter. Most baffling, however, is that the misunderstanding of this subject is in the religious organizations and by people who claim to be living under the New Covenant. In fact God introduced the New Covenant to Adam after he had sinned. This is found in Genesis 3:15.
“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15.
This promise was to every single person who would eventually be born into this world. It offered pardon for sin through faith in the woman’s seed, who is Jesus Christ. Some people believe that the New Covenant came into existence after the cross while those who lived before the cross were under the old covenant. This is a very false view and the Bible does not support it.
When we understand what really is the New Covenant then we shall know that the only way anyone can be saved - whether he lived before the cross or after the cross - is by being under the New Covenant. There are not two ways to salvation. Abraham was saved under the New Covenant as was any person who accepted Jesus Christ after the cross. We shall now examine the scriptures in greater detail.
When we turn to the Bible we find that the New Covenant existed before the old covenant. In fact God called it His everlasting covenant. Genesis 17:7. This same covenant was repeated to Isaac and Jacob. Genesis 17:7, 19.
“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.” Genesis 17.7.
“And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.” Genesis 17.19.
This covenant which God made with Abraham, and his seed after him, was the New Covenant and not the old covenant. It must be understood that the essence of the New Covenant is that it represents an arrangement whereby fallen man is brought back into harmony with God through God’s grace, by faith in God’s promises and power only, not by anything man can do. In fact, the only thing man can do is to respond and cooperate with God.
The first mention of the promise to Abraham is found in Genesis 12:1-3.
“Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3.
This promise was in Christ the seed. Galatians 3:8-9; Acts 3:25-26.
“And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” Galatians 3:8-9.
“Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” Acts 3:25-26.
The scriptures clearly show that the New Covenant existed before the old covenant. It could not be otherwise, salvation is by grace through faith and not of ourselves. Any man who will ever be saved can only be saved by God’s grace. Remember that under the New Covenant we depend upon God to accomplish all that He promises. Under the old covenant God must depend on us to accomplish all that we promise. And how much do we accomplish? Just nothing at all.
Exodus chapter 6, verses 1-8 outline the New Covenant promises by which Israel was delivered from Egypt. When God was about to deliver Israel He told them that it was by and through the covenant He had made with their father Abraham. Exodus 6:3-4.
‘And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them. And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.” Exodus 6:3-4.
Secondly, He said that it was a promise He had made with Abraham which He was now about to accomplish by His Power. Exodus 6:5.
“And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant.” Exodus 6:5.
Thirdly He had promised in the covenant made with Abraham to redeem them from bondage. This He was now about to do. Genesis 15:13-14; Exodus 6:6.
“And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.” Genesis 15:13-14.
“Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments..” Exodus 6:6.
Fourthly He promised to be their God and make them His people. Exodus 6:7.
‘And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” Exodus 6:7.
Fifthly, He promised to give them the land which He promised to them and their father Abraham. Genesis 15:18; Exodus 6:8.
“In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.” Genesis 15:18.
“And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: lam the LORD.” Exodus 6:8.
Now, only God could make such promises. And more, only God could accomplish such promises. All it demanded from Israel was faith - trusting God to accomplish all that He had promised. The experience of the Red Sea show clearly that they had trusted to the power of God and were victorious over their enemies. They were delivered from Egypt under the New Covenant promises and they crossed the Red Sea by the same promises, further, they could make it to the Promised Land only by these same New Covenant promises. They had to depend on what God promised to do for them, as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had done before.
At Sinai, when the people made a golden calf and would have felt the wrath of God, Moses pleaded the promises of the Abrahamic or New Covenant. Exodus 32:8-12 and especially verse 13 where Moses asked God to remember the covenant that He made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
“Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.” Exodus 32:13.
We shall take a few more texts to confirm the above facts before we move on.
First, Hebrews 6:13-18.
“For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.” Hebrews 6:13-18.
Secondly, Psalms 105:6-10.
“O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen. He is the LORD our God: his judgments are in all the earth. He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant.” Psalms 105:6-10.
And remember when Abraham saw the Promised Land he saw the heavenly Canaan. The city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God.
We shall now move to the apostle Paul’s testimony in the book of Galatians. Turn to Galatians 4:21-31. We shall read verses 21 – 24 first.
“Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.” Galatians 4:21-24.
What are the two covenants? The two women, Hagar and Sarah - for we read that Hagar is Mt. Sinai, which gendereth to bondage. Just as Hagar could not bring forth any other kind of children than bond children (slaves), so the covenant made at Sinai is helpless to save people, since it consisted merely of the promises of the people to keep the law, and therefore had no power to make them free from the condemnation of the law. It gendereth to bondage, since their making the covenant was simply a promise to make themselves righteous by their own works, and man in himself is without strength.
Look at the situation. The people were in bondage to sin, they had no power to break their chains, and the speaking of the law at Mount Horeb (Sinai) made no change in their condition, it introduced no new feature. If a man is in prison for breaking the law, you cannot release him by reading the law that he broke to him. That would not help him. Was God therefore responsible for the making of the covenant at Sinai, that covenant which leads to bondage, that old covenant, Hagar? No, no at all. Galatians 4:25.
“For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children .” Galatians 4:25.
God, 430 years before, had made a covenant with Abraham which was perfect and was for all time. The covenant was confirmed in Christ long before the speaking of the law at Sinai, and could not be altered by the adding or speaking of the law.
“And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.” Galatians 3:17.
This covenant is from above, and is the Jerusalem which is free and represents Sarah. John 8:21, 23; Galatians 4:26.
“But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” Galatians 4:26.
This covenant was made with Abraham long before Mount Sinai promised righteousness as a free gift of God through faith, and included all nations as already proven. Galatians 3:16-18, 29.
Let us read them.
“Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.” Galatians 3:16-18.
“And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:29.
All the miracles that God had wrought in delivering the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage were but a demonstration of His power to deliver them and us from the bondage of sin. Yes, the deliverance from Egypt was itself a demonstration, not only of God’s power, but His desire to lead them from the bondage in which the covenant from Sinai holds men. Hagar who is the covenant from Sinai - was an Egyptian, so when the people came to Sinai, God simply referred them to what he had already done.
“And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.” Exodus 19:3-4.
Then He said,
“Now therefore if ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine.” Exodus 19:5.
To what covenant did He refer? Evidently to the one already made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The abrahamic covenant. How do we know? They had not yet heard God speak, and could promised God nothing, they had not yet heard the law spoken. If they would simply keep God’s covenant, that is, God’s promise, keep faith in God, they would be a peculiar treasure unto God, for God as possessor of all the earth, was able to do with them all that He had promised. The fact that they in their self-righteousness took upon themselves to do for God what He promised does not prove that God is to blame for the covenant at Sinai. For it was God who was leading them from Egypt, from bondage to freedom. If the children of Israel who came out of Egypt had but walked in the steps of that faith of their father Abraham (Romans 4:12) the law would never have been added or spoken or entered at Sinai, they would have had a knowledge of it. The promise that Abraham should be heir of the world (to come), was not to Abraham or his seed through the law, but through faith in Christ the Seed. Romans 4:13..
“For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.” Romans 4:13.
Further note the apostle Paul’s statement concerning the two women, Hagar and Sarah. He says these are the two covenants. Did these two women lived in the days of Abraham? Assuredly so then the two covenants existed in the days of Abraham. Was this before the time of Jesus? Assuredly so.
In the days of Abraham the two covenants existed. The two covenants therefore is not a matter of time or dispensation butcondition of heart. Therefore let no one deceive himself that he cannot be under the old covenant. For if a man walks in lasciviousness, lust, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings and abominable idolatries he is under the old covenant and in bondage. 1 Peter 4:3.
“For 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, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries.” 1 Peter 4:3.
What then is the difference between the two? It is the difference between Hagar and Sarah. One was free and the other was a slave. It did not matter how many children Abraham had from Hagar all would have been slaves for Hagar was a bond woman while those of Sarah would be free. In other words, when Adam fell in sin, and his nature became fallen, all his children, all human beings would now be borned with Adam’s fallen nature. But Christ although taking our nature, brought his sinlessness to us as a gift. When we are born of the Spirit we are no longer slaves to sin and our sinful nature, but we are freeborn children of righteousness, children of the new covenant.
The apostles concludes his argument this way, Galatians 4:22-28,
“For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bond woman, was born after the flesh; but he of the free woman was by promise.
Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Ha gar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, REJOICE, THOU BARREN THAT BEAREST NOT; BREAK FORTH AND CRY, THOU THAT TEA VAILETH NOT FOR THE DESOLATE HATH MANY MORE CHILDREN THAN SHE WHICH HATH AN HUSBAND.
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.” Galatians 4:22-28.
As these are the two covenants, so there are two cities to which they pertain. Jerusalem, which now is, pertains to the old covenant - to Mount Sinai. It will never be free, but will be replaced by the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
“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.” Revelation 3:12.
“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
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 God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.” Revelation 21:1-5.
There are many who longed for, and put all their hopes in, the Jerusalem which now is. For such, the veil remaineth untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament,
“But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 3:14.
For, in fact, they are looking to Mount Sinai and Hagar and Ishmael for salvation and it will not be found thus. Whoever looks to Jerusalem in the Middle East for blessings is looking to Hagar, to the BOND woman, to the old covenant. But whoever looks toward the New Jerusalem in the Heavens can expect blessing from it because they are looking to Christ, under the New Covenant, to Mount Zion which is free and the mother of us all.
“Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” Hebrews 6:19, 20.
Why then, after leaving Egypt under the New Covenant, did they not enter in the land of Canaan. It was their own fault – unbelief - they came to Mount Sinai, and made a covenant which kept them in bondage, until in their despair, they saw the glorious liberty of the Abrahamic covenant. Hebrews 3:19 tells the story.
God giveth more grace. So take comfort. You are a sinner and trying to live a Christian life and you tremble as you realise that you are in bondage, that sin has a hold upon you, and you are bound by the cords of evil habits. You need not be afraid to hear the Lord speak. He says “cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.” Don’t be afraid of these words, for He speaks peace to your soul. Even though the voice sounds like thunder, the more majestic the voice, the greater the peace he gives. The son of the bondwoman is the flesh and its works. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. The command to cast out the bond woman is a promise. If you believe His word He will see that the flesh and its works (the bondwoman) is cast out from you, and you will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the child of God under the free woman, Sarah, the New Covenant.
But does being under the New Covenant in the liberty of soul makes one free to break the law of God? Do not be deceived by Satan. The law which God proclaimed in such awful majesty from Sinai is the basis of His throne and government. And the apostle Paul states that through faith in Christ, the child of God keeps perfectly the law of God as it is established in the heart,
“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” Romans 3:31.
On Mount Sinai then, as from Mount Zion in heaven, proceeds lightnings and thunderings and voices, “And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.”“And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.” (Revelation 4:5; Revelation 11:19), why? because the same law is there. But it is the throne of grace to which we can come boldly despite the thunders and receive the grace to help us in every temptation. For out of the midst of the throne, from the slain lamb (Revelation 5:6) flows the river of water of life, bringing to us from the heart of Christ, the law of the Spirit of life. As we drink it, we find power to obey the law and find cleansing from sin.
Receive Christ by faith and you have the power to become a Son of God, heir of a kingdom which cannot be moved but which, with all its inhabitants, abideth ever. Under the New Covenant we have liberty of soul, liberty of thought and liberty of action. We are not only given power to keep the law of God, - all ten commandments, and verily the Sabbath, - but we are given the mind of Christ, that mind that delights to keep the law of God.
Therefore cast out the bondwoman and her works as found in Galatians 5:19-21.
“And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died. And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah.” Galatians 5:19-21.
Become by faith a son of the free woman with the works of the spirit as found in Galatians 5:22, 23.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22, 23.
This then, is the glorious liberty of the New Covenant in which the righteousness of the law is seen and witnessed by the law and the prophets.
