Covenants

God’s covenant with Abram/Abraham was:

• • Unilateral, therefore could not be abrogated by any unfaithfulness of Israel; Gen 15.8-21, 1 Sam 12.22, others.
  • To Abraham’s descendants; Gen 13.14-16, 15.5
  • Perpetual, applied forever
  • Based solely on God’s sovereign decision to choose Israel as His special people; Dt 7.6-11, Heb 6.13-20

Riding on the unilateral covenant was a bi-lateral covenant from Mt. Sinai: blessings for obedience and cursing for disobedience. Features of this covenant included:

• • Blessings for obedience and cursings for disobedience (Ps 89.31-32). For example, though they would always own the promised land, their opportunity to live in it and enjoy it was conditional, based on whether or not they, as a nation, were obedient and faithful to God (Dt 28.21,36-37,41,63b-64; Josh 23.13,16; 1 Chron 28.8; 2 Chron 6.24-25).
  • Their individual motivation to be faithful to God varied from person-to-person depending on whether or not a person was elect of God and consequently regenerated by God to receive a living spirit by which to respond to God and be faithful to Him (John 6.44a, 65).
  • The covenant provided a Law to be a persistent reminder of God’s requirement of internal and practical moral perfection, equal to God’s own moral perfection. Because no one could satisfy the Law’s requirements, it served as a persistent reminder of the need for God to provide the promised means of salvation to overcome each individual’s inability to comply with the covenant’s Law — the savior promised in Eden — the Messiah. Gal 3.19-24
  • The Law portion of this covenant was fully satisfied by Christ’s life which perfectly satisfied all the Law’s requirements (Mt 3.15), and His death with perfectly atoned for all the law-breaking of each individual believer (Rm 3.21-24); and the efficacy of both was shown to be so by His resurrection (Rm 4.25).

God promised a new covenant to replace the bi-lateral covenant from Mt. Sinai, Jer 31.31-34, 32.38; Rm 11.26-27. Features of this covenant include:

• • It will be preceded by Divine judgment and removal from the earth of unbelieving Jews. Ezek 20.33-38, Dan 12.10, Zech 13.8-9.
  • It will be unilateral. God will perform it and Israel will benefit.
  • Individuals’ motivation to love and be faithful to God will no longer be external, to gain blessings and avoid cursings, but will be internal, via a God-given internal motivation to be attracted to, in agreement with, and enthusiastically conforming to God’s moral perfections.
  • At this point every Israelite on earth will be a believer, a “saved” person. Rom 11.26