In the past few issues we have been discussing the fact that we have a covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ, which is established upon better promises than those upon which the Old Testament covenants were established.
We have also discussed that a covenant is an irrevocable exchange of lives. Most covenants include the mingling of blood which, having flowed between two individuals, cannot be identified as belonging to either one. Like the covenant it represents, this blood cannot be undone. Furthermore, it ratifies the covenant promises that were made.
Therefore, it stands to reason that when we entered into a blood covenant with the Lord Jesus, His blood was irrevocably mingled with ours, and He became the blood-covenant friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Galatians 3:15, tells us that from even a human viewpoint a covenant cannot be broken, "Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto."
We have mentioned that when Jonathan and David entered into covenant with each other they said, "This is an eternal covenant." Their seed was blessed after them. In other words, those two became the covenant heads, and the covenant was available to all their heirs. Once blood was shed, no more blood needed to be shed from that time on. Their heirs could enter into the covenant simply by accepting the covenant, which had been drawn up years before they were born. And, as with other covenants, this one could not be disannulled.
Galatians 3: 16 tells us of our better covenant, "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."
If you will remember, God entered into a covenant with Abraham, but He did so by first entering into a covenant with Jesus and then allowing Abraham to accept it.
When God presented the covenant to Abraham, He made many promises to Abraham and his seed. Therefore, it is important to know who Abraham's seed is. Notice that verse sixteen says that the promises were not made to "seeds" of many. Seeds (plural) is a reference to the nation of Israel. In other words, God did not draw up the Abrahamic covenant between Abraham and the Jews. He drew up the covenant between Abraham and the Lord Jesus Christ and said, "Your seed (singular) will affect all nations on the face of the earth." We found out that Abraham produced two sets of offspring. He produced a physical race which has resulted in the nation of Israel and he also produced a spiritual race which was going to give birth to the Lord Jesus Christ and the Church.
Verse 15 of Galatians 3 which we have already quoted, tells us that if any covenant has been confirmed, no man can disannul it or add to it. Verse 17, in speaking of the Abrahamic covenant, takes this one step further by bringing out the fact that even the Law which came after this covenant could not disannul the covenant, "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. "
If the Law could not disannul the Abrahamic covenant, then what was put under bondage for four hundred years, the seeds outnumbered the seed. The national race of Israel was prolific, and grew bigger and bigger, but the number of believers began to dwindle so that by the time Moses came along there were very few believers in the whole nation of Israel. Instead, most of the people were worshipping the gods of Egypt. It was God's purpose and intention that the nation of Israel not only be the seeds of Abraham but that, by faith they become the seed of Abraham and take the gospel around the world.
The reason God gave the Abrahamic Covenant was to teach righteousness to His people who were then to go around the world preaching the fact that by faith in God, Jehovah, a person could become righteous. The seed of Abraham is going to bless all nations, kindreds, nationalities, and tongues.
However, because the Jews fell the purpose of the Law? Remember, Abraham had two sets of offspring. He had his "seed" and he had the "seeds." He had the Lord Jesus Christ and the faith race that was going to produce from his loins the children of promise, but he also had a natural race called the Jews. However, as time passed and the nation of Israel was taken into captivity in Egypt where they were away from God, the Law had to be instituted to reveal to them that they were sinners. Neither their self-works nor their nationality could establish their righteousness before God. The purpose of the Law was to expose their sin and point them back to the Abrahamic covenant so that they could change from the "seeds" of Abraham into the "seed" of Abraham.
What is the difference between the Abrahamic covenant and the Law? The Abrahamic covenant was drawn up by promise, but the covenant that came four hundred and thirty years later was called Law. Promise. Law. What is the difference between promise and Law? Promise is based on the one who gives the covenant. Law is based on the one who receives the covenant. The Abrahamic covenant was drawn up from God's viewpoint. It was done by promise. Abraham didn't have to do anything other than accept it. All the responsibility was on God. But four hundred and thirty years later, God came along with the temporary covenant of the Law and all the responsibility was on man.
Let me give you an everyday illustration of this principle. If I promise to give you my car, all you have to do is say, "Thank you, I'll take it." If I made a promise, all the responsibility is on me. On the other hand, if I tell you that I have a car, and if for the next four weeks you do this and that and, if you are good, you might get that car, you would have to go out and hustle and do all the work.
Furthermore, I would watch over you to make sure you do it before I give you that reward.
Likewise, when Israel was given the Law and the responsibility that goes along with it, they tried and sweated and did everything they could to prove themselves. When the Law was first given they said, "Oh, yes, we can keep it," but they failed. In fact, the moment Moses came down from the mountain, they were worshipping a golden calf even though one of the first parts of the Law was, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Molten images or graven images, you shall not make them." Time after time they failed and failed. Why? Because all of the obligation was on them. God gave them a holy commandment they couldn't keep and every time they tried to keep it, they kept exposing their problem. They looked to the Law as an answer but all it did was exaggerate their problem. That was its purpose - to show them that they' were sinners who needed a saviour and then to show them the answer which was the Abrahamic Covenant.
Part of the Law included sacrifices whose purpose was to teach the Jews of the Abrahamic Covenant which was the gospel spoken to them by the Lord Jesus Christ,
As Galatians 3: 17b and verse 18, tell us, "...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."
The whole point of redemption, salvation by faith, is that once you accept it, God is the one that performs. He's the one that sent Jesus, to the cross. He's the one that paid the full price. He's the one that has given remission. He's the one that has given healing. He's the one that satisfies us. He's the one that gives us all our needs according to His riches in glory, by Christ Jesus. That's why we can shout out with Paul, "I'm persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day."
Verse 19a asks, "Wherefore then serveth the law?" The second part of the verse answers the question, "It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator."
You see, the "seeds" which were multiplying so fast were bragging that they were the "seed" of Abraham, but verse 19, tells us that they could not have been because the seed was Jesus. Therefore, the Law was added only until Jesus came, period. We are no longer under the Law. The Law lasted from Moses to Jesus and then ended.
Who is the mediator spoken of in verse 19, "Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator." According to John 1:17, "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Moses was the mediator of the Law. This is also told to us in the Old Testament in Exodus 20:19, and in Deuteronomy 5:5. This fact, that Moses was the mediator, is the weak point of the Law. You see, Moses was on the level of one of the parties in this covenant - man. A mediator in a dispute such as between labor and management should be someone who is impartial, someone who can listen to both sides and present a fresh viewpoint to try to draw the opposing sides together. Moses could not adequately do this because he was partial to the side he was most like, the side of mankind. According to Galatians 3:20a, "...a mediator is not a mediator of one (side)..." This is also why God put Abraham to sleep to keep him from meddling in the Abrahamic Covenant and established Christ as its mediator. "And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, 10, an horror of great darkness fell upon him." (Genesis 15:12)
When Moses' Law came along, it was begging for someone to fulfill it. Since the mediator was a man, a man had to fulfill it. One day Jesus came along and fulfilled it. Jesus said, in Matthew 5: 17, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." When He hung on the cross and said, "It is finished..." he did fulfill it.
When Jesus was on the cross, He fulfilled the Law, every jot and tittle. When He said, "It is finished," the Mosaic Law was defunct, out of the way, fulfilled forever. Why? Because we're still under the Abrahamic covenant. And we will be until it is fulfilled. And the same One who came and filled the Mosaic Law will come again at the Second Advent and fulfill the covenant of Abraham and everything promised to the Jews and the Church.
Even when Christ came to be the mediator of the Abrahamic covenant, He was equal only with God. He had not yet come in the form of a man. He was still deity. He appeared to Abraham as God and drew up the covenant. Twenty-five years later Abraham shed blood when he was circumcised. This presented a problem since the other part, God, can't bleed. How was He going to ratify this covenant in blood? This is why we have a better covenant established on better promises. Some two thousand years later the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth and ratified it on man's part. John the Baptist recognized this and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world," Jesus went to the cross a few years later and on that day God bled for man and the covenant was sealed on the cross. There was bleeding on man's part and bleeding on God's part. The Lord Jesus Christ ratified it, and on top of that, when He rose from the dead, He entered Heaven as the mediator of the covenant. And He's a perfect mediator because He is now God and man. First Timothy 2:5 says, "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. " He can satisfy the claims of man because He is man. He can satisfy the claims of God because He is God. He is the perfect mediator of a perfect covenant.
Since Abraham lived before the promise was fulfilled, he didn't actually receive all the promises. Why? Because everything Abraham received was on credit. It was merely accounted to him for righteousness. But now the credit tab has been paid on the cross and we walk in the literal fulfillment of it. We have been made the righteousness of God in Him. There will never be need of another covenant. When Jesus hung on the cross and said, "It is finished, " it was finished once and for all! When He arose from the dead, the new covenant was still in effect and the Holy Spirit has now been given as the down payment on the inheritance. We are walking in the covenant of Abraham.
How do you get in on this covenant? The book of Romans says that all you have to do is believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess Him with your mouth as your Lord and Saviour and you will be saved. "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Romans 10:10). Galatians say that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through faith.
How do we become the seed of Abraham? It's not by natural birth, it's by spiritual birth! The moment you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ you are born again, and you become the seed of Abraham and everything promised to Abraham and his seed now becomes available to you!
Copyright 2003 by Bob Yandian Ministries.
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