The two covenants: Part 2
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Searching the Scriptures
David A. Bass, Rockford Church of Christ
Last time we began a discussion concerning the two covenants or testaments which make up the Bible. I would encourage you to go back and read the first column again.
Today we will answer the question, “To whom was the Old Covenant given?”
The Old Covenant was prophesied to end. We read in Jeremiah 31:31-34, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
These words were spoken some 900 years after Moses – about 600 years before Christ came to this world. Notice: In verse 31, “I will make a new covenant.” There would be a number of changes in this new law or covenant.
According to verse 32 it would not be according to the old covenant, and then in verse 33 God said that He would “Write it in their hearts.” Remember that the “old” was written on tables of stone. However, the “new” would be written on the heart.
Verse 34 teaches that under this new covenant sins would be forgiven, never to be remembered again. Under the old covenant there was a “remembrance of sins” made every year.
Hebrews 10:3, “But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.”
Exodus 30:10, “And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the Lord.”
Leviticus 16:34, “And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year.”
Under the new covenant, sins are not remembered; they are forgiven. The Bible says in Hebrews 10:10,12,14, “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.”
Also notice chapter 9 verses 12, 25, 26, and 28, “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. …Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; …For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. …So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”
Next time, we will look at the fulfillment of these prophecies. Please, “Search the Scriptures!”
