IN DEFENSE OF THE FAITH
The
Truth About Seventh-day Adventists
A
REPLY TO CANRIGHT
by
William
H. Branson
12. THE TWO COVENANTS
IN his chapter on this
subject Mr. Canright the Baptist contends that the old covenant
spoken of by Paul
as having passed away,
consisted of, or at least included, the Ten Commandment law and the
seventh-day
Sabbath. We quote his
words:
The abolition of the
Sinaitic covenant carries with it the abolition of the Jewish Sabbath so
completely that
no authoritative trace
of it can be found this side of the grave of our risen Lord.'
Seventh-day Adventism
Renounced, p. 350.
Again:
Now notice how
plainly and how repeatedly the Ten Commandments are called 'the
covenant,' which God
gave at Sinai to Israel
when He brought them out of Egypt. Ibid., p. 353.
And again:
Notice the points in
this. Jesus is Mediator of a better covenant than the old. Verse 6. Then
we have
something better than
the Ten Commandments. Ibid., p. 355.
This, of course, is not
a new argument. We have often heard it from the no-law advocates. It is
a subtle line
of reasoning, and to
one not familiar with the subject of the two covenants, to say the
least, a bit confusing.
But this entire effort
to get rid of the law of God via the old covenant argument, is based on
an entirely
erroneous premise,
i.e., that the Ten Commandments was the old covenant. When this premise
is removed,
as it is not difficult
to do, the entire line of argument collapses. In considering this
subject, we desire, for
the sake of clarity, to
divide it into four subdivisions, as follows:
1. What the old
covenant was not.
2. What the old
covenant was.
3. The new covenant.
4. The new covenant,
effective both before and after the cross.
WHAT THE OLD COVENANT WAS NOT
The old covenant was
not the Ten Commandments, as Mr. Canright would have us believe. This
fact is
clearly revealed by
many of the conflicting characteristics, attributed to these two
instruments. The things
said of either one of
them could not by any possible means apply to the other. The distinction
between them
is clear.
For instance, we find
the Lord speaking of the new covenant as being a better covenant
than the
old one. (Hebrews 8:6.)
This clearly indicates that the old covenant was not perfect in its
provisions. There
was weakness in it, and
that weakness was to be corrected in the new covenant.
But of the Ten
Commandments the Lord declares: The law of the Lord is perfect,
converting the
soul: the testimony of
the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. Psalms 19:7. Wherefore
the law is holy,
and. the commandment
holy, and just, and good. Romans 7:12. But the old covenant was
imperfect and
faulty. Therefore it is
evident that the old covenant and the Ten Commandments, though related,
are
certainly not
identical. The Ten Commandments cannot be the old covenant.
Of the new covenant God
says that it was to be established upon better promises. Hebrews
8:6.
This clearly indicates
that some of the promises of the old covenant were poor. These poor
promises were
made, not by God, but
by the people when they promised more than they could perform. The fault
was
with them, the
Lord declares in verse 8. Their promises were not reliable. The new
covenant had better
promises, not made by
sinful men, but by the Lord Himself.
The old covenant is
declared to have been faulty. If the first covenant had been
faultless, then
should no place have
been sought for the second. Hebrews 8:7. But this could not possibly
apply to the
Ten Commandments,
which, as we have seen, are clearly declared to be perfect,
holy, and just, and
good. A thing cannot
be faulty and perfect at the same time.
Paul declared that the
old covenant was ready to vanish away. In that He says, A new
covenant,
He hath made the first
old. Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away.
Hebrews 8:13.
But this same apostle
states that the law, instead of vanishing away, was definitely
established by faith. Do
we then make void the
law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. Romans
3:31. A thing
cannot vanish
away and be established at the same time. Jesus also makes this point
clear when He
declares: It is
easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to
fail. Luke 16:17. Now,
heaven and earth have
not passed. Therefore this is positive evidence that not a jot nor
tittle of the law has
failed. No part of it
has vanished away.
And again the apostle
Paul, some thirty years after the cross, wrote these words concerning
the
Ten Commandments:
Now we know that what things so ever the law says, it says to them
who are under
the law: that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty be fore
God. Romans
3:19.
These considerations
show conclusively that Mr. Canright is wrong when he declares that the
old
covenant was the Ten
Commandments, and that with its passing both the Ten Commandments and
the
Sabbath passed away.
The old covenant was not the Ten Commandments, and therefore, the
passing of this
covenant did not in any
way affect the moral law.
WHAT THE OLD COVENANT WAS
The old covenant was an
agreement between God and the people of Israel concerning the keeping of
His
law. It did not consist
of the law, but it had to do with the law, and so, for that matter, does
the new
covenant.
When God had brought
Israel out of Egypt, He led them by way of Sinai. They reached this
place
in the third month of
their travels. (See Exodus 19:1.) It was here that the Lord called Moses
to come up
into the mount to
commune with Him. There God revealed to His servant that He was about to
speak His
law to Israel, but that
before doing so He wished to make a covenant, or agreement, with them.
He
therefore instructed
Moses to return to the camp and say to Israel: Now therefore, if you
will obey My
voice indeed, and keep
My covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all
people: for all
the earth is Mine; and
you shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. Exodus
19:5, 6.
When Moses repeated
these words to Israel, all the people answered together, and said,
All that
the Lord hath spoken we
will do., And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord.
Verse 8.
Here, then, was a
definite agreement, or covenant, between God and His people. God offers
to
bless Israel if they
will obey His voice. They agree to be obedient. Mr. Canright quotes
Webster as stating
that a covenant is a
mutual consent or agreement of two or more persons to do or forbear some
act or
thing; a contract.
Seventh day Adventism Renounced, p. 351.
Here, then, we have
found the agreement made at Sinai. It consisted in definite promises
made by
God to His people, and
in promises made by the people to God. God's promises were good, but the
people's
promises were like
ropes of sand. This made the covenant faulty. It was established upon
poor promises.
Sinful men, with carnal
hearts, had made a high agreement to keep a holy and perfect law,
whereas the
carnal mind is enmity
against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can
be. Romans
8:7. In their agreement
they had not taken the weakness of the flesh into account. The), put no
reliance in
the power of the Holy
Spirit. They felt self-sufficient; and in their self-sufficiency they
trusted not in God
but in themselves.
Jesus once said to the
Jews of His day: You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make
you
free. They answered
Him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how
says Thou,
You shall be made
free? John 8:32, 33. It was this same spirit which led them to speak
with such
assurance in entering
into the old covenant relationship.
It was just after this
agreement was made at Sinai that God spoke the law of the Ten
Commandments and wrote
it upon tables of stone. When this was accomplished, Moses wrote the
words of
the agreement, or the
old covenant, that had been entered into, in a book, and once more read
them in the
hearing of Israel, and
they reiterated their promise, saying: All that the, Lord hath said,
will we do, and be
obedient. (See
Exodus 24:4-7.) Then Moses sent young men of the children of Israel,
which offered burnt
offerings, and
sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord. And Moses took half of
the blood, and put
it in basins; and half
of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. And he took the book of the
covenant, and read
in the audience of the
people: and they said, All that the Lord bath said will we do, and be
obedient. And
Moses took the blood,
and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the
covenant which the
Lord bath made with you
concerning all these words. Verses 5-8.
Thus it is clear that
the old covenant made at Sinai was not the commandments, but, on the
part of
the people, an
agreement to keep God's law, and on God's part a promise to give them
certain blessings
conditional upon
obedience. The law was that concerning which the covenant was made, but
it was not the
covenant itself. The
weakness of this covenant was the fact that it was based on the
principle, Do and
live, whereas the
people could not do, because they were carnal and trusted in the flesh,
and therefore
were unable to fulfill
the covenant provisions. God knew that in their mere human strength they
would be
unable to keep it, and
evidently the reason it was given was that it might serve as an
everlasting lesson to
man regarding his utter
helplessness without God.
THE NEW COVENANT
One fault Mr. Canright
finds with the old covenant is that it was made with Israel. But so was
the
new covenant. The
difference between these two covenants lies chiefly in the character of
the promises. In
the old covenant some
of these were made by God and some by the people. In the new covenant
they are all
made by the Lord. With
this thought in mind, let us carefully note the terms of this new
covenant.
But now
hath He
[Christ] obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the
Mediator of a better
covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first
covenant had
been faultless, then
should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with
them, He says,
Behold, the days come,
says the Lord, when 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 when
I took them
by the hand to lead
them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in My
covenant, and I
regarded them not, says
the Lord.
For this is the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,
says the Lord; I
will put My laws into
their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God,
and they shall
be to Me a people; and
they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother,
saying,
Know the Lord: for all
shall know Me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to
their
unrighteousness, and
their sins and thir iniquities will I remember no more. In that He
says, A 'new
covenant, He hath made
the first old. Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish
away.
Hebrews 8:6-13.
Let it be carefully
noted that the promises here are all made by Christ the Lord. He
declares: This
is the covenant that I
will make. I will put My laws into their mind.---I will be to
them a God.---I will
be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no
more. The old
covenant was made
between God and sinners; the new covenant is made between God and those
who
accept Jesus and who
own Him as their Lord and Mediator. He can make no promises of obedience
for any
but those who are fully
surrendered to the control of His Spirit; hence no sinner can come under
this
covenant until He
accepts Jesus as his Savior. It is made with Israel; but this time it is
spiritual Israel, and
not the literal
descendants of Abraham.
Not as though the
word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which
are of
Israel. Neither,
because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In
Isaac shall thy seed be
called. That is, They
which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God:
but the children
of the promise are
counted for the, seed. Romans 9:6-8.
He is not a Jew,
which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward
in the
flesh: but he is a Jew,
which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the
spirit, and not in
the letter; whose
praise is not of men, but of God. Romans 2:28, 29.
As many of you as
have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew
nor
Greek, there is neither
bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in
Christ Jesus.
And if you be Christ's,
then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Galatians 3:27-
29.
Observe that the new
covenant is made concerning the law of God. In this particular it is no
different from the old.
Its object is to assure the keeping of God's statutes by the
covenanters. But in this
covenant man is not
left to struggle alone, in human weakness, in his efforts to keep the
law, but our Lord
Himself promises, I
will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts. How
different this is
from having the law
written only on stone, and sin still in the heart! When the law is only
on stone, it serves
as an instrument of
condemnation. All the struggles of the human heart to keep it end in
failure. But when,
by the Spirit of God,
this law is written on the heart, then there is victory and power and
perfection. Then it
is that the
righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, who walk not after
the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Romans 8:4.
Forasmuch as you are
manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us,
written not
with ink, but with the
Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables
of the heart. And
such trust have we
through Christ to Godward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think anything as
of ourselves; but our
sufficiency is of God; who also bath made us able ministers of the new
testament; not
of the letter, but of
the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. But if the
ministration of death,
written and engraven in
stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not
steadfastly behold the
face of Moses for the
glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: how shall not
the
ministration of the
spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be
glory, much more
doth the ministration
of righteousness exceed in glory. 2 Corinthians 3:3-9.
So the
ministration (or the manner of administering the law) even under
the old covenant, was
glorious, in that it
revealed God's perfect character and glory; but under the old covenant
the law of God
served only as a
ministration of condemnation, or death. Under the old covenant the
people had only the
letter of the law
written and engraved on stones. They failed to accept either the spirit
of the law or the
Spirit of God into
their hearts. The old covenant therefore had no salvation in it.
Under the new covenant
the ministration is changed. Therefore those who were saved in the old
dispensation had to be
saved under the terms of the new covenant, as we shall show later. It is
the
ministration of the
Spirit. The Spirit takes this same law that was then written upon stone,
and now writes it
upon the fleshy
tables of the heart. Its principles become an integral part of our
very nature. Old things-
the carnal, fleshly
lusts - are passed away; behold, all thing are become new. 2
Corinthians 5:17. Our
trust is no longer in
the power and strugglings of the flesh to keep the law, but in the
indwelling Christ.
Whereunto I also
labor, striving according to His working, which works in me mightily.
Colossians 1:29.
Not that we are
sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our
sufficiency is of God. 2
Corinthians 33.
The righteousness of
Christ, is ministered to the life of the believer by the Holy Spirit. It
is the
new covenant
relationship, and through this relationship alone is it possible for
human beings to obey God's
law in an acceptable
manner. Therefore if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much
more does the
ministration of
righteousness exceed in glory.
But this law which is
written on the heart by the ministration of the Spirit under the new
covenant,
is not a new law, but
is the same as that which was written on the tables of stone. It is not
changed by a
single jot or tittle.
It therefore still declares to the heart of the believer that the
seventh day is the
Sabbath.... In it thou
shall not do any work. It has no new provisions except the provision
made by the
indwelling Christ,
which makes it possible for us to keep its every precept.
NEW COVENANT EFFECTIVE BEFORE THE CROSS
Now, a new covenant is
not called new because of its being a more recent provision than
the
old. In fact, it is
much older than the Sinaitic covenant. God's promise was made to Adam
and Eve in Eden
immediately after the
fall, and has been renewed to all succeeding generations thereafter.
When the Lord
said to the serpent:
I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed
and her seed; it
shall bruise thy head,
and thou shall bruise His heel (Genesis 3:15), He couched in those
few words the
first promise of a
mighty Deliverer from the power of sin. This was the beginning of the
new covenant with
man. This promise
introduced man to the plan of deliverance through Christ, the Seed. It
was his first
lesson in the inability
of man to deliver himself from sin, or regain the moral perfection
demanded by the
law which he had
broken. It revealed his utter dependence upon Christ, the coming
Deliverer.
This was the covenant
that was made with Abraham. It is said of him that he was justified by
faith.
What shall we say
then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, bath found?
For if Abraham
were justified by
works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what says the
Scripture?
Abraham believed God,
and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Romans 4:1-3.
This same covenant was
known to Isaac and Jacob, and in fact to all the Old Testament worthies.
It is outlined in
Jeremiah's prophecies. It was spoken of by David. Thus the new covenant
stretches both
sides of the cross, and
spans the gulf from Eden lost to Eden restored. The only reason it is
spoken of as
new is the fact
that it was ratified at a later date than the Sinaitic covenant. The old
covenant was ratified
by Moses at Sinai with
the blood of beasts; the new covenant was ratified on Calvary by the
precious blood
of Jesus. In that sense
it is new. In every other respect it antedates the old one.
No one was ever saved
under the terms of the old covenant. It provided only for righteousness
by
works, and so held no
more hope of salvation for sinners before the cross than after. All who
were saved
before the cross were
saved under the terms of the new covenant. They were saved by faith, and
not by the
works of the law. Their
law keeping grew out of their faith-righteousness, but did not produce
it. just so it
must be with us, if we
would be saved under the terms of the new covenant, which provides a way
of life
and righteousness.
For those who are
led by God's Spirit are, all of them, God's sons. You have not for the
second
time acquired the
consciousness of being slaves-a consciousness which fills you with
terror. But you have
acquired a deep inward
conviction it of having been adopted as sons - a conviction which
prompts us to cry
aloud, 'Abba! our
Father!' Romans 8:12-15, Weymouth's New Testament in Modern Speech.
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