The New Covenant and The Church

Transcript

GR 1703
10/6/2013
The New Covenant and the Church
Hebrews 8-10
Gil Rugh

One of the challenges we have coming to the Scriptures is God did not root the Scriptures in the United States of America, contrary to some popular preaching. But it was rooted in a foreign land, foreign to us, a foreign people, a foreign culture, foreign practices. And for us to understand God's revelation to man we have to understand what He unfolds in His Word in the context of that kind of context.

As you come in your Bibles to Hebrews where we have been studying, and we're not going to move forward in Hebrews. We have come to the close of the major section of the book which went from Hebrews 5:1-10:18. Key in that section is the focus on the high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ, and understanding something of the Levitical system and how it operated under the Mosaic covenant or the Mosaic Law in showing that that was God's provision for His people Israel for a time. But it never could provide salvation. Everything anticipated the coming of the one final high priest, Jesus Christ, a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

In this comparison between the Levitical priests and their practices associated with the Mosaic covenant and the priesthood of Christ, a Melchizedekian priesthood and its association with the New Covenant, the details of God's plan of salvation have been unfolded. It's important that we understand correctly the doctrine of the New Covenant and its provisions for us as the church of Jesus Christ today. Later today in our evening service we will be partaking of the communion service. And in that we will repeat the words of Christ, “this cup is the new covenant in My blood.” The new covenant in My blood. We often repeat that, if you've been a believer for many years you've been through this service many times. It's important we be clear on the New Covenant, how it fits in the overall covenantal plan of God. Hebrews has been clear, the Mosaic covenant given to the children of Israel through Moses at Mt. Sinai has been completed. It served its purpose. It never was intended to be a way of salvation. It could not do that. But it did prepare the nation Israel for the coming of their Messiah. But because of their unbelief they were not prepared. But with the coming of Christ and His death a new covenant has been instituted.

So I want to talk about God's covenantal program again. This will review some of the material we did in the context of Hebrews 8, but I want to develop a little more fully the biblical teaching on the New Covenant. This has been at the center of this section in Hebrews. Back in Hebrews 8:6, “but now He has obtained a more excellent ministry,” referring to Christ. “He, Christ, has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much as He is the mediator of a better covenant and acted on better promises”. And then there is the most extensive quote of an Old Testament passage that we have in the entire New Testament. It's a quote of the prophecy of the New Covenant as found in Jeremiah 31.

And you pick up and verse 7 says, “if the first one, the first covenant, referring to the Mosaic Covenant, had been faultless there would not have been occasion for the second. For finding fault with them he said, behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” It's not going to be like the Mosaic covenant, it's a different kind of covenant. Now you'll note this covenant is made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. That raises some questions. How do we as Gentiles comprising the church relate to a covenant that God said He would establish with the house of Israel and the house of Judah? I think the Scripture is clear, the church is not Israel; the church has not replaced Israel. And yet we have been saying that we have become partakers of a New Covenant which has been established by the death of Christ. And it's in the context of the provisions of what Christ has provided as a priest after the order of Melchizedek operating in the context of that New Covenant that we have our salvation.

Back in Hebrews 7:11 the contrast was drawn in this section. “If perfection were through the Levitical priesthood,” then he notes this statement,” for on the basis of it the people received the Law.” The priesthood is the foundation and heart of the covenant. The Mosaic covenant, the foundation and heart of it was the Levitical priesthood. We've talked about this and repeated it a number of times. You take the priesthood out of the Mosaic covenant, you have nothing. The people have no way of access to God, no priest to represent them, no way for God to accept the sacrifice to turn away His wrath from them.

So verse 12 says, “when the priesthood is changed of necessity there takes place a change of law also,” referring to the covenantal law. There would be a new covenant, a change in covenants when there is a change in priesthood. So when we talk about the New Covenant in Hebrews 8, we're talking about a new priesthood. It is inseparably joined together.

When we concluded Hebrews 10, if you turn over there, he went back to the New Covenant and its provisions. And in verse 16 he says,” this is the covenant,” and he is quoting from a portion of the New Covenant again. He doesn't quote as extensively as he did in Hebrews 8. “This is the new covenant that I will make with them. After those days, says the Lord, I will put My laws upon their heart, on their mind I will write them.” And further in that covenant He says, “their sins and lawless deed I will remember no more.” And that promise is indicative of the fact there will be no other, no further sacrifice or sacrifices for sin. Jesus Christ the priest after the order of Melchizedek, whose priesthood is the foundation and heart of the New Covenant, that New Covenant's promises made clear there will be no further sacrifices to be offered.

I want to deal with the issue of how does the church become part of the New Covenant if it is made with Israel and Judah, and refresh your mind on the covenants which are foundational to understand God's salvation program. Hebrews can be a difficult book and it's a book we have to follow carefully. As I thought about reviewing some of the covenants, some of you may be newer, perhaps you haven't been here for much of the study of Hebrews, and my fear is you'll go away and say, I don't know what that guy in the pulpit was talking about. Something about covenants with Abraham and Melchizedek. Don't get discouraged, stay with it. Those of you who have been here a long time and are having trouble following, you could be a little more discouraged, but not totally.

We're going to review some charts, so if you put up the first chart. Everything goes back to the Abrahamic Covenant. And you remember it is land, seed and blessing. Come back to Genesis 12. This is the foundational covenant regarding God's purposes and plans for His people, particularly Israel, and the salvation and blessings He would bring to them. It begins with Abraham in Genesis 12, who is the father of the Jewish people. We're establishing a new nation that will descend from Abraham and his wife Sarah through a specific line—his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob will be the line. But here is a summary of the promises that will be contained in this covenant.

Genesis 12:1, “now the Lord said to Abraham, go forth from your country, from your relatives, from your father's house to the land which I will show you. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great. So you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, curse the one who curses you. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Contained within this covenant that will be reiterated in Genesis 13, 15, 17 and so on, sometime further elaborating on points—land, seed and blessing. A land that Abraham is going to will be his. He will have a seed, descendants that will ultimately be a great nation. And in Abraham all the families of the earth will be blessed.

You come over to Genesis 13, we can't review all the places, but look at verse 14, “the Lord said to Abram, lift up your eyes, look from the place where you are northwards, southward, eastward, westward, for all the land which you see I will give to you and your descendants after you. I will make your descendants, your seed like the dust of the earth that can't be numbered.” He's talking about a physical land. He says, get up and walk on it, it's yours.

When you get to Genesis 15 this covenant that God had been promising about and tell him about is formally established. “ Now when the sun was going down, verse 12, now when the sun was going down a deep sleep fell upon Abram. And great terror and darkness fell upon him and God said to Abram.” So in a dream or vision while Abraham is sound asleep God said to him, “know for certain your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs. They will be enslaved there 400 years. Then I will judge the nation and bring you out. You go to your fathers in peace, be buried in a good old age. In the fourth generation they will return here.”

“It came about when the sun had set it was very dark and behold there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed through these pieces.” What Abraham had done earlier, we didn't take time to read it, God had instructed him to take certain animals, certain birds, split them in two, cut them in two. The Hebrew expression for making a covenant is literally to cut a covenant. It involves a sacrifice. Then you put the two halves of the animals, one on each side with a path down the middle. The parties to the covenant walk between those animals. The covenant is established, being a binding, legal contract we might say. You'll note here Abraham is sound asleep. Going even deeper, God walks through the pieces. He establishes this covenant, solely responsible for its fulfillment. It's a covenant with Abraham, but it's not like a mutual agreement covenant that we've agreed together. When you are going to enter into a contract, you sign one place and the other person signs the other place, and you've entered into a covenant or a contract together. Abraham doesn't sign, God simply guarantees a contract to fulfill the promises He has made.

So here is the official fulfillment of the contract. There are provisions there for Abraham to experience blessings; there are promises, he gets the land and his descendants. For most of this Abraham will not live to see it, but the covenant is established. When we get to Hebrews 11 in our future studies, we'll be told that Abraham was given the promises but he didn't receive them then. So important, we want to note a principal here. A covenant can be established but not all the promises contained in the covenant be actually entered into. So Abraham and his descendants are going to get the land, but we are 4,000 years after the Abrahamic Covenant and they still haven't gotten the land as God has promised it and the borders set out as we have it at the end of Genesis 15. But it will happen, God has guaranteed it.

So remember that, a covenant can be established, but everything in that covenant, will happen but it will happen on God's timetable. The Abrahamic Covenant has been in force since Genesis 15, but the major provisions of it are still future from the time of Abraham.

Now put up the next video, if you would. You see the Abrahamic Covenant had three major divisions, promises regarding “the land” that would belong to Abraham, “a seed” that would develop into a great nation, like the dust of the earth that can't be numbered, mighty nation. And blessing, “the blessing” refers to salvation provisions, where we are going to be focusing in our study. Each of these comes out of the Abrahamic Covenant. They are divisions of the Abrahamic Covenant, each of those is supported by a future covenant. So we noted here, we often call the land the Palestinian Covenant, although that would be a negative term as originally given, given by the Roman Emperor in 130 A.D. to try to remove any connection of Israel with the land and remove the Jews from the land. It's the land covenant but we are familiar with it, often called the Palestinian Covenant. Deuteronomy 30:1-8 elaborate on that. It's not a new covenant in that it is different than the Abrahamic Covenant, it's just filling out what God promised in the Abrahamic Covenant, that area of it. The seed, being a mighty nation. You will have a king and prosper under his leadership. That is elaborated in the Davidic Covenant. 2 Samuel 7 clarifies further in the line of Abraham it will be through David and so on. The blessing is to be fulfilled in the New Covenant. And the provisions of the blessing are elaborated in the New Covenant to clarify it. Becomes very important to us.

Now all of this is contained within the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant. There will be further clarification and elaboration but nothing changes. The land as it is promised; the seed, a mighty nation and a king as promised; the blessings of salvation as promised. Now we have talked about this, particularly when we were back in Hebrews 8, so we are not going to go into broader detail on the other areas. What I want to focus on is the New Covenant and how the New Covenant relates to us as the church and how that fits with its promise to Israel.

First come back to Genesis 12, I want to pick up one promise here that is the focal point of the New Covenant. Let me just draw attention to the Law. If you'll remember when we did this several months ago the Law I put as a dotted line there because it fits over here because in Hebrews it is contrasted with the Mosaic Law or the Mosaic covenant, the New Covenant. It is new in the context of the Law not in contrast to the Abrahamic Covenant or one of the others. It is the New Covenant that is coming out of the Abrahamic Covenant and is an elaboration of the blessings promised in the Abrahamic Covenant. The Law is an add-on. I mention it now but we'll read about it when we get to Galatians in a little bit. The covenant of the Mosaic Law was added 430 years after the Abrahamic Covenant was given. It's a different kind of covenant from the other covenants. In fact the New Covenant, we are told it will be a new covenant not like the Mosaic covenant. The Mosaic covenant is an add-on and it is temporal for a limited time until Christ came. And it's important to recognize the land, seed, blessings come out of the Abrahamic Covenant and these other, Palestinian, Davidic and New Covenant, they are permanent, eternal. They are rooted in the Abrahamic Covenant. So you see the distinction with the Mosaic covenant. It was added for a time. We've seen some of the reasons for it and so on in our study of Hebrews. We'll see more of that later.

All right the point we want to pick up on in the provision is at the end of Genesis 12:3 in these promises regarding the Abrahamic Covenant. “In you all the families of the earth will be blessed”. You come over to Genesis 18:17. As God prepares to go and destroy Sodom and Gomorrah He says in verse 17, “shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation.” Part of the provision. Another part of the provision in the covenant with Abraham was “in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” Go to Genesis 22:18. And verse 17 reiterates some of the provisions. “I will greatly bless you, I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven, as the sand of the seashore. Your seed shall possess the gate of your enemies. And also in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed.”

You come over to Genesis 26. Now Abraham has died. Now the Abrahamic Covenant to be fulfilled in the descendants of Abraham has a specific line. Abraham has more than one son, he has a son by the name of Ishmael, the most well known to us. But he has others by his second wife Keturah in Genesis 25. But the covenant promises given in the covenant established with Abraham can only be fulfilled through one of his sons, Isaac. And furthermore the Abrahamic Covenant can only be fulfilled from Abraham through Isaac and through only one of Isaac's sons—Jacob. And interestingly Jacob is a twin. Furthermore, remember he is the second born of the twins. And yet the covenant promises of Abraham come from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and then the twelve sons of Jacob will form the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. That is the line of promise. So the fathers are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because they are the single individuals, and then you have the twelve heads of the tribes. And then everything spreads out.

When you come to Genesis 26 Abraham has died. His son Isaac now is the one through whom the promises come. So God appears to Isaac and in verse 3 He says,” sojourn in this land, the land of Israel, the land where Abraham had come. I will be with you, bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands. I will establish the oath which I swore to your father, Abraham. I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, I will give to your descendants, your seed, all these lands. By your seed, your descendants, or your seed.” Seed can be used collectively of all the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, or it can be used singular of an individual who is a descendant. That becomes key when we get to Galatians. “In your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed.”

Then you come over to Genesis 28. And God reiterates His promise to Isaac's son, Jacob. And it is passed on through Isaac. And Isaac says to his son Jacob as he passes on the right to be the inheritor of the promise, verse 3, “may God Almighty bless you, make you fruitful, multiply you that you may become a company of people. May He give you the blessing of Abraham to you and your descendants with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings which God gave to Abraham.”

Come down to verse 14. You see the original provisions, the blessings of Abraham come to Jacob. That includes all the land and everything, verse 13. God will reveal Himself to Jacob. After Isaac passed the blessing on, then you have the revelations from God as Jacob's ladder. He saw the ladder going to heaven, remember. Verse 13, “God said, I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham, the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give it to you and your descendants. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth. I will spread you out in all directions, and” note the end of verse 14, “in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” That repeated emphases, in you all the families of the earth will be blessed, in your seed.

Come over to the New Testament to Galatians 3. Now dealing here, showing the Jews and the church at Galatia which is a Gentile church, but what happened is those we call Judaizers who tried to mix the Law with the teaching about Christ. They said it is fine to believe in Christ but that's not enough. You must also be circumcised and keep the Mosaic Law. Paul has to battle that in his letter to the Galatians as well as in some other places and churches he established. He uses Abraham as the example to show you are not saved by your works. Even the father of the Jewish people, Abraham, was not saved by works, he was saved by faith. So he quotes from Genesis 15. Galatians 3:6, “even so Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.” Now that doesn't nullify other parts of the promises in the Abrahamic Covenant. It simply means to receive any of the benefits of the Abrahamic Covenant, you must have the faith of Abraham. To be a physical Jew. There is an article in today's paper of a survey of American Jews. Twenty percent of them have non religious convictions, don't consider being Jewish to have any religious significance. But they think being a Jew is important. It is their nationality like you might be Italian, somebody else might be German, somebody else might be African. We are Jewish. It's a nationality but it doesn't have a religion associated with it.

Well these Jews thought that being a child of Abraham, a descendant, without faith in the God of Abraham could save them. That's not so. That's what he is arguing here. But then he goes on to show that God planned and promised in the Abrahamic Covenant to save Gentiles. So he said in verse 8, “the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham.” You see that. And what is the Gospel to Abraham? All the nations will be blessed in you. You see in the Abrahamic Covenant that promised “in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed,” God was foretelling the Gospel. Now Christ wouldn't come for 2,000 years after Abraham, but God provided in the Abrahamic Covenant a provision for them when He said, “in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” We saw that provision and promise repeated to Abraham, and then repeated to Isaac, and then repeated to Jacob. Now Paul says under direction of the Spirit, the Scripture was writing, foreseeing God was revealing beforehand that God would justify the Gentiles, declare them righteous by faith. And He preached this Gospel to Abraham, saying in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

Now that which Paul writes changes nothing in the Abrahamic Covenant. The promise in the Abrahamic Covenant is in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed. How that would be carried out would not be made known until later revelation was given. With the coming of Christ and revelation given, then through Paul and other writers of the New Testament Scriptures we understand. God was providing for the Gentiles.

So then, verse 9, those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer. So the connection to Abraham. Now some take this, those who believe in what we call replacement theology, some believe the church has replaced Israel. A number of you have come out of that kind of background—Roman Catholicism, or Lutheran backgrounds, much of Presbyterianism, covenant theology. They think the church has replaced Israel and they'll come to a verse like this that says, “those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham.” So see now the promises have been spiritualized, allegorized. It's not physical Israel, it's not a physical land, it is spiritual benefits. No, the Abrahamic Covenant always included the spiritual benefits and blessings. “Remember in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed,” what gives us the right to say that now means the promise of the land, the physical land. Abraham, you walk on it. Every place the sole of your feet touches, that's yours. You can't nullify that. Nor the promise of the seed, that there would be a great nation and have a great king that's elaborated in the Davidic Covenant. That doesn't change anything. Paul is reminded, the only Jews who will be saved are those who have the same kind of faith in the promises of God that Abraham had. But now what is clear that was not revealed before, the Gentiles can have that same salvation when they have the same kind of faith Abraham had in the promises of God.

So the coming of Christ and His death has provided salvation on a broader scale than was clearly made known in the Old Testament. Now verse 16 says, “now the promises were spoken to Abraham and his seed.” Then here he plays on the fact that the word seed in this context would particularly focus on one person. He does not say to seeds, referring to many, but to one. And to your seed, Christ. He is the One in whom, Christ is a descendant of Abraham. Becomes important. We Gentiles need to know. And to understand the Scripture you need to understand this. We have, I don't know how to put this without getting myself in trouble, been added on to Israel's promises and blessings. Now we'll see that further in a moment.

Now here is what I said about the Law and why I've diagrammed it with that side dotted line. What I am saying is this. The Law which came 430 years later does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God so to nullify the promise. Then he goes on to show the Mosaic Law was not based on promise. It was based on performance, associated with works. But the New Covenant established by the death of Christ and the beginning of His priesthood, the order of Melchizedek establishes a new covenant. This Mosaic Law was not part of the original Abrahamic Covenant. It is a later add-on, 430 years afterwards. These other covenants—Palestinian, Davidic and New Covenant—are not add-ons, they are elaborations and clarifications of the basic Abrahamic Covenant. “The Law was added because of transgressions.” Angels and Moses were the mediators to bring that to the people.

Verse 19, the last statement, “until the seed would come.” So it was added later to be of temporary duration because God's plan always has been rooted in the Abrahamic Covenant, the New Covenant. The Law was added to deal with sin to oversee Israel until the One who would establish the New Covenant which would provide for the promised blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant.

Come back to Romans 4. We have to understand, all the covenants that we are talking about are made with Israel. The Abrahamic Covenant is made with the father of the Jews, even the promise of blessing that will include us as Gentiles comes through the Jewish covenant and the seed of Abraham, Christ. That One who could bring about the fulfillment of the promise. So we as Gentiles have to understand our position. So we come to Romans 4, and you'll notice he is picking up talking about Abraham. He's talking about sin, he has talked about righteousness by faith. Then he is going to use Abraham as an example. Verse 1, “what shall we say that Abraham our forefather according to the flesh has found? If he was justified by works he could boast about it.” He wouldn't be boasting about what God did, he would be boasting about what he did. But the Scripture says “Abraham believed God and God credited to him as righteousness.”

Verse 5, “the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.” That's the principle of God's way of saving people. We have been looking at this through the book of Hebrews. Faith in the promise, faith in the work of God; not faith plus works. And so the promise here comes to Abraham. You'll note down here he quotes from David, supporting this. Verse 7, “blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.” How will that be provided? What are the provisions of the New Covenant that we read in Hebrews 8 and 10 that referred back to Jeremiah 31? “Their sins and iniquities I will remember no more.” They will never be brought up again, they are done. So the crediting to Abraham of righteousness, we can have that righteousness credited to us, verse 24 says “if we believe in God who justifies the ungodly.”

Come over to Romans 9. Paul makes it clear, God has not cast away the Jewish people. He is not done with the Jews. They are under discipline. It would be too trite to say they are in time out, but that's where they are. They are under God's judgment. The focus of His work of salvation in the world no longer centers in the nation Israel. So Paul talks about his burden for the Jews who are his kinsmen because Paul is a Jew. He says, verse 4, “they are Israelites to whom belongs the adoption of sons, the glory and the covenants”. All the covenants belong to Israel. How I long for their salvation and the realization of all that is promised for Israel in the Abrahamic Covenant and the subsequent covenants connected to the Abrahamic Covenant.

But, verse 6, “it's not as though the word of God has failed.” Then he shows it has always been God's plan to work His purposes. And even now with salvation turning and focusing on Gentiles, Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles, he is writing the letter to the Romans, a Gentile church in Rome. But the word of God has not failed regarding Israel, it has always been a remnant.

Come over to Romans 11. He begins Romans 11 by saying, “I say then, God has not rejected His people, referring to the Jews, Israel. May it never be! I am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.” But there is a remnant that continues. Paul says in verse 5, “there has come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's election of grace.” What is happening? From the time of Abraham until the establishing of the church in Acts 2 and then the expanding of the church beyond the Jews, particularly in Acts 10, and then the ministry of Paul, salvation centered in Israel. There is no evangelism program in the Old Testament. God didn't send the children of Israel into the land of Canaan and say, evangelize those pagan sinners. He said, go in and kill every one of them—men, women and children. There is no evangelism program to send missionaries to Babylon. Jonah went to Ninevah. He went to Ninevah to preach coming destruction and that's in the context of God's plan and Jonah recognized it. If Ninevah is spared, judgment will come in the form of the Assyrians coming and conquering the northern kingdom. Now there is a response but there is not really a missionary program. Gentiles get saved but they are few. Some of the names stand out to us but there are just not many that convert to Judaism? There just is no reaching the Gentiles in any degree.

But now there is a change. Paul is writing, do you know what is happening to the church? It is primarily becoming Gentile. If I ask in here and I won't, although some of you may be able to proudly raise your hand, how many of you are Jewish, descendants of Abraham? Marilyn's grandmother was a Russian Jew. Some may have Jewish blood, she has mixed blood. How many are truly Jewish? There would be few. That's true of the church around the world, it's a Gentile church, part of God's plan. There is a remnant, not saying there are no Jews saved. Paul says, I am part of a remnant. But that's a small, small number compared. Even if we have two or three Jews in our congregation, that would be a very small, small percentage of the number of Gentiles. And that's true around the world. It is part of God's judgment on them as he goes on to quote in verses 8-10.

But verse 11, “they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be!” God's intention in Israel's sin and His judgment on them is not that He is done with them, they fell and will never get up. Rather, this is important for us Gentiles to understand, “by their transgressions salvation has come to the Gentiles.” Do you know what happened? God brought judgment on the Jews as their sin and refusal to believe culminated in the crucifixion of their Messiah, God placed them under judgment. With the establishing of the church He begins a program that will be focused on the Gentiles.

Now we begin to understand how God was going to fulfill what He promised in the Abrahamic Covenant, “in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” It doesn't change anything in that original promise. He just clarifies now how it is being carried out. So God used the time of putting Israel under judgment to focus His plan of salvation of the world on Gentiles, establish a church, which will include Jews who believe. We'll see that in a moment. But even the saving of Gentiles has an ultimate Jewish purpose—to make them, the Jews, jealous. Not to replace the Jews, but to cause them to realize what fools they have been. These Gentiles who had no particular place, now enjoying the fullness of God's salvation and we Jews are enduring the judgment of God. There will come a time when their eyes will be opened and they see and they will turn to Him, which is where they are going.

“Now if their transgression,” verse 12, “is riches for the world, their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be?” You see God is not done with Israel. If there could be such blessing when God places His chosen people, the Jews, under judgment, and we Gentiles have been the recipients of such marvelous salvation through the Jewish Messiah, the descendant of Abraham, think what it will be like when the Jews themselves turn. It will be nothing like the world has ever seen because we'll have the kingdom of God on earth with Jesus ruling and reigning. That's why on the bottom, if you put the chart up again, why don't we have the kingdom? Because ultimately we will not see all the provisions of the Abrahamic Covenant and these subsequent covenants fulfilled until we are in the kingdom. Because these are covenants that all are promised to the Jews. Just by God's grace you understand He tacked on a provision for us. It seems when I read the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis, “in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed,” the emphasis seems to be more on the land and the multiplying of your seed like the dust of the earth and all that. And by the way, in you all the nations of the earth. . . I say, well, maybe when the Jews are reigning over the earth Gentiles will be able to come and gather some crumbs, as the Canaanite woman said. Well, it's greater than that. Think about it, when Israel comes and God's purpose in establishing the covenant ultimately is realized, it will be the kingdom. That's what he is talking about. So remember where you are.

Verse 15, if their rejection is reconciliation for the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead. “If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; if the root is holy, the branches are, too. But if some of the branches were broken off and you being a wild olive were grafted in among them, became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree.” The rich root of the olive tree is the Abrahamic Covenant. That's the basis of everything. Where is he taking us back to, even in Romans 4? Abraham. I mean, he is foundational to all covenantal promises, the covenant established with him. The branches broken off are Jews, the wild olive grafted in is the Gentiles. We are not the focus of the covenant, we're not the original beneficiaries of the covenant. We are those that God said in one aspect of the Abrahamic Covenant, we would receive blessings which turn out to be the salvation blessings provided by God in the context of the covenant. But we're the wild olive tree, that's why I say in that sense an add-on. We are not the original beneficiaries. The original beneficiaries said, no, so God said, I'm putting you aside for a time. They are under judgment. And I'll add these whom I've made provision for in the original covenant and promise. But who would have thought for the last 2,000 years God's focus in salvation in the world has been Gentiles. Some Jews, showing He is not done with Israel, they form the remnant, they are part of the church, but they are indicative that God's judgment with the Jews is not final and complete. Then we are told they were broken off by their unbelief. We don't have time, he's warning the Gentiles, don't get proud, don't get arrogant. Anti-Semitism among believers, even some of the great reformers spoke down about the Jews and they deserve judgment, and they are Christ-killers. Misunderstanding the Scripture.

Verse 22, “behold then the kindness and severity of God, to those who fell, severity; but to you, Gentiles, kindness., if you continue His kindness.” In other words Gentiles, don't get proud. Do you know what happened to the nation Israel? It got cut off. And “if they don't continue in their unbelief,” verse 23,” they will be grafted back in.” God is able to graft them back in. If He can put you and me, wild olive branches, in, no problem putting in the branches that belong in. If you are cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree. You see we are not by nature part of the covenants. That's the descendants of Abraham. Even our blessing comes, in you, in your seed all nations will be blessed. We are not by nature part of it, we are not Jews. “ If you were cut off what is by nature a wild olive tree, were grafted in contrary to nature into a cultivated tree, how much more will these the natural branches be grafted into their own tree? I don't want you to be uninformed of this mystery,” a mystery is something that hadn't been revealed before. Now it is being made known. So you wouldn't find this out of the Old Testament. It doesn't change anything. You'll note, this doesn't change anything in the Abrahamic Covenant, the provision was made for this in the Abrahamic Covenant. We just didn't realize how that would take place and the magnitude God had in mind when He preached the Gospel to Abraham saying,”in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” So there is clarification but there is no change, no alteration in any way of any of the parts or provisions of the covenant.

“A partial hardening,” verse 25, ”has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and so all Israel will be saved.” That's the covenant God will make with them when He takes away their sins. I take it that's the New Covenant, “when I will remember their sins no more.” The fullness of the Gentiles is that time from Acts 2 down until the time of the tribulation and at the end of that tribulation Israel will return to God. So the church age to the rapture, then followed by the tribulation. We have the church age. The times of the Gentiles are different than the fullness of the Gentiles, you are aware. The times of the Gentiles refer to the time that Israel is under Gentile domination. It began with the Babylonian captivity. It will go down ultimately until the return of Christ to establish His kingdom. The fullness of the Gentiles is the time when God is dealing in salvation with Gentiles primarily.

Then a reminder in verse 29, “the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.” Don't you dare say God is done with Israel. That is a challenge to the very character of God. Who walked through those animals to establish the Abrahamic Covenant? God did. To say now He went back on His promise, His promises are irrevocable.

Ephesians 2, we are almost done. Just see the connection again, “salvation by grace through faith” in Ephesians 2:8-9. Verse 11, “therefore remember that formerly you the Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision” because in Genesis 17 circumcision is given as a sign of the Abrahamic Covenant. We were excluded from the covenants with Israel. “You were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. He Himself is our peace and He brings Jews who believe and Gentiles who believe in one body.” But it is not a balanced representation. Just like in the Old Testament it wasn't balanced. God saved many Jews and very, very few Gentiles. In these days His plan is He saves primarily Gentiles, but a few Jews. And He reconciles them into one body.

See we were strangers to the covenant of promise. It's the blood of Christ which we have been studying about in Hebrews. It took the coming of Christ that provides salvation. And these salvation blessings that will be realized in the New Covenant with Israel, this is what is required for salvation for all. So I take it the New Covenant was established with the death of Christ, but all the provisions and particularly for Israel, as all the covenants are made with Israel, the Abrahamic Covenant still waits fulfillment. Hebrews 11, “Abraham received the promises but he didn't enter into the promises,” they still haven't been. The kingdom is still future.

So the New Covenant is operational, I take it, with the death of Christ with the new priesthood. And God is cleansing from sin Gentiles and any Jews who want to believe. The Jews as a nation continue to refuse to acknowledge their Messiah. It will take the tribulation to bring them to the point to say, blessed is He who returns. Remember Jesus said, “you will not see Me again until you say, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” Their eyes are open, they look around and say, God has been saving Gentiles for all these years. We are enduring tribulation and trouble and the Spirit just like He opened your blinded eyes as a Gentile and my blinded eyes, He'll open the blinded eyes of the nation. And so all Israel will be saved. Then they call upon their Messiah and He returns to bring deliverance, establish the kingdom and then all that is promised in the Abrahamic Covenant and clarified and elaborated in these sub-covenants will come to realization.

So He says, “I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” All the covenants are made with Israel, that's the point. We're getting to jump on, if you will, the blessings provided for the nation Israel and in the context of the nation we're getting to partake of the rich root of the olive tree, the promise given to Abraham and the particular seed of Abraham, the Jewish Messiah, who will be the Savior of Israel, that by God's grace His death provides salvation so that covenant is established and we can enjoy the provisions of it as we await the Lord to call the church into His presence so that He can do what is necessary to bring Israel to that salvation.

A reminder, we are Gentiles. You may be a Jew here and it applies to you, but the bulk of us are Gentiles. This is the day of your salvation. You don't want to miss it. This is God's provision, His Son and He has opened the door to us Gentiles. What an opportunity. That's why Paul will write to the Corinthians, “today is the day of salvation.” We don't want to be like Israel who turned away, refused to believe and left to face judgment. The day will close, the time will come when the opportunity for Gentiles, doesn't mean no Gentiles will be saved, but God's focus in salvation will turn to the Jews. We need to take advantage of this day of grace and believe in the Savior that God sent to sacrifice Himself.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the provisions you have made. How marvelous it is to see your plan. Two thousand years before you sent Christ to earth you established a covenant with your servant, Abraham. Marvelous provisions, so many of which are yet to be fulfilled, yet key for Jews and Gentiles alike is a promise of salvation blessings in the seed of Abraham. Lord, how richly blessed we are as Gentiles living in this day when your grace works in a special powerful way among Gentile peoples. Thank you for those in the nation Israel who have come to Christ, who are a remnant, reminder that your promises will be fulfilled. But we as Gentiles have entered into blessings prepared for your people Israel and enjoy a special place as the church, the bride of Christ. May we serve you faithfully. In Christ's name, amen