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WHEN HE SAID A NEW
COVENANT HE HAS MADE THE FIRST OBSOLETE: en to legein (PAN)
kainen pepalaioken (3SRAI) ten proten to de palaioumenon (PPPNSN):
(Hebrews 7:11,12,18,19; 9:9,10)
The New Covenant is...
a treasury of wealth,
a granary of food,
a fountain of life,
a store-house of salvation,
a charter of peace,
and a haven of joy.
When He said
a new - Even the word "new" indicates that first is now obsolete.
When God said "new" in Jeremiah He made the Mosaic the old, and in so
doing pointed to its temporary nature. To illustrate this point think
of when you purchase a car. As soon as we say we have just purchased a
"new" car, the car we had is now the "old" car. This is the logic that
the writer uses, so that when he announces a new covenant it renders
the previous one old.
New (2537)
(kainos)
refers to that which is new kind
(unprecedented, novel, uncommon, unheard of). Kainos is new in point
of quality, new in sense that it brings into the world a new quality of
thing which did not exist before.
The New Covenant was of a new quality that had not existed before. It
relates to being not previously present. Kainos signifies
qualitatively new in contrast to neos which indicates temporally new
or new with respect to age.
In Mark 1:27 we
read the reaction to Jesus' teaching...
And they were all amazed, so that
they debated among themselves, saying, "What is this? A new (kainos)
teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and
they obey Him." (Wuest comments that "There are two words for
“new,” neos, referring to that which is new as to the matter of
time, namely, that which has just come into existence, and kainos,
which contemplates the new, not under the aspect of time, but of
quality, the new as set over against that which has seen service, the
outworn, the effete or marred through age. Compared to the stilted,
staid, dry as dust rabbinical droning, this teaching of Jesus was like
the fragrance of a field of clover in the springtime. It was fresh
with the dew of heaven upon it.- from
Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek
New Testament: Eerdmans)
Kainos denotes the new and
miraculous condition that is emphasized especially in the church age. Thus
we see kainos as a key term in eschatological statements -- the new
heaven and earth in
Revelation 21:1;
2 Peter 3:13,
new Jerusalem in
Revelation 3:12;
Revelation 21:2,
new wine in Mk 14:25, the new name in
Revelation 2:17;
Revelation 3:12,
the new song in
Revelation 5:9,
the new creation in
Revelation 21:5.
This new creation, which is the goal of hope, finds expression in Christian
life (2Cor 5:17). The new aeon has come with Christ. In him Jews and
Gentiles are one new man, referring to the body of Christ (Ephesians
2:15). Believers are to put on
the new nature that they are given (Ephesians
4:24).
God’s saving will is worked out in the promised new covenant that
Jesus has established (Luke 22:20; 1Cor 11:25; Heb 8:8ff.; 9:15). This is a
better covenant (Hebrews
7:22), infallible (Hebrews
8:7), everlasting (Hebrews
13:20),
grounded on higher promises (Hebrews
8:6). The fact that the old
and the new cannot be mixed (Mk. 2:21-22) stresses the element of
distinctiveness. The new commandment of love has its basis in
Christ’s own love (Jn 13:34).
Frederick Diven
reminds us of the fact that...
Whereas most of the other covenants are
material and national in nature, the New Covenant is spiritual. It is
an unconditional covenant, meaning that the fulfillment of its promises does
not depend on the obedience of Israel, although, in time, the covenant will
be the cause of their obedience (Ezek. 36:21-22). The fulfillment of the
promises of the New Covenant depends totally on God’s faithfulness to His
Word. God enforced this fact by stating, “I, the Lord, have spoken it,
and I will do it” (Ezek. 36:36). (Israel My Glory : Volume 51 Issue
4. 1999)
The first (4413)
- The Old Covenant. The fault was ultimately with the people who were
sinners and could not keep this law perfectly.
Made obsolete (3822)
(palaioo from palaios = in terms of age this means "old"; in
terms of use, it means "old" or "worn out" like a garment) in the active
voice means to make old.
The
perfect tense
refers to a past event with the effect (of obsolescence of the Old Covenant)
continuing into the present.
The point here is not
only as he has stated is the New Covenant better than the Old Covenant, but
that it takes the place of the Old Covenant.
BUT WHATEVER IS
BECOMING OBSOLETE AND GROWING OLD IS READY TO DISAPPEAR: to de palaioumenon (PPPNSN) kai geraskon (PAPNSN) eggus
aphanismou: (Isaiah 51:6; Matthew 24:35; 1Corinthians 13:8;
2Corinthians 5:17)
Becoming obsolete
- Jeremiah's prophecy which was written sometime around 600 BC marked the
beginning of the Old Covenant becoming obsolete.
If this is true
(and it is) why do so many believers seek to hang on to the OT law (or some
rule or regulation or some "Do" or "Don't"), living as if they were still in
bondage under the law rather than living in freedom (in Christ) under
supernatural, life transforming, enabling, amazing grace?
For believers it is no longer us who live
but Christ in us living out His overcoming life in us by the power of His
Spirit and the grace He supplies. The law puts us into bondage because of
our inevitable failure to be able to keep it. In fact instead of
"making us better" the law has the opposite effect for it actually arouses
the old sin nature! Christ’s life and Spirit now flows through us to elevate
us and give us the power to do His will. The law promises death to all who
break it but Christ promises life to all who trust Him. Truly the New
Covenant is a better covenant and Jesus is its surety, the Guarantee of
God’s immutable promises, for they are all "yea and amen" in Christ.
Growing old (1095)
(gerasko) is used in John 21:18 of an individual growing old and
figuratively here of the old covenant. The old covenant is old!
Ready (1451) (eggus)
can speak of position of one thing close to another or of time, where it
describes a point in time subsequent to another point in time, albeit still
relatively close. One might picture it as "Right at the door".
Ready to disappear
- Although there is not total agreement on the interpretation, this phrase appears to be
an allusion to the soon coming destruction of the Temple in 70AD when the
Old Covenant with its temple rituals and sacrifices could no longer be practiced. In essence
the Old Covenant with its Levitical system became obsolete and disappeared
in 70AD.
Disappear (854) (aphanismos)
means vanishing away. It is suggestive of utter destruction and abolition.
Aphanismos is used to describe laws which are abolished or which fall into
disuse.
Aphanismos is
used in the
Septuagint (LXX)
of God destroying the
enemies in the Promised Land
Deuteronomy 7:2 and when the LORD
your God shall deliver them before you, and you shall defeat them, then you
shall utterly destroy (Lxx = aphanismos) them. You shall make no
covenant with them and show no favor to them.
Josephus used
the word of cities that disappeared by destruction (Jos., Ant., 17:306) or
of attempts to destroy (“cause to disappear”) the ancestry or heritage of
the Jews (Jos., Ant., 19:174).
In this passage the
writer is declaring that the Old Covenant was disappearing and would be like
a shadow that his readers might try to grasp at but never lay hold of
because it had vanished into thin air.
The believing Jewish
writer Arnold Fruchtenbaum applies this truth of the old covenant
ready to disappear in his discussion of the believer's freedom in Christ...
The New Testament is clear that in the
age of the Church the dietary laws, special feast days, and other legal
observances are subsumed under our freedom in Christ. Paul stressed in
Romans 14 (see notes beginning in Romans 14:1-note)
that under the new covenant Christians can have the freedom to observe every
day alike, rather than feeling the compulsion to fix certain days as unique,
above the others. Since Christ has come, that to which all the shadows of
the Old Testament were pointing (see Colossians 2:17-note),
Paul encouraged the Colossians to “let no one act as your judge in regard to
food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day”
(see Colossians 2:16-note).
Individual Christians, both Jewish and Gentile, have the freedom in Christ
to enjoy all foods and days. They have the freedom to celebrate any number
of Jewish events, (e.g., a bar mitzvah or Hannakah) as simply a part of the
Jewish calendar, but not with any “redeeming” religious significance. Where
the proponents of Hebrew Christian congregations err is in the incorporation
of the “types and shadows” for the “Substance” of their worship. They err
when they restrict their religious activities to the Sabbath, eat only
kosher foods, and observe Yom Kippur and Passover, two holidays that have
clearly passed away with the termination of the Levitical priesthood and
sacrificial system of the old covenant (Hebrews 7:12-note,
Heb 8:13-
note).
(Fruchtenbaum, A. G. Israelology : The Missing link in Systematic Theology.
Tustin, Calif.: Ariel Ministries)
F B Meyer
explains that...
When the Epistle of the Hebrews was
written the institutions of the old covenant were becoming old, waxing aged,
and were nigh unto vanishing away (Hebrews 8:13). But the destruction was
only part of the natural process through which the ideal of the ancient
Scriptures was being fulfilled. It was not a destruction which left no
trace, as when the fire destroys the artist's studio, burning sketch and
picture, the plaster cast and the finished statue, but the destruction of
the less perfect form in face of the finished and completed design. Thus the
rough sketch is superseded by the finished painting, the bud by the flower,
the toys and the lesson-books of childhood by the interests of the mature
man. The emblems of the kindergarten fulfil their work in the child's mind
by giving it conceptions of shape and form, and its first rudimentary
knowledge. They are then cast aside; but the conceptions that they helped to
form are the permanent possession of the nature which thus made its first
trials on the tiny lake before it launched out upon the mighty ocean with
its boundless horizon.
The Aaronic Priesthood was destroyed that
it might be fulfilled in the one unchangeable priesthood of the Son of God.
The altars on which ten thousand victims had been consumed were destroyed,
and their ashes poured out upon the ground, because they were fulfilled in
that one Altar on which the supreme Propitiation was made. The Temple was
destroyed, because the Shekinah of God's Presence had gone forth to fulfil
that temple which is composed of saved souls, and of which the Apostle says
that "the building fitly framed together groweth into a holy temple in the
Lord." The whole system of ceremonial observance, with which Leviticus is
full, has been destroyed, because love has come to be the inner principle of
the Christian heart, and "Love is the fulfilling of the Law." (F. B. Meyer.
The Directory of the Devout Life)
Elwood McQuaid
reminds us of the cultural climate at the time of the writing of the epistle
of Hebrews...
During the early days of the Church era,
Jewish believers were faced with transitional questions that worked
themselves out in due course as the composition and nature of the Church
were clarified (see Will Varner’s article). Extremities of the problem are
identified in the Book of Hebrews where the writer deals with the issue of
Jewish believers incorporating Judaism into their worship and lifestyle. The
Temple was standing at the time Hebrews was written, and the forms and
rituals of their former way of life had a strong magnetism for those who
were not wholly committed to full salvation in Christ. Some were wavering
between Christ and returning to the rituals and requirements of Judaism. The
key word in Hebrews is better. The good things of biblical Judaism had been
made better in Jesus Christ.
He is better than angels (Heb. 1:4).
He is better than Moses (Heb. 3:3).
He is better than Aaron (Heb. 7:11-22).
His New Covenant is better than the Old (Heb. 8:6-13).
Judaism, in the divine plan, had become
only a “shadow of things to come” (Col. 2:17). Its temporary role gave
way to Christ, who transformed the shadow into substance and reared a
“greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands” (Heb. 9:11).
“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are
the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the
presence of God for us” (Heb. 9:24).
In totality, Hebrews emphatically sets
forth the departure of the Old Covenant, with its institutions and rituals,
in favor of Christ and the New Covenant. As the Law was a schoolmaster to
bring us to Christ, Judaism, with its sanctuary, sacrifices, services, and
ceremonies, served to identify Him. Once this was done, biblical Judaism had
served its lofty purpose. It was consummated in Christ.
Thus, the destruction of the Temple in 70
A.D., while legitimately mourned as a lost architectural treasure, could not
be wept for as an imparter of spiritual light and life. A greater light had
arrived, entered the heavenly sanctuary with His own blood once for all
(Heb. 9:12), and made all earthly altars obsolete. (Israel My Glory:
Volume 49 Issue 1. 1999)
The KJV Bible
Commentary gives a succinct explanation of how Gentiles today relate to
the New Covenant and how there is a yet future fulfillment to the New
Covenant for all believers (when Israel is saved at the return of Christ)...
The relation of the New Covenant to the
gentile, church-age believer is commonly viewed in several ways.
First, the amillennialists believe that
the church replaces Israel; and so this covenant is fulfilled by the church.
A second view proposes that this
covenant, like Jeremiah 31 suggests, is for the nation of Israel alone.
The third view suggests that two new
covenants exist: one for Israel and one for the church.
In the understanding of this writer (Ed
note: And I strongly agree), the best view is that there is one New
Covenant, which God will one day fulfill with Israel and in which the church
participates soteriologically today. In other words, though the covenant is
not fulfilled, Christ’s death has initiated its benefits for today for those
who will some day share in its ultimate blessings when it is fulfilled with
Israel. This view allows the witness of both the Old and New Testament to
stand. Further, nowhere does Scripture speak of two new covenants, any more
than it speaks of two old covenants. Paul was a minister to the churches of
this New Covenant (2Cor 3:6). The ordinance of the Lord’s Supper that has
been given to the church is based upon the sacrifice of the New
Covenant—Christ’s death. Many references to the New Covenant within the New
Testament clearly relate it to the church (Hebrews 12:23, 24; 1Cor 11:25; 2Cor 3:6), and others also relate it to Israel (Hebrews 8:10; 12:23, 24; Ro
11:27). As heirs of Christ’s kingdom, we partake of the New Covenant’s
spiritual blessings today and in the future will share in its fulfillment
with Israel. (Dobson,
E G, Charles Feinberg, E Hindson, Woodrow Kroll, H L. Wilmington: KJV Bible
Commentary: Nelson
or
Logos)
F B Meyer in Our Daily Homily
wrote...
THERE had been a manifest decay and
vanishing away of the first Tabernacle or Temple with its rites and
services. At the time when these words were written there were evident
symptoms of the approaching collapse of the whole system of which pious Jews
had been wont to boast. But the Holy Spirit reassures their failing hearts.
It is well, He seems to say, that these should vanish from the earth; that
men may be certified that the old covenant, of which they were the sign and
seal, has also gone--gone never to be recalled. Thereupon, the very natural
enquiry was suggested: If the old covenant has decayed and vanished away,
what is the agreement or arrangement under which we are living now? To this
enquiry the present chapter is an answer.
Those who believe in Christ are still in
covenant relationship with God. A new covenant has been set up, which indeed
is as old as the everlasting hills. It is the covenant of love; the covenant
which says very little of what man does, and much of the I WILLS of Jehovah;
a covenant which was entered into between God and His Son, standing as
Mediator; a covenant which has been sealed with priceless blood.
The provisions of that covenant are
enumerated in the foregoing verses: that God will engrave His law on mind
and heart, and take us to be His people and be our God, and remember our
sins no more. As the decay of the symbols of the Old Testament indicated
that it was vanishing, so the ever-fresh beauty of the supper of our Lord,
as it was practiced in the first Church, witnessed to the permanence of the
New Testament.
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