Diving In! Session 4 Covenant 8 The New Covenant week 4 – How the New Covenant is to be fulfilled

Posted on May 31, 2024 By The author

This week we move from theology to doxology, as we contemplate the restoration of all things that God may be “The All in all”. (1Cor. 15:28) A good starting point is Rom. 11:33-36!

God is working to a plan and He has revealed it to us in the Scriptures. He has told us ‘the end from the beginning’ (Isa. 46:10)

As we said in Session 1, the Bible is the story of God’s rest – disturbed by His creatures’ sin but recovered by His own sovereign action and Self-sacrifice. He has revealed His plan and purpose to us:

”And He unveiled his secret desires to us—the hidden mystery of his long-range plan in Christ, which he was delighted to implement from the very beginning of time. And because of God’s unfailing purpose, this detailed plan will reign supreme through every period of time until the fulfilment of all the ages finally reaches its climax—when God makes all things new in all of heaven and earth through Jesus Christ.” [Eph. 1:9-10 TPT]

Restoration from Death to Life

Rom. 6:16 reveals that we are all slaves – either of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness. The progress of the Covenants teaches us that God’s plan is to deliver us from death to life:

sin reigned through death from Adam to Moses (Rom.5:14, 21)
the Law reigned from Moses to Jesus (Rom. 5:20)
now grace reigns through righteousness (Rom. 5:21)
in the Millennium, righteousness will reign (Isa. 11:4; a King will reign in righteousness Isa. 32:1)
in eternity, righteousness will dwell [be at home] (2 Pet. 3:13) so that God can dwell amongst His people (Rev. 21:3)

And so God’s rest is restored! For eternity!!

Restoration through Resurrection

It seems to me that 1 Cor. 15:20-28 sets out a progressive fulfilment of that plan of restoration (whatever your theology says about the actual events which are part of that fulfilment):

It starts with Christ’s resurrection (v. 20 Christ is risen), contrasting that with the death that came through Adam’s failure bringing death on all (v. 21-22)
moves on to the order of the resurrection of the people of God (v. 23 in … order)
then Christ reigning and putting down all other usurping authorities and enemies (v. 24 then – when – when, v. 25 until, v. 26 the last)
until He finally delivers the Kingdom to the Father (v. 28 when)

with the objective of God filling all of Creation, and we know from Rev. 21 & 22 that that is in the New Heavens and New Earth, in which righteousness dwells (2 Pet. 3:13).

Restoration through Invasion

As you may remember from last week, the basis of my understanding is that the Kingdom is a specifically connected with Israel (it is striking that Jesus is never spoken of as King of the Church), but it is seen in the Church in type – God’s rule on earth, but as infiltrating behind enemy lines, leading to the overthrow of the enemy’s power:

“Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.”
(C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)

Or as John puts it in his first epistle:

This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:5)

But ‘How?’ seems to be a mystery to many! We know that preaching the Gospel and making disciples is the strategy we are to adopt (Matt. 28:18-20) but maybe we struggle to articulate how that fits in the bigger picture of God’s purposes for this world? Even though God has revealed His desire to communicate that to us? (Eph. 1:9-10)

The Mystery of History

We need a meta-story which is consistent with a covenant-keeping God, who finishes what He starts, who keeps His promises!

The Greeks saw history as cyclical and meaningless, and everything to do with life on this earth as being evil, with death as the only escape. It seems as if Western culture has reverted to this view point, with Evolutionary theory stating that the creation is a cosmic accident, ultimately without purpose! But the Bible tells us that there is a greater purpose and that God has a plan – which is what we have been examining in this series.

In 1 Cor. 10:32, Paul describes the peoples of the earth in three groups – Jews, Gentiles and the Church. The meta-story of the Bible shows that God dealt with all the people of the earth until He called Abraham. At this point, the peoples of the earth were divided into 2 groups – Jews and Gentiles. As we’ve seen in previous sessions, both groups failed to meet God’s requirements, so He started a new work with the coming of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, creating the Church out of the two groups.

Traditional church theology, which sees the Church as replacing Israel, leads to non-fulfilment of the specific promises for a land and national blessing for the descendants of Abraham, as promised in the Abrahamic, Land and Davidic Covenants, with all the promises being reinterpreted as spiritual blessings. It results in a rocket-theology, where each stage is jettisoned as the rocket flies higher, and finally the Church is launched into orbit in some heavenly realm.

The story we have been recounting in Diving In suggests that this does not do justice to the story told by the succession of the Covenants and the promises that God made in each. Rather, we see that, after God has completed the Church, He will take up the nation of Israel again (Rom. 11:25-26 shows this progression) and then wil use that nation as the means of blessing to the whole human race in the Millennium (Rom. 11:23-25 shows that the restoration of Israel brings blessing to the world).

The New Testament is clear that the Church does inherit the spiritual blessings of the Abrahamic covenant (see Rom. 15:27; Gal. 3:14) but that doesn’t preclude the physical descendants from inheriting the physical promises made in the Covenants. Nor does it preclude the restoration of the physical Creation mentioned in Rom. 8:19-23. Rather, it is better to see God’s plan worked out as a series of consummations:

the Cross is the crucial moment, but not the consummation of the story – Eph. 1:9-10
the Second Coming is not the consummation – Eph. 1:20-21
the consummation of God’s work in the Church mentioned in Rom 11:25 is the basis for
the consummation of God’s work in Israel Rom. 11:26 – which is the basis for the blessing of the nations Rom. 11:12, 15
Consummation of God’s work amongst the nations comes in the Messianic reign (millennial kingdom) 1 Cor. 15:22-28
Followed by final the New Heavens and the New Earth, which is the final consummation Rev 21/22!

Progressive Fulfilment of the New Covenant

We see this outworked in the One New Man of Eph. 2:15 – Jew and Gentile in one body:

Church – gospel of grace – One New Humanity in mystery (Eph. 3:3)
Kingdom – Israel – Millennium – One New Humanity revealed to fallen humanity and creation (Rom. 8:19)
New Heavens and New Earth – a new creation – One New Humanity only for eternity (Rev. 21)

Pentecost

The coming of the Spirit in the age of the Spirit. Some see this as the ultimate fulfilment of the New Covenant – there is nothing else to come except the end of time and the final judgement leading to the New Heavens and New Earth. But The Gospel is the good news about the God of Israel’s coming reign. It proclaims in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection the victorious guarantee of the completion of God’s purposes for the Church, Israel, all nations and the creation, and that Israel (nation and land) still has a significant part to play in that.

The good news for us is “not just that God saves sinners, but that He uses saved sinners to be part of this consummation” (per David Andrew – see Rom. 8:21). Just as there’s to be a progressive fulfilment of the New Covenant amongst the nations, so there’s a progressive work of change in us – perhaps as an illustration of that, or even the engine which drives it!

Progressive Change

2 Cor. 3:18 we are being changed;
1 Cor. 15:51/1 John 3:2 we will be changed;
2 Thess. 1:10 that change is revealed at the Second Coming;
Rom. 8:19-23 it transforms creation for the Millennium;
Rev. 20/21 it results in the final transformation of all creation into the New Creation

Millennium

Bible Gateway: Interpreters who favour a more literal realization for the earthly (millennial) kingdom prophecies of the OT recognize that the newer diathēkē in Christ’s blood is an “eternal covenant” (Heb. 13:20); but they insist also that an eternal program may, at the same time, exhibit a series of progressive developments. Thus, it is maintained, that at the Second Coming of Christ the four features of Jeremiah’s presently existing, church-centred new covenant—its internal character, accomplished reconciliation, direct faith, and explicit forgiveness—will be, not transcended, but rather expanded, brought to fulfilment, and rendered determinative for life throughout the entire world, under Ezekiel’s covenant of peace. (Ezek. 37:26-28; see also Ezek. 36:26-28)

Eternity

The covenant of peace will then, after the final judgment, be resolved into the new heavens and the new earth of Revelation 21, 22. The Climax of History is the unfolding of God’s plan for the Universe and the Scriptures show that He has a specific order. God had in mind before Creation a complete work, a New Creation which required a ‘helper suitable’ for His Son. At the end of the day, it’s all about Jesus!

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, those things that God has prepared for those that love Him – but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit”. (1 Cor. 2:9-10)

Covenant, Diving In!, The New Covenant