The Messiah and the Covenants of Israel

The New Covenant (Continued)

The Messiah and ‘This Generation’

The Messiah, who always chose His words with great care, isolated His contemporary generation from all other generations when He spoke of His rejection. “He (the Son of Man) must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.” (Luke 17.25)  It will be that single generation that will stand at the bar of God and be accused of unlawfully rejecting their Messiah, because it was with that one generation He contended. He never said, ‘all future generations’ will be under the judgment of God; He only ever said, ‘this generation’.  “The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here” (Matt.12.41,42).

Previous generations had rejected the servants of the Lord, but that one generation alone rejected the Son of God. Their own words will condemn them.[1]  This is the teaching of the parable of the vinedressers.  Having beaten, abused and sometimes killed the servants of the Lord of the vineyard, their response when the Son and Heir presented the claims of their Lord, was: “This is the heir, come let us kill him” (Matt.21.38). The judgment will be inclusive, that is, all the martyrs of the T’nach who were rejected as messengers of God, will also rise up against this generation because He was the One to whom all prophecy was pointing, for He was the greatest prophet of all (“the Word became flesh”) (John 1:14). Matthew reports the words of Jesus directly. “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation”.Mt 23:31-36

Because of the rejection of the Messiah, the offer of the New Covenant to the nation was deferred. It will require the national leaders of Israel to call on Jesus in repentance and supplication and accept Him as Messiah and Lord. There is no guarantee that they will ever do this of their own accord, but prophecy alerts us to the time when the nation will suffer great persecution. They will be brought to the end of their resources. At that time, the Lord will pour out upon them the spirit of grace and supplication and they will repent in the words of Isaiah 53, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all”. (Isa. 53:5-6) Then the Messiah will return with power and great glory to save them, and the New Covenant will come into its full glory. But in the meantime, as Peter indicated on the day of Pentecost, individual Israelites did not need to wait for that future day.  The blessings of the New Covenant were available immediately to them if they would reject the decision of their leaders, turn to Jesus in repentance and supplication, and take Him as Messiah and Lord. In the mercy of God these Israelites who had been involved in those events that led to the judgment of God were re-offered the opportunity to recognize Jesus as Messiah. Peter encouraged them to re-examine the evidence and escape the blanket judgment upon the nation. The preaching of the early Church leaders made the same points, that the crucified Messiah had been raised and exalted, and salvation was available for those who received Him as such, that is, as Lord and Messiah. But what about Gentiles, that is those who had not previously been Jewish proselytes?

To this subject we now turn. (BUT NEXT TIME)

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[1] Matt.23.31-36