The Messiah and the Covenants of Israel

The Messiah and the New Covenant

The New Covenant as it applies to the Gentiles

 

There is no ambiguity about the declaration of Jeremiah in respect of the New Covenant. It is for the Hebrew people, those of the houses of Judah and Israel. Yet the same offer of salvation under that Covenant was made to both Jew and Gentile by those commissioned to be the spokesmen of the Messiah. Did they take too much upon themselves? Did they widen the offer without authorization? Many thought so. There were large numbers in the early Church that supported those who taught that a Gentile should become a Jewish proselyte before being allowed the benefits of a Covenant relationship with God. They were mainly converted Pharisees. They believed the only door that was open was labeled ‘Jews only’. Therefore circumcision and obedience to the Law of Moses were pre-requisites for entrance into the new community. Even Peter, true Jew that he was, had difficulty in considering even the possibility of the Gentiles being admitted without first converting to Judaism. It took the personal intervention of the risen Messiah to change his mind-set.

 

Luke, in his history of the events of that period lays out three conversions that indicate the movement of the gospel from being only Jewish or Jewish/Gentile to being available to non-Jews. The first seven chapters deal with events in Jerusalem after the ascension of Jesus. It details the birth of the Christian Church, with thousands converted, all of them Jewish, and Peter at the heart of it all.  Then the history turns to those conversions that demonstrate the widening of the offer of the gospel.  In chapters 8, 9, and 10 of the Acts of the Apostles, Luke, the consummate historian, records how the gospel changed the lives of three individuals, an African statesman, a Jewish Rabbi and a Roman centurion.

 

Philip's fountain where he baptised the African statesman

The African Statesman.  Here is a man, evidently a person who had embraced the religion of the Jews, returning to Ethiopia where he held high office in government. He was in his chariot reading from the scroll of Isaiah the prophet—that is, a portion of the sacred writings of the Jews.  He had been up to Jerusalem to attend a festival, and bought the scroll while he was there.  Philip, himself a new Christian, met with him and asked if he understood what he was reading. He was reading that part of the Isaiah prophecy that said, ‘In His humiliation   He   was   deprived   of justice.   Who can speak of His descendants? For His life was taken from the earth.” (Acts 8:33,34) The Ethiopian asked Philip, “… of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?” (Acts 8:34) Philip explained Isaiah was speaking of the Messiah who was to come and die for the sins of the Jews. The Ethiopian, already educated regarding the Jewish Messiah - it had been the main subject of conversation and speculation while he had been in Jerusalem - was able to understand the principle of the substitutionary nature of the death of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God and Redeemer of Israel. He asked if he could become a Christian, and be baptized. Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” (Acts 8.37)  The African responded, not only in the affirmative, but with the formula that was declared to be the foundational doctrine of the new community, the Church of the Messiah. He said, “I believe that Jesus Christ (Messiah) is the Son of God.” (Acts 8:37) He was baptized there and then.