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.

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