True Christianity 13
Talking About Covenant
Gal 3:15-18 NKJV
15 Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: Though it is only a man’s covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it.
16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “AND TO YOUR SEED,” who is Christ.
17 And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.
18 For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
In the event of a covenant (agreement, contract, pledge, will) being cut between two people, once it has been ratified, or made authoritative, no one can simply annul it or set it aside, violate its terms or reject it. There is a legal system that protects covenants or contracts.
Look at verse 16 … “now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made”.
The Abrahamic covenant is between God the Father, Abraham the human facilitator and Jesus Christ, the Son.
Paul clarifies that the Seed of Abraham is not his human offspring, but the promised Seed, Jesus Christ.
The Law, which came four hundred and thirty years later cannot change or annul the covenant between Father, Son and Abraham.
Abraham was justified and declared righteous by faith in the promise of God.
The promise through Abraham is that the nations of the world will also be justified by faith in his Seed, Jesus Christ.
This promise cannot be changed, affected or annulled by the Law …
The Law is not the Abrahamic Covenant … it was given for another purpose … never to bring righteousness and justification to the world.
This covenant was confirmed / ratified, made legally binding in Heaven and on earth by God the Father with His Son Jesus Christ by the shed blood of covenant.
Act 3:24-26 NKJV
24 Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days.
25 You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘AND IN YOUR SEED ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED.’
26 To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.”
The blessing of the covenant is Jesus has come to turn everyone from our iniquities … in other words permit repentance and turning to Him so that He can forgive and justify us, making us righteous before God.
Remember, the subject here is justification or acquittal. The legal requirement of God’s holy nature must be fully satisfied before He can accept humanity back into His Presence and family / kingdom.
The Covenant cut between Abraham God the Father and the Seed would forever settle the sin question.
Sin-guilt would be paid for, the Seed would redeem humanity and acquit them by substituting Himself with us, take our sin, judgement, condemnation and punishment upon Himself, overcome the god of this world by paying the sin-debt and removing the guilty charge from our lives and wash, cleans and forever forgive our sin.
This Covenant was and is a contract between Father and Son, Who would come in a human body that we would be justified by faith in the Work and Person of the Son.
What is a covenant?
The Hebrew word for covenant is “Berith”, which mean to ‘cut”.
When two parties cut covenant, it was a mutually binding agreement with benefits, conditions and penalties for breaking or violating the agreement.
Blood was used to ratify or legalize the agreement … usually and animal became the covenant sacrifice. The animal’s life was given in exchange for the binding of the two lives not in covenant.
The New TestamentGreek word used for covenant is “Diatheke”, which means a compact, an agreement, a testament (will).
The agreement between God the Father and the Son, with and through Abraham, was that Jesus would come and be the covenant sacrifice … that through His sacrifice, all who believe in Him and the Gospel, will be reconciled to God the Father eternally.
Isa 42:5-9 NKJV
5 Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk on it:
6 “I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness, And will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the Gentiles,
7 To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the prison, Those who sit in darkness from the prison house.
8 I am the LORD, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.
9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare; Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
God the Father gives Jesus Christ the Son as the “Berith”, the covenant by means of death and shed blood, to the people and as a Light to the Gentiles as well as the Jews.
Jesus came to open the blind eyes, deliver the prisoners of sin and iniquity … and all of the devil’s demonic oppressions.
Isa 49:1-4 NKJV
1 “Listen, O coastlands, to Me, And take heed, you peoples from afar! The LORD has called Me from the womb; From the matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name.
2 And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword; In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me, And made Me a polished shaft; In His quiver He has hidden Me.”
3 “And He said to me, ‘You are My servant, O Israel, In whom I will be glorified.’
4 Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain; Yet surely my just reward is with the LORD, And my work with my God.’ ”
Vs 1 Jesus our Lord was called from the womb, before He was born, His Name, “Yeshua” was determined by Father God.
Vs 2 The words of His mouth were like a sharp sword piercing and revealing the thoughts, motives and intentions of Israel and her leaders. Jesus was sent as a polished arrow into the heart of Israel and touched the Gentile world – Jerusalem.
Vs 3 The word “Israel”, means “One who rules with God, or He will rule as God”… the entire nation was given a name would be a type and shadow of the coming Messiah, Who will rule with and as God.
Vs 4 In spite of God clothing Himself with flesh and revealing His true nature to Israel, she followed her wicked leaders, despising and rejecting not only His word … but Himself … It seemed as though He had laboured in vain, trying to bring the nation to repentance and back to Yahweh.
Isa 49:5-13 NKJV
5 “And now the LORD says, Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, So that Israel is gathered to Him (For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, And My God shall be My strength),
Darby
5 And now, saith Jehovah, that formed me from the womb to be his servant, that I should bring Jacob again to him; (though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorified in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God shall be my strength;)
6 Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”
7 Thus says the LORD, The Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One, To Him whom man despises, To Him whom the nation abhors, To the Servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and arise, Princes also shall worship, Because of the LORD who is faithful, The Holy One of Israel; And He has chosen You.”
8 Thus says the LORD: “In an acceptable time I have heard You, And in the day of salvation I have helped You; I will preserve You and give You As a covenant to the people, To restore the earth, To cause them to inherit the desolate heritages;
9 That You may say to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’ To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ “They shall feed along the roads, And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights.
10 They shall neither hunger nor thirst, Neither heat nor sun shall strike them; For He who has mercy on them will lead them, Even by the springs of water He will guide them.
11 I will make each of My mountains a road, And My highways shall be elevated.
12 Surely these shall come from afar; Look! Those from the north and the west, And these from the land of Sinim.”
13 Sing, O heavens! Be joyful, O earth! And break out in singing, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people, And will have mercy on His afflicted.
Again, the Prophets cry out in intercessory travail … the One who would come through the womb of a woman to be His Servant will provide the way for Israel to return to Him … but, even though they reject Him … God would be His strength … and He will be glorified and honoured by His Father … it is too small a thing for Him to come for one tiny nation.
Vs 3 & 4 of this chapter reveals that Messiah will come and serve Israel,
and as a Light to the Gentiles as well … and He will bring salvation (Yeshua: Deliverance, Aid, Prosperity, Victory, Help, Health) to the ends of the earth!!
Vs 7 The One Whom Man despises and the nations detest and loath, the Servant, to Him the day will come when Kings and leaders will arise and worship God because Yahweh Who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel.
Vs 8 Yeshua is pleading before the Father for the nations of the world. We imagine that Jesus only entered His Intercessory ministry after the cross. But, here we see that Yeshua is pleading for the peoples and God is comforting, saying; “I have heard You … In the day of Salvation I have helped you … I will preserve you and give You as the Covenant (Berith, Sacrificial Lamb) to the people”.
God the Father will give Yeshua as the Covenant sacrifice to the people, to restore (reinstate, re-establish, to arise, to rise up again) the earth, and to cause the people who will enter into this Covenant to inherit the desolate (abandoned) heritages (birth-rights, inheritances, property, portion)
The result of Jesus’ sacrifice and covenant is that believers will be set free to feed in places that were once abandoned and He will care for them… we need to see the promise of God being fulfilled in Christ to Israel and the nations. Israel will have her land, but the inheritances and abandoned places that the nations of the world have neglected without God, righteousness and justice will be re-inherited and invested into.
Zec 9:9-12 NKJV
9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’
11 “As for you also, Because of the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
12 Return to the stronghold, You prisoners of hope. Even today I declare That I will restore double to you.
Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey … but He will release His peace to the nations of the earth. His Kingdom will cover the earth.
Because of the blood of His “Berith” sacrifice Covenant, God will be legally able to justify all whom receive this gracious gift, and release us from the demonic waterless, lifeless pit.
Back to Galatians
Now we have an idea of what Paul is referring to when he mentions the Abrahamic Covenant.
We see and now understand that Jesus (Yeshua) is the Seed of the Covenant with Abraham … and that through the Seed, the nations of the world will be blessed.
Gal 3:17 And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.
Abraham was called out of Ur of the Chaldeans to become a nation who would bring Yeshua into the earth.
Abraham was a prophet who saw Israel, his natural offspring grow and become like the sand of the sea (earthly), and the stars of the heavens (Heavenly).
The Prophet Abraham saw two nations growing within his household, the sons of Israel (He Who Rules as God) and Ishmael (the son of a slave woman).
As a prophet, Yahweh commanded Abraham to take his only son Isaac to the mountain and sacrifice him. In obedience, he took fire, a sharp knife, rope and wood on the three day journey… explaining to his son that “My son, God will provide Himself a Lamb”. After Abraham proved that he was willing to sacrifice his son, Yahweh’s angel stopped him from going through with it, and provided a ram for the altar that day … but Yahweh could now legally and by covenant send Yeshua, the sacrificial offering to save the world.
Abraham saw Jesus’ day … and rejoiced!!!!
Abraham saw Yeshua, His Life, death and resurrection … he also saw the heavenly city coming down from Heaven to earth.
The prophetic ministry and life of Abraham is second only to the Lord Jesus.
The Covenant between Yahweh and Abraham is from the day it was cut to eternity.
The Law was given to the people of Israel for a specific reason … and the Law does not have the authority to annul the Covenant of Abraham.,
The Covenant cut with Abraham, was actually between The Father and the Son, partnering with Abraham. Abraham was put into a deep state of sleep when God the Father and Son walked between the covenant pieces and pronounced the covenant (they appeared as an Oven and a Fire. The clay oven speaks of the Flesh of Jesus and the Fire speaks of the Spirit or Life Eternal of Creator God).
The covenant was confirmed before by God in Christ. The Law came four hundred and thirty years later … and has no direct bearing on the Abrahamic Covenant … the covenant of the Law was with Israel … the Abrahamic Covenant was with Abraham and His Seed … who is Jesus Christ.
Therefore the Law cannot come into the Abrahamic Covenant, which was fulfilled and established by Christ … and effect or annul the Eternal Covenant.
Gal 3:18 For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
It stands to reason then, that if the inheritance of the promise is now achieved through the observance of any part of the Law, then it is not a gift … but an achievement.
However, rest assured, God gave it to Abraham by promise.
The promise is His Word which is the Power of God unto Salvation.