HF137 - The New Covenant Marriage Contract
To: Hebraic-Foundations@yahoogroups.com
From: "Pastor Buddy Martin" <Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org>
Date: Tue Jan 11, 2005
Subject: Bible Study HF137 - The New Covenant Marriage Contract
Hebraics,
A primary area of struggle for believers has often centered on a failure to understand the relationship between the new covenant and the law of Moses. The new covenant actually has little direct relationship to the covenant of Moses other than the fact that the underlying principle of the law of Moses, which was the command to love God and to love one's neighbor, has never changed.
With this in mind there is a major point to be made at the beginning of this study. The laws of Moses always had a definitive purpose behind them. The purpose was that mankind could learn to live in and by love. Not only was the Law to prepare a people for the coming of Christ, but it was also designed to show the people just how desperately they need a Savior. The love walk that the Law commanded was an impossibility to fulfill. It could only be fulfilled in a relationship with God's Christ.
With the love issue in mind in this study, we want to look at the new covenant in the light of it being a marriage contract. We will look at how the Laws of God are fulfilled as the believer learns to live in a love walk of the Spirit. The study may raise some curiosities. It calls for a continued dialogue.
This is Bible Study HF137 - The New Covenant Marriage Contract.
And so, it is only through the cross that we can come to know, to experience, and to live in the love of God as an outflow of our lives. I hope our membership understands this. Unless this issue is settled, there will always be confusion on how the covenant of Moses fits in the Christian picture. Just keep in mind that the apostle said; "Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Law." (Rom13:8)
Now for the covenants. The covenant of Moses was always understood by the Jewish people to be a covenant of marriage between Israel and the God of Israel. It is with this background in view that much of the new covenant is written. Failure to understand this, and we lose the heart of the new covenant. Both the Law of Moses and the Law of Christ are marriage contracts. One replaces the other. One is removed because of a death. One is in force because of a life.
The apostle explains this to the Jewish-Christian believers in Rome. It seems they were having their own struggle differentiating their relationship to the Law of Moses and the new covenant. Paul addressed this in particular, when he writes, "I am speaking to those who know the Law."
The apostle then goes on to explain how the new covenant fully replaces the covenant of Moses in that both covenants are marriage contracts. He writes, "For the married woman is bound by law [the law of the marriage contract] to her husband while he is still living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law [of that marriage contract] concerning her husband." (Rom7:2)
It is here that Paul begins to bring out some the great truths of the new covenant. The basic truth of the new covenant is that the God of Israel who married Israel in the wilderness, became incarnate as Jesus Christ. And so when Christ died on the cross, the marriage partner of Israel died. Thus the law of Moses, which was Israel's marriage contract, was no longer in effect.
Paul continues to write the Jewish believers, he says, "Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law [Israel's marriage contract] through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God." (v4) The fruit we bear is the 'love-fruit' of God. The new covenant is the new marriage contract between Jesus and His people.
There are a great many things I wish to bring out here, but for the sake of time I'll narrow things down a bit. The point at hand is that God was incarnate in Christ. Israel's God had come. The promise given to Adam and Eve in the garden was in place. The sh'ma of Israel had its realization in Jesus Christ; "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!" (Deu6:4)
Sure this is a mystery. But it is wondrous for the heart and mind of a child of God to ponder. The apostles says it is a 'great' mystery. Paul later addresses this is in calling attention to the mystery of how God can be both Father and Son. He writes, "Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from who are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him." (1Co8:6)
This issue of God being both Father and Son is a unique teaching in itself, so we won't deal much with it here. But it is something that the Jewish believers could easily grasp since it was also a part of ancient Jewish theology. This great mystery in God was often referred to as the Memra, or, the Glory, and even in certain instances, the Son. But let's leave that to the side for now.
Back to the marriage contract. Keep in mind that the terms 'law of Moses' and 'law of Christ' always have the marriage contract in the background. Since the Israel of the Old Testament was a flesh and blood people, the God of Israel took to Himself flesh and blood. And since He was the marriage partner of Israel, in His death on the cross the law of the marriage was set aside.
This is what the apostle means in another place, when he writes, "Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of degrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." (Col2:14) These decrees are not in direct reference to the sin of Adam, but rather to the Law of Moses.
The certificate of debt and the decrees against us were all part of the marriage contract of the covenant of Moses. Moses and all of heaven had borne witness to the contract. How many times do we hear Moses, the man of God, say, "I bear witness against you." And as a marriage contract the covenant of Moses included both the blessings and the curses. The blessings concerned faithfulness on Israel's part. The curses had to do with unfaithfulness.
Listen to Moses: "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessings and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants." (Deu30:19) Israel had bound herself by marriage and by consent to both the blessings and the curses. The marriage contract was in effect.
I hope you are following this pretty well, because it gets much more interesting as we continue ahead. So, Israel's marriage partner died in the flesh. The marriage was over. Israel was now a widow. She was free to marry again. But she could not marry as Israel of the flesh. There would have to be a new heart given. There would have to be an Israel after the Spirit.
Whereas the 'put-away' marriage contract was essentially an earthly contract, the new marriage contract would be essentially a heavenly contract. God would have to have a new heavenly people. And so out of the resurrection came 'the heavenly Man'. And out of the resurrection came a heavenly people. When God says He makes all things new, this has its emphasis on putting aside the old and putting in place the heavenly union that would take place in a new marriage contract called the new covenant. And since the new covenant is a new marriage contract, nothing from the old contract can be made to apply to the new. The new had to be entirely new.
Lets move on a little further. Who is the new marriage contract with? It is with Israel. Remember what God said through Jeremiah the prophet; "'Behold, days are coming, 'declares the Lord, 'when I will make a new [marriage] covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made when their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt.'" (Jer31:31,32 - We will return to this later on.)
And so we have a new marriage contract with Israel, but not with Israel after the flesh. It has to be with a 'new' Israel after the Spirit. And because this new 'spiritual' Israel was going to have a new covenant 'after the Spirit,' and a new 'heavenly Husband,' she was also going to have to have a new name. Yes, you guessed it. God said through the prophet that His 'new' heavenly people would be given a new name.
Note: Members may wish to review Study HF083 - The Mystery of Israel and the Church.
We take to ourselves the name of Christ. Thus we are called 'Christian.' The apostle Peter said that we are to glorify God in the name Christian. (Cf. 1Pe4:16) As a side note, anything else a believer wishes to call himself is of no importance. Unless you can call yourself a Christian, you have not truly identified with the Christ of God in a proper way.
So now we have the heavenly Man, the heavenly Bride, a new marriage contract, and some awesome dynamics in what is now called 'the Law of Christ,' or, 'the Law of the Spirit.' Both expression have relation to one another.
Keep in mind what I said at the beginning about the struggle many believers have in confusing the covenant of Moses with the new covenant in Christ? Remember I also said that these two marriage contracts have no direct relationship. (Other than that of moral imperatives.) This is absolutely true.
The covenant of Moses had curses attached. It had its 'limited' spiritual nomenclature. Until the sin debt was paid, all heaven could do was bear witness. Whereas, the new covenant is made in heaven and reaches into the earth to give each participant a heavenly birth. It is a heavenly marriage, but it also has its earthly and heavenly blessings. The sin debt of Adam was fully paid for.
Now we reach into the heart of the new covenant. The new covenant is a covenant of the Spirit and not of the letter. The letter was written on stone. The new covenant is a love letter written in the hearts of all who belong to it.
The new covenant fulfills itself. It contains the very presence of Jesus Christ.
It especially fulfills itself in that it gives believers new ability to live in and experience the very love of God. The key to the new covenant is in the word 'new.' Everything in the new covenant is new, nor renewed, or refurbished, or modified. It is entirely new.
The new covenant has no curses attached. In the new covenant every believer's life is overseen by, indwelt by, enriched by, guided by, corrected by, and governed by the Holy Spirit. It is a covenant entirely of the heart. It is a covenant of forgiveness and mercy. It is a covenant of life. It is a covenant where all believers are guaranteed a future together with Christ, and the guarantee is made by a seal placed upon the heart, that cannot be broken. It is a covenant where the love of God will allow no separation.
The covenant seal is a love seal. It is stronger than death. Not only is it stronger, but it overrules death. The new covenant is a covenant where no believer can ever received a damnatory sentence. This is what the statement means, which says, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law [the new covenant marriage contract and all its spiritual ramifications] of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law [former marriage covenant with its curses] sin and death." (Rom8:1,2)
In returning to the Jeremiah statement about the new covenant, let's read some more: "But this is the covenant that I will make . . . I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God [this is heart Lordship], and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, 'declares the Lord,' for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.'" (Jer31:32-34)
The Lord had just said that the new covenant would not be like the former covenant made with Moses. Under the covenant of Moses, no one (with the exception of the prophets) could know much about God Himself, that is, in an intimate way. The veil in the tabernacle was in place. It was as though God had veiled His face. Yet the moment a person is truly born again, that person comes into a 'knowing' relationship with the God of eternity. A new heart is given and new spiritual dynamics are in place.
Well --- It is hard to find a stopping place since there is much more to be said about the new covenant marriage contract. I'll stop my part for now. Please feel free to make contributions or ask questions.
The Lord bless you,
Buddy
Lawrence E. (Buddy) Martin, HF Host
email: Bro.Buddy@ChristianChallenge.org
Web: http://www.christianchallenge.org/
"See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled." (Heb12:15)