What's NOT new in the New Covenant?

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msortwell

Puritan Board Freshman
Which of the following assertions regarding what God would do in the New Covenant had God already been doing (if any) prior to the New Covenant?

I will give you a new heart and

[I will] put a new spirit within you;

I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

I will put My Spirit within you and

[I will] cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. (Ezekiel 36:26-27 NKJV)
 
I don't understand your question. All the things he promised in the new (or Renewed) covenant that you listed he did in the old. The thing that is made easier is the fact that we have access to God directly through Christ now. The shadows are done away (ie. the Levitical Priesthood). The object of faith is the same, Christ and reconciliation to God.
 
The law is not new...it is only in a new place...and given a new power.

It is not as if God is cancelling the Law and giving us some "Law of Christ" instead.

Christ and Moses are not enemies.
 
I don't understand your question. All the things he promised in the new (or Renewed) covenant that you listed he did in the old. The thing that is made easier is the fact that we have access to God directly through Christ now. The shadows are done away (ie. the Levitical Priesthood). The object of faith is the same, Christ and reconciliation to God.

Perhaps it would be clearer if I "tip my hand" and provide my perspective (as a strawman).

I will give you a new heart and [Seems to me this was true before the implementation of the new covenant (i.e., regeneration was necessary) and the text is simply asserting that it will be true in the NC as well.]

[I will] put a new spirit within you; [Based upon the next verse which seems to be parallel to this one, this verse may be referring to an indwelling by the Holy Spirit - new under the NC.]

I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. [Again, parallel with the previous verse - this seems to be referring to the new birth. It was necessary prior to the NC and remains necessary.]

I will put My Spirit within you and [Clearly referring to the indwelling by the Holy Ghost - distinctly NC]

[I will] cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. [A consequence of the indwelling Spirit, this seems also to be part of what is "new" in the NC.](Ezekiel 36:26-27 NKJV)
 
You will have to prove that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit didn't happen prior to the New Covenant. How can man have a regenerate heart without the indwelling of the Spirit? Would the following passage also not be true for the Old Testament saint as well as the New Testament saint? Anthropology is anthropology.

Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Rom 8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Rom 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Rom 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
 
The Old Covenant was something Israel was obliged to follow. A person could be under the Old Covenant and be lost. It is impossible to be under the New Covenant and not be regenerate. The promises of the New Covenant from Ezekiel are made only with those [the regenerate] who are able to have a new heart, a new spirit, and are caused to walk in God's statutes.
 
The Old Covenant was something Israel was obliged to follow. A person could be under the Old Covenant and be lost. It is impossible to be under the New Covenant and not be regenerate. The promises of the New Covenant from Ezekiel are made only with those [the regenerate] who are able to have a new heart, a new spirit, and are caused to walk in God's statutes.

To be clear . . . I am NOT asking for the what carried forward from THE Old Covenant (i.e., from the Mosiac Covenant) to THE New Covenant. What I am asking is, what elements described in the quoted text from Ezekiel regarding the New Covenant were already elements in God's means of redeeming his elect under the Covenant of Grace but preceding the implementation of the New Covenant.
 
I say: what is "new" is the fulfillment of that which was promised.

What is promised? One thing, namely Christ.

What comes along with him are residual benefits that he, having all authority and as gift-giver, sovereignly distributes. In many ways, what is possessed by the people of God is not so much different from previous possession, but rather the form of the gift is superior.

It would not do for us (speaking collectively, atemporally) to have everything in a perfect way before our Lord's arrival. Just as it would not do for us to have heaven in a perfect way now, before we get there. We would lack the urge to leave this world, or see it clearly for the ruined place it is, so in need of a complete renovation.

But still, we have a foretaste of heaven whenever we gather for worship. What then will be "new" about worship when we get to heaven? We will be transformed by then, and better able to enter into that experience; plus we will not be separated by space or time from the presence of the Lord. Wait, doesn't Paul say that even now, nothing can separate us...? Yes, from his love; but Paul also speaks of "departure" being "far better."


Returning to the promise of the New Covenant--again, we capitalize "New" why? That habit might tip us toward one kind of expectation that could miss a very obvious question at the start. First, we need to read "new" adjectivally, before we use the word as a "proper name;" new as opposed to what "old?" It is new, especially in the aspect of promise-to-fulfillment (already mentioned), but more precisely in terms of the covenant-order that immediately precedes it, namely the Siniatic Covenant.

Everything that is temporary about that order must depart or give way to the new order. The NT is replete with indicators that Moses' (the old covenant), though it lasted a long time--and perhaps just because it lasted so long a time--contained a great deal that was destined to go by the way. Old wineskins, and all that.

What about the Spirit? Certainly, his presence isn't totally new. He was just as necessary for regeneration in the former time as in the latter. But he was not present in the same power, or quantity. He was not comparatively "poured out" (as with a bucket). He was dispensed (as I like to say) as with an eyedropper, to the general population of believers. On the other hand, he was still present with obvious power upon those with special office. They were prefiguring the Mediator's three-fold office, who possessed that Spirit, poured out on him, without measure.

When Christ ascends to heaven, he disperses his Spirit--generously--to all his saints, so that the least in the kingdom of heaven has an endowment that puts him nowhere behind even John the Baptist, who was in the first rank of the OT saints. Thus it means that we are all priests and kings. But wait, wasn't the old covenant people as a whole also "a kingdom of priests," Ex.19:6? Collectively were they not royalty, Ezk.16:13?

So again, we see that the new blessing has to do with the arrival of the consummate administration, and the depth and breadth of the King's presents, which naturally accompany his accession to his throne.

Our present situation is decidedly new. Wonderfully new. The King has come, and we rejoicingly receive him. The City is wild with appropriate enthusiasm. It is a celebration that in our time-frame has been going on for 2000 years now. Indeed, there are malcontents that do not share the sentiments, but they will be finally excluded from the life of the world to come. The doors will be shut, and the wedding supper will commence.

:2cents:
 
Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:39)

O. Palmer Robertson, commenting on this passage, said that one aspect of the newness of the New Covenant was the massive increase in revelation given by the Spirit in the New Testament Scriptures, which revelation given by the Holy Spirit is greater "raw material" for Him to illuminate to the benefit of the Church.

Also there are fewer "external props" in the current period of the Church, the emphasis being on a greater diffusion of God's Word and application and internalisation of that Word by the Spirit, without the need for lots of external helps.

It's a great difference that we should learn to appreciate, but a relative difference.
 
To me it is a new administration of the same covenant of grace; a plenitude and largesse of blessings
over and above the old administration; Christ manifest in the flesh rather than in the promise; the
reality and profusion of the Spirit as promised which could not be until the Lord overcame death and received
of the Father that promise; the gospel going into all the world instead of confined to the geography of Israel;
the pulling down of the middle wall of partition; and so much more----

I believe this is captured and is stated in the Song of Songs.----" For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and
gone: The flowers appear on the earth; the singing of the birds is come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard
in the land." The spring time of the gospel has come, the shadows have fled away, the gospel day has broken.
 
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