The Two Covenants

1. Read: Galatians 4:23-26

2. About the Text:

1) Paul talks about “the two covenants” in Galatians 4:23-26.

2) He is contrasting the covenant that God gave Moses with the covenant which Christians have under Jesus.

3) He is saying that we cannot be under both.

4) “Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free” (Galatians 4:30-31).

3. What is a covenant?

1) It is an agreement that God makes with man.

2) We have the covenant with Noah in Genesis 6:18 and 9:9-17.

3) God made a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15 and 17.

4) God established a further covenant with the descendants of Abraham under Moses (Exodus 34:27-28).

5) God made a covenant with David (2 Samuel 7, Psalm 89:3).

6) Jesus – Matthew 26:28.

7) The two major covenants of the Bible are through Moses and Jesus.

4. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. The Old Testament

1) Books of Genesis through Malachi – 39 in total.

2) Consists of Law, History, Wisdom Literature, and Prophets.

3) Spans a period of 4000 plus years.

4) 40 authors (that we know of)

5) The Law of Moses

6) The History of the Family of Abraham through Captivity and Restoration

7) Wisdom Literature produced by Job, David, Solomon, and others.

8) The Revelation of God to the Prophets

2. The New Testament

1) Books of Matthew through Revelation – 27 in total.

2) Consists of the four Gospels, History of the Church, Letters, and the Revelation.

3) Spans a period of 100 about years.

4) 9 authors..

5) The gospels are the story of Jesus life and ministry.

6) The book of Acts discusses the history of the early church and Paul’s work.

7) The letters are inspired writings to different church to address specific issues.

8) The Revelation is John’s vision on the island of Patmos about the Jesus Christ and His relationship with His people.

1. The Old Testament

1) God made a covenant with Abraham.

2) “Now the LORD had said to Abram: ??“Get out of your country, ??From your family ??And from your father’s house, ??To a land that I will show you. ??I will make you a great nation; I will bless you ??And make your name great; ??And you shall be a blessing. ??I will bless those who bless you, ??And I will curse him who curses you; ??And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3).

3) To preserve the family of Abraham so the blessings of God’s covenant with him could be fulfilled.

4) It was a covenant with a specific people, not with everyone.

2. The New Testament

1) To declare the good news of Jesus Christ and how he . . .

a. Fulfilled the blessings of Abraham – “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.’ 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.” (Acts 3:25-26).

b. Satisfied the righteous requirements of the Law with His sacrifice. – “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4).

c. Established the Kingdom of God in the Church (Matthew 16:18, Mark 9:1).

d. Promised to return and give eternal life to His people through resurrection (John 14:1-3).

2) It is a covenant with all of the world.

1. The Old Covenant/Law of Moses was never intended to be permanent.

1) “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.’ So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments” (Exodus 34:27-28).

2) “So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone. And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess” (Deuteronomy 4:13-14).

3) ““Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”” (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

2. What did God plan to replace the Covenant with?

1) “?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” (Isaiah 42:6).

2) “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; ??That You may say to the prisoners, “Go forth,” ??To those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves.”’” (Isaiah 49:8-9).

3. Consider the following passages that speak concerning God’s new covenant.

1) “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second” (Hebrews 8:7).

2) “In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13).

3) “And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance” (Hebrews 9:15).

4) “Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law), 9 then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.”[ He takes away the first that He may establish the second. 10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:8-9).

5) “Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God” (Romans 7:1-4).

4. God has abolished the Law of Moses and established in its place Jesus Christ and His Covenant.

1. The Two Covenants

1) The Content of the Two Covenants

2) The Purpose of the Two Covenants

3) The Application of the Two Covenants

2. Invitation