Chapter Four: The Everlasting Covenants

One morning as I was getting ready for work I was struck with a revelation. It had to do with this obscure text I had never understood:

“What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator.  A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one. ” Gal 3:19-20 (NIV)

Often, EGW refers to the Ten Commandments as the everlasting covenant. That text all of a sudden came clear to me and I finally understood something important.  I ran to my computer and opened Bible Explorer to see if what I had just understood was valid.  And here is what I discovered. There is a distinction made in the covenants on the basis of the parties involved.  The old covenant required two parties as evidenced by a mediator and therefore, because one of the parties was human it could be, and was, broken almost immediately and therefore could not be everlasting. And, it was not made with all humanity, just with Israel.  I then discovered that this subject is further explored by other writers as well.10, 14  The four truly everlasting covenants 1)depended for their fulfillment on only one party, God, 2) are directed to all of humanity and therefore would never be changed or broken as long as Earth should last. The Old Covenant, on the other hand, is called perpetual (often interpreted as an indefinite period of time in Bible dictionaries) to the house of Israel and we understand from Paul that it was put in place for them temporarily “until the seed…had come”.

There are four covenants referred to in scripture as everlasting that qualify in this context:

The Noahic Covenant: 

“Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." Gen 9:16 (NIV)

There was only one party responsible in this covenant, God.  The fulfillment required no response from humanity.

Summary of Noahic Covenant:

Responsible Party: God alone.

Beneficiaries: all humanity.

Covenant sign: a rainbow.

The Abrahamic Covenant: 

This is the statement of the covenant that God spoke to Abraham: “Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him” Gen 17:19

As we go to the New Testament we see that it included all nations:

“The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’  So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” Gal 3:8-9 (NIV) and, of course this was a prophetic promise of the Savior for all the world.

“You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.” Gen 17:11 (NIV)

Again, this covenant had only One covenant-maker, God.  It would happen without Abraham’s input.  In fact, Abraham’s input was a singular failure and resulted in the very illustration of the old Ten Commandment covenant of slavery.

“These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.” Gal 4:24 (NIV)

Summary of Abrahamic Covenant:

Responsible party: God alone

Beneficiaries: All nations

Covenant sign: circumcision

The Davidic Covenant:

This is the covenant God made with David: “Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.” Isaiah 55:3 (NIV)

“I will also give you rest from all your enemies. 'The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: … and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever... When he does wrong, I will punish him…But my love will never be taken away from him…  Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.'" 2 Sam 7:11-16 (NIV)

"Hear now, you house of David! …  Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:13-14 (NIV)

This is a reiteration of the promise of the Savior.  David was a type of Jesus and it was promised that there would always and eternally be a king who will sit on the throne of David. Again, though David failed and failed, the covenant did not, because it was not dependant on David.

Summary of the Davidic Covenant:

Responsible party: God alone

Beneficiaries: all of humanity.

Covenant sign: the virgin everlasting throne, promise of an everlasting rule, which are fulfilled in Jesus Christ who comes from the line of David.

The New Covenant:

As we will see later the New Covenant is the everlasting replacement for the Old Covenant that was put in place as a stopgap measure.  Listen to the terms of this covenant: "’The time is coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.  It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, ‘ declares the LORD. ‘This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,’ declares the LORD. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.  No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,’ declares the LORD. ‘For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’" Jer 31:31-34 (NIV)

"'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will deal with you as you deserve, because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant.  Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, (the everlasting covenant through Abraham) and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you (looking forward to the New Covenant).  Ezek 16:59-61 (NIV)

The Old Covenant here is contrasted with the new, everlasting, covenant.  Israel broke the old one they had promised to keep. So God promised to make a new and everlasting covenant. The Old was never intended to be everlasting.

What’s different between the everlasting covenants and those that are not everlasting? 

The mediator of the everlasting covenants was the covenant-maker and keeper.  They were promises made sovereignly by God and did not depend on another party keeping up their end. Those are the only covenants that can be everlasting because only God is able make a covenant and keep it forever. 

“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance--now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” Heb 9:15 (NIV) The party involved here is Jesus as priest, intercessor and judge.            

 The Old Covenant had two parties: God and Israel. Israel entered into the covenant and affirmed “All you have said we will do.” And it was ratified by a mediator and broken nearly as soon as it was made.  The everlasting covenant made with Abraham spanned the time when the temporary Old Covenant was in effect.  It preceded the Old and it was in place after the Old was no longer in effect.

“What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God (with Abraham) and thus do away with the promise.  For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.” Gal 3:17-18 (NIV) This is contrasting the Ten Commandments and entire Book of the Law, or Old Covenant, with the Abrahamic covenant promise of a Savior which depended on an everlasting promise from God and not laws that would be broken.  The Ten Commandments were added 430 years after the time of the everlasting covenant with Abraham so they did not exist prior to Sinai, which was at least 2500 years after Adam.

“The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless…and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him: The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: 'You are a priest forever.' Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.” Heb 7:18-22 (NIV) He will not change His mind. This one was not temporary like the other. The Old Covenant was set aside when Jesus came because Jesus was what the former covenant pointed toward. But it was only a shadow. In itself it was weak and useless. Pretty strong words.

With Christ a whole new order was ushered in.  We are his new creation. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Cor 5:17 (NIV) And Christ became the mediator of the new covenant. This is a mirror to the statement in Ex. 20:8-11 “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore (for this reason) the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” The authority God gave for making the covenant with Israel was His creatorship. In the New Covenant we are a new creation. God’s authority to make the New Covenant with humanity is the blood of Christ who has become the mediator of the New Covenant. 

“Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation.” Gal 6:15 (NIV) The old covenant with all of its laws, signs and regulations is now trumped by the new order.

“But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.” Heb 8:6-7 (NIV).  Something was wrong with the Old Covenant.  Does that sound like an eternal covenant?

Summary of the New Covenant: 

The party involved: Jesus as covenant keeper and maker

Beneficiaries: All humanity

New Covenant entrance sign: confession of faith with baptism

New Covenant sign of remembrance: The Lord’s Supper.

Chapter 4 Summary

1)      There are four covenants mentioned in the scriptures that are called “everlasting”: the Noahic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Davidic Covenant and the New Covenant.

2)      The Old Covenant is not called an everlasting covenant.

3)      All of the covenants have signs.

4)      The everlasting covenants depend on God alone for their fulfillment. They apply to all humanity.

5)      The Old Covenant was temporary from the beginning. It was called weak and useless. God and Israel entered into the covenant together. Israel broke the covenant. There was something wrong with it.

6)      The Old Covenant was replaced by the New Covenant.

7)      The authority of the covenant-Maker for the Old Covenant was creation. The authority for the New is the blood of Christ. He is the new mediato

In Chapter Five we will take a close look at the Old Covenant..