Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant
Lesson 8, 1st Quarter Feb. 12-18, 2022
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Sabbath Afternoon - February 12
Memory Text:
“But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.” KJV — Hebrews 8:6
“The terms of the “old covenant” were, Obey and live: “If a man do, he shall even live in them” (Ezekiel 20:11; Leviticus 18:5); but “cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them.” Deuteronomy 27:26. The “new covenant” was established upon “better promises”—the promise of forgiveness of sins and of the grace of God to renew the heart and bring it into harmony with the principles of God's law. “This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.... I will forgive their iniquity, and will remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31:33, 34. PP 372.1
Sunday - February 13
The Need of a New Covenant
Hebrews 7:11-19
Why was a new covenant needed?
“Under the new covenant, the conditions by which eternal life may be gained are the same as under the old—perfect obedience. Under the old covenant, there were many offenses of a daring, presumptuous character, for which there was no atonement specified by law. In the new and better covenant, Christ has fulfilled the law for the transgressors of law, if they receive Him by faith as a personal Saviour. “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” Mercy and forgiveness are the reward of all who come to Christ trusting in His merits to take away their sins. In the better covenant we are cleansed from sin by the blood of Christ (Letter 276, 1904).” 7BC 931.10
Monday - February 14
New and Renewed
Hebrews 6:4-6; Deuteronomy 6:4-6; 30:11-14; Jeremiah 31:31-34
What is the nature of the new covenant?
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that 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 bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jer. 31:31-34.
The old “covenant” or agreement between God and His people was based upon the promises of both parties; to wit: “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all His commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: and all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and He shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto Himself, as He hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in His ways.”
“And all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord.” Deut. 28:1-9; Ex. 19:8.
This first covenant reaches from the time it was ordained to the imminent and final ingathering of the twelve tribes as a kingdom. And yet, though never invalidated by God, its validity has been persistently negated by the New Testament church, and its sanctity violated by both the Old and New Testament churches, until this very day. So as the people, failing their promise, have broken God’s commandments, they thereby also have broken “the covenant that God made with their fathers.” But in the new covenant, which the Lord is now about to fulfill, the commandments of God (Ex. 20:1-17), unlike in the old will not be written on tables of stone (Ex. 31:18) but in fleshy tables of the heart, and at that time all shall “know the Lord,…from the least of them unto the greatest of them” (Jer. 31:34) – exhibiting a church without tares.
This compact which is about to take place, is the second covenant, and His law, being written on the heart, will be perfectly kept. Then, and not before, will the blessings, which His ancient people failed to receive, be fully realized.
Jeremiah, also bearing witness that this promised covenant has not yet been fulfilled, but that it is to be honored now in the gathering time, declares:
“Thus speaketh the Lord God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book. For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of My people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.” Jer. 30:2, 3.
These verses show vividly that God is to validate the second covenant when He brings His people again from their captivity, while subsequent verses fix the time of this liberation or ingathering: “For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him: but they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.” Jer. 30:8, 9.
This prophecy, we observe, did not meet its fulfillment in the return of the Jews from their captivity in ancient Babylon, because at that time God did not “raise up” David their king. They did not, in fact, have any king at all of their own, but were under Medo-Persia rule. The prophecy, therefore, can be applied to no other time than today, when both “Israel and Judah” shall be joined into one great kingdom, established in everlasting righteousness. Then “they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them,: says the Lord. Consequently, the fact that there has never been a time from the day that this scripture was written even to the present day, that every one of God’s people, as a church or a nation, has known the Lord and kept His commandments, again proves that the fulfillment of the second covenant (of which the exodus movement was a type), is yet future.
“How long,” says the Lord, “wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.” Jer. 31:22. This “woman” must be symbolical, for no one person can possibly encompass another. She must, for this reason, be a symbol of the church, and the “man” must be Christ, Who shall at that time “have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion” – purified the church (Isa. 4:4; Testimonies, Vol. 5 p. 80). Then will He “be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her and…will dwell in the midst of her. Zech. 2:5, 11.
Though many variously raise their voices against God’s establishing “the seed of Israel” as a righteous and holy nation free from sinners, they shall fail to overthrow the plans of Him Who “giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is His name: if those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me for ever. Thus saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord.” Jer. 31:35-37.
As the promises are made only to Israel (the seed of Abraham), the original vine, which has been trodden down, this vine must therefore be raised up; then the penitent Gentiles by virtue of adoption in Christ, shall be grafted into it, and only thus become of the planting of the Lord. See Rom. 11.
Tuesday - February 15
The New Covenant Has a Better Mediator
Hebrews 8:1-6
Why is Jesus a better Mediator of the covenant?
“The blessings of the new covenant are grounded purely on mercy in forgiving unrighteousness and sins. The Lord specifies, I will do thus and thus unto all who turn to Me, forsaking the evil and choosing the good. “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” All who humble their hearts, confessing their sins, will find mercy and grace and assurance. Has God, in showing mercy to the sinner, ceased to be just? Has He dishonored His holy law, and will He henceforth pass over the violation of it? God is true. He changes not. The conditions of salvation are ever the same. Life, eternal life, is for all who will obey God's law.... 7BC 931.9
Wednesday - February 16
The New Covenant Has Better Promises
Exodus 24:1-8; Hebrews 10:5-10
In what ways should we expect better things?
Jer. 31:31-33 – “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that 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 bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
This new covenant, you see, is to go into effect in the gathering time. Then shall all God’s people know the difference between good and evil. Thus shall they know what is the Lord’s will and way. And thus shall they be able to perform the good and to shun the evil. They shall naturally and gladly incline to do good, just as they now incline to do evil.
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, was a very great king. He ruled a great kingdom, and lived in a wonderful palace. But as soon as his human heart was taken away from him and the heart of a beast put in him, just that soon his own desires and ways left him and the desires and ways of a beast entered him. (See Daniel 4:16). So with God’s people: Just as soon as He puts His law in their inward parts, and writes it in their hearts, just that soon the carnal heart’s desire and enmity against God’s law will disappear. No longer will God’s people need to say, When we “want to do good, evil is present.” “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Rom. 7:24.
Jer. 31: 34 – “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Note that the sinners and those who are ignorant of God shall no longer be among God’s people. Certainly a change is coming. The present state of affairs will not long continue, the sinners will be put away forever. And how glad we ought to be that if we now repent, our sins will be forgiven and forgotten, and that no one will ever remind us of them!
Jer. 31: 35, 36 – “Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is His name: If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me for ever.”
Here is God’s bonafide guarantee against doubt and unbelief. As certainly as the doubters cannot change the ordinances of the heavens, just that certainly shall God’s people once again become a Theocratic nation.
Thursday - February 17
The New Covenant Has Solved the Problem of the Heart
Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 36:26, 27
Compare the new covenant promises of Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 36:26, 27. How are they related and when will they be fulfilled?
Here (Jer. 31:31-34) is a promise of a new contract, a new covenant. It is not the kind God made with our predecessors in the day they came up out of Egypt, the day He wrote the commandments on tables of stone and thus to keep them. Instead He makes a new covenant, a covenant to write them on our very hearts. Then every one of us will consequently know Him without having to be taught.
Take notice, though, He is not to make a new law, but a new covenant, a new contract for keeping the law. The difference is that rather than His writing the law on tables of stone, He will write it on the fleshly tables of the heart, the seat which the law of sin now occupies.
This covenant, you see, is to be made with both the house of Israel and the house of Judah, – with all God’s people.
The scripture, remember, does not say that we cannot keep the law while it is written on the tables of stone, but it definitely says that we can, for those who broke the law are reproved for so doing. We can, therefore, even now inconveniently keep the commandments though they be still written on stones. For convenience sake most Christians wish the law were abolished, and some make themselves believe that it has been abolished, although the only law that has been abolished is the ceremonial, sacrificial law, the shadow of the Lamb of God.
What difference would there be whether the law be written on stone, or on our hearts? – The experience of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon reveals the answer.
Had the king by force been made to live with the cattle, in a stable or in a field, he would have committed suicide if possible. But as soon as God took his human heart away from him, and put the heart of an ox in him, the king was perfectly contented to be with the cattle, and altogether discontented to live in his palace.
Were the same thing done to anyone of us, our desires would be the same as the king’s. In like manner, when the stony heart is taken away from us, and the heart of flesh with the law of God written on it put in us, we shall then find it altogether too inconvenient to sin, and most delightful to keep the commandments of God. And so you need not fear having to struggle to keep the law of God in the Kingdom, as you do here. You will then be perfectly contented to live a sinless life. In fact you will want to sin no more than you would now want to die.
Wonderful indeed! but when may we expect this miracle to take place? To find the answer to this question, we need connect Jeremiah’s prophecy with Ezekiel’s prophecy of the same event:
Jer. 31:8 – “Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither.”
Ezek. 36:24-28 – “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God.”
The records from both prophets clearly point out the time in which this miracle will be performed on the hearts of all God’s people. Both prophets make it as clear as can be made, that this change of heart takes place in the Holy Land, Palestine, at the beginning of the kingdom which God promises to set up “in the days of these kings” (Dan. 2:44), not after their days. He moreover says that He will take us from among the heathen and gather us from all countries and take us into our own land (Ezek. 36:24), the land in which our fathers dwelt (Ezek. 36:28). “Then,” at that time, says Inspiration, not before, will He sprinkle clean water upon us, cleanse us from all filthiness, and from all idols. Also, a new heart will He then put in us (Ezek. 36:26). He will give us His Spirit and cause us to comply with His statutes, and to keep His judgments (Ezek. 36:27). Read these scriptures for yourself and see if they say all I am trying to tell you they say.
Friday - February 18
Further Study
“What a God is our God! He rules over His kingdom with diligence and care, and He has built a hedge—the Ten Commandments—about His subjects to preserve them from the results of transgression. In requiring obedience to the laws of His kingdom, God gives His people health and happiness, peace and joy. He teaches them that the perfection of character He requires can be attained only by becoming familiar with His word. CT 454.1
“It is written in the prophets: ‘O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee.’ Isaiah 54:11-14. CT 454.2
“‘This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.’ Jeremiah 31:33, 34. CT 454.3
“‘And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.’” Micah 4:2. CT 455.1