The Cold open is from the great S. Lewis Johnson talking about the New Covenant (NC).
Let’s consider what Jeremiah says about the NC:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Jeremiah 31:31-34 (Read chapters 30-37 for more context.)
What are the differing views of its fulfillment:
1. The New Covenant will be fulfilled in the future with national Israel; the church has no relationship to the New Covenant
2. There are two New Covenants—one with Israel and another for the church
3. The New Covenant is completely fulfilled with the church; there is no future fulfillment with national Israel.
[though the time of fulfillment differs among views]
4. The New Covenant will be fulfilled with Israel but the spiritual blessings of the covenant areapplied to the church today.
5. The New Covenant will be fulfilled with Israel but the church is an added referent to the New Covenant promises so there is a sense in which the New Covenant is being fulfilled with the church. The New Covenant has two referents—Israel and the church.
6. Since the New Covenant was given to Israel for the purpose of also blessing Gentiles there is literal fulfillment of the spiritual blessings of the New Covenant to all believing Jews and Gentiles in this present age, while the physical/national promises await fulfillment with Jesus’ second coming when national Israel is incorporated into the New Covenant.
What I think:
What is Pastors Mike’s view?
-Isaiah 42
-Isaiah 49:6,
he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
-2 Corinthians 3:6 Paul says, “who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant,. . .”
-Paul in 1 Cor. 11
We experience NC blessings today and more is to come in the future with the Rom. 11 conversion of many Israelites
The inquisition: Is it ok for another believer to baptize a new believer? Or should the elders of the church perform the baptism?
