John 15:1: I Am the True Vine: An Overview of Baptist Covenant Theology

Jesus fulfilled the Covenant of Works on our behalf to give us the Covenant of Grace. Jesus is the True Israel, the true blessing to all nations, and fulfillment of all the covenants.

Notes

Transcript

Scripture Reading

Romans 5:18–21 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Intro

The Bible is one story.

And to understand that story and the story of God’s Grace in salvation you need to understand the story and grace of God’s Covenants.

We have a ton to get into today so we are going to jump right into John 15:1 where the Big Idea for the day is…

Jesus is the True Israel, the true blessing to all nations, and fulfillment of all of God’s covenants.

And what that means is…

Jesus fulfilled the Covenant of Works on our behalf to give us the Covenant of Grace.

Let’s start with…

True Vine

John 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.

When Jesus says I am the True Vine, those 5 words we really contain the whole overarching story of Scripture.

But to see that story we need to understand it through the lens of the Old Testament.

I am the True Vine is the last of Jesus’ seven I am statements in the Gospel of John.

Where Jesus says I am taking the Divine Name, Yahweh, upon Himself and gives us a picture of His salvation.

Which here is I am the blessing of all nations and fulfilment of all the covenants.

And by saying that He is the True Vine, Jesus is saying He is the authentic or genuine vine in contrast to one that is false.

Well what is that False Vine?

This is where our Old Testament Background comes in.

OT Background: Vine

Throughout the Old Testament God continually calls His Old Covenant people Israel… a Vine (Psalm 80:7-18; Isaiah 5:1-7, 27:2ff; Jeremiah 2:21; 12:10ff; Ezekiel 15:1-8, 17:1-21, 19:10-14, Hosea 10:1-2, 14:7).

A choice vine planted in a rich and fertile vineyard.

Isaiah 5:1–2 Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it;

God planted it… cared for it… loved it…

… and he looked for it to yield grapes,… but it yielded wild grapes.

The grapes God was looking for in this context and in the context of John 15 would be devotion to the Lord and obedience to Him.

Keeping His Covenant.

And the Wild Grapes would be sin.

We see that in Jeremiah 2:21-22.

Jeremiah 2:21-22 Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine? Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me.

So Israel was a Wild Vine… an Unfaithful Vine.

One unfaithful to the Lord and His Covenant.

In fact, most of the passages that talk about Israel as a Vine focus on how Israel was unfaithful to the Lord and under God’s judgment.

Going back to Isaiah 5 verses 5 and 6…

Isaiah 5:5–6 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

Old Covenant Israel was a Fruitless and Unfaithful Vine… a False Vine…

One that was unfaithful in their devotion to the Lord and unfaithful to obey His commands.

It was against this back drop that Jesus said I am the True Vine…

The Faithful Vine… faithful to all God’s covenant.

Where Israel was unfaithful and broke God’s Covenant, Christ kept it.

So in effect, He was saying I am the True Israel!

The True Blessing of all Nations!

The Fulfillment of all the Covenants and the Only way to be saved from all your sins!

All the Promises of God are Yes! and Amen! in Him (2 Corinthians 1:20).

Covenants

And this is where we need to talk about Divine Covenants.

Because the only way to understand the significance of Jesus as the True Israel… the True and Faithful Vine… is Covenant Theology.

And even there I’ve already lost some of you.

Covenant Theology what’s that?

Now we aren’t going to be able to get into everything today.

We can’t.

There are whole books written on this subject.

For what I want to do today… I just want to keep it really simple.

I just want to look at a broad overview of Baptist Covenant Theology.

And so to do that we are not going to be able to look at every single possible passage or every single possible detail.

We’d be here all day.

So a lot of this is going to be mostly theological… Big broad strokes…

You can think of this as an introduction to an introduction of Baptist Covenant Theology because what I really want to show you how the whole Bible fits together.

How do all the Covenants fit together in and God’s overall plan of salvation?

And hopefully by the end of this you’ll have a greater appreciation of Christ and His Work… what Christ actually accomplished for us on the cross…

And God’s grace in salvation as our Covenant-Making and Covenant-Keeping God.

Because the goal of Covenant Theology is the goal of whole Bible… the glory of God in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Covenant Definition

So first… what is a Covenant?

A covenant is a formal agreement or commitment between two or more parties that is governed by oaths and promises… threats and sanctions.

The idea is that it is a formal covenant of relationship where one party promises to do one thing and the other party promises to do another thing and there are threats or curses for not fulfilling that commitment and promises and blessings if you do.

You can think of them as solemn promises or vows.

Works vs. Grace

And for our purposes today, in regards to God’s Covenants with Man… there are two types of Covenants we see in the Bible… They are either Conditional or Unconditional.

Conditional Covenants basically say “Do this and live.”

There is some obligation or commitment you must to receive the blessing and if not you come under a curse.

Theologically we would say Conditional Covenants are Covenants of Works because there are works you must do to receive the promises of them.

An Unconditional Covenant is unilaterally guaranteed.

One party in the covenant takes all the responsibility and obligations of the Covenant on themselves.

An Unconditional Covenant basically says I will give you this and the promises and blessings are guaranteed by the giver and free to the one to whom they are given.

This type of Covenant would be a Covenant of Grace.

The Big Idea is that if it has conditions than it is a Covenant of Works...

And if it has no conditions and is freely given by God… it is a Covenant of Grace.

And God enters into covenant relationship with man under one of these two types covenants…

Where the Baptist would say the New Covenant and the New Covenant alone is the Covenant of Grace and all the rest of the covenants are Covenants of Works.

Goal

But the goal of the covenants is ultimately the same…

I will be you’re God and you will be my people (Gen. 17:8; Jer. 31:33; 2 Cor. 6:16; Rev. 21:7).

All of the Covenants of the Bible are ultimately aiming towards this goal.

Covenant of Redemption

And that’s because all of the covenants are ultimately working out one Grand Covenant… the Covenant of Redemption…

We don’t have time to get into all of it, but the Covenant of Redemption was Covenant which God made within Himself and purposed by eternal His decree to glorify His Name The Lord, the Lord a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love… and to save His people from their sins.

In other words God’s plan of salvation in Christ from before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).

Adamic/Covenant of Works

And the first covenant relationship that God entered into with Man was the original Covenant of Works with Adam in the Garden (Hosea 6:7).

Well what was this Covenant?

We find it in Genesis 2:16–17 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

So in this covenant you have a condition… a command placed on Adam that Adam was obligated to obey: Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.

In this one command is basically all of God’s Law.

God could have essentially said you shall love the Lord your God with all of your Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength.

And in this covenant there were blessings for obedience, and curses for disobedience.

The curse of sin and breaking the covenant was death… In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die (cf. Romans 6:23).

Which implies that the blessing or reward for Adam’s obedience… for keeping the covenant…was eternal life.

If Adam had never disobeyed God and eaten the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would have never died.

And given that when Adam sinned against God and was exiled from the Garden and cut off from the Tree of Life… the reward or blessing for keeping the covenant… after a probationary period of time my guess would be filling the earth and subduing it… would have been able to eat of the Tree of Life and in doing so be confirmed in holiness .

Basically enter immediately into glorification!… sealed in righteousness and given eternal life for all time unable to sin in a right an holy relationship with God forever and ever.

So in God’s covenant with Adam… you have a Condition… Blessings… and Curses.

All of the elements of a conditional Covenant of Works right there.

Do this and live.

Federal Head

But Adam sinned.

He ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and in sinning, we all sinned in Him (Genesis 3:6, Romans 5:12-18).

Adam sinned as our Federal or Covenantal Head.

That’s all Federal means… its just another word for Covenant.

Adam sinned as our representative when He sinned as our Head and the father of mankind we all sinned in Him and came under the curse of the Covenant of Works…

In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die… for the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

We are all condemned in him as transgressors of the Covenant of Works.

1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die.

As Paul says in Romans: Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…For [the] many died through one man’s trespass… [and] one trespass led to condemnation for all men… For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners (Romans 5:12, 15, 18, 19).

We are all condemned under the Covenant of Works in Adam and not just in Adam but as willful participants in Adam’s sin.

Promise

And this is where the Promise comes in.

After the Fall, God cursed Adam and Eve.

And in Genesis 3:15, He cursed the Serpent, but in cursing the Serpent, He also gave Adam and Eve a promise.

He promised them a Savior and Salvation.

Genesis 3:15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

This is Christ and the cross.

God promised a Savior…

There would come One who was born of the woman… pointing forward to the Virgin Birth where Christ would be descended from Adam as a man without being in Adam as a Federal Head.

He would be a New Adam and New Federal Head for all who believe in Him (1 Corinthians 15:22, 45).

And God promised Salvation.

This Messiah… this Savior born of a woman… would come to crush the head of the Serpent and deliver His people once and for all from all their sin.

This is the first gospel… the protoevangelium.

And it is the Promise that is the foundation and the aim… the beginning and the end… of all the Covenants.

Ephesians 2:12 calls them the covenants (plural) of the promise (singular).

So all the Covenants are pointing to and building towards this Promise: a Savior and Salvation… eternal life by grace through faith in Him… with the ultimate Goal of the Covenants being… as we said… I will be your God and you will be my people.

Baptists/Presbyterians

And this is really where Baptists differ with Paedobaptists and Presbyterians… people that baptize infants.

Both Baptists and Presbyterians believe there is one Covenant of Grace… the free offer of God of salvation for everyone who believes in Jesus Christ (1689 7:2).

Presbyterians believe it is one Covenant in two administrations.

That both Old and the New Covenant are part of the Covenant of Grace.

So the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic Covenants are all part of the Covenant of Grace in the same way that the New Covenant is part of the Covenant of Grace.

They are two administrations.

This is why they baptize infants because infants were circumcised under the Old Covenant and if the Old Covenant was just a different administration of the Covenant of Grace that pattern should continue with Baptism in the New because it was never abrogated in the New testament.

Baptists… on the other hand… don’t believe the Covenant of Grace - God’s free offer of salvation - is one covenant in two administrations.

The Old Covenant was a Covenant of Works and a different kind of Covenant altogether because it was based on conditional promises and not unconditional ones necessary to make it a Covenant of Grace.

If you have to earn it is not grace…

However, that doesn’t mean the gospel wasn’t present.

While the Old Covenant was not the Covenant of Grace… the Gospel and the Covenant of Grace was promised in it.

Umbrella Slide

So I would say the Old Covenant was the Covenant of Grace in Promise… and the New Covenant is the Covenant of Grace in Fulfillment.

In other words, for the Baptist… the New Covenant and the New Covenant alone is the Covenant of Grace and the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants were all Covenants of Works, while not a part of or administrations of the Covenant of Grace, all promised and pointed to the Covenant of Grace in Christ that was ratified and put into effect with His blood (Hebrews 9:15-23, cf. Hebrews 8:6, 13).

As the 1689 London Baptist Confession says it was revealed…first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation… and afterwards by farther steps (1689 7:3).

Those farther steps being the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic Covenants where the gospel and the Covenant of Grace was progressively revealed throughout the Covenants of the Old Testament (Denault, The Distinctiveness of Baptist Covenant Theology (Revised Edition), 70).

So the saints of the Old Testament were saved the same way as we are… by faith in God’s Promise of the Messiah revealed in the covenants of the Old Testament and not under the administration of those covenants themselves (Romans 4).

This is why Baptist only baptize professing believers because… covenantally… the correspondence to circumcision of the flesh in the Old Testament is not Baptism but the spiritual circumcision of the heart… being born again… in the New.

That’s why Baptists believe only believers should be baptized.

So here’s the point.

How all of the Covenants post-Adam connect to each other is by the Promise of this Savior and Salvation.

That is the thread that unites them all.

The Promise is given in Genesis 3:15 and then progressively revealed until it is ultimately culminated and fulfilled with the death of Christ in the New Covenant… the Covenant of Grace… God’s free offer of Salvation to all who believe.

So when you think of the Covenants the Old Covenant is the Covenant of Grace in Promise the New Covenant is the Covenant of Grace in Fulfillment.

Noahic

And that takes us to the Noahic Covenant… the Covenant God made with Noah after the flood where God promised to never again flood the earth (Genesis 6:18, 9:12-15).

Now this Covenant was what we would call a common covenant God because made it with all mankind and not just His Elect people.

But this covenant still had an eye on the Promise of the Savior and the Salvation of the Elect because in this Covenant, God promised to preserve mankind to bring about the Savior and His Elect people to save.

Abrahamic

Then we come to the Abrahamic Covenant.

The Covenant God made with Abraham and progressively revealed in Genesis 12, 15, and 17.

In this Covenant God promised essentially four things:

A Seed or Offspring… the same word used for the Savior in Genesis 3:15.

Land and Blessing as in the physical land of Canaan and rest in the Promise Land.

That Abraham’s offspring would be children of God… I will be their God and they will be my People.

And that Abraham would be the Father of many nations and in Him all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3).

Now this is the key because this is the Promise of Christ and His Salvation.

In you… in your offspring… in Christ… all the families of the earth will be blessed… Eternal Life. (Galatians 3:16-17).

And this is the Promise that Abraham believed God, and it was counted to Him as righteousness (Romans 4:3).

Dichotomous Nature

But here is what you need to understand about the Abrahamic Covenant.

In the Abrahamic Covenant there was a temporal, physical fulfillment that pointed typologically to an eternal, spiritual fulfillment.

The Shadow and Substance… a Physical, Earthly Type and a True Spiritual Reality.

And in the covenant with Abraham there is a Natural Seed and a Spiritual Seed where the Natural Seed… the Physical nation of Israel pointed forward typologically to Jesus Christ and the Spiritual Offspring of Abraham and the rest and blessing promised of Promised Land pointed forward to eternal life.

Spiritually :

The True and Spiritual Offspring of Abraham is , Jesus Christ and all who trust in Him… (Galatians 3:16-17; Galatians 3:7, 29).

And the True Rest and Blessing in the Promise Land is Eternal Life and rest from our works in Christ(Hebrews 9:8-16).

The Physical and Natural Fulfillments of the Abrahamic Covenant just pointed forward to the True and Spiritual Fulfillment in Jesus Christ in the same that the Old Covenant Temple, Sacrifices, and Priesthood pointed forward to Christ.

And as a Promise given to Abraham and His spiritual seed it was unconditional.

God would surely bring about this Savior and blessing to all nations.

He alone walked through the torn animals in Genesis 15 saying this shall be done to me if I fail to keep my promise… which of course for God is impossible.

But with the Natural seed it was conditional as a Covenant.

Genesis 17:10, 14 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised… Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.

So the Abrahamic Covenant itself was a Covenant of Works based on the condition of circumcision that had within it the Unconditional Promise of the Covenant of Grace…

…a Savior and Salvation with the circumcision of the flesh pointing forward to the true, spiritual reality of heart circumcision… the cutting of our sinful flesh… through faith in Jesus Christ.

This is why Paul is able to say in Galatians 4:22–24 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.

There is a natural and spiritual fulfillment because Paul says

Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants.

Where Paul goes on to say one is Mount Sinai… the present Jerusalem… so the Law and Abraham’s children of the flesh.

And the other is the New Jerusalem… the Jerusalem from Above… the spiritual children of Abraham by grace through faith in Christ (Galatians 3:7, 4:24-26).

Mosaic

Now that takes us to the Law with the Mosaic Covenant where God gave the Law at Mount Sinai essentially saying “Do this and Live.”

Leviticus 18:5 You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them.

And Deuteronomy 27:26 Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.

So the Mosaic Covenant was conditional as a Covenant of Works.

Now Spiritually the Mosaic Covenant had no power to give Eternal Life.

As Paul said in Galatians 3:21 If a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.

We were already condemned in our sin in Adam under the original Covenant of Works God made with in the Garden.

But Physically… as a Natural Covenant for the Physical Nation of Israel… it was a conditional Covenant of Works for the Nation of Israel and not eternal life, but their life in the Promise Land.

The animal sacrifices weren’t there to save anyone and no amount of obedience to the Law could ever save us from our sin.

The animal sacrifices were there to atone for Israel’s sin and allow them to remain ceremonially clean before the Lord and remain in the Land.

Why then the Law? How does the Law and Mosaic Covenant point to and anticipate the Promise of Christ?

Well yet again it pointed forward typologically to Christ.

The Animal sacrifices, Temple and Priesthood all pointed forward to Christ as our Mediator and the need for a substitutionary sacrifice to atone for our sin and draw near to God.

The Mosaic Covenant preserved the Line of the Messiah to keep them from intermarrying with Gentile nations so that God might fulfill His Promise in bringing a Savior for Abraham.

And most of all to serve as a Tutor to drive us to Christ.

Tutor

In Galatians 3:19 Paul said Why then the law? and answered It was added because of transgressions.

In other words it was added to reveal people’s sin and need for a Savior (Romans 3:20).

Galatians 3:23–24 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian [that is our School Master or Tutor] until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

This is why Paul calls it Law a Ministry of Condemnation and Ministry of Death (Galatians 3:7, 9).

It further condemned us in our sin to show us how far short we had fallen of God’s standard that we might flee to Christ and have life in Him.

Because He is the fulfillment of the Law.

Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

He is the goal and the fulfillment of it.

The Law was a Republished Covenant of Works for Christ to fulfill on our behalf.

Where God’s command in the Garden was Do not eat of the fruit of the Tree… for Christ it was the full obedience to the Law.

He fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law on our behalf and paid the penalty of the Law our sin deserved.

Christ fulfilled the Covenant of Works as a New Adam in obedience to the Law earning the eternal life that was forfeited by Adam in the Fall so that all who believe in Him might have eternal life in Him as a New Covenantal and Federal Head.

Davidic

And that takes us to the Davidic Covenant.

Psalm 132:11–12 The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: “One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne. If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies that I shall teach them, their sons also forever shall sit on your throne.

Again we see the Promise was unconditional as a promise to David but Conditional for David’s Offspring or Seed… the Son would have to obey.

In the Davidic Covenant God essentially establishes the King as a New Federal Head for the People.

As goes the King so goes the Kingdom.

If the King kept the covenant they would be blessed… if the King broke the Covenant they would be cursed.

In this way it was a Covenant of Works because the blessings of the Covenant were conditional.

And like the Abrahamic Covenant there was both a Natural and Spiritual Fulfillment.

God promised that the Son of David would reign forever on the throne, give rest to God’s people and build God a house where God would dwell in the midst of His people (1 Kings 9:1-9).

And Solomon built God a house and gave rest and blessing to God’s people but He did not keep the covenant perfectly (1 Kings 11:11).

He married foreign women and led Israel into sin.

But Solomon was a Type of Christ pointing to the True, Spiritual reality.

Jesus built the Lord’s True Temple, the Church, and kept the Law perfectly as our King and New Adam and Federal Head… as our representative to secure the blessings of the Covenant forever (Acts 2:29-31).

New Covenant

So here’s the point.

Christ fulfilled the Covenant of Works… all the conditions of Covenants of the Old Testament… to give us the Covenant of Grace.

He is the True Israel… the True Offspring of Abraham.

The True and Faithful Vine where Israel was unfaithful to God and all His Covenants.

Jeremiah 11:9–11 Again the Lord said to me, “A conspiracy exists among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers. Therefore, thus says the Lord, Behold, I am bringing disaster upon them that they cannot escape.

But Christ… the True Vine… was faithful.

He was circumcised on the 8th day and walked blameless before the Lord in fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant (Luke 2:21).

And He kept the Mosaic Law perfectly as the perfect Son of David fulfilling both the Mosaic and Davidic Covenants once and for all to now reign forever on the throne in His resurrection to give life and blessing to all His people (Matthew 1:1).

Where Israel was unfaithful and came under God’s judgment… Christ was faithful to God and suffered the curses of the covenant on our behalf so that we might be saved from judgment and never come under the curse of God again!

When you think of Covenant Theology…

Jesus fulfilled the Covenant of Works to Give us the Covenant of Grace.

That’s the Big Idea I want you to walk away with today.

He is the True Vine and you have the fullness of salvation in Him.

Israel’s History

Throughout His life Christ followed the pattern of Israel’s own life and history.

He was born a son of Abraham circumcised on the 8th day.

He was called out of Egypt after Herod tried to kill Him just as Israel was called out of Egypt in the Exodus after Pharoah tried to kill their sons (Matthew 2:15).

He was Baptized as Israel went through the Baptism of the Red Sea.

He fasted for 40 days in the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil where Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years and gave into the same temptations Christ.

He was tested with Bread as Israel grumbled about food (Deuteronomy 8:3, Matthew 4:4).

Israel Tested the Lord where Jesus said you shall not put the Lord your God to the Test (Deuteronomy 6:16, Matthew 4:7).

And Israel failed to love the Lord their God where Jesus said You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve (Deuteronomy 6:13, Matthew 4:10).

Israel failed in the wilderness where Christ overcame the Evil One.

Jesus went from there and continued to follow Israel’s History in His own conquest of Canaan in healing the sick and driving out demons.

And He… like Israel… went into Judgment and Exile with His death although He had no sin of His own for which to die for.

And He followed Israel in their return from Exile in His resurrection from the grave.

The whole History of Israel right their in the life of Christ except where Israel was unfaithful… Christ was faithful… and faithful to the very end.

And Why? Why does it matter that Jesus the True Israel?

To show that He is the Fulfillment of all the Covenants.

He is the True and Faithful Israel and all the promises of God find their yes and Amen in Him (2 Corinthians 1:20).

He is the Promise!

All the Covenants pointed to and were fulfilled in Him.

He is the Savior and promised blessing to all nations.

The fault of the Old Covenant was that could not keep it (Hebrews 8:6-9).

We were crushed under the conditions and obligations of the Covenant of Works.

And Israel as the natural seed failed to show us the weakness of human flesh and human effort to fulfill the covenants and secure eternal life.

Its impossible: It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all (John 6:63).

But Christ Kept all the conditions of the Covenant of Works on our behalf.

All the Promises of God are all of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.

And by His perfect obedience and sacrificial death… Christ gave us the New Covenant in His blood.

In giving the Lord’s Supper, Jesus said in Luke 22:20; Matthew 26:28 This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood…which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

That Cup was the wine representing Christ blood.

And what is wine? The fruit of the Vine.

The True and Faithful Vine who fulfilled all the conditions of the covenants to give us Eternal Life in Him.

The New Covenant in my blood.

Conclusion

Jesus is the True Israel and the fulfilment of all the covenants.

He fulfilled the Covenant of Works to give us the Covenant of Grace where all the covenant promises of God are yes and amen in Him.

Where we were condemned in Adam under the Covenant of Works, we have the fullness of life in Christ Adam under the Covenant of Grace.

Listen… I know some of this might have gone over some of your heads.

So let me simplify it for you.

There are two basic take aways of Covenant Theology.

Why talk about all this?

Grace/Faithfulness

Number 1… God’s Grace and Faithfulness.

When the Bible says The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love... (Psalm 145:8).

That steadfast love is God’s covenant keeping love and faithfulness.

God is gracious and keeps covenant with all those who are in covenant with Him.

And the New Covenant is God’s gracious gift.

Its not a Covenant of Works… Its a free gift of God’s grace where God promises to be merciful toward our iniquities and remember our sins no more and is faithful to keep that promise(Hebrews 8:12).

Abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

Work of Christ

And Number 2… Covenant Theology shows us the fullness of salvation we have in Christ.

Galatians 3:13, Hebrews 9:15 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree… Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

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