cri@flash.net (Craftsman) wrote in the alt.religion.christian.calvary-chapel newsgroup:
- >Doug, there are a couple of questions I have regarding your
>non-dispensational position.
>First, perhaps you could explain the "everlasting covenant" made with
>Israel and how it stands now.
The "first" covenant was not unconditional contrary to its representation by Dispensationalists. "Everlasting" does here not mean unconditional. It just means that it will last forever. It has lasted forever and "in-Christ" it will last forever.
Gen 17:8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. 9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
There was at least one condition: circumcision. It was possible to break this covenant and be removed from the people.
Gen 17:14 And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.
Acts refers to this covenant as the covenant of circumcision.
Acts 7:8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
This covenant was transferred from Abraham to the descendants of Jacob. Moses later further defined the same covenant:
Acts 7:37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.
The rest of this referent passage shows a further condition on the covenant.
Deu 18:18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. 19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
Note that the conditions of the covenant include obedience to the prophet here. We now recognize that Jesus is the prophet. Not all the descendants of Abraham received the covenant nor all the descendants of Isaac, but only the descendants of Jacob. This is a further selection (or election for my 5-pointer friends). Some were eliminated from the everlasting covenant.
Even under the old covenant, God showed that the circumcision was not in the flesh that mattered but in the heart:
Deu 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. 6 And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
Circumcision was a sign of repentance from dead works, much like baptism is today:
Josh 5:2 At that time the LORD said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.
This theme is carried throughout the scriptures:
Jer 4:4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
Constant warnings that it's not the circumcision of the flesh that matters, but the right heart towards God:
Jer 9:25 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised; 26 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.
Jesus clarified that the covenant of circumcision was that of the Fathers and predated Moses:
John 7:22 Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man.
Paul completely resolved the issue of who is a part of that covenant by the following passage:
Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
In this passage we learn that the covenant of circumcision was really that of faith. If a person repented in their heart then they would be saved. Those that are of the covenant to Abraham (this everlasting covenant) are those that have their hearts circumcised and have faith in God. That's why Paul wrote:
Rom 3:30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
There's only one covenant. There never was another. It's always been salvation through faith as the only means of salvation.
Rom 4:11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:
It's not the earthly despondency, but the spirit of the person.
Phil 3:3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
Col 2:11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
Col 3:11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
I hope this paints a broad overview of the covenant of circumcision.
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