In “After This…”, Don Fortner addresses the theological doctrine of the New Covenant as presented in the Book of Hebrews, specifically emphasizing its superiority over the Old Covenant. He makes a key argument that the Old Covenant was inherently faulty and only a shadow of the true, saving grace found in Christ, evidenced by Hebrews 8:7-13, which cites Jeremiah 31:31-34 to affirm the establishment of the New Covenant. This New Covenant is characterized by its eternal nature and assurance secured by God's unilateral promise, which includes the transformative gifts of a new heart and new spirit for believers (2 Corinthians 5:17). Fortner highlights the practical significance of understanding the New Covenant as the foundation of the believer's assurance in God's immutable grace, contrasting the types and shadows of the Old Covenant with the fulfilled work of Christ.
Key Quotes
“The old covenant was faulty, deficient, non-saving, non-effectual.”
“The New Covenant is called a new covenant because it is newly revealed in this Gospel age.”
“This new everlasting covenant is a covenant of pure free immutable grace in Christ.”
“Its blessings are all infallibly secured to God's elect because this is a one-way covenant.”
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when 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 when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: put...: Gr. give in...: Or, upon And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. - Hebrews 8:7-13“After This…”
It is necessary for us to realize the importance of the Book of Hebrews. Here the Holy Spirit shows us how that all things relating to the carnal, ceremonial, outward, legal aspects of Jewish worship were both fulfilled and forever abolished by the gospel, by the coming of Christ, the accomplishment of redemption by his death at Calvary, his enthronement and exaltation as God’s King upon his holy hill of Zion, and the outpouring of His Holy Spirit upon the nations of the world.
That is what this eighth chapter of Hebrews is about. In these 13 verses the Holy Spirit declares that God has abolished the old covenant by fulfilling its types and shadows, by bringing in the new. All the carnal, earthly priests of the Old Testament, all the laws given to Israel, and all the ceremonies of legal worship in the Mosaic age were ordained for and served only one purpose. – They pointed to Christ! They had no other function!
In this gospel day, the Lord Jesus Christ has “obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises” (v. 6). Our all-glorious Christ is the Mediator of a better covenant, established upon better promises. That better covenant, established upon better promises, is the covenant of grace, the new covenant.
Why was this new covenant necessary? That question is answered in Hebrews 8:7-13.
The Old Covenant
The old covenant had to be replaced by a new covenant, because the old covenant was faulty (v. 7). That first covenant was the covenant of the Levitical priesthood. It was a covenant made with physical Israel and delivered to that nation by Moses. It was a typical covenant, only typical and altogether typical (Heb. 7:11,18).
The people with whom the old covenant of the law was made were typical of the true Israel of God, the church of God’s elect. The blessings promised in it were shadows, types and pictures, of good things to come. The sacrifices of it were pictures of Christ and his one great sacrifice for sin. The priests, the mediators of that covenant, were typical of Christ, our great High Priest.
That old covenant was faulty, deficient, non-saving, non-effectual. It was weak and faulty simply because it was only typical. Its priests were all sinful men. Its sacrifices were only animals. Its offerings could never put away sin. If this covenant, its priests and sacrifices, laws and ceremonies, commandments and ordinances, could have redeemed and saved, there would have been no reason for Christ to come (Heb. 10:1-4, 9).
The New Covenant
The new covenant (v. 8) of this Gospel age is the covenant of grace promised back in Jeremiah 31. Finding fault with the people, the priests, the sacrifices, and the ceremonies of the old covenant of the law, the Lord God said, “Behold, the days come, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” This is a direct quotation from Jeremiah 31:31-34. This prophetic passage is referred to again in precisely the same way in Hebrews 10:15-17.
This covenant of grace is not called “a new covenant” because it is newly made, or of a new origin. We know that because this covenant is elsewhere called “the everlasting covenant.” It is a covenant made with Christ our covenant Surety before the foundation of the world (Heb. 13:20; Rev. 13:8).
It is called a new covenant because it is newly revealed in this Gospel age. -- That which is revealed second was made first. It is called a new covenant, because it is always new and fresh. -- It will never grow old, or give place to another. It is called a new covenant, because it gives the believer a new record, a new heart, a new nature, and a new spirit. Indeed, for those who are in Christ, those who are partakers of this new covenant, all things are new (2 Cor. 5:17).
Covenant of Grace
This new, everlasting covenant is a covenant of pure, free, immutable grace in Christ. This is the covenant which gave David hope and confidence on his death bed (2 Sam. 23:5). This new, everlasting covenant is immutable and sure, its blessings are all infallibly secured to God’s elect, because this is a one-way covenant. It was made between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit before the worlds were made. In that sense it is a bilateral covenant. However, in so far as we are concerned, it is a unilateral covenant. Its blessings are secured by the will of God alone.
This is what the Lord God declared from old eternity that he would do for all his people in this Gospel day by his free, sovereign, saving grace in Christ: --“I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people…I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Heb. 8:9-12). Rejoice!
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