The Greater Always Includes the Lesser
I have recently become a father, which is easily one of the greatest joys of my life. Seeing this kind of radical transformation in the first few years of child development is nothing short of an unfolding miracle. The first few months, I had some very anxious thoughts. Will I be a good father? Will I be able to provide well for my son? Will I successfully lead him and raise him as a man of God? Will I be able to leave him an inheritance of wisdom, blessing, physical resources, and godly understanding? My hope and prayer is a resounding yes. May I be the kind of father who leaves a godly inheritance to my son and all my children after him? One of the things that was helpful in my thinking was to understand that this kind of growth and inheritance building is a process of building on top of previous victories, and its development is like a staircase. I don't need everything figured out on day one; I am expanding my son's inheritance one day at a time. When I get to the culmination of what I can leave my son, one thing is for sure: his final inheritance will undoubtedly include all the building blocks in the initial parts of his inheritance.
God’s Covenantal History TO All Humanity
One of the primary errors that replacement theology makes is that it seeks to replace the lesser covenants with the greater covenant, that is, the new covenant. This error has a fatal flaw in that the greater always includes the lesser. The greater covenant, or the new covenant, does not replace the older covenants. It does two essential things: it includes the promises of the previous covenants, but it also expands the covenant. This idea of expansion vs replacement is critical to understanding how the covenants build on each other. To recap the five biblical covenants quickly:
God's covenant with Noah. (Gen 9: 1-17) In this covenant, God makes an unconditional covenant with Noah to never destroy the earth again via a flood. This is a one-way covenant, meaning that God tells Noah He is swearing by Himself never to flood the earth again, which requires nothing from Noah in return. This covenant was given to Noah and his family. I think most Christians would agree that God will not destroy the earth again by water; we all recognize that God has sworn this will not happen again.
God's covenant with Abraham. (Gen 15, Gen 17). In this covenant, God makes an unconditional covenant with Abraham to give him three things: land, descendants, and to be a blessing to the nations. This is another unilateral covenant. It's worth calling out that in Genesis 15 when God cut his covenant with Abraham, He put Abraham to sleep and passed through the pieces of sacrificial meat for both He and Abraham. This picture could not be clearer concerning God's promise to Abraham, which had nothing to do with Abraham's performance or righteousness. He and his physical descendants have entered an unconditional dynamic that was God initiated and where God swears only by Himself. Interestingly, there is so much contention over this covenant when God's covenant with Noah is almost universally accepted.
God's covenant with Moses. (Ex 19: 5-6) God makes a conditional covenant with Moses and corporate Israel in the Mosaic covenant. This is the first conditional covenant, which includes the Torah's giving, blessings and curses, and the conditions to remain in the land uninterrupted. God gave this to corporate Israel, and it is a two-way agreement. Moses had not even received this covenant and come down the mountain before Israel broke it. Thirty thousand men are slaughtered because of the golden calf, and then God shows mercy and renews this covenant. The cycle above is a pattern consistent throughout the entire story of Israel. Corporate Israel rebels, God judges, Israel repents, and then God shows mercy.
God's covenant with David. (2 Sam: 7) In the Davidic covenant, God promises that an heir of David will rule on the throne forever. This is another unconditional covenant that God made with David. We see a future fulfillment of this in Jesus; in this way, we have both a kingdom now but not yet fully here a reality. Yes, Jesus secured this through his death and resurrection, but there is much more to be released during his second coming when he rules on the throne of David. Jesus’ continued work is one of the many scenarios where we see partial fulfillment.
God's covenant to the world through Jesus. (Luke 22:17-20) The New Covenant of Salvation is a conditional covenant that all may come into freely, but it is conditional on them coming in through the narrow gate of Jesus. This covenant was given to the Jews first, but equally to the Gentile’s. (Rom 1:16)
A Latter Covenant Does Not Replace The Promises of A Former Covenant
What is clear about all of the above covenants is that they are all expanding the work of God upon the earth. We don't see God's covenant with Abraham replacing God's covenant with Noah. We don't see the Mosaic covenant replacing God's covenant with Abraham. Galatians reiterates this point when it says (I am bolding the part I am calling attention to): "Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ. What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise." (Gal 3: 15-18)
Paul reiterates that a latter covenant could never and would never replace a former covenant. Where Replacement Theology gets hung up is twofold. First, it frequently misunderstands the meaning of the "seed" above. A common refrain you will hear is that the above passage means that since Christ is the seed, all the covenants find their "yes" in Him in some mystical or platonic way that removes the need for the actual fulfillment of these promises. It's the same mistake made in 1 Cor 1:20 when the scripture says: "For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us." There are two errors made here. The first is that Replacement Theology typically misinterprets what seed means here. I will do a much longer content piece on this error, but I want to address the second mistake. Paul clearly says a latter covenant does not set aside a previous one. He also points out that the promises were never dependent on the law, but God, in His grace, gave it to Abraham through the promise. It is evident here that this was not some failure on Israel's part that somehow had the potential to remove God's promise; it was never contingent on faithful obedience to the law anyway.
I want to offer what I believe is a more scripturally cohesive understanding of what Paul is saying in Galatians 3 and 1 Cor 1:20. Rather than seeing Jesus's work as a replacement for the previous promises, we should see Jesus's work as securing the previous promises and expanding the kingdom of God. When Paul says that all promises find their yes in Christ, we should take him at his word. Jesus is not dissolving these promises mysteriously; He is not spiritualizing them and burning them up like incense; He is validating and securing them. He is laying claim and guaranteeing their fulfillment through the power given to Him. The kingdom of God is advancing, not retreating. God is not seeding ground back, but is expanding His promises to humanity. We should see the covenants in this light. The greater must always include the lesser.
I can foresee a negative response to the above, specifically from those attempting to quote Hebrews 8. Interestingly, Hebrews 8 is straight out of Jeremiah 31. The writer of Hebrews is quoting what was prophetically declared in Jeremiah 31 throughout all of Hebrews 8. It says, "The days are surely coming, says the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says 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." The discord from the replacement theology camp will be in Hebrews 8:13 - "By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear."
What prophetic idea is the writer of Hebrews trying to draw our attention to in Jeremiah? When we go back to the five covenants, two covenants are conditional. The first conditional covenant was the Mosaic, and the second was the New Covenant. The other three covenants (Noah, Abrahamic, Davidic) were unconditional and are not in view here, meaning they are not referenced when Hebrews is quoting Jeremiah. The writer of Hebrews even uses the singular word for covenant, not covenants, to refer to the Mosaic covenant. This singular usage of covenant is essential to note because the writer of Hebrews is only comparing and contrasting the Mosaic Covenant with the New Covenant.
The Mosaic Covenant held five promises in it:
That Israel will be a special possession unto God,
Israel will be a kingdom of priests to God,
Israel will be a holy nation,
God will fight for Israel and overcome all her enemies, and
God will treat Israel with grace and mercy and forgive her sins.
I would argue, and I believe the NT argues, that the promises of the mosaic covenant haven't changed at all. What has changed through the new covenant is the method for accomplishing these promises. Rather than the blood of bulls, the sacrificial system, and the works of the law God promises that “I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” What we see in Jeremiah 31 is just a stripped-down reading of the promises of the Mosaic covenant, but executed through the work of Jesus. Nothing was wrong with the promises of the Mosaic covenant; what was wrong with this conditional covenant was how it was accomplished. Man would never be able to reconcile with God through his own works. Jesus had to be the one to reconcile all things to Himself. In this way, Jesus ransoms the promises made to Israel and expands the offerings to the gentile nations. The new conditional covenant of Jesus is better than the old covenant of the sacrificial system.
The New Covenant is a radical departure from the status quo. It not only overcomes the deficiencies of the sacrificial system but also brings "reconciliation to the world." (Rom 11:15). Jesus, The Hope of the nations, now flows freely into the whole world, to which we say Amen. In the New Covenant, we find the partial fulfillment of one aspect of the Abrahamic covenant. We see that the promise that started with Abraham has now culminated into the ultimate blessing for the world. Partial because the promise to Abraham was land and descendants, but also that the Jewish people would be a blessing to the world. We receive this blessing through the Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Kings, the Apostles, and ultimately in Jesus. It is also partial even in the work of Jesus because there is a tension between the kingdom now and the kingdom’s future related to Jesus's work.
A potential dislocation in the church's thinking can be that God's open embrace of the gentile nations must come at the expense of the promises made to the firstborn, Israel. Yet this idea is a disservice to God's advancement of His plans and purposes. As Gentiles, we can experience the promises that we are included in without jealousy or envy towards our Jewish brothers and sisters. God's covenant fidelity to the Jewish people should be a firm foundation with which we can see God's covenant fidelity towards ourselves. What father rejects the promises made to the firstborn when he adopts a new son? God rejecting legitimate promises made unconditionally would never happen, and Paul makes clear a new covenant does not negate a previous covenant. Jesus’ coming secures all the promises and expands on them to include the gentile nations. The greater includes the lesser. God's kingdom, through Jesus, is advancing to make good on the promises to Noah, Abraham, David, and Moses and also to include the great hope of the nations.
The Negev Desert