Exodus 24
We find here a principle which there had never been an example of before, namely a covenant founded on the blood. The covenant of the law is distinguished from the new covenant. The first was founded on the commitment which Israel had undertaken to do all that God had said; that is to say, to observe the law, v 3, 7.
Moses goes up the mountain, but bounds are placed to stop the people going up there. The church is in a quite different position; it goes up with its Head. Under the law, the way of the holy of holies was not yet manifested; and there was a veil. Moses alone can draw near to Jehovah. But there is still a mystery, hidden from the foundation of the world, not yet manifested under the law, which is the unity of the church with Christ her Head, as being His body, a body inseparable from every movement of the Head. Even as He is, so we are in this world. As for our experience, it is quite another thing; we are far from what Christ was; but by the fact of our union with Christ we can say that we are necessarily as He is. To say that one must be as He was is folly; He was, as to His body, born of the Holy Spirit. What is true is that we must walk in His steps; our body will only be changed in the resurrection. That which Christ is, we are in this world, because we are united to Him by the Holy Spirit, in virtue of the life which He has communicated to us. Such a fact was an unknown thing before the glorification of the Lord Jesus. The mystery (Rom 16: 25-26; Eph 3: 5-9; etc) now revealed is the union of Christ with the church which is His body. The faithful ones of the Old Testament had no knowledge of it, while those who are Christ’s know now that they are united to Him, John 14: 20.
The people commit themselves to observe the law, and the covenant is introduced by the blood with which they were sprinkled, in this condition. Such is the old covenant. It is evident that this covenant, and the blessing which flowed from it, depended on two things - on the faithfulness of God and on the faithfulness of the people. The blessing is here the result of their obedience; for us, it is the result of the obedience of Christ (in the detail too, it is true, the consequence of our own obedience). There is no blessing at all without obedience.
As the blessing depended on the faithfulness of the people, and as the people were wicked, there could be no blessing. God had to demand obedience under the covenant of the law. Now, He had to bless us, us who are under grace. When the blessing depends on the obedience of man, there is no blessing at all for him. If the people fail to keep their word, God must remain faithful to His and, as a consequence, He must refuse the blessing.
The word covenant in the Word does not necessarily require two contracting parties. A covenant is a disposition of God. The old covenant was made with the Israel, the new covenant also. It is not made with us, but we enjoy all the benefits of it, because the promises which it contains and which we must enjoy as Christians, have been made to Christ alone as seed of the woman and as seed of Abraham. If we are of Christ, we are therefore heirs of the promise. God cannot fail in His faithfulness. The new covenant rests on a promise made to Christ. The question is therefore: ’Is God faithful to His Son?’.
Being faithful to Christ, nothing can fail. God has received Christ; He receives me. The new covenant does not therefore depend in the least on the conduct of two parties, but on the promise of God to Christ and on the faithfulness of God to His promise.
Such is the comforting principle of grace. Christ is the object of a love which gives and promises; He has part in it as perfect and accomplished. We share in it by the blood of Christ who has entered into the holiest as Head of His people. The blood of the covenant (Heb 13: 20) is the proof that the disobedience has been expiated and that obedience has been accomplished. Christ obeyed unto death. There is the obedience on which the new covenant is founded, and the blood which has been shed by the obedience of Christ is the expiation of our disobedience. Every disobedience is effaced; all obedience is accomplished. It is not in a future obedience on our part that we find peace, but in the obedience of Christ already accomplished. God has made promises so that we can enjoy them with Christ, but for this we must be perfectly cleansed; and for this the pouring out of His blood is necessary. The new covenant which will be made with Israel rests on a promise of God to Christ, the seed, and we have the benefit of it because we are united to Christ. The Jew, under the law, began with the necessity of obedience; the Christian, by the certainty that God is for him, by the certainty of his salvation, of the faithfulness of God, and of that which Christ has accomplished completely.
A thought which often pre-occupies souls is the necessity of being sprinkled again in the blood of Christ; and thus the joy of a complete peace with God is often hindered. Under the law, there were only three occasions where there was the sprinkling of blood. 1) On the people to establish the covenant. 2) On the leper for his purification. 3) On the priests for their consecration. The blood has been put once for all on the people, on me as a sinner, on us as priests. It has never been shed again and it never will be any more. If the sprinkling of the blood of Christ is on me, can this blood lose its value? Could this value be effaced by something? Impossible! My conscience is purified for ever. It is the true position of a believer, to know that the blood of Christ is for him before God with its imperishable value. I therefore have no longer conscience of sin. The more I feel that sin is not imputed to me, the more I judge it. It is in the presence of his father who forgives him that a child feels his fault the most. This grace makes the conscience sensitive. The one whose clothes are clean takes care not to soil them.
The principle of the old covenant was the obligation of the people to obedience; it depended as much on the faithfulness of the people as on that of God; the new covenant depends on the faithfulness of God alone.
Exodus 34: 5-11 is a modification of the old covenant which is often confounded with the new. We do not belong to a covenant where the child is punished for the father. It was impossible after the golden calf that God could introduce Israel into Canaan on the simple footing of the first covenant. The sovereignty of God intervenes here when all is lost without it, for all was lost for Israel after the golden calf. If God had acted in justice, He would have finished with the people; then God reveals Himself as the merciful God, showing grace, slow to anger, and there is hope. We must come to grace so that our souls can have hope. From the moment that someone thinks he is lost, he is very happy that God is sovereign and disposed to show mercy to whom He will. Those who do not believe in the sovereignty of God do not know that they are lost; otherwise they would be happy to have recourse to it so that He would show mercy. Our pride alone hinders us from feeling we are lost.
Translated from Le Messager Evangélique