The Lord deals with people on the basis of
covenant. Whether it is Old Testament or New Testament your comprehension of
the testaments and arriving at sound doctrine will always rest on a right
understanding of the meaning of the operative covenant. It must be understood
that a covenant is a contract or agreement between two or more entities. A
covenant is always conditional in nature.
That is to say there must be a performance as the condition on the part
of all parties to the covenant. It must be ratified by agreement and then
performance. The essential caveat on the part of people who the Lord has
engaged in covenant is the obedience of faith. Clearly we understand that the
Lord is always faithful to perform his part in the covenant whether it is the
old or the new covenant in Christ. With this background for our understanding
let us look at the eleventh chapter of Jeremiah.
“The word that came to Jeremiah from the
Lord saying, hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of
Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and say you unto them, thus saith
the Lord God of Israel; cursed be the man that obeyeth not the word of this
covenant. Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth
out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, obey my voice and do
them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I
will be your God: That I may perform the oath (covenant) which I swore unto
your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this
day. Then answered I, and said, so be it O Lord.” (Jer. 11:1-6). Is it not
clear that the commandment of the Lord is definite and conditional?
“Yet they obey obeyed not, nor inclined
their ear, but walked everyone in the imagination of their evil heart:
therefore I will bring upon them all the words of the covenant, which I
commanded them to do; but they did them not. And the Lord said unto me , A
conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
They are turned back to the iniquity of their forefathers, which refused to hear
my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and
the house of Judah have broken my
covenant which I made with their fathers. Therefore, thus saith the Lord,
Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and
then shall they cry out unto me, I will not hearken unto them.” (Jer. 11:
8-12).
So we see
and conclude through these two passages recorded as spoken by the prophet
Jeremiah that the covenant which the Lord mad with them was conditional in
nature. Their continued blessing was conditioned upon their continued obedience
to the precepts of the covenant which the Lord made with them. Disobedience
over time resulted in judgment coming from a righteous God. The Babylonian captivity was indeed
devastating to Judah as the Assyrian captivity had been previously to Israel
(the Northern ten tribes). The Lord is longsuffering.
Today’s
compromised and apostate Christian church should take heed from the lessons
learned from these passages in Jeremiah. Because as the old covenant with Israel
was conditional to the Israelites so is the new convent in Christ to the
church. It is totally conditional in
nature. The conditions imposed by the new covenant are a continuance in
faithfulness, obedience end endurance to the very end. The popular doctrines taught in most churches
today is that we have been ‘unconditionally elected '‘i.e., ‘saved ‘and that we
are covered by a doctrine they refer to as ‘eternal security’. These two
corrupted doctrines provide the
individual with a false sense of security and it is obviously ‘another gospel’
which Paul and the other apostles did not preach. These false doctrines were
prevalent u in the reformation period in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
and they have prevailed unto this present time. They were also adopted by those who adhere to
dispensational theology, i.e Scofieldism. They are totally unsupported by the
scriptures. (See my five part series on Calvinism posted on my blogsite in
April of 2017 for a complete appraisal of them as well as other points of
Calvinism).
David Lance Dean website and blogs:
authordavidlancedean.com
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