#two covenants

[reformedontheweb]

"Abraham is to be considered in a double capacity: he is the father of all the true believers and the father and root of the Israelite nation. God entered into covenant with him for both of these seeds and since they are formally distinguished from one author, their covenant interest must necessarily be different and fall under distinct consideration. The blessings appropriate to either must be conveyed in a way agreeable to their peculiar and respective covenant interest. And these things may not be confounded without a manifest hazard to the most important articles in the Christian religion."

Nehemiah Coxe and John Owen, Covenant Theology, (Reformed Baptist Academic Press, Palmdale, CA: 2005), 72-73.

[reformedontheweb]

Gal 4:24-26 KJV 24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

The Bible

[gracebasedlife-blog]

Bible Contradiction #1

I am going to start with a series of these posts, called bible contradictions. Verses that seem to contradict one another when taken out of context of without viewing it through the finished work of Jesus. Here's number 1:

Verse 1: I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” - Ex 20:4-6

Verse 2: "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them."- 1 John 4:16

Here we have 2 verses that depict 2 extremely opposing characteristics of God. The verse in Exodus show God as a jealous god, who loves us if we love Him back, and punishes us if we do no love him. The verse in 1 John shows God to be loving, unconditional. There's plenty more of these verses.

So which is it? Is God a jealous God, or does He Love us unconditionally?

Important: To understand this we have to view this through the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Read here to get a better understanding of these 2 covenants and how they drastically change the way we read the scriptures.

This means quite a few things changed in our relationship with God. No longer does He keep a record of all our wrongs, like he did in the old covenant, no longer does He give us what we deserve (do good get good, do bad get bad) but gives us uncondionally GOOD THINGS because of the finished work of Jesus.

Let us learn to know God as He is depicted through the life of Jesus in the New covenant, where He's never depicted as Jealous, Scary, Angry or waiting for you to put a foot wrong so He can crack his whip.