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Pastor Lars Larson, PhD                                                                                             FBC Sermon #643
First Baptist Church, Leominster, MA                                                                          January 8, 2012
Words for children: covenant, grace, Israel                                                                   Text: Matthew 26:26-30

The Gospel of Matthew (107)
Excursus: A Synopsis of Redemptive (Covenantal) History (Part 3)

        Today is the third and final Lord’s Day that we will give to set forth what I have called, “A Synopsis of Redemptive (Covenantal) History.”  What initially moved us to address this topic was this very significant declaration of our Lord in Matthew 26:27 and 28, when He took the cup before Him at their Passover Meal telling His disciples, “Drink of it, all of you, 28for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” 

        We have in our Lord’s words the fulfillment and realization of an age old promise of God to His people as well as the beginning of a new creation that expands into the future for the people of God.  In order to understand the beauty, the wisdom, and the wonder of this event, it is necessary to rehearse what God has done before this event and also to look forward to what God will do as a result of this event.  That is what I have been attempting to provide for us these past several weeks.

        If we stand back and look at what God is doing in history, we must first look at God’s initial act of creation.  When God first initiated creation, the world was described as a chaotic, disordered place.  Genesis 1:1-2a read, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.”  But God did not create the world to be a desert wasteland or a barren sea.  And so we read in Genesis 1:2b, “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”  God intended the world to be inhabited with many various creatures, a world which would be governed by His people, whom He created in His image.  But the human race fell into sin through Adam, resulting in mankind’s sinfulness and condemnation, and God’s creation continuing in chaos and confusion.  But God purposed to save a people for Himself, through whom He would accomplish His original design and purpose for His creation.  What we have been covering these past few weeks, has been an effort to describe and explain this history of God bringing to pass His will on earth as it is in heaven.

        Now, the major points of instruction that we have already covered in the first two Sundays include these:

I.  God created the human race in covenant relationship with Him and one another.  Because God is infinitely different in essence and glory from His finite creatures, He must come to us of His own will and He must reveal Himself to us and set the terms or grounds by which we may approach Him, know Him, and relate to Him.  God created us in covenant relation with Himself through the head of our race, Adam, who represented us as a race before God.

II.  God initially established a covenant relationship between Himself and Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, which was a covenant of works.  The requirement God placed on Adam in his covenant was obedience.  This is what distinguishes the idea of a covenant of works: by Adam’s obedience, he would have earned everlasting life by keeping works before God.WhenAdam broke this covenant in the Garden of Eden, he brought God’s wrath upon the human race and rendered mankind as guilty and helpless sinners in need of a Redeemer.

III.  But thankfully, God also made a covenant of grace with the people He has determined to save from their sin.  In the covenant of grace God does for man that what man could not do for himself; God Himself brings His salvation to His people.  God would send His Son as a Second Adam, who would keep the covenant of works for His people, doing what Adam had failed to do.  The benefit gained by Christ’s life and death would be granted to God’s people through God’s grace.

IV.  The Bible is a historical record of God relating to man based on these two covenants--the covenant of works and the covenant of grace.  The story and themes of what had transpired in the Garden of Eden are repeated in events and episodes that are found throughout the Old and New Testaments.  In fact the entire history of Israel can be regarded as a repetition of what unfolded in the garden.  We then sought to rehearse this history with attention to the central concept of God’s covenant.

        A.  The Abrahamic covenant as a covenant of grace 

        God’s purpose to reclaim His fallen world so as to fulfill His purpose for His creation is seen in the history of the nation of Israel.  It began with God’s gracious call of Abraham who would become the father of the nation of Israel.  God called Abraham and gave him many great promises, all promises of grace, things that God committed that He would do for him and his descendants.  God entered into covenant with Abraham based on the covenant of grace; nevertheless, Abraham did have covenantal obligations; Abraham was to walk in faith and in obedience to His God.[1] 
        God began to fulfill His promises to Abraham (and Isaac and Jacob) when He called Israel out of bondage in Egypt,[2] constituted His people as a holy nation,[3] and entered a covenant relationship with His people as God had established with His people through Moses.

        B.  The Mosaic covenant was an administration of the covenant of grace, but at the same time, it was a republication of the covenant of works.  God promised Israel that it would be a “son” to Him,[3] to whom He would give an inheritance of the Promised Land[4].  God made a covenant with His people at Mount Sinai.  The covenant was based upon the Ten Commandments.[5]  God would continue to bless them if they ordered their national and private lives according to His law.[6]  But they would incur God’s curse if they failed to keep His covenant.[7]
        Now last week I made reference of Herman Bavinck, who set forth the concept of the Mosaic covenant being an administration of the covenant of grace, and yet it was also a republication of the covenant of works.  This is a difficult matter to understand, so I think it would do us well to read his words:

        This covenant (i.e. the covenant of grace) with the ancestors continues, even when later at Sinai it assumed another form...  The covenant with Israel was essentially no other than that with Abraham.  Just as God first freely and graciously gave himself as shield and reward to Abraham, apart from any merits of his, to be a God to him and his descendants after him, and on that basis called Abraham to a blameless walk before his face, so also it is God who chose the people of Israel, saved it out of Egypt, united himself with that people, and obligated it to be holy and his own people.  The covenant of Mount Sinai is and remains a covenant of grace.  “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Exod. 20:2) is the opening statement and foundation of the law, the essence of the covenant of grace...
        Just as Abraham, when God allied himself with him, was obligated to “walk before his face,” so Israel as a people was similarly admonished by God’s covenant to a new obedience.  The entire law, which the covenant of grace at Mount Sinai took into its service, is intended to prompt Israel as a people to “walk” in the way of the covenant.  It is but an explication of the one statement to Abraham: “Walk before me and be blameless” (Gen. 17:1), and therefore no more a cancelation of the covenant of grace and the foundation of a covenant of works than this word spoken to Abraham.  The law of Moses, accordingly, is not antithetical to grace but subservient to it and was also thus understood and praised in every age by pious men and women.  But detached from the covenant of grace, it indeed became a letter that kills, a ministry of condemnation.[8]  Another reason why in the time of the Old Testament the covenant of grace took the law into its service was that it might arouse consciousness of sin, increase the felt need for salvation, and reinforce expectation of an even richer revelation of God’s grace.  It is from that perspective that Paul views especially the Old Testament dispensation of the covenant of grace.  He writes that Israel as a minor, placed under the care of the law, had to be led to Christ (Rom. 10:4; Gal. 3:23f.; 4:1f) and that in connection sin would be increased and the uselessness of works for justification and the necessity of faith would be understood (Rom. 4:15; 5:20; 7:7f; 8:3; Gal. 3:19).  On the one hand, therefore, the law was subservient to the covenant of grace; it was not a covenant of works in disguise and did not intend that humans would obtain justification by their own works.  On the other hand, its purpose was to lay the groundwork for a higher and better dispensation of that same covenant of grace to come in the fullness of time.  The impossibility of keeping the Sinaitic covenant and meeting the demands of the law made another and better dispensation of the covenant of grace necessary.  The eternal covenant of grace was provoked to a higher revelation of itself by the imperfection of the temporary form it had assumed in Israel.  Sin increased that grace might abound.  Christ could not immediately become human after the fall, and grace could not immediately reveal itself in all its riches.  There was a need of preparation and nurture. “It was not fitting for God to become incarnate at the beginning of the human race before sin.  For medicine is only given to the sick.  Nor was it fitting that God should become incarnate immediately after sin that man, having been humbled by sin, might see his own need of a deliverer.  But what had been decreed from eternity occurred in the fullness of time.”[9]

        Bavinck speaks of the Mosaic law once “detached from the covenant of grace”, in other words, when Israel viewed the Mosaic covenant as a covenant of works rather than of grace, the law became a condemning letter to them.[10]  Once Israel viewed the law, either in their very possession of it as their righteousness, or their keeping it as their righteousness (which Paul addressed in Romans 10:2-4), then it condemned them as a covenant of works. 

        Throughout the administration of the Mosaic covenant, the people were reminded of the holiness of God, the need for absolute obedience to His law, and that death was the sentence they deserved, which was played out before them every time they had to lay their hand on an animal and slay it in place of their own execution.  This covenant showed them they needed a greater king to lead them in the way of righteousness, who was greater than just an ordinary Davidic king (like that of the other nations), for their Davidic kings had failed them.  Even the best son of David as king had failed to deliver them and lead them into their rest.  God would provide them that King (Isa. 9:6, 7).  The Mosaic covenant/law showed the people of Israel that they needed a better prophet to teach them for their own prophets had failed them.  God would send them that Prophet (cf. Deut. 18:15; Acts 3:22).  The Mosaic covenant showed them they needed a far better priest to represent them before God for their own priests had failed them.  God would send them this better Priest (Psa. 110:1-4).  The entire system pointed them to their guilt, their helplessness, their need for God’s provision for a Savior, and their need for a better covenant which would obtain their pardon and enable them to live faithful lives in faith and obedience without sin.

        The Old Testament records that Israel had broken the covenant that God had made with the nation at Mount Sinai.  After King Solomon had died, the nation experienced civil war, resulting in the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah.  Both of these nations were regarded as the covenant nation of Israel.  In them both, Israel refused to be governed by God in keeping their covenant that He had made with them.  As a result, not only did Israel fail to receive the benefits promised in the covenant, Israel incurred God’s curse and wrath for breaking the covenant.  The punishment that God brought upon Israel and Judah when they broke His covenant included His rejection of them as His people, the curses of the covenant was upon them, and they were exiled from the Land that God had given them.
        We first read of the failure of Israel, the Northern Kingdom.  This occurred in 722 B.C. "The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed" (2 Kings 18:11f).
        But Judah also broke the covenant. 

        13Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments and My statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by My servants the prophets.”  14But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God.  15They despised His statutes and His covenant that He made with their fathers and the warnings that He gave them.  They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them that they should not do like them.  16And they abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal.  17And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.  18Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them out of His sight.  None was left but the tribe of Judah only.” (2 Kings 17:13-18)

But then later Judah was also ejected from the land (cf. 2 Kings 25).

V.  Replication of the Garden of Eden theme in the national life of Israel

        Throughout the history of redemption, the recording history of God’s covenantal dealings with the human race, God repeats the themes of the covenant of works and grace through His dealings with His people.[11]  Consider first, the parallels between Adam and Israel.  The story of the Bible is a replaying or repeating of the experience of Adam before God in the Garden of Eden.  This may be seen in God’s dealings with the nation of Israel. 
        Let us give attention to the description that God’s Word gives of the Promised Land after God had ejected them and had made the land desolate through the invasion of Israel’s ebonies.  The desolation of the Promised Land is projected to have had an effect on the entire world.  There is a universal consequence for Israel breaking its covenant.  The world is described as returning to a state of chaos, confusion, barren desolation.  We read in Isaiah 24:1ff:

1Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty and makes it waste,
Distorts its surface
And scatters abroad its inhabitants.
2And it shall be:
As with the people, so with the priest;
As with the servant, so with his master;
As with the maid, so with her mistress;
As with the buyer, so with the seller;
As with the lender, so with the borrower;
As with the creditor, so with the debtor.
3The land shall be entirely emptied and utterly plundered,
For the LORD has spoken this word.
4The earth mourns and fades away,
The world languishes and fades away;
The haughty people of the earth languish.
5The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants,
Because they have transgressed the laws,
Changed the ordinance,
Broken the everlasting covenant.
6Therefore the curse has devoured the earth,
And those who dwell in it are desolate.
Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned,
And few men are left.

        Israel is shown to have been a “son” of God, whom God had entrusted with ruling over the world on His behalf, who was to make his God (Father) proud by bringing forth His glory to all the world.  In short, Israel was to be as Adam, it was to “be fruitful and replenish the earth”, but instead, due to its sin, just as Adam before had done, Israel’s sin resulted the world’s desolation.  Adam was to tend the Garden on behalf of God and through his obedience bring blessing to himself, his race, and all the world.  But through sin, Adam was ejected from Paradise, the Garden of Eden.  The Promised Land of Israel was also set forth as a Paradise in which God could dwell with His people; the Promised Land was a land flowing with milk and honey.  But because if Israel’s failure, just as with Adam, Israel was ejected from its Paradise, the promise Land, and Israel’s covenant relationship with God had been broken.

        Consider these parallels between Adam and Israel.

(1)  God had “created” Adam as his “son” (Luke 3:38); God “created” Israel his “son” (Hos. 11:1).
(2)  God established a covenant (of works) with Adam; God established a covenant (of grace) with Israel
(3)  God had given His law to Adam;  God had given His law to Israel.
(4)  Adam had his experience in an ideal paradise, in which he had no need before him but all things were readily available before him; Israel began its pilgrimage in a wilderness, in which nothing was available except for God’s bare provision, but brought into an ideal land, with every privilege and blessing afforded it..
(5)  As Adam, Israel would go through a trial or probationary period, which took place in the wilderness from Mount Sinai as they traveled to the promised land. 
(6)  God promised fellowship with Adam while he kept his covenant; God promised His presence and blessing to Israel based upon it keeping its covenant.
(7)  God had promised paradise confirmed to Adam upon completing his probation; God promised blessing in the Promised Land to Israel upon keeping the covenant.  Israel initially journeyed through the wilderness to the Promised Land, a land that flowed with milk and honey, which was in a manner a return to paradise, a place of Sabbath rest for the people of God.
(8)  God excluded Adam and Eve from the Garden--Paradise; God eventually ejected Israel from the Promised Land-paradise.
(9)  Adam had forfeited enjoyment of his Sabbath rest in paradise; Israel forfeited its enjoyment of its Sabbath rest before God in the land that God had given it.
(10)  God promised Adam and Eve a Redeemer to save them; God promised a Redeemer to Israel who would bring a new covenant relationship between God and His people.

VI.  God’s Promise of a coming Savior who would establish a new covenant with Israel.

        Even as Israel was breaking its covenant with God, God began to promise Israel that He would one day redeem a remnant of His people, establishing a new covenant with them.  God promised a new covenant through His prophets.  But the new covenant that God promised would come through His Messiah, His Son, would be a replacement of the former covenant that had failed to deliver Israel from its sin.  It would be a fulfillment of God’s initial promise to Adam and Eve.  It would be realized through her promised seed, who was the Lord Jesus Christ.

        31Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-- 32not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.  33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  34No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jer. 31:31-34)

        The coming Messiah Himself would be the ground of this new covenant.  Isaiah 42:6ff declares,

“Behold!  My Servant whom I uphold,
My Elect One in whom My soul delights!
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
2He will not cry out, nor raise His voice,
Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.
3A bruised reed He will not break,
And smoking flax He will not quench;
He will bring forth justice for truth.
4He will not fail nor be discouraged,
Till He has established justice in the earth;
And the coastlands shall wait for His law.”

5Thus says God the LORD,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it,
Who gives breath to the people on it,
And spirit to those who walk on it:
6“I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness,
And will hold Your hand;
I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people,
As a light to the Gentiles,
7To open blind eyes,
To bring out prisoners from the prison,
Those who sit in darkness from the prison house. (Isa. 42:1-6)

        The coming Messiah Himself would be the one who secures this new covenant on behalf of God’s people.  He would be God’s Prophet, Priest, and King to the God’s creation, even His new creation that would one day come.  As God’s Mediator, Christ communicates God’s will to the world, represents God to the world and the world to God, rules over God’s world on behalf of God.
        The New Testament sets forth Jesus Christ as the faithful Son, over against Israel, the unfaithful son.  We have shown this throughout our study of Matthew’s Gospel.  As God had called forth His “son” Israel out of Egypt, God had called His Son, Jesus, to come forth from Egypt (Matt. 2:15).  As God had sent Israel through a probationary trial in the wilderness, in which it failed miserably, so the Spirit of God drove Jesus into the wilderness to undergo His trial of the devil, but Christ, in contrast to Israel (and Adam), came forth tried and tested and victorious.  Just as God had given His law to Israel at Mount Sinai, so our Lord gave forth the new Torah to His disciples in His Sermon on the Mount.  But Israel suffered under the weight of its own sin incurring the wrath of God for having broken its covenant, in contrast the Lord Jesus also suffered God’s wrath, but He did so vicariously, not for His sin, but for the sins of His people that He might redeem them from sin, remove God’s curse from them, and restore them to God.
        But of course, Jesus Christ too is set forth as the second Adam, or better, the last Adam, who successfully accomplished what Adam failed to fulfill in the garden.  But where Adam was God’s federal head representing the human race in this present world, our Lord Jesus is the last Adam who is God’s federal representative over all of God’s people with view to the promised new creation.

        12Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned-- 13(For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.  14Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.  15But the free gift is not like the offense.  For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.  16And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned.  For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.  17For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)
        18Therefore, as through one man’ offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.  19For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.  20Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound.  But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, 21so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 5:12-21)

        When the Lord Jesus sat with His disciples the night He was betrayed, He passed that cup to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins”, He was urging His disciples to see that in His life, which was seen in His blood, was about to pour out upon the cross whereby He would bring to pass all of the promises and of God and all of the purposes of God in His creation.  All of redemptive history centers here on the cross of Christ, in which He gave atonement for sin. 

        The entire Bible reveals to us that there is only One who could keep God’s law as God had imposed upon His creation.  Jesus Christ alone kept God’s law fully without any infraction or failure.  He as God’s Mediator, enables His people also to keep God’s law, not perfectly, but for the most part faithfully, as He teaches them--Christ as our Prophet, intercedes for them--Christ as our Priest), and rules over them--Christ as our King.  When the Lord Jesus established a new covenant with God on behalf of His people, He has promised to confirm them in faith and obedience to God.  He did not give a new law whereby we are now able to keep God’s law.  Rather, He gives His people the Holy Spirit, whereby His life can flow into them and He can live His life through them.  We read in the Old Testament that this was God’s provision.

24“For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.  25Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.  26I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  27I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”  (Ezek. 36:24-27)

        Again, Jesus Christ alone can keep God’s law.  You can only keep God’s law to the degree that Christ dwells in your hearts through faith and He manifests His life through you by means of the Holy Spirit.  Paul stated it this way:

        2For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.  3For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  5For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.  6For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.  7For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.  8Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  9You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.  Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.  10But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  11If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.  12So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.  13For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.  14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  15For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”  16The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Rom 8:2-17)

        So what are we to do?  See in Christ alone not only our justification but also our sanctification.  He is not only alone the one who can bring us forgiveness; He alone can enable us to live righteously.  Trust Him to manifest His life to you and through you by means of the Holy Spirit.  Pray and trust Christ to do in you that which you cannot do apart from Him.  Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

VII.  Jesus Christ accomplishes God’s purposes through “Israel”, His church. 

        I would assert that the church of the New Testament is Israel reconstituted in the New Testament.  Just as God had constituted Israel as a nation when He entered into covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, Jesus Christ reconstituted Israel the night that He established a new covenant with His twelve apostles, who would rule over the twelve tribes of Israel.[12]  When the Lord Jesus came as Israel’s king, He replaced the current Jewish leadership from its leadership over Israel.  The Jews sought to kill Jesus rather than have Him reign over them.  But even in their rejection, God accomplished the redemption of His people and the exaltation and enthronement of Israel’s king in heaven.  Jesus Christ is the promised ruling Son of David who is ruling over Israel (Acts 2:22-36). 
        Jesus Christ accomplishes for His church what Adam had failed to achieve and what Israel failed to achieve.  Israel under the old covenant was to bear witness to the glory of God to world, to the Gentiles.   Instead, the Gentiles had come to blaspheme God due to Israel’s terrible witness (Rom. 2:24).  But Christ accomplished the bringing forth the glory of God to the Gentiles; the church became comprised of both Jews and Gentiles. 

7Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.  8Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, 9and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written: “For this reason I will confess to You among the Gentiles, And sing to Your name.”  10And again he says: “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people!”  11And again: “Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles!  Laud Him, all you peoples!”  12And again, Isaiah says: “There shall be a root of Jesse; And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, In Him the Gentiles shall hope.” (Rom. 15:7-12)

        Peter describes the church in terms showing the realization in the church of Old Testament Israel aspirations.

        9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  10Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  11Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” (1 Pet. 2:9-11)

        The church is also set forth in parallel with Israel of the Old Testament.  As God had called Israel out of bondage from Egypt, so God calls us to Christ from our slavery to sin.  As Israel was baptized unto Moses, identified with Moses through the Red Sea crossing[14], so the New Testament believers are baptized into Jesus Christ through our baptism.  As God enabled Israel to travel through the desert wilderness to finally enter the Promised Land, Israel’s promised rest, so the Lord Jesus is leading us in a pilgrimage through this fallen world as we follow Christ in faith. 

        1Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.  2For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.  3For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said:

        “So I swore in My wrath,
        ‘They shall not enter My rest,’”

although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.  4For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”

        6Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 7again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said:

        “Today, if you will hear His voice,
         Do not harden your hearts.”

        8For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day.  9There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.  10For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.  11Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. (Heb. 4:1-11)

VIII.  One day the church will enter into Paradise its access being restored to God’s people through Jesus Christ

        We read in the last chapter of the Bible a description of heaven, the final abiding place for the people of God.  It is described in terms reminiscent of Paradise, the Garden of Eden.  But our future Paradise, which is been secured for us by the Second Adam is far greater than the Paradise that the first Adam had lost to us.  Through Adam’s sin, paradise was lost to us and our entrance was forbidden.  Through Jesus Christ our access and dwelling place has been secured for us in a glorious city in which the central feature and figure is God upon His throne.  When one reads the description, allusions of Eden are apparent:

        1And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.  2In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month.  The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.  3And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.  4They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.  5There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light.  And they shall reign forever and ever. (Rev. 22:1-5)

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An excerpt[15] from
The REVELATION of Jesus Christ
by Horatius Bonar (1808 – 1889

            1. Entrance into the paradise of God. The 'heavenly' is the pattern of the ‘earthly’ in all things.  The model of earth, and all that is good on earth—is to be found in heaven.  Adam’s paradise below was but the image and shadow of the paradise above, as the tabernacle in the wilderness was but the 'example' or image of the better tabernacle above, showed to Moses on the mount.  From the lower paradise (or garden) man was cast out, and it is into the upper paradise that he is brought. He gets the earthly back again, or the new earth—but he gets far more; he gets the heavenly as well as the earthly.  'Paradise regained' is his; and in addition to it the paradise of God.  From both was man shut out. Both were barred against the sinner.  The flaming sword confronted each child of Adam, and forbade his entrance.  Sin made him an outcast, an exile, a condemned man—with no home but the waste howling wilderness, the land of darkness.
        'So He drove out the man' was the doom not of one—but of all. Expulsion from the presence and the paradise of God and from the tree of life was the sentence. We all went out of paradise with the first Adam, and became, like him, banished men. The second Adam entered in for us, and took possession of it in our name. He quenched the flaming sword; He sprinkled these heavenly places and heavenly things with His own blood (Hebrews 9:23), so that now the entrance lies open for the sinner. In believing, we get the title to all this just now; and as those who have believed and overcome, we shall enter in hereafter. Entrance into the paradise of God, through Him who is the gate, is the reward of the overcomer.
        No slumber, then, no ease, no sheathed swords at present! Forward is our battle-word. Forward to the celestial city, to the paradise of God, 'that so an entrance may be opened to us abundantly' (2 Peter 1:2) into this everlasting glory. 'Today shall you be with me in paradise' may not be the promise; but it will not be long, for He who shall come will come, and will not delay.
            2. Access to the tree of life. In that paradise is the tree of life; and the promise is of free access to it, the reverse of that refusal to man of access to the earthly tree (Genesis 3:22-23). Free entrance, free access, and free liberty to eat of the tree of life. 
        Everything connected with life is comprised in Jesus Christ—'In Him was life; and the life was the light of men' (John 1:4). He is the bread of life; the water of life; He is life itself; He is 'eternal life' (1 John 5:20). The tree of life may or may not be an actual tree; but whether figurative or real, it represents Christ Himself, or something connected with Him, as the food of our immortal life, of our risen and glorified life. 
        Just as He says, 'I will give him the morning star' (that is, I will give him myself in the character of the morning star), so here He means, I will give him myself as the nourishment of his glorified being, and this in such a near and full way as he cannot have on earth. Christ, as the tree of life, the food of the new life, the glorified life, is to be given to the conqueror in a special way, such as even faith cannot conceive of here. There will be different degrees of glory, and knowledge, and love—different degrees of intimacy and fellowship with the Lord Jesus. He shall bring us into His banqueting house in a new way then—under His shadow we shall sit down with great delight, and His fruit shall be sweet to our taste. 
        Ezekiel's tree of life, and gushing stream, represent the earthly blessedness restored (more than restored), as in Adam's paradise. John' tree of life and crystal river represent the heavenly splendor and gladness; for the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another—both of them together making up the heritage of the redeemed. 'Blessed are those who keep His commandments' (or 'have washed their robe') 'that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city' (Revelation 22:14).
        The prospect of such things is greatly influential upon us here. It tells on our daily life. It quickens us, it nerves us, it purified us, it comforts us, it makes us brave and resolute. 
        Nor is that prospect separate from the cross of Christ in which we glory here.  That tree of life represents the fullness of a dying, risen, and glorified Christ.  It is what it is for life and nourishment, by reason of its connection with the great atonement; so that even in the kingdom we shall eat of that of which atonement has been made—priestly or sacrificial bread—bread which is connected with blood, and has passed through the fire—that flesh which is meat indeed, and that blood which is drink indeed (Exodus 29:33). 
        The garden of Gethsemane and eternal Paradise can never be far asunder.  They are inseparably linked to each other. The tree of death and the tree of life are after all but one; the glory of the latter can never be disjoined from the shame of the former. 
        As we fell in the first Adam—we rose in the second.  No more.  Not only shall we have restoration of all that the first Adam lost, but partnership in all that the second Adam has won; in all that He has and is. As one with Him, as represented by Him, we enter into the second paradise, and eat of the tree of life; not only unbarred—but welcomed; as the very tree to which we are entitled as conquerors—Ephesian conquerors—in a Church of Ephesian backsliders. For beauty, for food, for shade, for health, is that tree renowned!  And all these we shall share with Him in whom, and by whom we are introduced into the garden, and made welcome to the heavenly fruit. 
        And does not this tree send out its invitation to all the sons of the first Adam?  Does it not bid welcome to all? 'Whoever will' is the invitation to the water of life; 'whoever' is the equally wide invitation to the tree of life.

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