The five main covenants in the Bible provide an important “skeletal framework” on which the Bible rests. They are:    

1) The Adamic Covenant
2) The Noahic Covenant
3) The Abrahamic Covenant
4) The Mosaic Covenant
5) The New Covenant

The Adamic Covenant

The Adamic Covenant was made when God shed the blood of an animal to clothe Adam and Eve after their Fall from their right-standing relationship with God. They had disobeyed His one command not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil – the Law or Morality Tree, ✞ Genesis 2:17. He had warned Adam that if he did so, “you will surly die.” This did not immediately happen to them physically but they did experience a separation spiritually –  becoming “dead to God” in their spirit-self.

It was only by God’s Grace and Mercy that they did not get all that they deserved – annihilation. As the result of their rebellion, every human being is born “in Adam,” sharing in his state of spiritual separation from God. God promised Satan, who deceived Eve and Adam that one of her offspring who would “crush your head and you will strike his heal,” a prophecy of a coming redeemer in ✞ Genesis 3:15.

The Noahic Covenant

In ✞ Genesis 9:8-17, the covenant God made between Himself “and all life on earth” is called the Noahic Covenant. This happened soon after Noah and his family left the Ark and included God’s promise that He would never again cause a world-wide Flood.  Rainbows now appear as His reminder to mankind of His promise. It is a sign of His Grace and Mercy that He graciously chose to spare a remnant of eight people who then agreed to believe and follow God’s direction to build an enormous boat  – even though they had never experienced rainfall, let alone a flood.

The Abrahamic Covenant

✞ Genesis 12:1-4 describes the process of the Abrahamic Covenant, when God invited Abram to leave his homeland and “go to a land I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you will be a blessing. And I will bless those that bless you, and curse those who curse you. And in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed. So Abram went, as Jehovah had spoken unto him … .”

✞ Genesis Chapter 15 gives a lengthy description of the covenant promises God offered to Abram which he agreed to by faith (as Romans 4:5 makes clear.) As a sign of God’s promise, He instructs Abram to kill and divide 3 animals and add 2 birds. Then, while Abram fell asleep, a torch of flame (a pre-figurement of Christ) came through the animals, sealing the covenant promises. Why is that significant? Because God made the “Abrahamic Covenant” with Jesus, not with Abram, who enjoyed the promises by faith alone, not by keeping any requirements.

Later, in ✞ Chapter 17, God confirms the covenant and adds the promise that he would be the father of many nations. He then changes Abram’s name to Abraham – which means “father of many nations.” God also makes one requirement as a sign of this covenant – that he, and all males associated with him, be circumcised.

So, unlike the previous two covenants, God’s covenant given to Abraham was:

Unilateral – meaning it was made and kept between God and Jesus so Abraham could not break a covenant he did not make. And since there was as yet no “laws” to break, there was no sin to make. He was a “friend of God” even though still in Adam because the gift of right-standing (justification) was imputed to him by his faith in God’s faithfulness, ✞ Romans 4:20-22

Unconditional – meaning God’s promises to Abraham had no “strings” attached because it was based on his faith in God’s “works,” not on faith in his own works, as ✞ Romans 4:5 & 13 make clear.

Everlasting – ✞ Genesis 17:13 states that this covenant is everlasting (and its benefits come to Christians through Jesus. But, our circumcision is now of the “heart.” Our “old man” has been crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20) by faith in His New Covenant of Grace, made with Father-God on our behalf.)

The Mosaic Covenant

The Israelite nation began with Abraham and Sarah (her name means Grace) with the son of the promise, Isaac. All of Isaac’s descendants were automatically beneficiaries of the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant. However, God prophesied to Abraham that hard times would come and the Israelites would be enslaved in Egypt, rather than be settled in the Promised Land God had given to Abraham.

After about 400 years, God miraculously delivered them from Egyptian bondage and met their many needs all the way to Mt. Sinai where God brought them to confirm Abraham’s Grace-based covenant with them. He wanted to relate to them as He had with Abraham but they rejected His generous offer. So, through Moses, God gave them a works-based covenant whereby they would be blessed when they faithfully obeyed the ✞ 613 laws of this covenant – and be cursed when they didn’t.

That drastic change in the terms of this new Mosaic Covenant caused endless misery for them for some 1500 years that covers about 82% of the Bible. It extends from Genesis Chapter 19, through the Four Gospels and ends at Calvary.

Surprised? So was I when I discovered that Matthew 1:1 was NOT the beginning of the New Covenant. Jesus came under the Mosaic Law to fulfill it then abolish it at Calvary for all Jewish believers. ✞ Ephesians 2:15) Why only Jewish believers? Because God never gave the Mosaic Covenant to Gentiles. Surprised? So was I when I began to take Jesus’ Gospel revealed to Paul seriously – as God’s unmixed Gospel of lavish Grace.

So, what are some of the other ways that the Mosaic Covenant differs from God’s Grace-based covenants described above and the New Covenant yet to be explained?

Bilateral – meaning God made this covenant directly with the Israelites who were blessed or cursed according to their behavior. Sound familiar? It is the way this fallen world operates and many churches and Christians too. Why? Because they think that is the way God relates to them because of the mixture of these two opposing covenants in their theology and in their heads. They have Moses and Jesus swirled together and it is a deadly mixture!

Conditional – since the Israelites rejected God’s covenant of Grace and agreed to this works-based covenant, God’s justice was more apparent than His mercy. He justly enforced the terms they agreed too and it was awful. God’s love and mercy did not change – just the terms of the covenant they agreed too – even before He told them all the terms. Condemnation is inevitable under such a losing proposition.

Temporary – fortunately! Orthodox Judaism ended with the Temple’s destruction in 70 AD. It brought an official end to the animal sacrifices to cover their sins. (It could do nothing to change their sin nature in Adam.)

So in the Big Picture, what was God’s purpose for the Mosaic Law that arouses sin and causes death ✞ (2 Corinthians 3:7-11) because it can’t be kept perfectly by in Adam humans? To reveal that mankind’s real problem in not bad behavior (sinning) but a bad sin nature in Adam and, therefore, reveals a desperate need for a Savior to:

a)  forgive and remove ALL sins of All mankind for All time – past, present and future and

b)  to offer to all in Adam sinners a new nature through re-birth – by God’s unmerited, underserved Grace through His gift of faith. ✞ 2 Corinthians 5:17.

The New Covenant

So, in their own way each of the Four Covenants above point the way to the ultimate goal and Masterpiece of the Bible: the New Covenant, made possible by the shed blood of the Perfect Lamb and High Priest of a New Order – Jesus Christ. This Grace-based Covenant is based on belief in Jesus’ faith in His Father’ love and Jesus’ obedience to Him that flowed from their relationship. Our salvation is based on faith in Jesus’ perfect ✞ Finished Work – not on our imperfect efforts.

It is a FREE gift – as is Justification/righteousness – that can’t be earned, bought or lost because rebirth entails the Divine Exchange of your evil, unrighteousness nature in Adam with Jesus’ righteousness nature of the Last Adam, Jesus Christ. Jesus revealed this preposterous offer of total grace through Paul, as concisely explained in ✞ 2 Corinthians 5:16-21.

So, like the Abrahamic Covenant, it is

Unilateral – made between Father-God and Jesus on our behalf so we can’t break it by sinning. It is offered to all humans – Jew and Gentile.

Unconditional – there are no strings – all based on God’s gift of His divine, Agape, unselfish LOVE!

Everlasting – because each believer is in Christ, in God and sealed in the Holy Spirit. All three Persons of the Godhead live in every reborn Believer permanently! Anything less than that is NOT the Gospel of lavish Grace that Jesus revealed to Paul. You can’t complete Jesus’ Finished Work on His Cross – just believe it and receive it, like a little child. Religion is working to reach God. Christianity is God sending Jesus down to DO all that was necessary to qualify you for Heaven by rebirth – by His Grace through belief that God is actually that wonderful.

Since Christians are not under the Mosaic Law, are we “lawless” – as some critics of those who teach Jesus’ Gospel of lavish Grace insist? We saw the answer to that question at the end of the last Post by quoting ✞ Romans 8:1-3. There, Jesus revealed to Paul that the “Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus set me (Paul) free from the (Mosaic) Law of sin and death.” (Again, God never gave that Law system to the Gentiles.) Yet all mankind is under the “principle of law and of sin” which causes spiritual death, just by being initially in Adam. It started when he ate of the “Law Tree” instead of the “Life Tree” – Jesus!

So, what is this “higher Law” of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus? Well, the short answer is it’s  Father-God’s active love for you to bring you to Himself through believing in and receiving the Finished Work of Jesus through the wooing of the Holy Spirit. It can be seen as having three aspects of God’s Grace that He offers us.

Simplified

The Three aspects of “the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus” are:

God’s deep, Personal and unselfish Love for all mankind – whether you are still a sinner in Adam or now a reborn saint in Christ. (These are the only two possibilities.)

His Gift of Faith to believe in and receive that revelation of His Personal love for you.

The Liberty and His abundant life that God’s Grace unfolds to all those who are reborn into Christ Jesus – the Tree of Life.

Amplified

1) The law of faith is found in ✞ Romans 3:27, which Paul contrasts with the law of works. The more you renew your mind with a revelation of God’s Love, Grace and Mercy towards you, proven by what Jesus DID for you, by understanding the terms of the New Covenant, you will learn to trust, depend and rest in all that Father-God wants to bless you with – like He did for Abraham, even though he was still in Adam. AND, how much more for you when you are His beloved child through rebirth. Our New Covenant is even better than Abraham’s.

✞ Hebrews 11:1 says that God’s gift of “faith is the substance of things hoped for (the expectation of good from God) and the evidence of things not yet seen” (i.e. not yet materialized from the Unseen Realm.)

2) The law of love for God and neighbor is found in ✞ Matthew 22:37-40. Jesus made it possible in the New Covenant for reborn believers to love God and others with God’s Agape (unselfish) love by sending the Holy Spirit of Love into every believer. The Mosaic Covenant made 613 demands on the Jews that they could not keep. In our New Covenant, God placed all of His just demands on Jesus who met all the requirements perfectly so “we could be made the righteousness of God in Christ”-  by faith alone in Christ alone. He did the heavy lifting – we get the benefits. That’s Grace!

3) The law of liberty is cited in ✞ James 1:25.While James may have mistakenly thought that attempting to keep the Mosaic Law brings freedom, we know now that it actually arouses sin and causes death – as explained in ✞ 2 Corinthians 3:7-11. However, the inter-connectedness of all three laws in the New Covenant, which God keeps for us, is summarized in ✞ Galatians 5:1 and 6 as follows:

“Stand firm in the liberty in which Christ has made us free and do not be willing to be bound again by the yoke of slavery (to the Mosaic Law of works). … For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision (of the body) has any value, but (only) faith expressing itself through love.“

This is the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus – the Holy Spirit living through the believer, as the believer – who produces His fruit through us – “against which there is no law.” In other words, living/walking according to the Holy Spirit (who is love) by faith in Father-God’s love for you like Jesus lived, actually results in not only “filling full” the “demands” of the Mosaic Law but goes far beyond the Law’s limited scope. Our focus is Jesus, not Moses!

Not only did Jesus not keep the letter of the Mosaic Law when He did not help stone the adulterous woman. Instead, He embraced the higher law of love by forgiving and freeing her – just as His Father instructed Him to do. Jesus’ obedience of faith in His Father’s loving word was the freedom to operate according to Father-God’s love in and through the Holy Spirit. That produced freedom from bondages for whoever chose to receive what He offered. Jesus came to set all captives free! We are freed from all the “have tos” of religion. Now we “get to” abide in an eternal, love-based relationship with the Living God – our new Father. The Holy Spirit lives in us to enable us to will and to do Father’s good pleasure. That is how Jesus walked, how Paul learned to walk – and how we also can learn to walk – as ✞ Romans, Chapter Eight describes. So keep your eyes on Jesus, our Tree of Life!

 NOTE: This post is just a brief summary of chapters in my book ✞ “Is There An Elephant In Your Church?” that goes into much greater descriptive detail and scriptural documentation on the vital topic of the Five Main Covenants in the Bible – and their implications. The “Elephant” refers to the burden of the “Law” instead of the Lord’s burden – which is “easy and light” – GRACE!