3. The Meanings of the Three Covenants
God
made three covenants, each with a unique place in His ultimate purpose to bring
forth His Immortal Son and Eternal Israel-Bride. These are the Abrahamic
Covenant, the Mosaic (Old) Covenant, and the (New) Covenant through Christ.
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The
Abrahamic Covenant is God’s Covenant with Abraham regarding his
posterity and their inheritance. It was made in two dimensions, one natural and one Eternal. The natural dimension
regarded Abraham’s perishable physical seed by miracle, bringing Isaac, Jacob
and all natural Israel into being, as well as other nations Abraham physically
fathered later.
The Eternal dimension concerned Abraham’s spiritual
fathering of the imperishable Eternal
Israel—not by natural procreation, but by transmission of the word (seed) of
faith. In this dimension, whoever of any national origin believes in God’s word
as Abraham believed God becomes a literal
child of Abraham. The Abrahamic Covenant is everlasting and forever.
It is this eternal dimension that
makes the covenant with its promises to be everlasting.
·
The
Mosaic Covenant, 400 years after the Abrahamic covenant, was made
strictly with natural Israel, including anyone who would join himself to Israel
from the outside. This covenant pertained to natural Israel’s role as the
exclusive stewards of God’s oracles—specifically, the laws reflecting God’s
righteousness and the ordinances mirroring heavenly realities pertaining to
Eternal Israel yet to be revealed—including stipulations of the tabernacle
ministry, the feasts, and so on. It was a “mirror covenant” for a “mirror
people” and for that people only.
·
The
New Covenant through Christ revealed another 1600 years later was made
with the spiritual Eternal nation of Israel, bringing into time the
“birthing-from-above” of Eternal Israel’s members by the word of faith. Though
revealed in time after the Abrahamic
and Mosaic Covenants, the New Covenant existed from before earth’s foundation
in eternity—and so is really before
the other covenants. The enacting of this covenant in time through Christ’s
death actualized God’s eternal purpose to begin revealing His immortal Eternal
Israel race in the earth (a revelation still in progress). It has since been
entered by all men without respect of human lineage, though its offer was made
sequentially first to Jews (its preparers), and then to those outside natural
Israel.