Posted by
ValiantForTruth on Sunday, November 12, 2006 11:17:42 AM
The Old Testament predicted the arrival of a new covenant that would be different from the old. Jeremiah says, ‘
Behold, the days are coming saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant…not according to the covenant I made with their fathers…’ [Jeremiah 31:31] Notable distinctions were to be expected. The new covenant prophesy of Jeremiah is given prominence in the New Testament, being cited in chapters 8 and 10 in the book of Hebrews.
John the Baptist asks a question of Christ which illustrate the distinctive features of the kingdom of God compared with the Mosaic order. ‘Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?’ John was an instrument of divine revelation who announced that Jesus is the Messiah; yet he did not fully understand his own message. The great prophet could not see how Jesus was fulfilling the mission of Messiah based on his own expectations.
In the kingdom of God there comes a new level of perception to the people of God. The least person in the kingdom is greater than John in perceiving spiritual realities [Matthew 11:11]. Not that they are more brilliant, but to children of the kingdom ‘it is given…to know the mysteries of the kingdom’ while to others it is not given [Matthew 13:11]. Mysteries are truths that cannot be found out by investigation. They are revealed by the living God.
In the kingdom of God there comes a new privacy to God’s working. The secrecy is due to the inward and spiritual focus of the new covenant. Mysteries revealed to some are hidden from others by the use of the same parable [Matthew 13:10-17]. Truths that some children understand with ease are all darkness to some of the most intelligent and learned.
Since the Old Testament economy was public and visible in its progress and operation, those under the old covenant had expectations of a kingdom that would be national and territorial. Their hope was an external purification of Israel including conquering of the promised land to expel oppressive Gentiles and renovation of rulers, temple and customs. Christ left all these corrupt institutions visibly intact. He did not materially dismantle the old. Nor did he set up a new nation discernible to human senses.
Christ told a Samaritan woman that the hour was coming when the location of Jerusalem would be extraneous to true worship [John 4:21]. The Lord of glory had come to set aside the outward, national and territorial aspects of Old Testament religion.
By way of contrast Christ’s kingdom is inward. It comes mightily but secretly in the hearts of men. The Pharisees were surprised to learn that the kingdom was already in their midst. Jesus explained to them that ‘the kingdom of God cometh not with observation’ or outward ceremony [Luke 17:20-21]. Lives are transformed by the work of grace in the heart.
Jeremiah had stressed this distinction between the covenants. The new covenant would be unlike the old in that the Lord said, ‘I will put my law in the inward parts, and write it in their hearts’ [Jeremiah 31:31]. The kingdom of God has come with an inwardness and invisibility just as God had spoken through the prophets.
[Credits to Walter Chantry’s God’s Righteous Kingdom]