It All Points to Jesus: Understanding Salvation Through The Divine Covenants
Have you ever spent time looking for something that was right in your face the entire time? It’s one thing to overlook an inexpensive pen that’s clearly in your field of vision when you have a drawer full of writing utensils just like it. No biggie. Just grab another one and clean up your desk later. (Yes, I’m exposing my own faults, here.) But it’s super annoying to frantically search fifteen minutes for your phone, only to realize its been in your back pocket the entire time. (Or even more traumatic, in your actual hand… Sleep is important, people! Get some!) Well, that’s what it’s like to desperately search for spiritual truth while actually having a Bible (or access to one.) You spend precious time looking for something that you didn’t realize you already had the entire time. That truth is the Bible, and in it we find the in intangible necessities of life that soothe our existence on Earth: God, salvation, healing, teaching, joy, rest, peace, happiness, contentment… the list goes on and on.
The Bible teaches us these things are found in Christ. The revelation may be hard for us to see, though, because the Bible itself is often presented with so much extra stuff. Man-made rules. Traditions. Lies. Well-intended but misinformed dichotomies. Understanding is even harder to grasp when we simply read without proper context. Discouragement can also arise when we attempt to dive deep into the waters of Bible study, only to discover we don’t yet know how to swim. But if we take a step back and look at the big picture of the Bible, we’ll get a better understanding of what it means.
“The Old Testament was fulfilled in Christ, not abolished, and its true meaning has to be interpreted in that light.”
There are a few ways to do this, but I think a very simple way is to look at the narrative of the Bible. Many teachers instruct new Bible students to start with the Book of John, but beginning with Genesis makes so much more sense to me. It literally begins with “In the beginning…” so why not start there? It’s also the first chapter of the Old Testament (not the fourth chapter of the New Testament, like the book of John). How can you understand the New Testament without knowledge of the Old Testament? Yes, you’ll read about Jesus there, but you will totally miss the significance of His birth, teaching, miracles, death, and resurrection if you overlook the Old Testament—and also how He fulfills it.
We can see this when we look at the covenants. “A covenant is an agreement enacted between two parties in which one or both make promises under oath to perform or refrain from certain actions stipulated in advance.” [1] (Side note: the word “testament” means covenant. Old Testament = Old covenant. New Testament = New Covenant.) The Old Testament has several covenants, but in terms of salvation (as it develops from the sense of physical rescue in the present life (e.g., deliverance from danger or crisis) to the idea of spiritual rescue often associated with the afterlife (e.g., forgiveness from sins, eternal life [2]), there are five covenants made between God and man that reflect the goodness of God and foreshadow their ultimate fulfillment in Christ. These covenants are the ones God made with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses (and the Israelites) and David. The New Testament shows us that Jesus is the new Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David.
“These covenants are the ones God made with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses (and the Israelites) and David. The New Testament shows us that Jesus is the new Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. ”
Let’s explore.
Jesus Is The New Adam
The covenant God made with Adam in the Garden of Eden is often referred to as the Adamic or Edenic Covenant. It’s not directly called this in the Bible, but in Genesis 1-2 we see God’s original relationship with mankind. He gave them dominion over creation, the command to physically reproduce, and instruction not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Hosea 6:6-7 points to this being a covenant.)
The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” ~Genesis 2:15-17 (NLT)
Adam and Eve indeed ate the fruit, and the covenant agreement was broken. This was the introduction of sin into the world, but also grace as death was not immediately given and Adam and Eve were still able to reproduce. Their union brought forth a third son, Seth (Gen. 5), through who came Jesus (Luke 3:38), who ultimately accomplished God’s curse on the serpent for deceiving Eve.
14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live. 15 And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” ~Gen. 3:14-15 (NLT)
Jesus is the restorer of mankind, and being both the Son of God and the Son of man (Adam), he is the ultimate fulfillment of the promised seed.
In the New Testament (remember, it’s the New Covenant), Paul explained Jesus as the symbol and representation of Christ (Rom. 5:14) and the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45). Through the first man came death, but through the last Adam—that is, Jesus—we have life.
References
[1] George E. Mendenhall and Gary A. Herion, “Covenant,” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 1179.
[2] Michael D. Morrison, “Salvation,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).