When God speaks of a new covenant, then the first covenant has become old.
What is old and worn vanishes away.
Beautiful words!
But what do they mean?
What is old? What is vanishing away?
What is new?

Abraham⤒🔗

The other day I received a brochure from a local Free Baptist congregation. It had as title Baptism Habits, about the meaning of baptism. In the brochure are nice passages, which I recognized. These people want to live close to the Lord. But also, the covenant with Abraham is parked far away. In a whole chapter we are informed that the covenant in Christ is something very different.

This is not just being said locally, we hear it everywhere. As a topic of discussion, which is often experienced as difficult. For what is one to say about this? You can draw and show lines which run through. But after all, it does say (Heb. 8:13) that the first covenant is growing old, becoming obsolete and vanishes away. What do you do with that (text)? For then the first covenant has vanished, right?

Yes, that is true. And yet, there is an endless misconception here. For the question is: which covenant is meant here as growing old, and becoming obsolete?

You would say by the sound of it, that here the covenant with Abraham is meant. If you do not see that, then you are gobsmacked.

Just read the whole passage, starting at Hebrews 8:1. Then it becomes clear that with the old covenant the regulations from Sinai are meant, where God gave his law and instructions for the tabernacle and for the priestly service.

The letter to the Hebrews (Jews) relates how the service of Levi has been transferred to Jesus Christ, Priest of a higher order, appointed by God himself. With the “old covenant” is not meant God’s covenant with Abraham, but the whole Old Testament ceremony which finds its fulfillment in Christ! It says it literally: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant” (Heb. 8:8-9).

What is then the newness of this new covenant?

It is this: “I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Heb. 8:10). That points to the work of the Holy Spirit, the Word of God he makes alive in us.

Jesus is called “the mediator of a new covenant” (Heb. 12:24). There too we see the same movement from old to new, from Sinai to the heavenly Jerusalem. The blood of Jesus is the fulfilment of all (sacrificial) bloodletting, which was instituted at Sinai.

For All Peoples←⤒🔗

Not for a moment was it meant that the covenant with Abraham would be gone!

That would be impossible, for it is established for the Pentecost dispensation, which meant it is to go to all nations! That is why Abram received a new name: Abraham, father of many nations. The Jews sang that other nations would be included in this covenant (Ps. 87).

In the New Testament it says that those who believe are children of Abraham (Gal. 3:6-9).

Not the bond of blood is important, but the bond of faith.

Jesus said to unbelieving Jews that they were not children of Abraham (John 8:37-47). Overgainst this: whoever belongs to Christ is Abraham’s offspring (Gal. 3:29). That applies right now, in this dispensation, throughout the world.

Therefore, it is inconceivable that this covenant, established by God, is shoved aside by Christians all over the world. They leave it to the Jews, while they see their own beginning in the New Testament.

With that also dies then that God has established his covenant with Abraham and his children. Where the covenant dies, there are no promises left for the children. And where there is no promise for the children, there is no baptism of the children. That is losing a lot!

Discussions about child baptism are rampant nowadays, and without boundaries. But that is so because the actual question lies deeper, namely: where in today’s world is God’s covenant with Abraham? Are we partakers of that, or is it just for the Jews?

The Free Evangelization church confesses that only the believers form the congregation.

Children belong “to it” because they are gifts to the parents, not because they would have a promise from God. Children there are “being dedicated”, of which people regularly say that it is very similar to being baptized.

But that is not at all true, for to dedicate is a form of prayer, such as people may do for anyone. While in baptism, God is the acting Person. What I have experienced in “dedications”, is that the name of Jesus was not even mentioned. That he also died for our children, was not professed. There was no promise at all for the little children, though the prayer was very humane and warm. The prayer chilled me.

One-Sided and Two-Sided←⤒🔗

It is a trend nowadays that children at the baptism font are being discussed. At the same time, people ask themselves why children could not participate in the Lord’s Supper celebration?

Parents like to bring their kids along and let them share in what God is giving. That in itself is a good thought, for surely, God gives to adults and to children! And in baptism and the Lord’s Supper it is about the same salvation in Jesus Christ. And yet, there is an essential difference that we should not lose sight of.

Namely, God’s covenant is in its origin one-sided. It is completely from God. He called Abram (Gen. 12). He walked the road covered in blood while Abram slept (Gen. 15). God also included the children in it, even before they were born.

That is why circumcision was for father and son. It is according to God’s explicit instruction that the small children carry the sign and seal of his covenant (Gen. 17). Circumcision and baptism mean the same thing: the old life is symbolically being cut away or buried. God lets us die with Jesus, so that we can rise again with him (Rom. 6). All this is from God.

He gives it to parents and children. Amazing, and it has always been this way!

Child circumcision did not happen anywhere else in the world; that was remarkable! This is how God demanded faith in his grace, the grace which no one has earned, and which therefore can also be administered to a child.

God’s covenant is subsequently two-sided in its continuation. Our Lord Jesus sits at table with us and we with him (Rev. 3:20). When we are going to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, then we are strongly reminded to make a conscious choice in this. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and also of the table of demons (1 Cor. 10:21). We must distinguish the body of our Lord, otherwise we call out a judgment over ourselves (1 Cor. 11:27-29).

The newness of the new covenant is that the words of God do not remain on stone tablets, but they fill our hearts. So as a bride we give ourselves to the groom. All the new Jerusalem that is being built today, is called bride (Rev. 21:2, 9). The bride who receives loyalty and who is loyal.

Now I notice regularly that this mutual aspect of the Lord’s Supper does not live with everyone.

That is noteworthy. Many people attend at the table to commemorate and to receive, no more.

That is a lot, but one-sided. This way, what is lost, is the foretaste of the wedding feast. One-sided wedding feasts do not exist.

This one-sidedness will be enhanced when we bring small children to the table. They are not ready yet for a choice in adulthood. Their presence makes the table different for everyone.

Are we not allowed then to take our children along to Jesus? Surely, we may. For them, there is the sacrament of baptism in which God acts one-sidedly. In this, the children receive exactly the same, in Jesus Christ, as the adults. As a sign and seal that they are children of the Father.

This sacrament is one-sided and administered only once. Because the whole is from God, it does not need to be repeated, ever.

Adults sometimes want to be baptized again, to give their lives consciously to God. That thought is nice, but for this the Lord has instituted the Lord’s Supper. That is the sacrament of the mutual devotion: “I in you, you in Me” (John 6:56), that is celebrated repeatedly to encourage us to a fervent love (Article 35, Belgic Confession).

Our devotion to the Lord can find its full expression by going as bride to the table with Him.

Perspective←⤒🔗

The newness of the new covenant is also that the goal will be reached. In Jesus Christ, everything is accomplished. “Many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Matt. 8:11). That puts the Lord’s Supper as a meal, in perspective. To drop everything for…

By calling it that, the Lord shows us how he will complete what he started with Abraham.

He has chosen that structure, a covenant of love and loyalty, for adults and for children.

Throughout all the centuries, people have fought against this, against the grace for parents and children, against the covenant, against God’s initiative. And yet, many will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

We celebrate the feast of Pentecost, as a new and decisive beginning of what God promised to Abraham: nations who come forward and generations following, so many as the sand on the shores of the sea.