THE EVERLASTING COVENANT
A.W. Pink
"That
provision of grace which God made for His people before the
foundation of the world embraced the appointment of His own Son to
become the mediator, and of the work which, in that capacity, He
should perform. This involved His assumption of human nature, the
offering of Himself as a sacrifice for sin, His exaltation in the
nature He had assumed to the right hand of God in the heavenlies, His
supremacy over His church and over all things for His church, the
blessings which He should be empowered to dispense, and the extent to
which His work should be made effectual unto the salvation of souls.
These were all matters of definite and certain arrangement, agreed
upon between God and His Son in the terms of the everlasting
covenant.
Those
divine revelations and manifestations of the grace decreed in the
everlasting covenant were given out at important epochs in the early
history of the world. Just as Genesis 3:15 was given immediately
after the Fall, so we find that immediately following the flood God
solemnly renewed the covenant of grace with Noah. In like manner, at
the beginning of the third period of human history, following the
call of Abraham, God renewed it again, only then making a much fuller
revelation of the same. It was now made known that the coming
deliverer of God’s people was to be of the Abrahamic stock and that
all the families of the earth should be blessed in Him—a plain
intimation of the calling of the Gentiles and the bringing of the
elect from all nations into the family of God. In Genesis 15:5,6, the
great requirement of the covenant—namely, faith—was then more
fully made known.
Unto
Abraham God gave a remarkable pledge of the fulfillment of His
covenant promises in the striking victory which He granted him over
the federated forces of Chedorlaomer. This was more than a hint of
the victory of Christ and His seed over the world: carefully compare
Isaiah 41:2,3, 10,15. Genesis 14:19, 20 supplies proof of what we have
just said, for upon returning from his memorable victory, Abraham was
met by Melchizedek (type of Christ) and was blessed by him.
A further revelation of the contents of the covenant of grace was granted unto Abraham in Genesis 15, where in the vision of the smoking furnace which passed through the midst of the sacrifice, an adumbration was made of the sufferings of Christ. In the miraculous birth of Isaac, intimation was given of the supernatural birth of Christ, the promised Seed. In the deliverance of Isaac from the altar, representation was made of the resurrection of Christ (Heb 11:19).
A further revelation of the contents of the covenant of grace was granted unto Abraham in Genesis 15, where in the vision of the smoking furnace which passed through the midst of the sacrifice, an adumbration was made of the sufferings of Christ. In the miraculous birth of Isaac, intimation was given of the supernatural birth of Christ, the promised Seed. In the deliverance of Isaac from the altar, representation was made of the resurrection of Christ (Heb 11:19).
Thus
we may see how fully the covenant of grace was revealed and confirmed
unto Abraham the father of all them that believe, by which he and his
descendants obtained a clearer sight and understanding of the great
Redeemer and the things which were to be accomplished by Him.
“And therefore did Christ take notice of this when He said, 'Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and was glad' (John 8:56). These last words clearly intimate that Abraham had a definite spiritual apprehension of those things. Under the Sinaitic covenant a yet fuller revelation was made by God to His people of the contents of the everlasting covenant: the tabernacle, and all its holy vessels; the high priest, his vestments, and service; and the whole system of sacrifices and ablutions, setting before them its blessed realities in typical forms, they being patterns of heavenly things.
“And therefore did Christ take notice of this when He said, 'Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and was glad' (John 8:56). These last words clearly intimate that Abraham had a definite spiritual apprehension of those things. Under the Sinaitic covenant a yet fuller revelation was made by God to His people of the contents of the everlasting covenant: the tabernacle, and all its holy vessels; the high priest, his vestments, and service; and the whole system of sacrifices and ablutions, setting before them its blessed realities in typical forms, they being patterns of heavenly things.
Thus,
before seeking to set forth the everlasting covenant itself in a
specific way, we have first endeavored to make clear the relation
borne to it of the principal covenants which God was pleased to make
with different men during the Old Testament era."
