The Gospel and the Covenant
This study has a companion set of audio messages you can listen to online here.
God has always dealt with his people with covenants. Beginning with Adam and continuing until the present day, God’s covenants with his people have had specific characteristics. All covenants have a three-pronged structure. They include a promise by God, a condition, and a sign.
| ADAM Genesis 3:15 Original Promise All Covenants are structured PromiseConditionSign ABRAHAM Genesis 15-17 (Everlasting) Promise—Father of Multitudes Genesis 15:1-5 Condition—Faith: Abraham believed Genesis 15:6 Sign—Circumcision (Gen. 17:10-13) | NOAH Genesis 9:8-17 Promise—Never to destroy the earth by flood Genesis 9:8-11,15 Condition—Unconditional Sign—Rainbow (Genesis 9:12-16) MOSES Promise—A Great Land Exodus 2:24-25 Condition—Obedience Exodus 19:7-8 Sign—The Sabbath (Exodus 31:12-18 & Exodus 20:8-11) |
For the focus of this discussion the Mosiac covenant is the most important. The Mosiac covenant was the Ten Commandment Law.
Exodus 34:28
And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
Deut. 4:13
And He declared to you His covenant which He commanded to you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tables of stone.
Also read: Deut 9:9-12, 15; 10:4; Deut 5:2-22; 1 Kings 8:9, 21
The Ten Commandment Law was not given before Sinai. Deut. 5:2-3 says, “The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us.” Then he gives the Ten Commandments in vss. 6-22.
Thus the Old Covenant, the Ten Commandments, had a definite beginning and a definite end. Gal. 3:19 clearly states, “The law was added UNTIL the seed should come.”