Basic HTML Version
615
spiritual significance, Deut. 10:16; 30:6; Jer. 4:4; 9:25,26; Acts 15:1; Rom. 2:26-29; 4:11; Phil.
3:2; and from the fact that the promise of the covenant is even called “the gospel,” Gal. 3:8.
(2) This covenant is still in force and is essentially identical with the “new covenant” of the
present dispensation.
The unity and continuity of the covenant in both dispensations follows
from the fact that the Mediator is the same, Acts 4:12; 10:43; 15:10,11; Gal. 3:16; I Tim. 2:5,6; I
Pet. 1:9-12; the condition is the same, namely, faith, Gen. 15:6; (Rom. 4:3); Ps. 32:10; Heb. 2:4;
Acts 10:43; Heb. 11; and the blessings are the same, namely, justification, Ps. 32:1,2,5; Isa. 1:18;
Rom. 4:9; Gal. 3:6, regeneration, Deut. 30:6; Ps. 51:10, spiritual gifts, Joel 2:28,32; Acts 2:17-21;
Isa. 40:31, and eternal life, Ex. 3:6; Heb. 4:9; 11:10. Peter gave those who were under
conviction on the day of Pentecost the assurance that the promise was unto them and to their
children, Acts 2:39. Paul argues in Rom. 4:13-18; Gal. 3:13-18 that the giving of the law did not
make the promise of none effect, so that it still holds in the new dispensation. And the writer of
Hebrews points out that the promise to Abraham was confirmed with an oath, so that New
Testament believers may derive comfort from its immutability, Heb. 6:13-18.
(3) By the appointment of God infants shared in the benefits of the covenant, and therefore
received circumcision as a sign and seal.
According to the Bible the covenant is clearly an
organic concept, and its realization moves along organic and historical lines. There is a people
or nation of God, an organic whole such as could only be constituted by families. This national
idea is naturally very prominent in the Old Testament, but the striking thing is that it did not
disappear when the nation of Israel had served its purpose. It was spiritualized and thus carried
over into the New Testament, so that the New Testament people of God are also represented
as a nation, Matt. 21:43; Rom. 9:25.26 (comp. Hosea 2:23); II Cor. 6:16; Tit. 2:14; I Pet. 2:9.
Infants were considered during the old dispensation as an integral part of Israel as the people of
God. They were present when the covenant was renewed, Deut. 29:10:13; Josh. 8:35; II Chron.
20:13, had a standing in the congregation of Israel, and were therefore present in their religious
assemblies, II Chron. 20:13; Joel 2:16. In view of such rich promises as those in Isa. 54:13; Jer.
31:34; Joel 2:28 we would hardly expect the privileges of such children to be reduced in the
new dispensation, and certainly would not look for their exclusion from any standing in the
Church. Jesus and the apostles did not exclude them, Matt. 19:14; Acts 2:39; I Cor. 7:14. Such
an exclusion would seem to require a very explicit statement to that effect.
(4) In the new dispensation baptism is by divine authority substituted for circumcision as the
initiatory sign and seal of the covenant of grace.
Scripture strongly insists on it that
circumcision can no more serve as such, Acts 15:1,2; 21:21; Gal. 2:3-5; 5:2-6; 6:12,13,15. If
baptism did not take its place, then the New Testament has no initiatory rite. But Christ clearly
substituted it as such, Matt. 28:19,20; Mark 16:15,16. It corresponds with circumcision in