is 42.6
I, the Lord in righteousness have called you
God’s covenant with man
We can understand that there are two covenants, called respectively the covenant of works and the covenant of grace.
1. Let’s define what a pact is. In its primary sense it means a mutual pact or agreement between two parties. The pact is maintained on the one hand by the ratification of those conditions in a full and faithful observance of them; on the other hand, by granting the benefit when the conditions are met.
two. Seeing God and man as the two parties between whom a covenant has been made, we perceive that two covenants have been made; in each the benefit offered by the Father has been the same, namely, eternal life, but the terms or conditions are different.
(1) In the covenant of works, the condition to be accepted and ratified by man was unique, that is, obedience to the moral law of God, whose law contains within its sanctions are not merely an obedience to any positive command or implicit wishes, but an interior heartfelt observance of complete holiness, this complete holiness being in fact the law itself, and any deviation from the prescription of complete holiness being a violation of the law. the law, and consequently that failure in the agreed obedience on the part of man, which destroys the pact completely, and thus, annulling it, makes it null.
(two) The conditions in the covenant of grace are two, repentance and faith, obedience to the law does not constitute part of the terms in which God will confer the promised favor, although according to this, He will regulate the degrees of glory to be known and shared in and through celestial immortality. Because the law of God has never been repealed, and never can be; nor does the covenant of grace annul the law at all, indeed, as the apostle says, “it establishes it.”
3. Ordinary attention to the constitution of these two covenants will show us what is between God and man, now (the “now” taking into account the position and history of man from the fall, to the complete and final recovery of redemption), but this one covenant of grace. Consider, and this in part by contrasting the two, what this second or new covenant consists of.
(1) Agree with the first on this,
(a) that the ultimate object is the same, namely, eternal life for man;
(b) that in God’s part of the contract the attached promise is the same.
(two) It differs from the other in these aspects. Let a third party appear: the Mediator Christ Jesus, the Son of God. That on the part of man the conditions are different, being repentance and faith instead of obedience.
Four. See the vital importance of understanding the truth regarding the two covenants. There are not two covenants. There have never been two coexisting pacts. When the man broke the first, it was at the end. Morally speaking, he could not be reinstated; because, the nature of man having become sinful, and this sinfulness being a necessary consequence of all his children, it became impossible for man to keep a covenant of works. And a broken pact is no longer a pact. God, then, in his mercy and love, instituted another covenant, the same in intent, but different in its conditions for man, prescribing conditions that he could observe, because of the new provision made in the Mediator Christ Jesus , by whom the law must be inviolably kept, and thus a justifying justice obtained, and by whom a complete, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice must be made in the offering of his own body without spot for the sins of the whole world. See how this strikes at the root of every man’s pride and self-reliance, and attempts to develop a self-righteousness for his justification. See, also, God’s superior regard for the poured out, condemned, helpless sinner. See also the wonderful strength of our text. It was to the beloved Son that God said: “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness”, etc. Because on Him fell the work of rescue, because He is the Mediator, because He will ensure the final victory, because in Him the new covenant was opened, in Him established, by Him maintained, He Himself is called the covenant. To reject it is to reject the pact; to seek salvation elsewhere, to attempt any other way for God’s favor than by Him, to attempt any other term than His Gospel, is to reject Him; and that is rejecting God’s covenant and entering into a covenant with death. (R.H. Davies, B.A.)
God’s call
The act of calling here implies- –
1. Selection.
two. Designation.
3. Providential introduction to the service of God. (J. A. Alexander.)
called in justice,
Called in justice, according to a firm and consistent purpose. (Prof. J. Skinner, D.D.)
And I will give you by pact of the people.
“A pact of the people”, a negotiator between God and the people. (J. A. Alexander.)
Israel a mediator
Not only the Messiah, but the Israel of God was sent to be a mediator or connecting link between Jehovah and the nations. (J. A. Alexander.)
The new covenant of free grace
YO. WHO IS THE ONE SPEAKING THIS FUNNY LANGUAGE. Mr.
II. THE PERSON WHO IS ADDRESSED AND SPEAKS THIS FUNNY LANGUAGE. CHRIST.
III. WHAT SPEAKS TO CHRIST HERE, even gracious language regarding us. “He will give it by covenant.”
IV. TO WHOM THE FATHER GIVES CHRIST BY COVENANT. “To the people and to the Gentiles”; that is, to Jews and Gentiles, to all kinds of people.
v. THE END AND PURPOSE FOR WHICH THE FATHER GIVES IT TO BE A COVENANT FOR THE PEOPLE. “To open blind eyes, to get prisoners out of jail.” (T. Crisp, D.D.)
Christ a pact to open blind eyes
Me. WHAT IT IS FOR CHRIST TO BE A COVENANT, OR THE COVENANT.
II. WHAT IT IS THAT CHRIST IS GIVEN TO BE A COVENANT.
III. WHAT IT IS FOR CHRIST TO BE A COVENANT TO OPEN BLIND EYES.
IV. TO WHOM THIS CHRIST IS DELIVERED BY COVENANT. (T. Crisp, D.D.)
“A pact of the people”
The idea must be something like this: the divine ideal represented by the Servant of the Lord becomes the basis of a new national life, as it expresses that by which Jehovah enters into a new covenant relationship with his people. (Prof. J. Skinner, D.D.)
A word to go home
Saint Miss Frances Ridley Havergal literally lived and moved on the Word of God. It was her constant comfort, her delight and her inspiration. About her It is said about her that, on the last day of her life, she asked a friend of hers to read the forty-second chapter of Isaiah to her. When her friend read the sixth verse, “I the Lord have called you in righteousness, and I will hold your hand and keep you,” Miss Havergal stopped her. “Called… held… kept… used her,” he whispered. “Well, I’ll go home with that.” And she “went home in it,” as in a heavenly chariot, and her return home was a triumph, with a bountiful entrance into the city of God. (christian quote)