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Overview
- Forgiveness of your sins
- Inner peace
- A new nature
- Freedom from bondage
- Equipping for service
- Entrance into heaven
- The wisdom and power of God
- Acceptance in God’s family
- Joy in the Holy Spirit
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781603746656 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Whitaker House |
| Publication date: | 12/01/1997 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 124 |
| Sales rank: | 861,329 |
| File size: | 275 KB |
About the Author
Charles. H. Spurgeon (1834–1892), the “Prince of Preachers,” preached his first sermon at age sixteen. During his lifetime he preached to an estimated ten million people. He founded and supported charitable outreaches, including educational institutions. He also founded a pastors’ college and the famous Stockwell Orphanage. Spurgeon published over two thousand of his sermons, as well as numerous books. Highlighted with splashes of spontaneous, delightful humor, his teachings still provide direction to all who are seeking true joy and genuine intimacy with God.
Read an Excerpt
Chapter 1 The Wondrous Covenant
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. Hebrews 8:10
The doctrine of the divine covenant lies at the root of all true theology. It has been said that the person who understands the distinction between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace is a master of divinity. I am persuaded that most of the mistakes that men make concerning the doctrines of Scripture are based upon fundamental errors with regard to the covenants of law and of grace. May God grant me the power to impart instruction on this vital subject, and may He give you the grace to receive it. In the order of history, so far as this world is concerned, the human race first stood in subjection to God under the covenant of works. Adam was the representative man. A certain law was given to him. If he kept it, he and all his posterity would be blessed as the result of obedience. If he broke it, he would incur the curse himself and subject all those represented by him to the same curse. Our first father broke that covenant. He fell; he failed to fulfill his obligations. In his fall, Adam involved us all, for all people descended from him and all were physically present in his seed, just as Levi "payed tithes in Abraham, for he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him" (Hebrews 7:9-10). The first Adam thus represented us before God in the Fall. Our ruin, then, was complete before we were ever born. We were ruined by the failure of the first Adam, who stood as our first representative. To be saved by the works of the law is now impossible, for under that covenant we are already lost. If we are to be saved at all, it must be according to quite a different plan, not under the plan of doing and being rewarded for it. That has been tried, and the representative man upon whom it was tried has failed for us all. We have all failed in his failure; it is hopeless, therefore, to expect to win divine favor by anything that we can do or to merit divine blessing by way of reward. However, divine mercy has intervened and provided a plan of salvation from the Fall. That plan is another covenant, a covenant God the Father made with His Son Jesus Christ, who is appropriately called the Second Adam because He also stood as the representative of men. As far as Christ was concerned, the second covenant was quite as much a covenant of works as the first one was. The plan went something like this: Christ was to come into the world and perfectly obey the divine law. Inasmuch as the first Adam had broken the law, He was also to suffer the penalty of sin. If He would do both of these, then all whom He represented would be blessed in His blessedness and saved because of His merit. Do you see that, until our Lord lived and died on this earth, it was a covenant of works on His part? He had certain works to perform; upon condition of His performance, certain blessings would be given to us. Our Lord has kept that covenant. His part of it has been fulfilled to the last letter. There is no commandment that He has not honored; there is no penalty of the broken law that He has not endured. He became a servant and was "obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Philippians 2:8). He has thus done what the first Adam could not accomplish, and He has retrieved what the first Adam forfeited by his transgressions. He has established the covenant, and now it ceases to be a covenant of works, for the works have all been completed.
Jesus did them, did them all, Long, long ago.
And now, what remains to be fulfilled of the covenant? On His part, God has solemnly pledged Himself to give undeserved favor to everyone whom Jesus represented on the cross. For all whom the Savior died, there are stored up bountiful blessings that will be given to them, not through their works, but as the sovereign gift of the grace of God, according to His covenant promise by which they are saved. Beloved, behold the hope of the sons of men. The hope of their saving themselves is forever crushed, for they are already lost. The hope of their being saved by works is a fallacious one, for they cannot keep the law; they have already broken it. Yet, there is a way of salvation opened that can be explained this way: whosoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ receives and partakes of the bliss that Christ has bought. All the blessings that belong to the covenant of grace through the work of Christ will belong to every soul who believes in Jesus. Whoever "worketh not, but [rather] believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly" (Romans 4:5), unto that person will the blessing of the new covenant of grace be undoubtedly given. I hope that this explanation is clear enough. If Adam had kept the law, we would have been blessed by his keeping it. He broke it, and we have been cursed through him. Now the Second Adam, Christ Jesus, has kept the law. Therefore, if we are believers, we are represented in Christ and blessed with the results of the obedience of Jesus Christ to His Father’s will. Through the ancient Scriptures Christ said, "Lo, I come?to do thy will, O God" (Psalm 40:7-8). He has done that will, and the blessings of grace are now freely given to the sons of men. Now, first we will reflect on the privileges of the covenant of grace as found in our wondrous text. Secondly, I will direct your attention to the parties concerned in the covenant. This will be quite enough for consideration in this chapter, I am sure, because of the depth of the subject at hand.