Q. 33. Was the covenant of grace always administered after one and the same manner?
A. The covenant of grace was not always administered after the same manner, but the administrations of it under the Old Testament were different from those under the New.
Q. 34. How was the covenant of grace administered under the Old Testament?
A. The covenant of grace was administered under the Old Testament, by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the passover, and other types and ordinances, which did all fore-signify Christ then to come, and were for that time sufficient to build up the elect in faith in the promised Messiah, by whom they then had full remission of sin, and eternal salvation.
As it may please the Lord to grant his indispensable aid, I would direct your attention to the words found in the Epistle to the Hebrews, in the tenth chapter and the first verse: For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices, which they offered year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. Particularly, the first half of the verse, For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things…
The covenant of grace has been administered in the various dispensations. Of the Old Testament administration of the covenant of grace, we read in the Larger Catechism Question 34, The covenant of grace was administered under the Old Testament by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the passover, and other types and ordinances, which did all fore-signify Christ then to come, and were for that time sufficient to build up the elect in faith in the promised Messiah, by whom they then had full remission of sin, and eternal salvation. Mention is made here, among other things of the types, and the types are what are particularly in view in our text, which states; For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things…
Now, the Epistle to the Hebrews is directed to converts from Judaism and to those that were tempted at that time by persecution. The temptation was evidently strong for them to renounce the Christian faith and to return to Judaism to observe the various rites of the Jewish economy as being perpetual ordinances that had been ordained of God. But one can sympathize in a way with the feeling of the Jewish converts, for God had indeed ordained the various ordinances of the tabernacle and then later of the Jewish temple. But while loyalty in regard to the divine ordination was highly commendable, great was the fearful evil of failing to see that which had been signified in these ordinances had now been fulfilled by the coming the Lord Jesus Christ. To go back to the old covenant was to renounce Christ.
This is what the Epistle to the Hebrews lays emphasis upon, and our text states that the old covenant had in it a shadow of things to come. That is, a shadow of Christ and of the benefits of the new covenant. We should not take the words in the text, the image of the things, to really mean anything less that the things themselves. We do have the use of the word image in the New Testament to refer not to a mere picture, and in this case, not to a picture that would be something more than merely the shadow of good things to come, but still would come short of the things. A reading of these words in the context indicates that the great contrast that is being made is between the various types that one finds in the Old Testament ordinances on the one hand, and the fulfillment of those types in the coming of Christ in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the fruits of his labors. So that we should understand the very image of the things to be no other than that which was signified, that which was represented by the types of the Old Testament. The things themselves in their substantial reality are to be understood here. We may in connection with this subject, consider first of all the administration of the covenant of grace by words, as intimated in the mention of the promises and the prophecies in our Larger Catechism, and then the administration of the covenant by types, and finally the sufficiency of that administration.
Now, promises and prophecies are both mentioned here, and the testimony of the New Testament is quite explicit as we have it in Romans, the fifteenth chapter and the eighth verse: Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers… Here you have reference to the promises made unto the fathers in the Old Testament, and the confirmation of those promises by the coming and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And with respect to the prophecies of the Old Testament we read in Acts, the third chapter and the twentieth verse: And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you… And again in the twenty-fourth verse: Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. And also in the tenth chapter and the forty-third verse: To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
The first promise we know was given very probably after the transgression of our first parents namely, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head, and that promise had in it the whole of the gospel. It was further confirmed and enlarged upon in the covenant made with Abraham in the promise that in Abraham’s seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. By Moses, it is prophesied that the Lord would raise up a Prophet like unto him as we have in Deuteronomy in the 18th chapter, in the 15th verse. We may see there on the one hand, the whole succession of the prophets of the Old Testament following upon Moses and on the other hand, the ultimate fulfillment of that promise and prophecy in the Messiah who was to come. He it is, the Messiah, the great subject of the whole series of Old Testament prophecies. We see this especially in the book of Psalms, and in the declarations of the prophets from the books of Isaiah through Malachi. Think only of the picture of the crucifixion in the 22nd Psalm, and in the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah. You see in the Old Testament economy that the Lord was pleased to make known the grand purpose of redemption which should be fulfilled in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Along with the revelation of Christ by the words in the promises and the prophecies of the Old Testament, there was also a revelation by means of the types. We have the provision of a great number of types and of ordinances which fore-signified Christ which was to come. The types are spoken of in our text as shadows, and they are also spoken of in the Scripture as rudiments. They really signify Christ, and his offices and his works, but they did so in a faint and in shadowy fashion. We have the parallel to our text in Colossians, the second chapter and the seventeenth verse where we read: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is Christ. The shadow of the body corresponds to the body. It is nothing other than the body that casts a shadow, that the shadow represents. At the same time, the shadow represents the body in a very faint and inadequate fashion, you might say. So, the ceremonies of the Old Testament, the ordinances with regard to meat and drink, holy days, and new moon, ceremonial sabbaths, these were shadows of things to come. But now the body of which the shadows as a mere representation has come, and that is Christ.
In the same chapter (Colossians 2) we also read of these Old Testament ordinances as being simply rudiments, verse 20: Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances. The example is given, Touch not, taste not, handle not. I think always of the distortion of that text by the Temperance hymn that children would sometimes learn in Sunday School that, Touch Not, Taste Not, Handle Not, are the commandments of God. But far from these being the commandments that are binding upon us, these were ordinances of a merely temporal sort, given under the old covenant. We have reference also to the rudiments in the Epistle to the Galatians in the fourth chapter and the third verse: Even so we, when we were children, [we] were in bondage under the elements of the world… It is the same Greek word that is translated elements here, as in the verse in Colossians is translated rudiments. We might think of children learning their ABC’s at school. These have to be learned first of all, before the child can be taught to read. And he has to be taught, of course, to read simple things before he can read that which is more difficult. But the rudiments have to be learned first of all, and they provide the basis, the foundation, for the more advanced studies. So the types in the ordinances of the Old Testament were suited to the condition of the church in its childhood, but now with the fulfillment of the types in the coming of Christ, they are no longer to be observed by the Christian Church as in the first dispensation. So, we can regard the types of the Old Testament as having a temporary character.
We have to be on our guard in the interpretation of the types. Some people have felt that the only way to play safe is to admit that which is explicitly set forth in the New Testament, as these matters that are mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews as being types. But I think that is going somewhat too far, for the Scripture gives us examples of the types and of their fulfillment, but it does not give us a complete list by any means of everything that served as a type. As we were reading with regard to the cherubims, in verse 5 of chapter 9 in the Epistle to the Hebrews that; we cannot now speak particularly [of them]. We do not have an explicit meaning given of what the cherubims typified, but it is intimated very definitely that they are types, and other features of the tabernacle which are not even mentioned may also be regarded as serving as types. Now, we do not want to go to an extreme in this in the way of allegorizing all the types of the Old Testament. It is kind of an odd thing about our Dispensationist brethren that they cry out loud against our spiritualizing the teaching of the Old Testament when we see in prophecies with regard to Israel and their fulfillment in the Christian church and the present dispensation; but at the same time, these same people when it comes to typology go to the most amazing length in an allegorical interpretation of various events, persons, and institutions of the Old Testament as being types.
Well, we want to avoid extremes in this matter and in so doing we may acknowledge that there is a great abundance of typological material to be found in the revelation of the Old Testament. And that with regard to persons and events, as well as with regard to the institutions of the ceremonial law. We may have differences of judgments sometimes. as to whether or not Abel, for example, is to be considered as a type of Christ because of his martyrdom and the shedding of his blood. But while there may be differences of judgment, we should recognize that Christ indeed is to be found in all the Scriptures. We think of the men on the road to Emmaus, how they are reproved for not seeing Christ in all the Scriptures, and for not recognizing that the things which the prophets had spoken were things that met their fulfillment in the Person and in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is certainly the case that the ancient people of God were taught by the various ordinances that they were instructed in that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins, as we have it in Hebrews 9:22. Can we say that the godly under the Old Testament were under any kind of illusion that the blood of bulls and of goats was able to take away sins? I think not. The caution of the 50th Psalm from which we were singing indicates that the teaching of the prophets was certainly otherwise; and there is no doubt that there is a close connection in the revelation that God gave with regard to the ordination of various institutions as typical, and on the other hand, in the explanation that he gave by words, especially in the teaching of the prophets, by which the people of God were put into a position of understanding the significance of the types.
Our Larger Catechism states that the revelation given under the Old Testament was sufficient to build up the elect in their faith in the promised Messiah. Indeed, the people of God under the Old Testament were not called upon to believe everything that those who are under the gospel are called upon to believe. The actual appearance of the Son of God had not taken place, and the clarity and the fulness of the revelation that has accompanied, that followed upon the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, is not to be looked for in the Old Testament. But at the same time, we are not to think that believers merely performed outward ordinances under the Old Testament and had no understanding of their real significance. Neither do we believe what has often accompanied a low view of the faith of the eminent servants of God under the Old Testament. We don’t believe that there was some nebulous place called Limbo right next door to Hell that the patriarchs and the prophets and the godly persons of the Old Testament were relegated to until the actual coming of Christ and his offering himself as a sacrifice.
We believe that even as is the case with the people of God in the present dispensation, so also under the Old Testament, that not only in the case of Enoch and Elijah, but in general the children of God were at their death made perfect in holiness and received into glory. There have been those who have taught in Reformed churches especially in the seventeenth century in Holland, even some famous exegetes who held a mistaken view which is repudiated in our Larger Catechism. They taught in error that the saints under the Old Testament did not have a full or even true remission of their sins. Sometimes the words of Romans, the third chapter, and the twenty-fifth verse have been appealed to. They couldn’t have appealed to our King James Version, but I am afraid the King James Version at this point, and in reaction against this erroneous interpretation, has not given an exact translation. It has used the word remission, that God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. The word which is translated remission here is a Greek word that occurs only in this one place in the New Testament, but which really means a passing over, a passing over, and the force of it is that through the forbearance and the long suffering of God, before the coming of Christ sins were passed over.
Now, the opposition has been made between this and a full remission of sins. The inference is broadly drawn that the saints of God under the Old Testament have only had their sins passed over for a time and not really fully remitted. The words of Romans 3:25 do not make a contrast at all between the dispensation of the Old Testament and that of the New. The passing over of sins that are past in the forbearance of God should be read in close connection with the teaching that we find in the Book of Acts in the fourteenth chapter and the sixteenth verse where we read: Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. And likewise with regard to God’s dealings with all nations particularly with the heathen before the coming of Christ as we have it in Acts 17:30: And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent… So there is a contrast between God’s showing such long suffering and patience especially on the heathen nations in the time of the Old Testament period; and on the other hand, the present declaration of the gospel to all nations of the world.
If we understand this then, we should not have any problem about recognizing what is so clearly taught elsewhere in the Scripture. Even in the Epistle to the Romans in the fourth chapter, it’s made perfectly clear that Abraham and David were justified by faith. And the words of David in the 32nd Psalm are quoted in particular, Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered…unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity… David was not simply prophesying there, as something which was not the case at the time, and which could only become the case under the New Testament, but David is declaring what was true in his own experience when he discovered this blessedness which was not his portion to experience during the time that he concealed the sin that burned within him. But when he confessed his sin before the Lord, then the Lord freely forgave the iniquity of his sins. This is where he pronounces the blessedness of those whose sins are forgiven, to whom the Lord imputes righteousness and not sin. So also in the case of Abraham, it is declared that he believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness.
So with regard to Abraham, it is made very explicit in the Epistle to the Galatians, and the third chapter verses 7 through 9, Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And in verse 7, Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham, And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Again in verse fourteen, That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. It’s the same blessing, the blessing not only that was promised to Abraham, but the blessing that Abraham enjoyed is the blessing that has come upon the Gentiles through Christ. What that blessing is, namely, the receiving of the promise of the Holy Spirit through faith. That faith was in Jesus Christ that was to come, who was promised. This was the faith of Abraham as it is the faith now of the Gentiles to whom the gospel is preached that the Lord Jesus Christ has come and has fulfilled the promises that were made of old.
What a marvelous revelation of the infinite wisdom of the Most High we have in this. That the Lord was pleased to prepare the children of men for the great redemption that he had purposed in the counsels of eternity, and that he made known to our first parents even after the Fall, and from one age to those that followed. Slowly, you might say, indeed, but nonetheless surely, God was preparing by word and by deed the way until in the fulness of the time he sent forth his Son made of a woman in order to redeem those who were under the law by his fulfilling of the law of the Holy God. May he be pleased to grant his blessing and enable us to call upon his name.
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Great and Gracious One, we would bless thy great and holy name, that thou art true, that thou art faithful to fulfill all that which thou hast promised, and not one word shall fail of that which thou hast spoken and which thou hast confirmed by thine oath. Do thou, O Lord, grant unto us faith to believe every word that thou hast pronounced, all that thou hast declared in the Holy Scriptures. Above all, grant that our faith which looks only to Jesus Christ as the One in whom alone the forgiveness of sins, and the blessed work of the Holy Spirit is accomplished and is applied. Do thou, O Lord, go before us now, and undertake for us, we would beseech thee. Enable us to be found observant of thy ordinances, commandments, on this thy holy day. Grant that we would be found acknowledging thee in all our ways all the days of our lives. Do thou direct our paths. Bring us again together in thy house and receive graciously of us in Christ, the only Mediator between thyself and us. Hear us for his name’s sake. Amen.
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