A contract is basically an agreement,
written or verbal, between two parties. The word “covenant” is
another word for contract, and the word “testament” as applied to
the Scriptures is another word for “covenant”, which is another
word for contract. So when we talk about the two Testaments of
Scripture, Old and New, we're talking about the two Contracts of
Scripture, Old and New.
The Old Contract is the one which God
made with the nation of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai. It was
laid out formally in the form of what was known at the time as a
“suzerainty treaty”, an agreement between a ruler and those
ruled. In this case the ruler was God Himself, and those ruled were
the descendants of Israel. This contract, like every contract, had
terms and stipulations. It had expectations laid on both parties.
They went something like this, “if the descendants of Israel obey
all the laws, rules, and terms laid down in this contract, then God
agrees to bless them with abundant food, wealth, prosperity, and
peace in their own land in perpetuity. If they choose not to obey the
terms, laws, and rules of this contract, then God would curse them
with poverty, war, famine, and ultimately enslavement into a foreign
land.” The rest of the books of the Old Contract detail the history
of the nation of Israel after the contract was agreed to, and the
execution of the terms of the contract as the descendants of Israel
chose to either follow it, or to disregard it. If they were faithful
to their end of the bargain, then God was faith to His end of it.
When they chose to disregard it, He was still faithful to the all the
terms of the contract and ultimately they ended up enslaved to
various foreign nations at various times in history. As St.Paul
writes, “when we are faithless, He remains faithful, He cannot deny
Himself.”
The New Testament is also called the
New Covenant. In other words, it is a New Contract, separate from the
Old Contract made through Moses. The author of the letter to the
Hebrews is very clear about the relationship of the New Contract to
the Old Contract. He writes,
“In
speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And
what
is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”
(Hebrews
8:13, ESV)
In
other words, the New Contract supercedes and replaces the Old. The
Old Contract is no longer valid or in force in favor of the New
Contract. To try and live according to the terms of the Old Contract
is pointless because those terms are no longer in effect, and to
expect God to keep His end of the terms of the Old Contract with you
when He has already put into force a New Contract is complete
delusion on your part and a refusal to accept the reality of what He
has already said. To expect material blessing from following the
terms of the Old Contract, which God agreed to under the Old
Contract, is completely pointless in the same way that expecting
starvation, poverty, and enslavement from disregarding the terms of
the Old Contract is pointless. It simply is no longer in force.
The
New Contract is, above all, a Contract. It is an agreement made
between God and those people who agree to it. Like the Old Contract
which was sealed by the offering of a blood sacrifice, the New
Contract was sealed by the offering of the blood sacrifice of Jesus
Christ. All those who partake of that one sacrifice through partaking
of His Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist are agreeing to that
Contract just
as those who partook of the sacrifices and were sprinkled with the
blood of the sacrifices on Mount Sinai were agreeing to the Old
Contract.
So,
now that we have this clarified, what are the terms of the New
Contract that we who have been baptized and partaken of His Body and
Blood have agreed to? All Contracts have terms and stipulations and
this one is no different. More often than not, most pastors will
define the only terms of the New Contract from Jeremiah 31:31-34
(ESV):
“Behold,
the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make new covenant
with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the
covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them
by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that
they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. But this
is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will
write it on their hearts. And
I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall
each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the
LORD,’ for they shall
all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the
LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their
sin no more.”
But
this is not the terms of the New Contract, this is a prophecy of the
New Contract. The New Contract was not put into force or even fully
explained with the prophet Jeremiah around 600 B.C. It was only put
into force and explained through Jesus Christ between 30 and 33 A.D.
Our
Lord Jesus Christ actually laid down the terms of the New Contract
very clearly. He said that those who believed in Him would not
be destroyed but would have Eternal Life.
He also said that those who followed Him would be persecuted
horribly, be beaten, ridiculed, and executed in the same vein that He
Himself was. He also said to remain in Him and He in us. He said that
anyone who didn't remain in Him would dry up and be burned. He said
that those who remain in Him would be able to ask anything in His
name and it would be done for them. He said that those who denied Him
in front of human beings would be denied by Him in front of the
Father. He said that those who did not forgive would not be forgiven.
He said to love your enemies. He said to love one another as He loved
us. He said in order to be a disciple of His a person had to renounce
family, possessions, and even his own psyche and live as though dead
to everything but Him. He
gave more
terms and conditions, but they run along the same lines.
In
general, the terms of the contract read that if we do these things
(Principally believing in Him, with the assumption made that such a
belief will result in doing the rest of what He said, otherwise how
could it be said that one believes in Him?) then we will inherit
Eternal Life/the Kingdom of Heaven. If we do not do these things,
then we will not inherit Eternal Life/the Kingdom of Heaven and will
spend eternity burning in Gehenna. These are the things which Jesus
Himself said. The rest of the books of the New Contract outside of
the Gospels add no new terms to it, but rather are explanatory of the
terms which Jesus already laid down prior to His death which sealed
the Contract and put it into force. There is mercy and leniency for
those who violate the terms of the Contract but turn around and
repent of their violations. There is none for those who violate it
and do not repent. Again, Jesus Himself is clear on this.
One
thing He did not say was that if we believed in Him and followed Him
we would receive the material blessings (health, wealth, and
prosperity) promised to the descendants of Israel in the Old
Contract. Material blessings are not really stipulated in the New
Contract while the promise and practice of renunciation and poverty
is overtly stated and encouraged. There are those pastors and
preachers today who confuse the terms of the Old Contract with the
terms of the New, believing that obedience to the terms of the New
will reap the benefits of the terms of the Old. They are confused and
mistaken. Jesus promised no such thing. According to Jesus, those who
are materially wealthy are at a disadvantage and are more likely to
end up in torment, not less, because of their wealth. Poverty is the
preferred financial state according to our Lord.
There
are many Christians who agree to the terms of the New Contract
without actually being told what those terms are. This is much like
signing your name to a contract without reading all of the fine
print. The problem with it is that once the terms kick in, you can be
caught off your guard and complain “I didn't sign up for this!”
when in fact you did without paying attention. There are many
contracts which I have had to sign in my life where it didn't matter,
it seemed, if I read the fine print or not because in order to move
forward in life I had to put my name on the dotted line. When it
comes to the choice between Eternal Life and Gehenna, I can see
someone approaching it with this frame of mind, but then they are
often caught off guard.
People
are often given the narrative that if they believe in Jesus Christ
then their lives will suddenly get back on track and they will be
blessed materially and spiritually. This is not the Contract Jesus
laid out for us. If you find your experience of agreeing to the New
Contract not living up to your expectations or what you were told to
expect, then it's time to reread the terms of the Contract carefully.
Understand what you agreed to. You agreed to give up everything you
hold dear to you in order to become like Jesus Himself to gain
Eternal Life. You agreed to poverty, humiliation, persecution, and
self-renunciation. If you didn't, or you don't think you did, then
you didn't agree to the Contract Jesus signed with His own blood.
The
next time you get angry with God because your life is being turned
upside down and backwards and you find yourself struggling, go back
and read the Contract. Struggle, pain, temptation, and humiliation
are all there spelled out pretty clearly.
