I have no issue with that. It just appeared in your previous post that you may have held that the Jews who still held to Judiasm were on equal footing with Gentile believers. I see that because you are a Calvinist, you wouldn't believe that at all. By the way, I am a Calvinist as well. I soaked up Calvin's Institutes and believe every word of it. Some of my Arminian Pentecostal friends have looked at me sideways because of my Puritan Calvinist theology but I make no apology for it. I am totally convinced that once a person gives their lives to Jesus they are saved forever. God will never cancel it. He is not an indian giver. We are saved by grace through faith, it is not of ourselves but is a gift of God. Once He has given the gift, He will never take it back. A truly converted person, according to Calvin will never renounce Christ. If a person did, it would mean that he was not truly converted in the first place.
So, having said that, my view of the Old Covenant is that it was given to the Jews, but they failed to keep it. So Jesus came as a sinless Jew and He kept that covenant without fault. This is the truth of the Cross. Jesus was innocent under the law. He kept the covenant for sinful Israel, but suffered death as a criminal. This is why any Jew who accepts Christ is saved under the covenant that Jesus kept for them, and he took their sinfulness upon Himself and give them His righteousness as a free gift. Gentile believers do not come under that covenant, because it was for Jews only. But through the calling and ministry of Paul, Jesus brought the Gentiles into a new covenant that was sealed between Him and the Father through the offering of His blood in the heavenly holy of holies. This is the new and better covenant that is mentioned in Hebrews.
But there are no longer two covenants. The Old Covenant was fulfilled in Christ. He has brought Jew and Gentile in under the New Covenant to the degree that there is no longer a distinction between Jew and Gentile as far as the foundation of salvation is concerned. In fact the labels "Jew" and "Gentile" no longer exist in the mind of God. He sees all saved people as the bride of Christ. When the New Testament refers to Israel, it is termed "the new Israel", which is an allusion to the bride of Christ. They are one and the same. Jewish believers and Gentile believers are all one in the new Israel aka the bride of Christ.
Hello Oscar,
It looks as if we have substantial agreement here which always works out well.
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I am totally convinced that once a person gives their lives to Jesus they are saved forever. God will never cancel it. ]
This could be just sematical differences, but I see it as the Shepherd seeks and saves us....we do not give anything to Him but rather we receive mercy and grace. I try and be very careful of the wording as to avoid confusion later on
Many people in our day resist these truths and will look to twist the wording, so I try and be careful when posting or speaking.
Salvation is certain because God has sworn by himself;
Hebrews6;
13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,
14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
16 For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
Remember how God put Abraham to sleep when He passed through the divided animal when he cut the Covenant?
Gen15;
12 And when the sun was going down,
a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
18 In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
