All these prior covenants have their fulfillment in Christ alone.
Christ brings in everlasting righteousness with God for mankind.
There is no futurism for past covenants. There is still futurism regarding prophecies but these are all to be interpreted by the New Covenant. In these last days God has spoken to us by HIS SON.
Daniel 9:24 “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.
Here is an interesting list regarding various aspects of covenants.
https://reformedbaptistdaily.wordpress.com/summary-of-bible-doctrine/
Section 3: The Divine Covenants
The Biblical order, structure, and unity of God’s revelation is found in the divine covenants.
The summary promise of the Bible from beginning to end is: “I will be your God and you shall be my people” (Exod. 6:7; Lev. 26:12; Jer. 24:7; 31:33; Heb. 8:10; 1 Pet. 2:9,10). This means all that God can be, He will be to us (1 Chron. 17:24). That the true and living God is our Father in redemption is a summary of the covenant. Christ Himself is the sum and substance of the covenant to us (Isa. 49:8; Lk. 22:20). He is our all in all. He is our life. The essence of the covenant can also be defined as possessing the Spirit of God (Gal. 3:14). He applies the covenant blessings to us. He is the earnest of all that is yet to come. He brings us in union with the ascended Christ. Thus we see that the summary of God’s covenant grace (Heb. 13:20) is a saving relationship with each person of the Triune God (cf. Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14). This is the central message of the whole Bible. This is the dominant theme throughout. This saving relationship to the Trinity is what defines the people of God. They are the elect of the Father, the redeemed of the Son, and the regenerate of the Spirit (Eph. 1:3-14). This is an Israelite indeed, the Israel of God (Rom. 2:28,29; Gal. 6:16). This is the church of God purchased with His own blood (Acts 20:28). If we miss this message as the central message of the Bible, we have been sidetracked. The Bible is one book and this is what unifies it from beginning to end.
a. The Covenant of Grace
The first redemptive covenant is in Genesis 3:15. It is the covenant of conquest. Messiah (i.e. Christ) will crush the serpent’s head and redeem a seed (a people) from among men. This is a summary of the Bible and the gospel at the very beginning.
b. The Noahic Covenant
The covenant with Noah can be called the covenant of redemptive preservation. God will preserve this earth until all of His elect are brought in (see 2 Pet 3). The rainbow around the throne in Revelation 4 shows that the storm of God’s wrath (which destroyed the ancient world) is over for God’s people.
c. The Abrahamic Covenant
The covenant with Abraham is the covenant of world-wide blessing by saving union with Messiah. “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). Galatians 3 is the apostolic interpretation of this covenant. It is the gospel promise of the blessing of the Spirit to come upon the Gentiles through Jesus Christ (3:14). The apostles are our teachers as to how to interpret the Old Testament. Abraham was not just to be heir of Palestine, but of the world (Rom. 4:13), in the new heavens and the new earth. The meek inherit the earth finally. Abraham did not look for an earthly inheritance but a heavenly one (Heb. 11:10,16). Circumcision was a sign of the need for a circumcised heart (i.e. regeneration; Col. 2:11). Thus a true Jew is one that is so inwardly (Rom. 2:28,29).
d. The Mosaic Covenant
The covenant given through Moses was one of the enduring moral law. The Ten Commandments were written in stone never to be done away with, spoken by the voice of God (Exod. 20:1ff), written with His finger (Exod. 31:18), and placed in the Ark of the Covenant (Deut. 31:26; 1 Kings 8:21). This is the believer’s rule of duty responding in loving gratitude to God his redeemer (Exod. 20:2). This is the royal law of liberty that believers adorn the doctrine of God with today also (1 Cor. 9:21). It is the law written on our hearts (Jer. 31:33).
The covenant through Moses also contained the temporary, typical modes of worship under the Levitical priesthood until the Messiah came and offered the once for all sacrifice and did away with these shadows (read the book of Hebrews).
The covenant also contained the civil statutes for the nation of Israel to organize the tribes into a nation and keep them distinct from the nations around them until Messiah came (Gal. 3:23). Now the Jerusalem which is above is the mother of us all (Gal. 4:26).
e. The Davidic Covenant
The Davidic covenant reflects the new stage of redemptive history when Israel is ruled by God through a human king, but a perfect king cannot be found. Messiah will be that perfect king over the people of God, giving them willing hearts in the day of His power (Psalm 110:3), from the Father’s right hand. He is Immanuel (“God with us”), born of a virgin, the God-man. Here is our confidence of the triumph and victory of God’s cause and kingdom: the government shall be upon his shoulders (Isa. 9:6-7); the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands (Isa. 53:10). He has begun His reign now—“He [God the Father] put all things under His [Christ] feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church” (Eph. 1:22). When Christ returns the end of all things is at hand (1 Pet. 4:7) and we go right into eternity (2 Peter 3:10-13). This is the covenant of Messiah’s triumphant and glorious rule (cf. Matt 28:18; Acts 2:24-36).
f. The New Covenant
The New Covenant is the last order of things; it will never be done away with (Heb. 13:20). This is the covenant of the historic accomplishment of the long awaited redemption (Jn. 19:30). The redemption is accomplished already on the cross; all that remains is for it to be applied. The risen, ascended, Christ is at the right hand of God and has poured forth the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:30-33) to accomplish a world-wide preaching of the gospel and a bringing in of a kingdom from among all nations. There is the increased revelation of the 27 New Testament books. There is a simplicity of ritual: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. This corresponds to that which is fitting for a worldwide work and the spirituality of focus of the New Covenant on the ascended Christ in heaven, not a focus on one earthly city, temple, and lineage (Jn. 4:23,24). There is a New Covenant body of a church where Jew and Gentile are equal in status and privilege. Even with all of this the New Covenant has only begun to be applied. It yet holds in store for us the removal of sin, the resurrected body, the immediate presence of God, and the new heavens and the new earth. Eternity to come is under the New Covenant to bring us incomprehensible union and communion with the Triune God.
Here again we see this is the message of the Bible. The Old Testament had a gospel hope that it looked forward to. The Old Testament is to be interpreted by the New, because the New is the fulfillment of the Old. The New is the body, the Old is the shadow that reflects the body (Col. 2:17).
g. The Covenant of Redemption
All of the redemptive covenants revealed in time are an outworking of the eternal covenant (often referred to as the Covenant of Redemption) where God chose a people for Himself and Christ pledged Himself to be their representative (Jn. 17:2; 15:16; 2 Tim. 1:9; Eph. 1:11) to die for them and establish their justification before God (Heb. 10:7-17). All of the merit and righteousness that believers need in order to stand before God is found in Christ, and all the blessings of eternal life are deposited with Him (Jn. 3:35) and dispensed by Him to us as He sees fit (Phil. 4:19).
The Headship of Adam and of Christ: Let us consider one other matter concerning covenants in the Bible. In Romans Chapter 5, Christ’s work of salvation is paralleled to Adam’s headship over mankind and his fall into sin. As God constituted Adam as the representative of all mankind, if he obeyed all would be blessed; if he sinned all would be condemned. Christ is now the second Adam, the representative for those who are saved. The saved stand before God as righteous because their head, Christ, is righteous (Phil. 3:7-11; 1 Jn. 2:1). We see that since Christ’s headship is a covenant (Heb. 13:20), a covenant of grace for us, by this comparison we can say that Adam’s headship was a covenant, a covenant of works, where Adam and ourselves are judged by his works of disobedience and lack of continuing in obedience. All men are born in Adam (with sinful natures); only those who are redeemed are in covenant union with Christ.
Christ brings in everlasting righteousness with God for mankind.
There is no futurism for past covenants. There is still futurism regarding prophecies but these are all to be interpreted by the New Covenant. In these last days God has spoken to us by HIS SON.
Daniel 9:24 “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.
Here is an interesting list regarding various aspects of covenants.
https://reformedbaptistdaily.wordpress.com/summary-of-bible-doctrine/
Section 3: The Divine Covenants
The Biblical order, structure, and unity of God’s revelation is found in the divine covenants.
The summary promise of the Bible from beginning to end is: “I will be your God and you shall be my people” (Exod. 6:7; Lev. 26:12; Jer. 24:7; 31:33; Heb. 8:10; 1 Pet. 2:9,10). This means all that God can be, He will be to us (1 Chron. 17:24). That the true and living God is our Father in redemption is a summary of the covenant. Christ Himself is the sum and substance of the covenant to us (Isa. 49:8; Lk. 22:20). He is our all in all. He is our life. The essence of the covenant can also be defined as possessing the Spirit of God (Gal. 3:14). He applies the covenant blessings to us. He is the earnest of all that is yet to come. He brings us in union with the ascended Christ. Thus we see that the summary of God’s covenant grace (Heb. 13:20) is a saving relationship with each person of the Triune God (cf. Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14). This is the central message of the whole Bible. This is the dominant theme throughout. This saving relationship to the Trinity is what defines the people of God. They are the elect of the Father, the redeemed of the Son, and the regenerate of the Spirit (Eph. 1:3-14). This is an Israelite indeed, the Israel of God (Rom. 2:28,29; Gal. 6:16). This is the church of God purchased with His own blood (Acts 20:28). If we miss this message as the central message of the Bible, we have been sidetracked. The Bible is one book and this is what unifies it from beginning to end.
a. The Covenant of Grace
The first redemptive covenant is in Genesis 3:15. It is the covenant of conquest. Messiah (i.e. Christ) will crush the serpent’s head and redeem a seed (a people) from among men. This is a summary of the Bible and the gospel at the very beginning.
b. The Noahic Covenant
The covenant with Noah can be called the covenant of redemptive preservation. God will preserve this earth until all of His elect are brought in (see 2 Pet 3). The rainbow around the throne in Revelation 4 shows that the storm of God’s wrath (which destroyed the ancient world) is over for God’s people.
c. The Abrahamic Covenant
The covenant with Abraham is the covenant of world-wide blessing by saving union with Messiah. “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). Galatians 3 is the apostolic interpretation of this covenant. It is the gospel promise of the blessing of the Spirit to come upon the Gentiles through Jesus Christ (3:14). The apostles are our teachers as to how to interpret the Old Testament. Abraham was not just to be heir of Palestine, but of the world (Rom. 4:13), in the new heavens and the new earth. The meek inherit the earth finally. Abraham did not look for an earthly inheritance but a heavenly one (Heb. 11:10,16). Circumcision was a sign of the need for a circumcised heart (i.e. regeneration; Col. 2:11). Thus a true Jew is one that is so inwardly (Rom. 2:28,29).
d. The Mosaic Covenant
The covenant given through Moses was one of the enduring moral law. The Ten Commandments were written in stone never to be done away with, spoken by the voice of God (Exod. 20:1ff), written with His finger (Exod. 31:18), and placed in the Ark of the Covenant (Deut. 31:26; 1 Kings 8:21). This is the believer’s rule of duty responding in loving gratitude to God his redeemer (Exod. 20:2). This is the royal law of liberty that believers adorn the doctrine of God with today also (1 Cor. 9:21). It is the law written on our hearts (Jer. 31:33).
The covenant through Moses also contained the temporary, typical modes of worship under the Levitical priesthood until the Messiah came and offered the once for all sacrifice and did away with these shadows (read the book of Hebrews).
The covenant also contained the civil statutes for the nation of Israel to organize the tribes into a nation and keep them distinct from the nations around them until Messiah came (Gal. 3:23). Now the Jerusalem which is above is the mother of us all (Gal. 4:26).
e. The Davidic Covenant
The Davidic covenant reflects the new stage of redemptive history when Israel is ruled by God through a human king, but a perfect king cannot be found. Messiah will be that perfect king over the people of God, giving them willing hearts in the day of His power (Psalm 110:3), from the Father’s right hand. He is Immanuel (“God with us”), born of a virgin, the God-man. Here is our confidence of the triumph and victory of God’s cause and kingdom: the government shall be upon his shoulders (Isa. 9:6-7); the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands (Isa. 53:10). He has begun His reign now—“He [God the Father] put all things under His [Christ] feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church” (Eph. 1:22). When Christ returns the end of all things is at hand (1 Pet. 4:7) and we go right into eternity (2 Peter 3:10-13). This is the covenant of Messiah’s triumphant and glorious rule (cf. Matt 28:18; Acts 2:24-36).
f. The New Covenant
The New Covenant is the last order of things; it will never be done away with (Heb. 13:20). This is the covenant of the historic accomplishment of the long awaited redemption (Jn. 19:30). The redemption is accomplished already on the cross; all that remains is for it to be applied. The risen, ascended, Christ is at the right hand of God and has poured forth the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:30-33) to accomplish a world-wide preaching of the gospel and a bringing in of a kingdom from among all nations. There is the increased revelation of the 27 New Testament books. There is a simplicity of ritual: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. This corresponds to that which is fitting for a worldwide work and the spirituality of focus of the New Covenant on the ascended Christ in heaven, not a focus on one earthly city, temple, and lineage (Jn. 4:23,24). There is a New Covenant body of a church where Jew and Gentile are equal in status and privilege. Even with all of this the New Covenant has only begun to be applied. It yet holds in store for us the removal of sin, the resurrected body, the immediate presence of God, and the new heavens and the new earth. Eternity to come is under the New Covenant to bring us incomprehensible union and communion with the Triune God.
Here again we see this is the message of the Bible. The Old Testament had a gospel hope that it looked forward to. The Old Testament is to be interpreted by the New, because the New is the fulfillment of the Old. The New is the body, the Old is the shadow that reflects the body (Col. 2:17).
g. The Covenant of Redemption
All of the redemptive covenants revealed in time are an outworking of the eternal covenant (often referred to as the Covenant of Redemption) where God chose a people for Himself and Christ pledged Himself to be their representative (Jn. 17:2; 15:16; 2 Tim. 1:9; Eph. 1:11) to die for them and establish their justification before God (Heb. 10:7-17). All of the merit and righteousness that believers need in order to stand before God is found in Christ, and all the blessings of eternal life are deposited with Him (Jn. 3:35) and dispensed by Him to us as He sees fit (Phil. 4:19).
The Headship of Adam and of Christ: Let us consider one other matter concerning covenants in the Bible. In Romans Chapter 5, Christ’s work of salvation is paralleled to Adam’s headship over mankind and his fall into sin. As God constituted Adam as the representative of all mankind, if he obeyed all would be blessed; if he sinned all would be condemned. Christ is now the second Adam, the representative for those who are saved. The saved stand before God as righteous because their head, Christ, is righteous (Phil. 3:7-11; 1 Jn. 2:1). We see that since Christ’s headship is a covenant (Heb. 13:20), a covenant of grace for us, by this comparison we can say that Adam’s headship was a covenant, a covenant of works, where Adam and ourselves are judged by his works of disobedience and lack of continuing in obedience. All men are born in Adam (with sinful natures); only those who are redeemed are in covenant union with Christ.
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