The gift of the Spirit is part of the New Covenant and the first fruits of the New Creation. The
history of Israel includes national sins that caused her expulsion from the land.
But God foresaw her failures and determined to institute a new covenant, one energized
and characterized by His Spirit, and that includes the Gentiles. It will culminate
in the New Creation, the true inheritance of His people.
With the death and resurrection of Jesus of
Nazareth, a new era dawned - the messianic age - the time of fulfillment. And in
him, all God’s covenant promises are, even now, being achieved.
As promised in the Hebrew scriptures, when
Israel repents wholeheartedly, the God of Abraham will gather her “from
among all the peoples where Yahweh your God has scattered you,” He will “multiply
you beyond your fathers” and “circumcise your heart to love Him with all
your heart and with all your soul that you may live” - (Deuteronomy 30:3-6).
Two things are noteworthy. First, God planned
to “multiply Israel beyond her forebears.” “Multiply”
translates the same Hebrew verb found in the call to Adam to be “fruitful
and multiply,” and in God’s
promise to multiply Abraham’s
seed - (Genesis 1:28, 17:2).
Second, the restoration will occur when God
“circumcises Israel’s heart” and inscribes His law on it, an internal
change promised in the Hebrew scriptures and actualized by His Spirit under a “new
covenant”- (Jeremiah 31:31-34, Ezekiel 11:19-20).
Thus, the promised restoration was far more
expansive and glorious than anything the ancient nation ever knew, an act of
sheer grace by which He enables His people to fulfill the covenant through the “new
Spirit” given to them. In the end, it will be a new creative act that impacts all the nations
of the earth - (Isaiah 65:17-18, Revelation 21:1-3).
IN JESUS
In the New Testament, His promises are fulfilled
in Jesus as God implements His new covenant, and this includes the covenant
promises to Abraham - the “circumcised heart” and the “new Spirit.”
Jesus came to fulfill the “Law and the
Prophets.” The Jews who saw him experienced something “greater than Jonah,”
“greater than Solomon,” “greater than David,” and greater than
the Temple. In Christ, God’s kingdom was inaugurated and began to advance
on the earth - (Matthew 5:17-21, 12:6, 12:28, 12:41-42).
Having established the “new covenant,”
Jesus commenced building his community based on the “new covenant in my
blood.” But in the new messianic era, his covenant community is formed
around and centered on him, not the land of Canaan or the Temple in Jerusalem:
- In him, “what things God had before declared through the mouth of all the prophets… the covenant that He covenanted with your fathers, saying to Abraham, in your seed shall be blessed all the families of the earth” - (Acts 3:24-26, Acts 10:42-43, 13:18-33).
Likewise, for the Apostle Paul, “all the
promises of God find their ‘Yea’ and ‘Amen’ in Jesus.” He ascended on high “that
he might fulfill all things.” The jurisdiction of the Torah was
only for a limited time “until Christ came,” the true seed of
Abraham, and in him, all those who have faith in the word of God as the Patriarch
did become the “children of Abraham” - (2 Corinthians
1:20, Galatians 3:24, Romans 10:4).
THE GENTILES
Jesus became the Suffering Servant portrayed
in the book of Isaiah who “confirms the promises to the fathers so that
the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.” Thus, the promised “blessing for the nations” given to Abraham is fulfilled in Jesus, the Messiah of
Israel. He has expanded the covenant far beyond the limited boundaries of
Ancient Israel - (Romans 15:8-9).
Prior to his death, the Gentiles were “separated
from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the
covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” However,
now, in Jesus, “those who once were far off have been brought near by the
blood of Christ.” The ancient promises to regather God’s people are
fulfilled as both Jews and Gentiles respond in faith to the good news of the kingdom
of God.
From the beginning, God’s purpose was “to sum up all things in Christ in the fullness of the times,” and that includes the redemption of the nations and the creation itself - (Ephesians 1:10, 2:11-13).
When referring to the promised land, the Hebrew
Bible employs the terms “inheritance,” “inherit,” “heir,”
and “promise.” In the New Testament, the same terms are applied to what
God is accomplishing in Jesus, the gift of the Spirit, and the new covenant
community founded by him. He is the true heir of Abraham and
the heir of all things - (Matthew 21:38, 28:18, John
13:3, Colossians 1:12-13, 1 Peter 1:3-5).
The gift of the Spirit confirms the
status of believers. They are the “children of God, and if children, then
heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.” Anyone who has received
the Spirit becomes part of his covenant community regardless of ethnicity,
nationality, or gender. The salvation provided by Jesus is a universal offer of life for all men,
women, and children.
HEIRS
Christ is Abraham’s true “seed,” and
as partners with him, disciples also become “heirs according to promise.”
Moreover, the Spirit is the “earnest of our inheritance for the
redemption of the possession” - (Romans 8:16-17, Galatians
3:29, Ephesians 1:13-14).
- He is “the mediator of the new covenant, that a death having taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they that have been called may receive the promise of the everlasting inheritance.”
He implemented the prophesied New Covenant
by becoming the heir of Abraham. Consequently, all who are “in Christ”
are coheirs with him and destined to receive the same inheritance - (Romans
8:1-23, Hebrews 8:6-13, 9:15).
The apostles are “ministers of the new
covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit,” another allusion to the
New Covenant promised in the Hebrew scriptures in which God writes His laws by
His Spirit in freshly circumcised hearts - (Deuteronomy 30:6, Jeremiah
31:34, Ezekiel 11:19-20, 2 Corinthians 3:4-6).
He became the “surety of a better
covenant” and established the promised new one. And because Christ
established the “new covenant,” logically, “he made the first one obsolete”
- (Hebrews 7:22, 8:6-13, 9:15, 10:16).
RESURRECTION
The bodily resurrection of Jesus was an act
of new creation. God did not resuscitate a corpse but gave him a glorious
new body that is no longer subject to death and decay.
And that means his resurrection inaugurated
the New Creation, although there is an overlap between the existing age and
the coming one:
- “Therefore, if any man is in Christ, a new creation, the old things are passed away, behold, they have become new” - (1 Corinthians 15:42-50, 2 Corinthians 5:17).
And the arrival of the new creation means the
redefinition of the boundaries of the land promised to Abraham. As Paul wrote to
the church in Rome, Abraham will “inherit
the world,” and not just a tiny strip of land in the Middle
East - (Romans 4:13).
Moreover, his disciples are his coheirs. Their final hope will be realized in the bodily resurrection and the New Creation. At present, the creation itself “sighs and travails in birth pangs” as it “ardently awaits the revelation of the sons of God.”
Both humanity and the entire universe are
subject to decay and death due to Adam’s “transgression.” But God will
reverse the curse when His sons receive the redemption of their bodies at the
arrival of Jesus in glory. In the interim, his disciples have the Spirit as the
“first fruits” of and the down payment on the final redemption - (Romans
8:17-23).
The New Creation is the ultimate inheritance
of believers. According to his promise, “we look for the new heavens and the
new earth wherein dwells righteousness,” and in it, “God will tabernacle
with men, and they will be his people.” When that day arrives, He will wipe
away every tear and death will cease forevermore - “Behold, I make all things new!” - (2 Peter
3:13, Revelation 21:1-7).
Thus, the promised “New Covenant”
and “New Creation” both began with the death and resurrection of Jesus,
a process that is underway, one that will culminate in the resurrection and the
“new heavens and the new earth” when Jesus returns.