John The Baptist, More Than A Prophet

JOHN THE BAPTIST’S NEW COVENANT Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts. --Mal. 3:1 Rarely would you find someone, if anyone, that would deny that John the Baptist was the one, who was prophesied in Malachi 3:1. He is the one that was sent to prepare the way for the LORD Jesus; he was the messenger of the covenant. Few would disagree that this New Covenant involves Israel as the other covenants did (Abrahamic, Davidic, and Palestinian). Nevertheless, whether the New Covenant is only inclusive of Israel and exclusive of the Gentiles is the question. Recently, we were scolded for not perceiving that the New Covenant was exclusively Jewish and had yet to be realized in the future. We also were challenged in regard to our comments in regard to John the Baptist being the messenger of the New Covenant, since the beginning of a new dispensation is found in the Gospels in that the Law and the Prophets were until John and in that the beginning of the Gospel began in Mark 1:1 with John’s baptism. The New Covenant is the New Testament For this is my blood of the NEW testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. – Matt. 26:28 And he said unto them, This is my blood of the NEW testament, which is shed for many. -- Mark 4:24 This cup is the NEW testament in my blood, which is shed for you. -- Luke 22:20 This cup is the NEW testament in my blood: this do ye . . . in remembrance of me. -- 1 Cor 11:25 Who also hath made us able ministers of the NEW testament . . . -- 2 Cor. 3:6 . . . by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit . . . --Zech 9:11 It is very hard to understand the brethren, who disallow N.T. Christians having anything to do with the New Covenant (New Testament), since neither Christ nor Paul disallowed it. Paul even claims that they were made ministers of the New Testament that John the Baptist announced, based on the blood that would be shed by Christ. This blood covenant enabled Christ to take the now redeemed O.T. saints from their paradise prison to heaven, after he shed that blood and arose from the dead. The Jeremian New Covenant Explained in the New Testament Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake . . . I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. -- Jer. 31:31-34 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) . . . Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the FIRST, that he may establish the SECOND. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all . . . this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. --Heb.10:7-18 Now, we have no problem with the New Covenant being meant primarily to Israel. Nor do we have a problem with the Jews' future realization of the benefits of the New Covenant in the tribulation and/or the Millennium. We do have a problem with the view that the New Covenant that John announced was postponed until then. You see, even though he came to His own (Jews), and His own received Him not, as many of His own Jews that DID receive Him, became sons of God (John 1:12,13) and realized New Covenant benefits in the Gospels and the Epistles. All the early Christians were Jews. Complete fulfillment of the New Covenant is not the same as the institution or beginning of that New Covenant. John the Baptist was the messenger that announced it and prepared its way; Jesus instituted the New Covenant by His own blood. Gentiles are not fulfilling the Jew's part of the New Covenant. But the real consideration is whether the New Covenant's is a partial fulfillment of that which shall be a complete fulfillment in the future. We have no problem with the Jews exclusively benefiting in many of the material aspects of the New Covenant as were promised to them alone. We have no problem with the New Covenant not being solely the Gospel, but we do see the gospel as being part of the New Covenant for Jew and Gentile alike. Otherwise, there would have to be two New Covenants, one for the Jew and one for the Gentile, which would mean that Jesus would have to die twice. Now, many of those, who believe in the kingdom postponement theory (Scofield), would postpone the New Covenant and thereby get into trouble with their dispensational views in the tribulation and the millennial kingdom. For they believe that the Jews, then, get saved some other way than in the age of grace. They believe that works in the future have to do with the Jews’ salvation. Still, that would not be a New Covenant per the over-disp O.T. views; it would be the Old Covenant all over again. Obviously, the New Covenant is tied to the one offering for sin in Hebrews 10 and reflects the same words of the Jeremian New Covenant (Jer. 31), i.e., God's law written in the heart and the sins and iniquities remembered no more. Since Jesus did not have to die twice, once for the Jews and once for the Gentiles, there is only ONE New Covenant that covers both, now and in the future. Saved New Covenant Gentiles According to Romans And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee . . . And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my COVENANT unto them, when I shall take away their sins. --Rom. 11:17-21, 26 Obviously, the last are first here and the first last, when it comes to the New Testament program and the New Covenant. Gentiles are in the same olive tree, when grafted in, upon salvation. The natural branches were cut off, but will sprout again and that event will include salvation and forgiveness of sins based on the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In Christ, the Gentiles are grafted into the SAME tree, hence the same covenant. Saved New Covenant Gentiles According to Galatians 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 . . . That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith . . . I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's COVENANT, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the COVENANT, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise. Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made . . . ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator . . . if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. --Gal 3:7-29 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise . . . So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. --Gal. 4:27-31 The Book of Galatians makes it clear that the blessings of Abraham also come upon the Gentiles, who are in Christ. The Gentile relationship with Christ is the key to the Gentiles benefiting from the New Covenant. Gentiles, in Christ, are Abraham's seed and also heirs according to promise. All Israel are not Israel. A Jew may only be a Jew outwardly and not really be a Jew, and a Gentile may be a Jew inwardly (Rom. 2:29). Saved New Covenant Gentiles According to Ephesians That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: BUT NOW in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us . . . Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone . . . Eph 2:12-20 The "BUT NOWS" of scripture are what counts. Once Gentiles were foreigners and aliens BUT NOW IN CHRIST JESUS they are fellowcitizens and are no longer alienated from the common wealth of Israel. Gentiles are even built on the prophets as well as the foundation of Jesus Christ. The afar off Gentiles are now made near by the BLOOD of Christ, and received into the New Covenant. Saved New Covenant Jews According to Hebrews But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a BETTER covenant, which was established upon BETTER promises. For if that FIRST covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the SECOND. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a NEW covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah . . . For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people . . . For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, A NEW covenant, he hath made the FIRST old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. -- Heb 8:6-13 And for this cause he is the mediator of the NEW testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the FIRST testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon neither the FIRST testament was dedicated without blood. -- Heb. 9:15-18 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the BLOOD OF THE COVENANT, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? -- Heb. 10:29, 30 And to Jesus the mediator of the NEW COVENANT, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, THROUGH THE BLOOD OF THE EVERLASTING COVENANT . . . --Heb. 12:23, 24 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, THROUGH THE BLOOD OF THE EVELASTING COVENANT MAKE YOU perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. -- Heb 13:21-23 The writer of Hebrews does not even give us an inkling that the New Covenant has not begun. He calls this New Covenant through the blood, an everlasting covenant. The blood of this everlasting covenant can make us Gentiles as well as the Jews perfect in every good work to do His will. It is a better covenant than the Old Covenant but IS counted an unholy thing by some. Now, we only see two covenants in Hebrews--not three. We see a first and a second covenant, a new and an old covenant. We are presently involved in the New Covenant, and we shall not allow anyone to take away our part from it, whether covenant theologians, who want to eliminate the Jews or Hyper-dispensationalists, who want to eliminate the Gentiles.

-- by Herb Evans