What Are the Two Covenants

The Two Covenants – Extract from “The Glad Tidings” p.p. 85-89. E J Wagonner

“These Are the Two Covenants.”

What are the two covenants?–The two women, Hagar and Sarah; for we read that Hagar is Mount Sinai, “which gendereth to bondage.”

That is, just as Hagar could not bring forth any other kind of children than slaves, so the law, even the law that God spoke from Sinai, can not beget freemen. It can do nothing but hold them in bondage. “The law worketh wrath:” “for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” The same is true of the covenant from Sinai, for it consisted merely of the promise of the people to keep that law, and had, therefore, no more power to make them free than the law itself had,–no more power than they already had in their bondage. Nay, rather, it “gendered to bondage,” since their making it was simply a promise to make themselves righteous by their own works, and man in himself is “without strength.”

Consider the situation:

The people were in the bondage of sin; they had no power to break their chains; but the speaking of the law made no change in their condition; it introduced no new feature. If a man is in prison for crime, you can not release him by reading the statutes to him. It was the law that put him there, and the reading of it to him only makes his captivity more painful.

“Then did not God Himself lead them into bondage?”–Not by any means; since He did not induce them to make that covenant at Sinai. Four hundred and thirty years before that time He had made a covenant with Abraham, which was sufficient for all purposes. That covenant was confirmed in Christ, and, therefore, was a covenant from above. See John 8:23.

It promised righteousness as a free gift of God through faith, and it included all nations. All the miracles that God had wrought in delivering the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage were but demonstrations of His power to deliver them and us from the bondage of sin. Yes, the deliverance from Egypt was itself a demonstration not only of God’s power, but also of His desire to lead them from the bondage of sin, that bondage in which the covenant from Sinai holds men, because Hagar, who is the covenant from Sinai, was an Egyptian.

So when the people came to Sinai, God simply referred them to what He had already done, and then said, “Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.” Ex.19:5.

To what covenant did He refer?–Evidently to the one already in existence, His covenant with Abraham.

If they would simply keep God’s covenant, that is, God’s promise,–keep the faith,–they would be a peculiar treasure unto God, for God, as the possessor of all the earth, was able to do with them all that He had promised. The fact that they in their self-sufficiency rashly took the whole responsibility upon themselves, does not prove that God led them into making that covenant, but the contrary. He was leading them out of bondage, not into it, and the apostle plainly tells us that covenant from Sinai was nothing but bondage.

Further, if the children of Israel who came out of Egypt had but walked “in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised” (Rom.4:12), the law would never have been spoken from Sinai; “for the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith” (Rom.4:13).

Faith justifies, makes righteous; if the people had had Abraham’s faith, they would have had the righteousness that he had; and then there would have been no occasion for the entering of the law, which was “spoken because of transgression.” The law would have been in their hearts, and they would not have needed to be awakened by its thunders to a sense of their condition. God never expected, and does not now expect, that any person can get righteousness by the law proclaimed from Sinai; and everything connected with Sinai shows it. Yet the law is truth, and must be kept. God delivered the people from Egypt, “that they might observe His statutes, and keep His laws.” Ps.105:45.

We do not get life by keeping the commandments, but God gives us life in order that we may keep them.

The Two Covenants Parallel.

Note the statement which the apostle makes when speaking of the two women, Hagar and Sarah: “These are the two covenants.” So then the two covenants existed in every essential particular in the days of Abraham. Even so they do to-day; for the Scripture says now as well as then, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son.” We see then that the two covenants are not matters of time, but of condition. Let no one flatter himself that he can not be under the old covenant, because the time for that is passed. The time for that is passed only in the sense that “the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries.” 1Pet.4:3.

Difference Between the Two

The difference is just the difference between a freewoman and a slave. Hagar’s children, no matter how many she might have had, would have been slaves, while those of Sarah would necessarily be free.

So the covenant from Sinai holds all who adhere to it in bondage “under the law;” while the covenant from above gives freedom, not freedom from obedience to the law, but freedom from disobedience to it. The freedom is not found away from the law, but in the law.

Christ redeems from the curse, which is the transgression of the law. He redeems us from the curse, that the blessing may come on us; and the blessing is obedience to the law. “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.” Ps.119:1. This blessedness is freedom. “I will walk at liberty; for I seek Thy precepts.” Ps.119:45.

The difference between the two covenants may be put briefly thus: In the covenant from Sinai we ourselves have to do with the law alone, while in the covenant from above, we have the law in Christ. In the first instance, it is death to us, since the law is sharper than any two-edged sword, and we are not able to handle it without fatal results; but in the second instance we have the law “in the hand of a Mediator.” In the one case it is what we can do; in the other case it is what the Spirit of God can do. Bear in mind that there is not the slightest question in the whole Epistle to the Galatians as to whether or not the law should be kept. The only question is, How shall it be done? Is it to be our own doing, so that the reward shall not be of grace but of debt? or is it to be God working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure?

Mount Sinai and Mount Zion

“This Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” As there are the two covenants, so there are two cities to which they pertain. Jerusalem which now is pertains to the old covenant—to Mount Sinai. It will never be free, but will be replaced by the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, “which cometh down out of heaven.” Rev.3:12; 21:1-5.

It is the city for which Abraham looked, the “city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Heb.11:10; Rev.21:14. There are many who build great hopes–all their hope–on Jerusalem which now is. For such the veil remaineth “untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament.” 2Cor.3:14. They are in reality looking to Mount Sinai and the old covenant for salvation, and it is not to be found there.

“For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more (for they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart; and so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake); but ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” Heb.12:18-24.

Whoever looks to the present Jerusalem for blessings, is looking to the old covenant, to Mount Sinai, to bondage; whoever worships with his face toward the New Jerusalem, and who expects blessings only from it, is looking to the new covenant, to Mount Zion, to freedom; for “Jerusalem which is above is free.” From what is it free?–Free from sin; and since it is our mother, it begets us anew, so that we also become free from sin. Free from the law?–Yes, certainly, for the law has no condemnation for them who are in Christ Jesus. But do not let anybody deceive you with vain words, telling you that you may now trample God’s law underfoot,–that law which He Himself proclaimed in such awful majesty from Sinai. Coming to Mount Sion,–to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling,–we become free from sin,–from transgression of the law. The basis of God’s throne in Zion is His law. From the throne proceed the same “lightnings and thunderings and voices” (Rev.4:5; 11:19) as from Sinai, because the selfsame law is there. But it is “the throne of grace,” and, therefore, in spite of the thunders, we come to it boldly, assured that from God, the Judge of all, who sits upon the mercy-seat, we shall obtain mercy. Nay, more, we shall also find grace to help in time of need,–grace to help us in the hour of temptation to sin,–for out of the midst of the throne, from the slain Lamb (Rev.5:6), flows the river of water of life, bringing to us from the heart of Christ “the law of the Spirit of life.” We drink of it, we bathe in it, and we find cleansing from all sin.

“Why didn’t the Lord bring the people directly to Mount Zion then, where they could find the law as life, and not to Mount Sinai, where it was only death?”

That is a very natural question, and one that is easily answered. It was because of their unbelief. When God brought Israel out of Egypt, it was His purpose to bring them to Mount Zion as directly as they could go. When they had crossed the Red Sea, they sang an inspired song, of which this was a part: “Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed; Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation.” “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established.” Ex. 15:13,17.

If they had continued singing, they would very soon have come to Zion; for the redeemed of the Lord “come with singing unto Zion,” and everlasting joy is upon their heads. Is.35:10; 51:11. The dividing of the Red Sea was the proof of this. See verse 10. But they soon forgot the Lord, and murmured in unbelief. Therefore “the law was added because of transgressions.” It was their own fault–the result of their sinful unbelief– that they came to Mount Sinai instead of to Mount Zion.

Nevertheless, God did not leave Himself without witness of His faithfulness. At Mount Sinai the law was in the hand of the same Mediator, Jesus, to whom we come when we come to Zion; and from the Rock in Horeb, which is Sinai, flowed the living stream, the water of life from the heart of Christ. Ex.17:6; 1Cor.10:4. There they had not merely the picture, but the reality, of Mount Zion. Every soul whose heart there turned to the Lord, would have beheld His unveiled glory, even as Moses did, and, being transformed by it, would have found the ministration of righteousness, instead of the ministration of condemnation. “His mercy endureth forever;” and even upon the clouds of wrath from which proceed the thunders and lightnings of the law, shines the glorious face of the Sun of Righteousness, and forms the bow of promise.

“The Son Abideth Ever.”

“Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” “The bond-servant abideth not in the house forever; the son abideth forever.” John 8:35, R.V.

Here is comfort for every soul. You are a sinner, or, at best, “trying to be a Christian,” and you tremble with terror at these words, as you realize that you are in bondage,–that sin has a hold upon you, and you are bound by the cords of evil habits. Ah, you must learn not to be afraid when the Lord speaks, for He speaks peace, even though it be with a voice of thunder! The more majestic the voice, the greater the peace that He gives. Take courage! The son of the bondwoman is the flesh and its works. “Flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.” But God says, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son,” and if you are willing that His will shall be done in you as it is done in heaven, He will see that the flesh and its works are cast out from you, and you will be “delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” That command which so frightened you is simply the voice commanding the evil spirit to depart, and to come no more into you. It speaks to you victory over every sin. Receive Christ by faith, and you have the power to become the son of God, heir of a kingdom which can not be moved, but which, with all its people, abideth forever.

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