What is New Covenant Theology?
This is a repost from Christ My Covenant, which published a list I have drafted over time to answer questions put to me about New Covenant Theology. It is a work in progress, and to be honest, isn't simply a reflection of my thought, but others...especially those in the Earth Stove Society. I'm also indebted to Gary Long, who drafted his own set of NCT tenets some time ago.... some may even see this as an expansion of his work.
What is New Covenant Theology?
Chad Richard Bresson
Interpretation of the Bible
1. New Covenant Theology insists on the priority of Jesus Christ over all things, including history, revelation, and redemption. New Covenant Theology presumes a Christocentricity to the understanding and meaning of all reality.
2. Christ in heaven has not only reached the goal of history and its reality, he Himself is the goal of history and reality, giving meaning to all that has occurred in human history and will occur in human history. Since it is Christ who gives meaning to human history, he is the One who interprets all of the deeds and acts of God in history.
3. Special revelation, comprised of the 66 books that we call the Sacred Scriptures, not only informs us about God, but redeems us and makes God present to us, focusing on the person and work of Jesus.
4. New Covenant Theology interprets Scripture after the manner of Christ's and the New Testament writers' use of the Old Testament. Jesus and the inspired New Testament writers, by their use of the Old Testament Scriptures, have left us a pattern by which to interpret not only the Old Testament prophecies, but its history and poetry.
5. The way that Jesus, the Apostles, and the prophets used the Old Testament is normative for this age.
6. The entire Old Testament, the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets, point forward to and anticipate the WORD Incarnate, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-2). New Covenant Theology presumes that Jesus Christ, in his person and his saving acts, is the hermeneutic center of the Bible.
7. A careful study of the way Jesus and the New Testament writers understand and write about the Old Testament shows that the Old Testament's anticipated Messiah (and His work) is revealed in the types and shadows of the revelation of the Old Testament, both in God's speech-revelation and God's acts. The Old Testament provides the salvation context for the person and work of Jesus.
8. The Old Covenant scriptures, what we call The Old Testament, are to be interpreted in the light of their new covenant fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Jesus is not only the interpretive key to understanding the Old Testament, the terminology of the Old Testament must be understood through and defined in light of Christ's fulfillment.
9. New Covenant Theology is based upon a redemptive-historical approach to interpreting the Bible, understanding the fulfillment of all of God's promises in Jesus Christ as they are progressively unfolding from Genesis to Revelation.
10. New Covenant Theology presumes that the “now-not yet” principle of interpretation is essential to understand the teaching of the NT.
11. The organic historical connection, and the Christocentric unity that exists between the Old and New Covenants, guarantees the usefulness of the Old Testament for the church.
12. In the term New Covenant Theology we declare that God, for his own delight, has revealed himself and manifested his glory ultimately in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and his complete and perfect work on the Cross through which he has established a New Covenant in his blood. (Heb. 7:22; 8:6; 9:11; 10:14)
13. The pinnacle of God’s unfolding revelation comes to us in the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ himself, by the New Testament Scriptures.
14. The two testaments proclaim the same Christocentric message, but from differing standpoints.
15. The New Covenant documents, interpretive of and informed by the Old Covenant documents, are binding for the new people of God until the end of this age.
Covenants
16. God’s redemption of his people is revealed and administered through the unfolding of biblical covenants in the flow of redemptive history.
17. God's promise of the New Covenant was that the Messiah would be Himself the embodiment of an everlasting covenant with His people. This promise, typified in the covenants, is fulfilled in Christ. (Is. 42:6-9; 43:19; 45:21-25; 46:9-13).
18. The Old and New Covenants are two different covenants in terms of both form and function. The one is an administration of death, and the other is an administration of life (2 Cor. 3:6-8).
19. The New Covenant is distinct from, while typified by, previous covenants in the Old Testament. The New Covenant, personified by and incarnated in Christ, fulfills all previous covenants making them obsolete, including the Abrahamic and Sinaitic Covenants.
20. Christ has fulfilled the Adamic, Noaic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants in his life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. While he has completely fulfilled them, they yet will be consummated in him in the New Heavens and New Earth.
21. The New Covenant is a new covenant in its own right. The New Covenant is not the Abrahamic Covenant or a recapitulation of the Abrahamic Covenant. The New Covenant is not a new administration of the Mosaic Covenant.
22. The New Covenant is not like the covenant made with the people through Moses. Embodied and personified in Christ, the New Covenant brought into existence through the life and cross work of Christ is made with his redeemed people through grace. God's people do not enter the New Covenant by works, but by grace through faith; it is radically internal, not external; everlasting, not temporary.
23. The tearing in two of the veil in the temple was a decisive, supernatural act that visibly demonstrated the end of the Old Covenant and the establishment of the New. This end of the Old Covenant was consummated in the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple.
24. As the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises of a New Covenant, Jesus Christ personifies, embodies, and incarnates the New Covenant. Thus, he Himself is the New Covenant (Isaiah 42:6, 49:8, Luke 22:20).
25. All of Scripture is to be read, understood, and interpreted in light of the New Covenant, established in Jesus Christ (Matt. 5:17; Luke 10:23-24; 24:27, 44; John 5:46; 8:56; Heb. 10:7). The New Covenant has become the interpretive paradigm for understanding the church's existence in temporal and redemptive history.
26. True biblical theology of the New Covenant is the recognition of God’s purpose, unfolding and weaving its way from Genesis to Revelation on the timeline of redemptive history, culminating in Jesus Christ.
27. Christ’s inauguration of the New Covenant brings in things that are both qualitatively and quantatively “newer,” expressed in developing the theological significance of such basic concepts as new wineskins, new teaching, new commandment, new creation, new man, new name, new song, new Jerusalem and all things new (Rev. 21:5).
The Law
28. The Law of Moses (as a totality) was connected to a particular covenant people. It was codified after a specific act of redemption, the Exodus.
29. In the ultimate purpose of God, this Mosaic economy was temporary, destined to exist "until the time of reformation" (Heb.9:10) when God would speak in a final way in His Son in the last days (Heb.1:1-2).
30. Everything going on in Israel, including the covenants and the law, was of a typical nature, and was fulfilled in the person and work of Christ (Heb.3:5; 8:5; 9:8-9) who is the New Israel of God (Matthew 2:15).
31. The Ten Commandments are not eternal moral law first written in the heart of man at creation and forever binding upon all mankind.
32. The Decalogue is not "transcovenantal".
33. The church no longer has to do with the law in any other way than in Christ, being onnomos Christou (in-lawed to Christ). The Old Covenant law, including the Decalogue, has been completely fulfilled in Jesus Christ which it typified (foreshadowed) in shadow and stone.
34. New Covenant believers are in-lawed to Christ through their union with Christ, and in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; they are not under the Old Covenant law of Moses.
35. Because the Old Covenant law, including the Decalogue, has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, New Covenant Theology denies that the Old Covenant law, including the Decalogue, is binding on New Covenant believers today. Yet, as the special revelation of God as fulfilled in Christ, the Old Covenant law, including the Decalogue, continues to inform behavior in the New Covenant.
36. All behavioral norms, including those detailed in the Decalogue, are ultimately defined by and expressed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
37. Just as the law cannot justify, the law cannot sanctify. Just as it is impossible to be justified by the law, one cannot be sanctified by the law. The background problem being addressed by Paul in 2 Corinthians 3, Galatians 3-5, and Romans 7 (albeit in 3 different church situations) is the attempt to be sanctified by the law.
38. Regeneration does not change the inability of the law to transform. "Walking" in or by the law is the antithesis of "walking" in or by the Spirit (Galatians 5).
39. The New Covenant law is called the law of Christ which is distinguished -- both in substance and in form -- from the Mosaic law.
40. God's Old Covenant law is fulfilled in Christ Himself and obeyed by those in Christ who love God and their neighbor.
41. New Covenant Theology insists that the law of Christ is not to be equated with the Decalogue, nor, is it to be equated with that work of the law which was on the heart of Adam and all natural men.
42. The Old Covenant Sabbath commandment is typologically fulfilled by Christ for the people of God who rest in Him by faith (Romans 14:5; Colossians 2:16,17; Heb. 4:9-10). New Covenant Theology denies that Sunday is a Christian Sabbath after the manner of the Old Covenant.
43. Christ is the Law of the New Covenant, incarnating the new standard of judgment as to what "has had its day" in the law and what has abiding validity (Col. 2:17). The Holy Spirit is the indwelling Law of Christ, causing New Covenant members to obey Christ the Law in conformity to His image.
44. God also promised that each New Covenant member would have His law written on their hearts. This promise, typified by circumcision, is fulfilled by the Holy Spirit who dwells in believers to guide their steps and conform them to Christ.
45. Just as the Old Covenant community was structured by written revelation which centered in Moses, so the New Covenant community is ordered by the "law of Christ" as personified and incarnated in the person of Jesus Christ, applied by the Holy Spirit, and given in the writing of the Apostles and prophets (Eph.2:20).
46. The indwelling Holy Spirit, the law written on the heart, is the norm for Christian living.
47. New Covenant Theology emphasizes that it is the Spirit, the indwelling "law", who both causes (Ezekiel 36:27) and enables the Christian to be conformed to and transformed into Christ's image, Who is the Imago Dei, the perfect image of God.
48. Because Christ has obeyed the law on behalf of his people and has become a law for his people, unlike the external Mosaic law, the Law of Christ as the Spirit applied to the redeemed is able to effect and enable the obedience and love that is in accord with Christ's obedience and love.
49. For the New Covenant church, the law of God is no longer an external standard that demands compliance with the will of God. The Law of Christ as the indwelling Spirit is now an internal person who causes and inclines us to obey God from the heart.
50. The New Commandment of the New Covenant, the Law of Christ, expresses the indwelling of the Spirit through belief in Christ and love for one another (John 13:34, Galatians 6:2, 1 John 3:23) .
51. NCT does not teach that the Ten Commandments are the objective standard for evaluating the Christian life. Christ is now the objective standard by which all holiness in the Christian life is measured.
52. The progression of history to a final New Covenant guarantees the "law of Christ", as personified and incarnated by Jesus Christ, and applied by the Spirit who is written on the heart, to be sufficient for the church.
The Church
53. The dominion of Christ over His Kingdom (the church, Matt. 16:19, 18:17,18), typified and foreshadowed in Israel's Old Testament theocracy, has been inaugurated in the New Covenant, is expressed in the New Testament, and is effectively carried out in the life of the local assembly, the visible New Covenant church.
54. The visible and local New Covenant church is the primary means by which the invisible church is expressed and manifested in the New Covenant.
55. The church on earth is located in the local church. New Covenant Theology recognizes that Christ exercises his Lordship in and through the local church.
56. The New Covenant church is a local, visible colony of the universal gathering in heaven. The universal gathering of God's redeemed people has begun on earth in the form and expression of the local church. Thus by intent and design, the local church as a gathering of New Covenant people who participate in faith, mirrors the universal gathering of the redeemed.
57. It is through the New Covenant church that God's wisdom for the ages and his purposes throughout revelation and history -- having been fulfilled in Jesus -- are most visibly expressed.
58. New Covenant Theology posits that the Church, which is the body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18), first came into visible existence in history when the Spirit descended and was poured out at Pentecost, not in past history under the Old Covenant. There is only one redemptive purpose for the people of God, which is the Church, the good olive tree (Rom. 11), the body of Christ (Eph. 2:13-22; 3:1-12), the visible expression of which is the local church.
Israel
59. The New Covenant is now in force and finds its fulfillment in Jesus, the antitypical Israel.
60. New Covenant Theology sees, in the church, a fulfillment of promises that, in their Old Testament context, seem to be addressed to Israel as a nation.
61. New Covenant Theology denies that there is a one to one correlation between Israel and the New Covenant church. Israel was not the church in the Old Covenant, which consisted of an admixture of those who participated in faith and those who did not.
62. Under the Old Covenant, Israel was the people of God. Under the New Covenant, the church is the people of God.
63. In the Old Covenant, Israel, the second Adam, was a demonstration and proclamation of Jesus as a type. Israel typified the New Israel and His redeemed new covenant people of God. That which was true of Israel, in type, is now true of Jesus as the Federal Head of his people and God's new covenant people in fulfillment. Thus, the supreme covenantal formula promised to Israel is now true of the church: Jehovah is our God, and we are His people.
posted by Chad Richard Bresson at 11/03/2010 08:10:00 AM
17 Comments:
Thanks for the post. I find myself agreeing with much of it. I (and Owen) agree with all of the statements in the covenants section (at least as they are stated here). The only section I disagree with strongly is the section on the law. Do you mind clarifying a point for me?
#47 says that Christ is the imago dei. How do you see this relating to the imago dei of gen 1?
Brandon, I'm answering off the top of my head... I don't have the texts in front of me.... if you look at those passages in the NT that speak of image... those are (in many instances) an allusion to Gen.1. The point is that the NT writers see Christ fulfilling what Adam did not... being the image of God in all that was meant for that image. "Image of Christ" thus has its grounds in Gen.1. Christ as image of the Father has its grounds in Gen.1.
Hope this helps.
Thanks Chad,
Do you see the imago dei in Gen 1 as a type of the imago dei that Christ is, or, as you said, is Christ, as the exact imago dei, simply what Adam was supposed to be?
Do you believe the imago dei of Gen 1 is related to the law written on the hearts of all men?
Brandon,
1. Both/and.
2. Imago dei is part and parcel to the "*work* of the law" written on the heart.
What a wonderful service you have done compiling this list! I plan on printing it out and using it as a reference when people want a short explanation of NCT. I think you're right on in every point.
One question I have pertaining to 58. While I agree that the church "first came into visible existence in history" at Pentecost, do you agree that the New Covenant "reaches back" to the post-fall of Adam and "saves" those elect under the previous covenants? There is only one ultimately redemptive covenant, and that is the New. If you agree with that, then what do we call those believers whose transgressions were not dealt with under the previous covenants. They're not the church. They're not "Christians." What are they?
Darby,
1. Yes.
2. Church invisible, remnant, body of Christ. It's why I used the word "visible".
:-)
Darby,
Here's the way Owen put it:
http://contrast2.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/the-oneness-of-the-church-john-owen/
http://contrast2.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/the-transtestamental-new-covenant/
This is so unbelievably helpful. Thank you for this list. It really clarifies some things for me.
Chad,
Really well done. Took me quite a while to work through point by point, but very nicely put together.
I don't get #63, however. Not sure what you're getting at. Don't even know how to ask you to clarify it. Jesus is spoken of as the "last Adam". In your view, is that the same as the "second Adam", or *after* the second Adam as the "last Adam"?
If Israel is the "second Adam", are you saying that only because you see Jesus as the "New Israel"?
My questions may be as confusing as I find #63 :)
Good work, though, and great food for biblical thought.
Terry,
Nice question. And points to a necessary revision... which is why this is a draft.
It is better to speak of Christ as the Last Adam, rather than "second Adam". Israel was the second Adam. So, Christ is both New Israel AND Last Adam, doing, accomplishing, and fulfulling for us what Israel AND Adam failed to do.
Israel is a second Adam because like Adam, Israel was given a garden (Canaan) that was conditioned on their obedience. Their life in their garden, like Adam, was always in eschatological jeopardy. Their life in their garden was always at risk of being lost due to their sin.
Very helpful list - thank you. One thing I did not see, perhaps because it is not relevant, is the future outworking of NCT. Are the OT promises to Israel about a future restoration, particularly regarding the land, fulfilled in the church? What does NCT do with apparently still future things that seem to be Israelitish like Ezekiel's temple (Eze. 40) and the 144,000 (Rev. 7, 14)?
Sean,
Another great question. I did not address that issue by intention. There's a healthy tension in what I presented (I think) between what many of us affirm to be NCT and those areas of NCT where there is little consensus. This is one of those areas. :-) I could give you my opinion on the matter, but I would not feel comfortable suggesting that it is representative of NCT. It would be representative, I think, of *some* within NCT.
Excellent; excellent!
Thanks so very much for sharing this with us, brother. I trust this will prove to be something of a catalyst in aiding people to think seriously about the NEWNESS of the NC in Christ.
Appreciate the labor! May the Lord continue to bless, providing us a clearer vision of God's face in Christ Jesus. He continues to rend the veil that we might behold, believe and be-formed.
It seems to me that these NCT points for many will be a dangerous and scary tight rope walk. It implicitly asks Christians to reconsider and even go so far as to break free from a strong literlism that captivates the Church. This New Covenant Theoglogy rough draft is issuing forth and exclaiming that the Scriptures have given us a Christocentric hermenuetic! We fight and kick the goads because Dispensationalism has furrowed deep grooves into our hearts-brow and many have acquired much good from that system. New Covenant Theology is not a complete break but a significant break from a Israel/Church/Israel way of viewing the Word and forces us to look at the Scripture the very same way Jesus did-in relation to Himself. This does not destroy literal texts for those who might be loading their theological guns. It does presume however, that literal text from the O.T. must essentially be interpreted the same way Jesus and the Apostles interpreted the O.T. Why is it so hard to believe that all of Scripture RELATES to Jesus (Lk. 24:27, 44-45)?
Excellent summary of my own beliefs re biblical theology.
I find my own beliefs are largely those of NCT though as a source/movement NCT has had little influence on me.
I was raised a dispensationist. I read a great deal of covenant theology. I was convinced by neither though found truth in both. This truth is largely NCT.
Here's a critic on an article by Edwin Trefzger III
"Completed by the Spirit: New Covenant Sanctification in Paul"
By: Jose Francis Martinez
http://sgbcblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/not-by-law.html
Chad,
What passages would you use to show that Christ's active obedience is imputed to us in progressive sanctification? There can be no question that his grace is imparted to us, causing us to will and do what pleases him. My question is how are our works which will usually, if not always have some tincture of sin in them made acceptable to God as the Scripture says they are? I have some ideas about how all this works out, but would like to hear your take on it.
Thanks,
Randy
BTW, I have been chatting with your buddy Paul Douche. He is a real jewel.
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