Israel's Righteous Representative

The most significant difference between the Old and the New is with whom they are made. The New Covenant is made with Israel, yes, but how?

Original Israel was one man, formerly called Jacob. The Old Sinai Covenant was made with His offspring, who carried his name. As we shall see shortly, this arrangement did not work out so well. In fact, it was a disaster.

The New Covenant is made with the One Righteous Israelite, Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah.

The Need for a New Covenant

First, Hebrews 8 tells us why there was the need for a New Covenant.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. [Heb. 8:7]

There was a fault with the Sinai covenant. This fault was so severe, it could not be continued. What was this fault? Was it the Law itself?

7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. [Rom. 7:7, 12]

The Law was not the fault, for it is holy. So what was the fault of the first covenant? The writer of Hebrews gives us the answer in the next verse,

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: [Heb. 8:8]

The fault of the first covenant was “with them,” the people. What was the fault? Paul gives us this answer in Romans 8.

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. [Rom. 8:3-4]

What could the Law not do? It could not make its recipients righteous before God. Why? It could not make them righteous because it was powerless to do so on account of their flesh. The fault was the weakness of their flesh. The Law was powerless to make the people righteous before God due to this fault. It was as though the Law was saying, “I can’t work with this! They are always offending me!”

Secondly, Romans 8 instructs us as to why the New had to be so different. The Law says, “Thou Shalt” and “Thou Shalt Not.” However, the natural man has no power to consistently fulfill either type of command. Fallen human flesh can never walk righteously before the Law.

If a person were to keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point, they would stand guilty of it all [James 2:10].

Imagine walking a tightrope over a thousand-foot gorge with no safety net, and a gusting, swirling wind is working against you. It would take only one wrong move, one slip of the foot for death to be your reward. So it is, if one should keep the whole Law, but then transgress even in the smallest thing, the full weight of the Law’s condemnation would fall. The reward is death [Rom. 6:23].

So God, “sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” What does this mean?

Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh and walked perfectly before His Heavenly Father. As He walked in perfection before God, He condemned sin in the flesh. "Condemning sin in the flesh" meant, He proved by His walk, His life, that sin had no power in Him. He was not walking under its influence.

We must not lose sight of the fact that, although He was God in the flesh [Phil. 3:6-9; Jn. 1:1-3; Tit. 2:13], He walked this earth as a man, in the power of the Spirit. He was subjected to all the trials and temptations as we are, yet without sin.  

17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.[Heb. 2:17-18]

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.[Heb. 4:15, ESV]

Would it shock you to know that Jesus had to learn obedience?

7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;[Heb. 5:7-9]

Verse eight above holds a key for us. The literal reading of the Greek is,
Though he were Son, yet he learned by the things which he suffered the obedience.

An article before the word, obedience (lit., the obedience), points to a specific type or instance of obedience. It could refer to the obedience required as a man to walk righteously before God. This certainly would be true. However, considering the context, it more likely refers to the special obedience required to submit to the cross.

A. T. Robertson comments in His Word Pictures,

He always did his Father's will (Joh 8:29), but he grew in experience as in wisdom and stature and in the power of sympathy with us.

The verse he notes, John 8:29, is quite relevant.

And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him. [Jn. 8:29]

Jesus states as a fact, that He always did those things that pleased the Father who sent Him. Twice God spoke from heaven, giving witness to the fact that Jesus was well-pleasing to Him. The voice came once at His baptism[Lk 3:22] and again at His transfiguration [Mt. 17:5].

Having walked uprightly before His Father, He makes a gift of His righteousness to us [Rom. 5:17] when we believe upon Him. There is no rightness with God apart from the righteousness of Christ. This is the foundation of the gospel message.[Rom. 10:1-4]

God knew if you want something done right,
you have to do it yourself.

So, God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemning sin in the flesh.

This is one of the reasons why Jesus is called the Last Adam[1 Cor. 15:45], not the second Adam as some have called him. A second Adam implies there could be a third. However, Last Adam removes all doubt. He is the Last Man, who will be the Head of His own humanity.

Unlike his children, the first Adam was created with no inclination to sin (sin nature) but given the power of choice. The first Adam sinned because he chose to do so, not because he was inclined to. The Last Adam did not incline to sin either. If He sinned, it would be because He chose to do so.

For the Last Adam to attain the righteousness of God, He would need to walk before God in perfect obedience, and faith. This He did [Matt. 5:17; John 8:29]. He walked in a faithful obedience that no Israelite, before or after, ever did. Having walked before His Father in perfection, God has deemed Him righteous [Phil. 3:9]. The Law found no weakness in His flesh, for sin had no dominion over Him[2 Cor. 5:21]. Jesus also made it clear that Satan had no foothold in Him, saying, the prince of this world, “has nothing in me.”[Jn. 14:30] He was the perfectly obedient and righteous Israelite.

Now, all those found in Him, being born from above, have the righteousness of Christ gifted to them. This gifting of the Righteousness of Christ is the essence of the New Covenant. Paul later states in Romans 10,

1 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. [Rom. 10:1-4]

Paul’s prayer to God is that Israel might be saved. How are they to be saved? Natural Israel sought salvation in “their own righteousness,” based on their attempt to keep the Law. However, in attempting to establish their own righteousness, they remain ignorant of God’s righteousness.

Where are they to find God’s righteousness? Sinai? No, Sinai was a dead-end for them. It is found nowhere except in Jesus the Messiah. They were looking for righteousness in all the wrong places, and still are. For “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes.” What does Paul mean, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness?” The word end is the Greek word, telos, which means termination, the limit at which a thing ceases to be, the end to which all things relate, the aim, purpose.

John Gill gives this most satisfying comment on what Paul means by Christ being the end of the law for righteousness.

“Partly by perfect obedience of his life to all its precepts; and also by suffering the penalty of it, death, in the room and stead of all his people; and so the whole righteousness of the law is fulfilled by him, and he becomes the end of it, for a justifying righteousness before God.” (John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible, Rom. 10:4)

It is only on the level ground at the cross of Jesus, that we find the blood of the New Covenant and the forgiveness of sins. It is only there both Jew and Gentile can find forgiveness of sins, salvation, and rightness with God.

This is very similar to what Paul says in Galatians about the Law being our schoolmaster, or tutor, to bring us to Christ. The moral Law reveals how we fall short of the glory of God [Rom. 3:23], with death being our due reward [Rom. 6:23]. The ceremonial Law illustrates for us the answer to our sin problem, which is the sacrifice of the innocent and perfect offering of Christ Jesus [Isa. 53; 2 Cor. 5:21].

To briefly summarize here, we have the witness of Scripture, that the first covenant could not make men righteous due to the weakness of their sinful flesh. No natural man could walk in the Law without violating some aspect of it. This violation brought death, i.e., separation from God.

The Law remained unsatisfied. God needed an Israelite, born under the covenant of Sinai [Gal. 4:4-5], who could walk before Him, keeping the Law in perfection, thus fulfilling its requirements. Knowing the fault that resided in the flesh of all men, God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. The Son laid aside His divine rights and glories (emptied Himself), and at just the right time entered into human history,

God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. [Gal. 4:4-5]

Then Christ,

6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.[Phil. 2:6-8, ESV (lit. “even a cross death”)]

When He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, the blood which flowed from His body, spilling upon the earth, became the blood of Israel’s New Covenant. It was the blood of the Lamb of God. It is the blood of the innocent, the righteous Messiah.

The Messiah Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets [Matt. 5:17]. He came as the Messenger of the Covenant to establish the Covenant promised by God to Israel. He came to confirm the promises made to the fathers and to bring salvation to the nations.

Now I say that Christ has been made a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. [Rom. 15:8-9]

It is only in Christ that all the promises God made the Fathers, are fulfilled.

END