Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

THE OLD COVENANT 17: 1-27
13:20; 9:12, I?; 1 Pet. 1:4, 2 Pet. 1:ll). And it is per-
haps chiefly because the covenant of peculiarity with
Israel, and the ordinances and blessings thereof, prefigured
these eternal relations and privileges that they are repre-
sented as ever1ustjn.g’’ (SIBG, 240). (3) Jamieson (CECG,
152) : “It is perfectly clear that this promise was meant
to refer to the natural descendants of Abram, who, by the
election of grace, were to be separated from the rest of
the nations, and to the temporal blessings which it guaran-
teed to them (Rom. 11:16, 15:s). They were in their
collective capacity to form the visible external Church;
and in the sense of their being ‘a chosen generation, a
peculiar people,’ though many of them were unbelievers,
they were to be called the people of God, as is manifest
from the words ‘in their generations.’ In this sense partly
the covenant is called ‘an everlasting covenant’; for it is
continued in force down to the promulgation of the
Gospel, when the national distinction ceased, by the admis-
sion of all mankind to the spiritual blessings contained in
the Abrahamic covenant (Eph. 2: 14). But further, in a
spiritual point of view, it is called ‘an everlasting covenant.’
The promise is a promise made to the Church of all ages;
for He who is not the God of the dead, but of the living,
made it to ‘Abraham and his seed’ (Cf. Gal. 3 : 17). The
sign of circumcision was annexed to it under the Jewish
dispensation (cf. Acts 2:38, 39; Gal. 3:6, 7, 9, 14, 22, 26,
29; Heb. 8: lo), and that of baptism under the Christian.”
(This writer goes on to justify the connection of fleshly
circumcision with baptism as “spiritual circumcision,” a
notion which we shall give attention later. Suffice it to
say that in the foregoing exegesis, although much of it is
Scriptural, there are three obvious errors: (1) To say that
the phrases under consideration here were meant to refer
chiefly to the natural descendants of Abraham is contra-
dicted in the latter part of the quotation by the applica-
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