Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

17: 1-27 GENESIS
tion of these phrases to the spiritual seed of Abraham: the
Scriptures teach that the spiritual seed of Abraham were
included, by Divine ordination, in the original promises to
Abraham and his seed, Le., the term seed included from the
beginning both the fleshly and the spiritual, the typical
and the antitypical, the latter being of far greater import
than the former (John 8:56, Gal. 3:8, 29). (2) Ta speak
of the Old Covenant people as a Church is utterly erro-
iieous. The Church is the Divine institution which was
established on Pentecost (Acts 2) and is used always in
Scripture to designate God’s people under the New Cove-
nant. (3) There is no Scriptatral justification whatever
for identifying baptism with spiritual circumcisiort. The
indwelling Holy Spirit, not baptism, is the sign and seal
of the New Covenant (Acts 2:38, Rom. 5:s; 1 Cor. 3:16,
6:19; 2 Cor. 1:22, Eph. 1:13, 4:30). (Spiritual circum-
cision is Scripturally explained infra.)
The simple fact of the matter is that these terms, ~ O T
euer and euerlastirtg, as used with respect to the land (Ca-
naan) and the covenant, means as long as the Old Cove-
ndnt continued to be in force: hence the import of the
phrase, “throughout their generations.” The Abrahamic
Covenant, of course, was enlarged into a national covenant
at Sinai, under the mediatorship of Moses (Exo. 19:Y-6,
24:18, 34:28; Deut. 5:2, 9:9; cf. 1 Pet. 2:9, John 7:19;
Gal. 3:15-22, etc.). That this Old Covenant would be
abrogated and. superseded by the New is expressly an-
nounced in the Old .Testament itself (Jer. 31 :31-34, cf.
Heb. 8:6-13; Hos. 2’:ll; Amos 5:21, 8:10, etc.). The
New Coyenant, it should be understood, is not a continua-
tion or,enlargement of the Old: it is the New Covenant,
mediated by, Messiah> Himself ,, and established upon better
promises (John, 1:17; Heb. 8:6, 9:15, 12:24), in which
Jews and Gentiles come together by induction into Christ
(Gal. 3:27-29,- Eph. 32111-18) to form the me new man.
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