Christ’s teachings can be a little difficult because He taught three dispensations simultaneously (Law, New Covenant, Millennial Kingdome). Of course the Law, since Christ’s ascension has been “taken away” (Heb 10:9; 7:19; 8:7-13; 12:27, 28). Nevertheless, there will be a New Covenant for Israel in eternity on the New Earth (Jer 31:31-34; Eze 36:24-28). It must also be understood that the millennial kingdom is only for the Jews of Israel—God’s people (i.e. the Jews that believe in God but not in the Lord Jesus - “Ye believe in God” - Jn 14:1). This was His plan for them, even through all the “motions of sins” (Rom 7:5), which resulted in disobedience. Until His ascension, the Law was still in force, thus much of His teachings involved the Law while at the same time teaching and preparing Christians for the New Covenant, which involve all the aspects of that which will be in eternity.
Most are unaware that God has no covenant with man—the OT in now nonexistent, and He has never had a covenant with Christians, but for Christians. Presently, the Christian covenant is that which is made between the Father and the Son, in that the Father agreed to raise His Son from the dead after procuring redemption for those believing in the Lord Jesus. This is the “Covenant of Redemption,” which is the “Everlasting Covenant; and Christians are not covenanters with God but are recipients of saving-grace in this Covenant. There are numerous Scripture passages which indirectly indicate this Covenant, the primary being Hebrews 13:20, 21. Israel will remain on the New Earth, while Christians will rule them with Christ from “the throne of His glory” (Mat 19:28) in the New Heaven.
NC
Kingdom Law verses Heavenly Grace
As certainly as the message of “the kingdom heaven” was consistent with Israel’s national hope, so also the rule of life presented in connection with this message by both John the Baptist and Christ was in harmony with the OT-predicted kingdom’s rule of life. The kingdom as foreseen in the OT had ever in view the righteousness of life and conduct of its subjects (Isa 11:3-5; 32:1; Jer 23:6; Dan 9:24).
“The kingdom of heaven” as announced and offered in the early part of Matthews’ Gospel is also accompanied with positive demands for personal righteousness in life and conduct. This is not the principle of grace (the law was graceful but not of the Grace which came with Christ—NC); it is rather the principle of law (works—NC). Kingdom teaching extends into finer detail of the Law of Moses and never ceases to be the very opposite of the principle of grace. Law conditions its blessings on human works, grace conditions its works on divine blessings.
Law says, “If you forgive . . . your heavenly Father will also forgive you,” and in that measure only (Mat 6:14, 15 - in Grace, God forgives all believers in His Son, without condition other than faith, and causes them to desire to “please” Him - Phl 2:13—NC). Grace says, “Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you” (Eph 4:32). So, again, the law says, “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 5:20). This is not present condition for entrance into heaven. Present conditions are wholly based on mercy: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” (Tit 3:5).
So the preaching of John the Baptist, like the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, was on a law basis as indicated by its appeal, which was only for a correct and righteous life: “Then said He to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of Him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
“And the people asked him, saying, what shall we do then? He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise. Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto Him, Master, what shall we do? And He said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you. And the soldiers likewise demanded of Him, saying, and what shall we do? And He said unto them, do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages (Luk 3:7-14).
Those messages were an appeal for a righteous life and cannot be confused with the present terms of salvation without nullifying the grounds of every hope and promise under Grace. The present appeal to the unsaved is not for better conduct (morality is not godliness, but the godly will be moral—NC); it is for belief in, and acceptance of—the Savior! There are directions concerning the conduct of those who are saved by trust in the Savior, but these cannot be mixed with the law conditions of the OT, or the grace of NT, without peril to souls.
Later on, the same people said to Christ, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” To this He replied, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent” (Jn 6:28, 29). John the Baptist looked forward to the blessings of grace when he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin is the world,” but his immediate demands were in conformity with pure law, as were the earlier kingdom teachings of the Lord Jesus. Thus the legal principles of conduct of the OT-predicted kingdom are carried forward into the revelations of the same kingdom as it appears in the NT.
It should be borne in mind that the legal kingdom requirements as stated in the Sermon on the Mount are meant to prepare the way for, and condition life in, the earthly Davidic millennial kingdom when it shall be set up upon the earth, and at that very time when the kingdom prayer, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven” has been answered. These kingdom emphases appear in the early ministry of the Lord Jesus, since He was at that time faithfully offering the Messianic kingdom to Israel (Christians do not need the Messianic kingdom nor the new earth—NC).
It has been objected that such stipulations as “Resist not evil,” “Whosoever shall smite on thy right cheek . . .,” “Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile . . .” and “. . . persecuted for righteousness’ sake” could not be possible in the kingdom. This challenge may be based upon a supposition that the earthly Messianic kingdom is to be as morally perfect as heaven. On the contrary, the Scriptures abundantly testify that while there will be far less occasion to sin, for the sufficient reason that Satan is then bound and in a pit and the glorious King is on His throne, there will be need of immediate execution of judgment and justice in the earth, and even the King shall rule, of necessity, with a “rod of iron” (Christ and Christians will be correcting sinners during the Millennial kingdom—NC).
It is said that “all Israel will be saved” (see notes at bottom—NC), and “They shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest” (Jer 31:34). But it is also revealed that at the end of the millennium, when Satan is loosed for a little season, he is still able to solicit the allegiance of human hearts and to draw out of the multitudes within the kingdom an army for rebellion against the government of the King (Rev 20:7-9). In that kingdom dispensation “the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed” (Isa 65:20).
These kingdom commands and principles were given to Israel only (as was the Decalogue—NC), and it is the same distinct nation that shall stand first in her predicted kingdom when it is set up on the earth (present old earth—NC). The Lord Jesus was first “a minister of the circumcision” (Rom 15:8). Consequently, is it an unnatural interpretation of Scripture to understand that He was performing this divinely appointed ministry at the very time when He was offering the kingdom to the nation and when He, with His forerunner (JTB—NC), was depicting the principles of conduct that should condition life in that kingdom (Mat 3:1, 2)? Nothing is lost by such an interpretation (the Millennial kingdom remains intact and the Christian attributes unmixed with law—NC). On the contrary, everything is gained for the riches of Grace, which alas so few apprehend (most are unfamiliar with these truths concerning Israel’s millennial kingdom—NC), are thus kept pure and free from an unscriptural admixture with the law (keeping the laws of the Millennial kingdom and eternal New Heaven teachings separate—NC).
—L S Chafer (1871-1952)
NC Notes:
John Gill (1697-1771):
“And so all Israel shall be saved,....”; Meaning not the mystical spiritual Israel of God, consisting both of Jews and Gentiles, who shall appear to be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation, when all God's elect among the latter are gathered in, which is the sense many give into; but the people of the Jews, the generality of them, the body of that nation, called "the fulness" of them, Romans 11:12, and relates to the latter day, when a nation of them shall be born again at once; when, their number being as the sand of the sea, they shall come up out of the lands where they are dispersed, and appoint them one Head, Christ, and great shall be the day of Jezreel; when they as a body, even the far greater part of them that shall be in being, shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their King; shall acknowledge Jesus to be the true Messiah, and shall look to Him, believe on Him, and be saved by Him from wrath to come.
Study Romans 11 using John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible to better understand Scripture with full outline and verse meaning.
www.christianity.com
Albert Barnes (1798-1870):
“All Israel”; He does not mean to say that every Jew of every age would be saved; for he had proved that a large portion of them would be, in his time, rejected and lost. But the time would come when, as a people, they would be recovered; when the nation would turn to God; and when it could be said of them that, as a nation, they were restored to the divine favor.
Romans 11, Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible, Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible provides Christians with deep insights into the Scriptures, emphasizing original texts and historical context.
www.studylight.org
Joseph Benson (1749-1821):
And so all Israel shall be saved Shall be brought to believe in Jesus as the true Messiah, and so shall be put into the way of obtaining salvation, being convinced of the truth by the coming in of the Gentiles.
Romans 11, Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments, Benson's Commentary enriches Christian understanding through meticulous historical analysis, providing profound insights into Scripture.
www.studylight.org
MJS daily devotional excerpt for October 17
The true servant is finally subdued, but not stultified; prepared but not deprived of individuality. All that is rendered inoperative is the old man—and thank God for that! -MJS
“When we are finally prepared, our Lord says: ‘When I died, you died. When I went to the Cross I not only took your sins, but I took you. I not only took you as a sinner, but I took you as being all that you are by nature; your good as well as your bad; your abilities as well as your disabilities; yes, every resource of yours. I took you as a worker, a preacher, and organizer. My Cross means that not even for Me can you be or do anything out from yourself; but if there is to be anything at all it must be out from Me, and that means a life of absolute dependence and faith.’“ -T. A-S.
(more . . .
http://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/day/2024/10/17/)
. At this point, I think it would be best if you just came right out and acknowledged the over-statement, and posted an amendment to the op, letting everyone know Jesus did not actually teach the Law, the new covenant, or the millennial kingdom were dispensations. I also think it would best serve the (unstated) purpose of the discussion of this "devotional" if the inherent and specifically Dispensationalist point of view (not one shared by most of Christendom) was acknowledged. But I'll leave that up to you.
