The Everlasting Covenant: Christ Alone, Our Sure Foundation
When it comes to God’s promises, confusion reigns wherever the distinctions between covenants are blurred. Many have been led to believe that their standing before God rests on their own performance, or that the church’s inheritance is somehow tied to the Mosaic Law or even the New Covenant made with Israel. But Scripture, if taken at face value and without the baggage of tradition, presents a radically different—and far more secure—foundation: the Everlasting Covenant, made unconditionally between God the Father and Christ, the singular Seed of Abraham and David.
The Covenant Made With Christ—Not With Us
Paul’s argument in Galatians 3 is decisive and leaves no room for ambiguity. The promises were not made to “seeds, as of many,” but to “one… which is Christ” (Galatians 3:16). This is not a minor detail; it is the linchpin of the gospel. The inheritance, justification, and sonship are not grounded in a contract God made with a group of people, but in an unbreakable covenant He made directly with His Son.
This covenant was confirmed 430 years before the Law was given at Sinai. The Law, therefore, cannot alter, add to, or annul the promise (Galatians 3:17). If you attempt to insert yourself—or your obedience—into the basis for inheritance, you have already undermined the gospel. The promise stands or falls with Christ alone. If He fails, all is lost. If He stands, all who are in Him stand with Him.
The Mosaic Covenant: A Temporary, Conditional Tool
Why, then, was the Law given? Paul is explicit: it was “added for transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made” (Galatians 3:19). The Mosaic covenant was a conditional, temporary arrangement—a ministry of condemnation and death (2 Corinthians 3:7-9)—given to Israel alone, not to the world, not to the church, and certainly not as a means of justification or inheritance.
Its purpose was to expose human inability and drive Israel to see their utter need for the true Heir. Tragically, most did not learn the lesson. Instead of judging themselves by the Law and waiting for the promised Seed, they sought to establish their own righteousness and, in the end, rejected and killed the very Heir to whom all the promises belonged (see the parable in Matthew 21:38).
If you accept the error that the Law or any covenant made with Israel is the ground of your justification or inheritance, you lose everything: the certainty of sonship, the assurance of justification, and the very foundation of the gospel. You place yourself under a ministry that was designed to condemn, not to save.
The New Covenant: Israel’s Restoration, Not the Church’s Foundation
The New Covenant, prophesied in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36, is not a mere extension or progression of the Everlasting Covenant. It is a replacement for the Old (Mosaic) Covenant, made explicitly with the house of Israel and Judah. Its inauguration awaits the future national restoration of Israel, when God will act “not for your sake… but for mine holy name’s sake” (Ezekiel 36:22).
To conflate the church’s standing with the New Covenant is to rob both Israel and the church of their distinct glories. The church is not the natural branch; it is a mystery, hidden in ages past, now revealed: a people united to Christ as His very body, seated with Him in the heavenlies (Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 3:1-4). Our portion is not earthly, but heavenly, and it is rooted directly in the Everlasting Covenant made with Christ.
The Davidic Provision: Sonship and Substitution
The promises to David’s Seed are not a side note—they are central. God declared, “I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men” (2 Samuel 7:14). Though Christ was sinless, He was chastened with the rod of men—He bore our iniquities, fulfilling Isaiah 53 and establishing the ground for substitutionary atonement. The “sure mercies of David” (Isaiah 55:3) are not mere poetic language; they are the legal basis for Christ’s resurrection and eternal kingship.
His resurrection is the Father’s public declaration that this Man—Jesus Christ, the Seed of David—is the Son of God with power (Romans 1:3-4). The throne is His forever, and all who are in Him share in His sonship and inheritance.
What Is Lost If This Distinction Is Denied?
If you collapse the Everlasting Covenant into the Mosaic or New Covenants, you destroy the very logic of justification by faith. You make Christ’s finished work insufficient, and you place believers back under a system that was never designed to save. You rob the church of its heavenly identity, reduce sonship to a reward for performance, and make inheritance uncertain and conditional. In short, you gut the gospel of its power and assurance.
The Church: The Body of Christ, Not Under Law
The church is not a spiritual Israel under a new set of rules. It is the body of Christ, a mystery revealed only after the resurrection (Ephesians 3:3-6). Our position is not on probation, nor is it awaiting some future fulfillment. We are already “blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3), justified by faith alone, and made heirs—not by law, not by covenant with us, but by the testament ratified in Christ’s blood.
The Only Foundation: Christ and His Finished Work
The Everlasting Covenant is the unshakeable ground of our assurance. It is not a contract with us, but a promise made and kept by God Himself in Christ. The Law exposes our inability; the New Covenant will restore Israel; but the Everlasting Covenant secures for all believers—Jew or Gentile, from Abel to the present—justification, sonship, and inheritance in Christ.
To rest anywhere else is to build on sand. To rest here is to stand where God Himself has placed you: in the Beloved, complete, accepted, and eternally secure.
Scripture References:
- Galatians 3:16-19, 3:17
- Hebrews 13:20
- 2 Samuel 7:14
- Isaiah 53; Isaiah 55:3
- Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:22-28
- Romans 1:3-4; Romans 4:13-14
- Ephesians 1:3, 1:22-23; 2:6; 3:3-6
- Colossians 1:24-27; 3:1-4
Let no one rob you of your confidence in Christ’s finished work. The covenant is everlasting, the inheritance is sure, and the Son is seated—so are you, if you are in Him.
