CHAPTER SEVEN: Of the Similarities and Differences between the Old and New Covenants (part 1 of 2)
CHAPTER SEVEN
Of the Similarities and Differences between the Old and New
Covenants
I have explained above, as well as I could, the substance of Christian doctrine, which consists in the knowledge of God and of ourselves, and through which we obtain salvation. We must now add an article which it is very useful to understand in order to establish the truth of the doctrine we have taught. It is this: all those whom God has ever called into the fellowship of his people from the beginning of the world attained this grace through the same doctrine and were united to God by its bond.
Although the testimonies we have gathered from both the Law and the Prophets to confirm what we have said sufficiently demonstrate that God’s people have never possessed any other rule of holiness and religion, nevertheless, because theologians frequently engage in lengthy discussions concerning the difference between the Old and New Testaments, which might cause some difficulty for simple people, I have thought it good to devote a separate treatment to a fuller examination of this subject.
Moreover, what would otherwise have been very useful has become necessary because of the troublesome conduct of certain Anabaptists, who regard the people of Israel as nothing more than a herd of swine. For they imagine that our Lord intended merely to fatten them upon the earth, as in a trough, without giving them any hope of heavenly immortality.
Therefore, to draw all believers away from this pestilent error, and likewise to deliver simple people from all the difficulties which arise in their minds whenever some difference between the Old and New Testaments is mentioned, let us briefly consider in what respects the covenant which the Lord made with the people of Israel before the coming of Christ resembles or differs from the covenant he has made with us since manifesting Christ in the flesh.
Both matters may be summarized in a single statement: the covenant made with the ancient fathers is so similar to ours in substance and truth that it may be said to be one and the same covenant; it differs only in the manner of its administration.
But because no one could gain a clear understanding from such brevity, we must examine the matter more fully if we desire to make any progress. In explaining the similarity—or rather, the unity—of these covenants, it would be unnecessary to discuss again at length all the points which we have already settled. We must therefore concentrate here upon three articles.
First, the Lord did not set before the Jews earthly happiness or prosperity as the goal toward which they should aspire, but adopted them into the hope of immortality and revealed and testified to this adoption both through visions and in his Law and Prophets.
Second, the covenant by which they were united to God was not founded upon their merits, but solely upon his mercy.
Third, they possessed and knew Christ as Mediator, through whom they were united to God and made partakers of his promises.
The second point should be perfectly well known to us, since we have clearly proved from so many testimonies of the Prophets that every good thing the Lord has ever done or promised to his people has proceeded from his pure goodness and mercy. We have also sufficiently demonstrated the third point in various places, and have even touched somewhat upon the first in passing. But because the first was treated more briefly than the others, and because it is the subject of greater debate and controversy, we must devote greater care to explaining it. Nevertheless, we must treat it in such a way that, if anything is lacking in the proper explanation of the other two, we may also settle it briefly.
The Apostle certainly removes all doubt concerning these three points when he says that the Lord had long before promised the gospel of Jesus Christ through the Prophets in the Holy Scriptures, and has now revealed it at the time he appointed.
“The gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his Son.”
Again, he says that the righteousness of faith taught in the gospel was testified to by the Law and the Prophets.
“But now the righteousness of God apart from the Law has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.”
The gospel certainly does not confine men’s hearts to the enjoyment of the present life, but raises them to the hope of immortality. Nor does it fasten them to earthly pleasures, but, by showing them the hope prepared for them in heaven, transports them upward. For this is where the description he gives elsewhere leads us:
“After you believed the gospel, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit, who is the pledge of our inheritance.”
Again:
“We have heard of your faith in Christ and of your love toward the believers, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard through the doctrine of the gospel.”
Again:
“The Lord called us through his gospel to share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Hence the gospel is also called the doctrine of salvation, the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, and the kingdom of heaven.
Now, if the doctrine of the gospel is spiritual and gives us entrance into incorruptible life, let us not imagine that those to whom the gospel was promised and preached remained like brute beasts, indulging their bodily pleasures without any concern for their souls.
Nor should anyone quibble that the gospel promises which God formerly gave through his Prophets were intended only for the people of the New Testament. For shortly after declaring that the gospel had been promised in the Law, the Apostle likewise adds:
“Whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law.”
I readily confess that he is speaking there of another subject. But he was not so forgetful that, when saying that everything taught by the Law belongs to the Jews, he failed to remember what he had previously said concerning the gospel promised in the Law.
He therefore clearly demonstrates in this passage that the Old Testament looked chiefly toward the life to come, since he says that the promises of the gospel are contained within it. By the same reasoning, it follows that the Old Testament rested upon the free mercy of God and possessed its certainty in Christ.
For the preaching of the gospel proclaims nothing except that poor sinners are justified by God’s fatherly mercy without having merited it, and its whole substance is comprehended in Jesus Christ. Who, then, will dare deprive the Jews of Christ, since we hear that the covenant of the gospel was made with them—a covenant whose only foundation is Christ? Who will dare exclude them from the hope of free salvation, since we hear that the doctrine of faith was administered to them—the doctrine which brings us free righteousness?
And, lest we engage in a lengthy debate over so clear a matter, we have a notable statement from the Lord Jesus:
“Abraham was moved by a great desire to see my day; he saw it and rejoiced.”
What is said there of Abraham, the Apostle shows to have been common to the whole company of believers when he says:
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
For he is not speaking merely of Christ’s eternal deity, but of the knowledge of his power, which has always been administered to believers.
Therefore, in their songs the Virgin Mary and Zechariah call the salvation revealed in Christ the fulfillment of the promises God had made to Abraham and the patriarchs. If God, by manifesting his Christ, fulfilled his ancient oath, it cannot be denied that the end of the Old Testament was Christ and eternal life.
Moreover, the Apostle not only makes the people of Israel like and equal to us in the grace of the covenant, but also in the meaning of the sacraments. For when he wishes to warn the Corinthians by their example, lest they fall into the same crimes which God had severely punished among them, he begins by declaring that we possess no privilege or dignity capable of delivering us from the vengeance of God which came upon them.
Indeed, not only did our Lord confer upon them the same benefits which he confers upon us, but he also displayed his grace among them through the same signs and sacraments. It is as though he had said: You imagine yourselves to be beyond danger because Baptism, with which you have been marked, and the Lord’s Supper possess special promises. Meanwhile, despising God’s goodness, you live dissolutely. But you must understand that the Jews were not deprived of these same sacraments, and yet the Lord did not refrain from exercising the severity of his judgment against them.
They were baptized in the passage through the Red Sea and in the cloud which protected them from the heat of the sun.
Those who oppose this doctrine say that theirs was a carnal baptism corresponding to our spiritual Baptism only by a certain resemblance. But if this is conceded, the Apostle’s argument will have no force, for his purpose was to deprive Christians of the vain confidence that they were more excellent than the Jews because of Baptism.
Nor can what immediately follows be explained away:
“They ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink that is given to us.”
Saint Paul explains that this food and drink were Jesus Christ.
But to overthrow Saint Paul’s authority, they further object with Christ’s statement:
“Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and died. Whoever eats my flesh shall not die forever.”
The two passages are easily reconciled. Because the Lord Jesus was addressing hearers who sought only to fill their stomachs and cared little for the true nourishment of their souls, he adapted his discourse somewhat to their capacity. In particular, he compared the manna with his body according to their understanding.
They demanded that, in order to establish his authority, he demonstrate his power by some miracle like that which Moses had performed in the wilderness when he caused manna to rain down from heaven. In the manna they perceived nothing except a remedy for the bodily need which oppressed the people in the wilderness. They did not rise high enough to consider the mystery of which Saint Paul speaks.
Christ, therefore, to show how much greater and more excellent a benefit they ought to expect from him than the one they imagined their fathers had received from Moses, makes this comparison: If, in your judgment, it was so excellent a miracle that the Lord sent heavenly food to his people through the hand of Moses, so that they should not perish from hunger but be sustained for a time, then recognize from this how much more precious is the food which brings immortality.
We see why the Lord passed over what was chief in the manna and took account only of its lesser benefit. The Jews had reproachfully set Moses before him as one who had relieved the people of Israel in their necessity by miraculously feeding them with manna. Christ answers that he is the dispenser of a far more precious grace, in comparison with which what Moses had done for Israel was almost nothing, however highly they esteemed it.
Saint Paul, considering that when the Lord caused manna to rain from heaven he intended not merely to send bodily food to his people, but also to give them a spiritual mystery representing the eternal life they were to expect from Christ, treats the matter as it deserved to be fully explained. We may therefore conclude without doubt that the same promises of eternal life which are presented to us today were not only communicated to the Jews, but were also sealed and confirmed to them by truly spiritual sacraments.
If readers would prefer to behold in the Law and the Prophets this revelation of God’s spiritual covenant, which we have shown from the words of Jesus Christ and his apostles to be contained there, I am willing to satisfy them in this respect. I do so all the more gladly because our adversaries will thus be more fully refuted and left without any opportunity for evasion.
We shall begin with a demonstration which, although I do not doubt that the Anabaptists will regard it as frivolous and almost ridiculous —so proudly do they despise every argument—will nevertheless carry great weight with all teachable people of sound judgment. Since God has communicated himself through his word of life to everyone whom he has ever received into grace, it follows that he has made them partakers of eternal life.
I say that God’s word possesses such life-giving power that its communication is a most certain quickening of the soul. By communication I do not mean that general and universal operation which is spread throughout heaven and earth and over all the creatures of the world. For although it gives life to all things according to their various natures, it does not deliver them all from corruption. I mean that special communication by which the souls of believers are enlightened in the knowledge of God and in some measure united to him.
Since, therefore, Abraham, Isaac, Noah, Abel, Adam, and the other fathers adhered to God through such illumination by his word, I say there is no doubt that it gave them entrance into God’s eternal kingdom. For it was a true participation in God, which cannot exist apart from the grace of eternal life.
If this still appears somewhat obscure, let us come to the very form of the covenant, which will not only satisfy every peaceable mind, but also sufficiently expose the ignorance of those who endeavor to contradict us. The Lord always made this covenant with his servants:
“I will be your God, and you shall be my people.”
The Prophets themselves explained that these words comprehended life, salvation, and the sum of all blessedness. For it is not without cause that David repeatedly declares:
“Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.”
And:
“Blessed is the nation whom he has chosen for his inheritance.”
This is not to be understood merely of earthly happiness, but of the fact that God redeems from death, preserves forever, and continually maintains in his mercy all whom he has received into the fellowship of his people.
The same is said by the other Prophets:
“You are our God; we shall not die.”
Again:
“The Lord is our King and Lawgiver; he will save us.”
Again:
“Blessed are you, O Israel, because you have salvation in God.”
But lest we labor excessively over what is unnecessary, this admonition which Scripture gives us repeatedly ought by itself to satisfy us: nothing is lacking for us to possess an abundance of every good thing and the certainty of salvation, provided that the Lord is our God.
And rightly so. For if the shining of his countenance is a most certain assurance of salvation, how could he declare himself to be a man’s God without at the same time opening to him the treasures of salvation? For he is our God on the condition that he dwells in our midst, as he testified through Moses:
“I will set my dwelling among you and walk among you. I will be your God, and you shall be my people.”
Such a presence cannot be obtained without likewise possessing life. Even if nothing further had been expressed to them, they already possessed a sufficiently clear promise of spiritual life in these words:
“I am your God.”
For he did not declare that he would be God merely to their bodies, but chiefly to their souls. Now, unless souls are united to God through righteousness, they remain dead as strangers from him. But let them possess union with him, and it will bring them life.
There is still more: he not only declared himself to be their God, but promised always to remain so, in order that their hope, not resting in present things, might extend into eternity.
That this expression in the future tense was understood in this way is evident from many statements of the believers, in which they comfort themselves with the assurance that God will never fail them.
Moreover, there was a second part of the covenant which confirmed them still more fully that God’s blessing was prepared for them beyond the limits of this earthly life:
“I will be the God of your offspring after you.”
For if the Lord intended to declare his goodwill toward them by doing good to their descendants, it followed much more strongly that his kindness would be displayed toward them personally. God is not like men, who transfer to the children the love they bore toward those who have died because they no longer possess the ability to do good to the dead. But God, whose kindness is not hindered by death, does not withhold the fruit of his mercy from those for whose sake he has shown mercy to their descendants through a thousand generations.
He therefore intended by this to display the infinite abundance of his goodness, which his servants were to experience even after death, when he described it as extending over their whole household even after their departure.
The Lord sealed the truth of this promise, and virtually displayed its fulfillment, by calling himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob long after their deaths.
“I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
Would not this title have been ridiculous if they had perished? It would have amounted to saying, “I am the God of those who no longer exist.” Therefore, the Evangelists relate that Christ refuted the Sadducees by this single argument, so that they could not deny that Moses had testified to the resurrection of the dead in this passage.
“He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
Indeed, they had also learned from Moses:
“All his saints are in his hand.”
From this it was easy for them to conclude that the saints are not extinguished by death, since he who holds life and death in his power has received them under his care and protection.
Let us now consider the principal matter in this controversy: whether believers under the Old Testament were so instructed by God that they recognized they possessed a better life elsewhere than upon earth, and therefore set their minds upon it while despising this corruptible life.
First, the manner of life God assigned them was nothing but a continual exercise by which he warned them that they were the most miserable people in the world if their happiness was confined to the earth.
Adam was already more than wretched merely through the remembrance of his lost happiness, and even by laboring as hard as he could, he could scarcely obtain a meager livelihood. And lest he should be afflicted only by this curse of God, he suffered extraordinary anguish from the very source from which he should have received some relief. Of his two sons, one was wickedly murdered by the hand of the other. Cain alone remained to him, whom he rightly had to regard with horror and abhorrence.
Abel, so cruelly murdered in the flower of his youth, stands before us as an example of human misery.
Noah spent a large part of his life constructing the ark amid great hardship and trouble, while the whole world rejoiced in pleasures and delights. His escape from death brought him greater distress than if he had died a hundred times. Besides the fact that the ark was like a tomb to him for ten months, what could have been more miserable than to remain shut up there so long, immersed in the filth and excrement of animals in a place without fresh air?
After escaping so many difficulties, he fell into a new cause of sorrow.
He saw himself mocked by his own son and was compelled with his own mouth to curse the one whom God had preserved for him from the flood as a great blessing.
When Abraham was first called by God, he was drawn away from his country, relatives, and friends, and deprived of the things most desirable in this world, as though God had deliberately intended to strip him of every earthly joy. As soon as he entered the land where he was commanded to dwell, famine drove him from it. He withdrew for relief into a country where, if he wished to preserve his life, he was compelled to surrender his wife—something more grievous to him than many deaths.
Did he return to the place of his habitation? He was again driven away by famine. What happiness was there in dwelling in a land where he was so often reduced to want, and where he might even die of hunger? In the land of Abimelech, he was reduced to the same necessity of surrendering his wife.
After wandering here and there for many years in uncertainty, disputes among his servants compelled him to send away his nephew, whom he regarded as his own son. There is no doubt that this separation was as painful as having one of his limbs cut off or torn away. Shortly afterward he heard that his enemies had carried him captive.
Having reached extreme old age, Abraham saw himself destitute of a child—the hardest affliction that age can bear. At last, beyond expectation, he begot Ishmael, but even his birth cost him dearly. He was assailed by the reproaches of his wife Sarah, as though by encouraging the pride of her maidservant he had caused the turmoil in his household.
In his final years Isaac was given to him, but on this condition: his elder son was driven away and cast like a poor dog into the wilderness. After Isaac alone remained to him, in whom all the comfort of his old age was to be found, he was commanded to kill him. Could anything more miserable be imagined than that a father should become the executioner of his own child?
Had Isaac died from illness, who would not have regarded this poor old man as miserable, since the child had been given to him for so short a time—as though in mockery—only to double the sorrow of seeing himself deprived of offspring? Had Isaac been slain by a stranger, the calamity would have been still greater. But it surpasses every misery that he should be killed by his father’s own hand.
In short, Abraham was so tormented and afflicted throughout his life that, if anyone wished to portray an example of a miserable existence, he could find nothing more suitable. If someone objects that Abraham was not altogether miserable, since he escaped so many dangers and survived so many storms, I answer that we do not call a life blessed merely because it reaches old age through infinite difficulties, but because a man passes it peacefully in prosperity.
Let us come to Isaac, who did not endure as many calamities, yet scarcely tasted the least pleasure or joy. On the other hand, he experienced troubles which prevent a man from finding happiness upon earth. Like his father, famine drove him from the land of Canaan. His wife was torn from his arms. His neighbors tormented and harassed him in many ways wherever he went, so that he was compelled to contend even for water. The wives of his son Esau caused him much grief within his household. He was deeply afflicted by the discord between his sons and could remedy so great an evil only by banishing the one whom he had blessed.
As for Jacob, he is the very pattern and image of the greatest misery imaginable. While still living at home during his youth, he was tormented by anxiety because of his brother’s threats, to which he was finally compelled to yield by fleeing from his parents and his country.
Besides the anguish of exile, he was harshly treated by his uncle Laban. It was not enough that he should endure seven years of hard and inhuman servitude; at the end of them he was deceived by being given a different wife from the one he had requested. To obtain the woman he desired, he had to enter a new period of servitude, during which he was scorched by the sun’s heat during the day and numbed and frozen by cold at night. He endured rain, wind, and storm without sleep or rest, as he himself complained.
After spending twenty years in such a miserable condition, he still had to suffer daily injuries from his father-in-law. Nor did he enjoy greater peace in his own household, which was torn apart by the hatred, quarrels, and jealousies of his wives.
When God commanded him to return to his own country, he had to watch for an opportunity to depart, so that his leaving resembled a shameful flight. Even then he could not escape his father-in-law’s wickedness, for Laban pursued him and overtook him along the way. And because God did not permit anything worse to befall him, Jacob was subjected to many reproaches and insults from the very man against whom he had abundant grounds for complaint.
Immediately afterward, he entered into still greater distress.
For as he approached his brother, he saw before him every kind of death that might be expected from a cruel enemy. His heart was therefore horribly tormented and, as it were, torn apart with anguish while he awaited his coming. When he saw him, he threw himself at his feet as though half dead, until he found him gentler than he had dared to hope.
Upon first returning to his own country, he lost his wife Rachel in childbirth, whom alone he loved above all others. Afterward he was told that the son he had received from her, whom he loved above all his children, had been devoured by a wild beast. His heart was so bitterly wounded by this death that, after weeping greatly, he refused every consolation and resolved to die in his sorrow, finding no other comfort than the thought of following his son to the grave.
Furthermore, what sorrow, grief, and distress must he have suffered when he saw his daughter seized and violated? And then when his sons, to avenge her, plundered an entire city? By this they not only made him hateful to all the inhabitants of the region, but also placed him in danger of death.
Afterward came the horrible crime of Reuben, which must have caused him extraordinary anguish. For since one of the greatest miseries a man can suffer is to have his wife violated, what shall we say when such wickedness is committed by his own son? Shortly afterward his household was again defiled by another incest, so that so many dishonors might have broken even the strongest and most patient heart in the world.
In his extreme old age, desiring to relieve the need of himself and his household, he sent his sons into a foreign country to obtain grain. One of them remained imprisoned, whom he believed to be in danger of death; and to recover him, he was compelled to send Benjamin, in whom he found all his delight.
Who could imagine that amid such a multitude of miseries he enjoyed even a single moment in which he might breathe freely? This is what he testified to Pharaoh:
“The days of the years of my life have been few and miserable.”
He who affirms that he lived amid continual misery does not claim to have experienced the earthly prosperity God had promised him. Therefore, either Jacob was ungrateful and failed to acknowledge God’s goodness, or he truthfully testified that his life had been miserable. If his statement was true, it follows that his hope was not fixed upon earthly things.
If all these holy fathers expected a blessed life from God—which is beyond doubt—they certainly knew and expected a blessedness other than that of earthly life. The Apostle demonstrates this exceedingly well:
“By faith Abraham dwelt in the promised land as in a foreign country, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same inheritance. For they waited for a city with firm foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
“They all died in faith without having received the promises, but seeing them from afar, knowing and confessing that they were strangers upon the earth. By this they declared that they sought another country. If they had desired the country they had left, they had opportunity to return. But they desired a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a dwelling place for them.”
—Hebrews 11:9–10, 13–16
Indeed, they would have been more senseless than blocks of wood to pursue so steadfastly promises whose fulfillment they saw nowhere upon earth, unless they expected that fulfillment elsewhere.
Nor is it without cause that the Apostle chiefly emphasizes that they called themselves pilgrims and strangers in this world, as Moses himself records. For if they were strangers in the land of Canaan, what became of God’s promise by which they were appointed its heirs? This therefore demonstrates that what God had promised them extended far beyond the earthly land.
Accordingly, they acquired not even a foot of possession in the land of Canaan, except for their tombs.
“He gave Abraham no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot upon.”
By this they testified that they did not expect to enjoy the promise until after death. This is also why Jacob considered it so important to be buried there that he bound his son Joseph by oath to carry his body there. Joseph acted upon the same conviction when he commanded that his remains be carried there some four hundred years after his death.
In short, it is manifest that in all their actions they continually looked toward the blessedness of the life to come. For why would Jacob have sought the birthright with such effort and danger, when it brought him no earthly benefit and drove him from his father’s house, unless he had looked toward a higher blessing? Indeed, he declared that this was his desire when, breathing his final breaths, he cried:
“I will wait for your salvation, O Lord.”
Since he knew that he was about to surrender his soul, what salvation could he have awaited unless he saw in death the beginning of a new life?
And why do we debate concerning the children of God, when even the man who endeavored to oppose the truth possessed the same conviction and perception? For what did Balaam mean when he desired:
“Let my soul die the death of the righteous, and let my end be like theirs.”
He meant only what David afterward expressed:
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”
And:
“The death of the wicked is miserable.”
If death were man’s final end, no difference could be discerned in it between the righteous and the wicked. They must therefore be distinguished by the condition prepared for each of them in the age to come.
We have not yet passed beyond Moses, whom the dreamers against whom we are speaking imagine to have had no other office than to induce the people of Israel to fear and honor God by promising them fertile possessions and an abundance of food. Nevertheless, unless someone deliberately wishes to extinguish the light presented to him, we already possess an entirely evident revelation of the spiritual covenant.
If we proceed to the Prophets, we shall there find full light by which to behold eternal life and Christ’s kingdom. First comes David, who, because he preceded the other Prophets, speaks more obscurely of the heavenly mysteries than they do. Nevertheless, with what clarity and certainty does he direct all his teaching toward this end?
He demonstrates the value he placed upon his earthly dwelling by this statement:
“I am a pilgrim and stranger here, as were all my fathers. Every living man is vanity; each passes away like a shadow. And now what do I await? O Lord, my hope is directed toward you.”
—Psalm 39:5–7, 12
Certainly, he who, after confessing that he possesses nothing firm or permanent in this world, nevertheless retains a steadfast hope in God, beholds his happiness somewhere beyond this world. David therefore customarily recalls believers to this contemplation whenever he desires to comfort them. In another passage, after showing how brief and frail this life is, he adds:
“But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting toward those who fear him.”
Similar is what he says elsewhere:
“You founded the earth from the beginning, O Lord, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They shall perish, but you remain; they shall grow old like a garment, and you shall change them. But you always remain the same, and your years shall have no end. The children of your servants shall dwell securely, and their offspring shall be established before you.”
If believers remain established before God even when heaven and earth pass away, it follows that their salvation is joined to his eternity. Indeed, this hope could not stand unless it were founded upon the promise set forth in Isaiah:
“The heavens shall vanish like smoke, and the earth shall wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants shall likewise perish; but my salvation shall endure forever, and my righteousness shall never fail.”
In this passage perpetuity is attributed to salvation and righteousness, not merely insofar as these things reside in God, but insofar as he communicates them to men.
Indeed, what David repeatedly says concerning the happiness of believers cannot be understood otherwise than by referring it to the manifestation of heavenly glory. Thus he says:
“The Lord preserves the souls of his saints; he will deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
“Light has arisen for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.”
Again:
“The righteousness of the good endures forever. Their strength shall be exalted in glory, but the desire of sinners shall perish.”
Again:
“The righteous shall give thanks to your name; the upright shall dwell with you.”
Again:
“The righteous shall be held in everlasting remembrance.”
Again:
“The Lord shall redeem the souls of his servants.”
Yet the Lord not only permits his servants to be tormented by the wicked, but often allows them to be scattered and destroyed. He permits the good to languish in darkness and misery while the wicked shine like the stars of heaven. Nor does he display the light of his countenance toward believers in such a way that they enjoy lasting happiness.
Therefore, David himself does not conceal that if we keep our eyes fixed upon the present condition of this world, it will be a grievous temptation capable of shaking us, as though innocence received no reward from God. Ungodliness prospers and flourishes while the company of the good is oppressed by disgrace, poverty, contempt, and every other kind of calamity.
“My foot had almost slipped, and my steps had nearly turned aside, when I saw the prosperity of senseless men and the flourishing condition of the wicked.”
After recounting these things, he concludes:
“I considered whether I might understand these things, but they were only perplexity to my mind, until I entered the sanctuary of the Lord and understood their end.”
Let us learn, therefore, from this confession of David alone that the holy fathers under the Old Testament were not ignorant of how seldom—or rather, how never—God completely fulfills in this world what he promises to his servants. For this reason they lifted their hearts to God’s sanctuary, where they found hidden what did not appear to them in this corruptible life.
That sanctuary was the final judgment for which we hope. They were content to apprehend it by faith, although they did not behold it with their eyes. Armed with this confidence, whatever happened in this world, they did not doubt that a time would come when God’s promises would be fulfilled. This is clearly demonstrated by such statements as these:
“I shall behold your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied with the sight of you.”
Again:
“I shall be like a green olive tree in the house of the Lord.”
Again:
“The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in his courts. They shall bear fruit and remain green in their old age, and they shall be vigorous.”
Where shall this vigor and beauty appear except when the present form of this world is overturned by the manifestation of God’s kingdom?
Therefore, when they fixed their eyes upon this eternity and despised the bitterness of present calamities, which they saw to be temporary, they boldly gloried in these words:
“You will not permit the righteous to perish forever, O Lord, but you will plunge the wicked into the pit of destruction.”
Where in this world is the pit of destruction that swallows up the wicked, when their very prosperity is elsewhere described as dying at ease without prolonged suffering? Where is such stability among the saints, whom David himself frequently laments as not merely shaken, but altogether oppressed and cast down?
He must therefore have set before his eyes not what is presented by the instability of this world, which resembles a sea tossed by various storms, but what the Lord will accomplish when he sits in judgment to establish the enduring order of heaven and earth. As David describes exceedingly well elsewhere:
“Fools trust in their abundance and boast in their great riches. Yet no man, however great, can deliver his brother from death or pay to God the price of his redemption. Although they see the wise and the foolish die and leave their riches to others, they imagine that their dwelling places shall endure forever and endeavor to acquire fame and renown upon the earth. But man shall not remain in honor; he shall become like the beasts that perish.
“This thought of theirs is great folly, yet they have many imitators. They shall be gathered into the grave like a flock of sheep, and death shall rule over them.”
“At the dawn of day the righteous shall rule over them; their glory shall perish, and the grave shall be their dwelling.”
First, by mocking fools because they rest and content themselves in their transitory worldly pleasures, David shows that the wise must seek another happiness. But he reveals the mystery of the resurrection still more plainly when he establishes the reign of believers while predicting the ruin and desolation of the wicked. For what are we to understand by the dawn of day of which he speaks, except the revelation of a new life after the end of this present one?
From this also arose the conviction by which believers in those days customarily consoled themselves and were strengthened to endure patiently:
“God’s wrath lasts only for a moment, but his mercy endures for life.”
How could they limit their afflictions to a moment when they were afflicted throughout their lives? Where did they see such a long duration of God’s goodness when they scarcely had opportunity to taste it? Certainly, had they fixed their attention upon the earth, they would have found nothing of the kind. But when they lifted their eyes to heaven, they understood that the tribulation which the saints must endure is only a passing breath of wind, while the blessings they are to receive are eternal.
On the other hand, they foresaw that the ruin of the wicked would have no end, although in their dreams they imagined themselves blessed. From this arose such familiar sayings as:
“The memory of the righteous shall be blessed, but the memory of the wicked shall rot.”
Again:
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints, but the death of the sinner is exceedingly grievous.”
Again:
“The Lord shall preserve the steps of his saints, but the wicked shall be cast down in darkness.”
All such statements demonstrate that the fathers of the Old Testament clearly understood that, whatever misery believers might endure in this world, their end would nevertheless be life and salvation. Conversely, the happiness of the wicked is a beautiful and pleasant road leading to destruction.
For this reason they called the death of unbelievers “the death of the uncircumcised,” intending to signify that the hope of resurrection had been taken from them. Therefore, David could devise no more grievous curse against his enemies than to pray:
“Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and let them not be written among the righteous.”
But more notable than all the others is this statement of Job:
“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that on the last day I shall rise again from the earth and shall see my Redeemer in this body. This hope is hidden within my bosom.”
Those who wish to display their subtlety quibble that this should not be understood of the final resurrection, but of the time when Job hoped the Lord would become gentler and more gracious toward him. Even if we grant them this in part, we shall nevertheless still maintain, whether they will or not, that Job could never have attained such a lofty hope if he had rested upon the earth.
We must therefore confess that Job raised his eyes toward future immortality, since he awaited his Redeemer even while lying, as it were, in the grave. For death is the extremity of despair to those who think only of the present life, yet it could not take away his hope:
“Though he should kill me, I will not cease to hope in him.”
If some obstinate person murmurs that these statements were made by only a few people, and therefore cannot prove that such doctrine was commonly held among the Jews, I will answer immediately that this small number did not intend by such statements to display some hidden wisdom which only the most excellent minds could comprehend. For those who spoke in this manner had been appointed by the Holy Spirit as teachers of the people. Therefore, in keeping with their office, they openly proclaimed the doctrine which the whole people were required to hold.
When, therefore, we hear such evident oracles of the Holy Spirit, by which he anciently testified to spiritual life in the Jewish Church and gave an undoubted hope of it, it would be exceedingly perverse obstinacy to leave that people with nothing but a carnal covenant which mentioned only the earth and worldly happiness.
If I proceed to the Prophets who came afterward, I shall have still more abundant and accessible material with which to establish this case. For if victory was not too difficult for us with David, Job, and Samuel, it will be much easier with them. Indeed, the Lord observed this order in administering the covenant of his mercy: as the day of full revelation approached, he increasingly enlarged the clarity of his doctrine.
Thus, when the first promise was given to Adam at the beginning, only a few small sparks were kindled. Afterward the light gradually grew and increased from day to day, until the Lord Jesus Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, dispelled every cloud and fully illuminated the world.
We need not fear, therefore, that the testimonies of the Prophets will fail us if we desire to use them to establish our case. But because I see that this subject is so extensive that we would have to dwell upon it longer than the scope of my undertaking permits—for it would provide enough material to fill a large volume—and because I believe I have already opened a way for all readers of moderate understanding to comprehend the matter for themselves, I shall avoid unnecessary prolixity.
I will only warn readers to remember to use the key I have given them to gain entrance. Whenever the Prophets speak of the blessedness of believers—of which scarcely the faintest shadow appears in this world—let them return to this distinction: in order to display God’s goodness more clearly, the Prophets represented it through earthly benefits as by certain images. Yet through this portrayal they intended to raise men’s hearts above the earth, above the elements of this world, and above this corruptible age, and to lead them to meditate upon the blessedness of spiritual life.
We shall be content with one example. When the people of Israel had been carried away to Babylon, they regarded their exile and desolation as equivalent to death. They could not be persuaded that everything Ezekiel promised concerning their restoration was anything but fable and falsehood, for they imagined it was equivalent to saying that thoroughly decayed bodies would rise again.
To demonstrate that even this difficulty would not prevent him from fulfilling his grace toward them, the Lord showed the Prophet in a vision a field filled with bones, to which, in a moment, he restored spirit and strength solely by the power of his word. This vision certainly served to correct the unbelief of the people. At the same time, however, it warned them that God’s power extended beyond the restoration he promised them, since at his mere command it was so easy for him to restore scattered bones to life.
We must therefore compare this statement with a similar one in Isaiah:
“The dead shall live and rise again with their bodies. Awake and arise, you who dwell in the dust, for your dew is like the dew upon a green field, and the land of the giants shall be laid waste. Go, my people; enter into your chambers and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little while, until the fury has passed. For behold, the Lord shall come forth to visit the iniquity of the inhabitants of the earth. The earth shall reveal the blood it has received and shall no longer conceal the dead who have been buried within it.”
Nevertheless, I do not mean that every passage must be interpreted according to this rule. For there are some which, without any figure or obscurity, demonstrate the future immortality prepared for believers in God’s kingdom. We have already cited some of these, and there are many others, but especially two.
The first is in Isaiah:
“As I shall establish before my face the new heavens and the new earth which I have created, so shall your offspring remain. One month shall follow another, and one Sabbath shall continually follow another. All flesh shall come to worship before my face, says the Lord. And the bodies of the transgressors who have despised me shall be exposed to disgrace.”