Whether the promises in the Old and New Testament differ.
Whether the promises in the Old and New Testament differ.
§ 60. (II) Bellarmine goes on to show the difference between the promises: “The Law and the prophets expressly promise temporal blessings; [but they promise] the kingdom of heaven figuratively. Christ and the apostles promise the kingdom of heaven and eternal life openly. They say that temporal goods are additional things and that they ought not be sought after with care and anxiety. And because threats are also accustomed to be joined with promises, the Law and the prophets threaten temporal ills while Christ and the apostles threaten eternal death.”
We respond. (1) There is an ambiguity in the expression “the kingdom of heaven.” For it means either eternal life—[and] no one can deny, with even the appearance of truth, that the promises of this exist in the Old Testament—or it means the spiritual kingdom of Christ according to truth and fulfillment as that kingdom is foretold and prefigured in the Old Testament and as it is consummated and revealed without the wrappings of figures in the New. It is in this latter sense that Augustine (Contra Faustum, bk. 19, last chapter) writes: “Holy Scripture abounds with testimonies of eternal life and of the resurrection of the dead; but this expression” (the kingdom of heaven) “does not occur in the book, it seems to me, because it properly pertains to the revelation of the New Testament.” [Augustine again] (De civ. Dei, bk. 18, ch. 11): “The Old Testament has earthly promises, but through Jesus Christ the New Testament was to promise the kingdom of heaven.” Therefore we admit that in the Old Testament promises about the future coming of Christ and His spiritual kingdom were given and that these things were wrapped up in earthly promises and especially in corporeal shadows and figures, where they were figured and foreshadowed. We also admit that in the New Testament the fulfillment of those promises was announced, especially about the revealed Christ and the kingdom of heaven which was at hand, without wrappings and shadows. But it ought not be inferred from this that promises regarding eternal life were not given in the Old Testament.
(2) That the Law and the prophets threaten temporal ills while Christ and the apostles threaten eternal death should not be understood in an exclusive sense. For in the Law and the prophets stand not only the promises of life but also the threats of eternal death. “I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil” (Deut. 30:15). “You shall therefore keep My statutes and My ordinances, by doing which a man will live” (Lev. 18:5). It is clear from the account in Luke 10 that these promises and the threats contrasted to them pertain not only to the rewards of this life but also to eternal life. For when the lawyer asked Christ what he could do to have eternal life, He calls the lawyer back to the Law: “What is written in the Law? What do you read there?” [vv. 25–26]. After the lawyer summarized the Law, Christ added (v. 28): “Do this, and you will live.” So, too, “the Law is not from faith, but he who does them shall live in them” (Gal. 3:12). From what precedes and follows, it is clear that this is about justification, and thus about how to come to eternal life. In Romans 2–3, on the basis of the word of the Law, the apostle argues that all people are sinners ([Rom. 3:]19): “We know that whatever the Law says it speaks to those who are in the Law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.”
(3) Bellarmine himself admits that the Law promises the kingdom of heaven and eternal life (though he adds “figuratively”) to the obedient; therefore, in a contrary sense, it threatens eternal damnation to the disobedient.
(4) If the eternal threats are removed from the Law—that is, from the Old Testament (for surely this is the sense in which Bellarmine uses the term “the Law”)—then the evangelical promises of God’s grace, the remission of sins, reconciliation with God, etc., must also be removed, the contrary of which we have shown earlier [§§ 9, 34–39]. Instead, we repeat that one passage: “The righteousness of faith is proved by the testimony of the Law and the Prophets” (Rom. 3:21).
5) It is obvious that there are threats of eternal death in the prophets. “Everyone will die for his own sin” (Jer. 31:30). “The soul that sins will itself die” (Ezek. 18:4). “He will die because of his iniquity” (Ezek. 33:9, 13, 18). In these passages, the word “death” must be understood to mean both temporal death, which is common to the pious and the impious, to believers and unbelievers, and also and especially eternal death, just as it means in the warning added to the command about not eating the fruit of the forbidden tree (Gen. 2:17): “For in the day that you eat of this tree you will die.” Moreover, the analogy of faith shows that God avenges wickedness with both temporal and eternal punishments.
(6) In the same way, along with the eternal promises in the New Testament there are also given bodily and temporal promises which must be understood, with the exception of the cross. “There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for My sake and for the Gospel who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the world to come, eternal life” (Mark 10:29–30). “Godliness holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Tim. 4:8). “He that would love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile” (1 Pet. 3:10). “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?” (v. 13).