R.C. Sproul

He enters into a covenant relationship with them and says, I will be your God and you will be my people.

And that's a choice not that the Jews make, but that God makes.

And that indicates again that plus.

So even though in the Greek word diatheka there is some confusion about its content in the Greek culture, it more than any other word in the language carries this notion of the plus.

that is so important to our understanding of the Hebrew notion of covenant.

Now again, I'm giving you that by way of introduction as we look at the various covenants of Scripture.

I hope that that will become more clear and how important that is for our understanding of this structure of divine revelation.

Now one last thing in today's session is I've mentioned we use the language Old Testament, New Testament, Old Covenant, New Covenant.

And I sometimes tease my students, and I say, who's the most important prophet in the Old Testament?

And they'll say Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, somebody like that.

And I say, no, no, the greatest prophet in the Old Testament is John the Baptist.

And they say, what do you mean?

He's in the New Testament.

Well, see, I've been playing with them because, you know, Jesus said there's none greater of all those born of women, there's none greater than John the Baptist.

Well, John the Baptist is born in the book we read of his birth in the book that we call the New Testament.

But in terms of the history of redemption or the economy of God's redemption,

The New Covenant had not yet been established at the time of the birth of John the Baptist.

We read about him in the book called the New Testament, but the period of redemptive history in which John is born is the Old Testament period.

He still belongs to that period of redemptive history.

You know, there's endless debates about when the New Testament really begins or the New Covenant period.