The New Covenant is the last and final administration of the Covenant of Grace. It is the covenant ‘apex’, bringing all the promises of the Covenant of Grace to new heights because in the New Covenant comes the true substance of the fulfillment that all of God’s promises have been leading up to since Genesis 3:15, when God gives the first gospel promise to Adam. That substance, of course, is Jesus Christ, the offspring of the woman in Genesis 3:15, the Messiah, the hope of Israel. Jesus’ incarnation, his life, his death, and his resurrection from the dead are a great turning point in history – a pivotal point – moving us from what scripture calls “this age” into an age we call “the already but not yet”. This already but not yet is an “overlap” so to speak, where “this age” overlaps with “the age to come” (see Luke 20:34-35, Mt 12:32, 13:40). In essence, we, as New Covenant Christians, are ‘living between the times’, as we rejoice in Christ’s first coming and eagerly await his second coming. The first and second comings of Christ are the events that mark the beginning and end of this overlap period referred to as “the already but not yet”. It is in this new age that we, as Christians, already begin to experience the blessings of Christ’s work in fulfilling the promises of the Covenant of Grace, God’s promise that “He will be our God, and we will be His people” (Jer 24:7, Rev 21:3-4). And at the very same time, those promises are not yet fully realized and brought to their final consummation.
Romans 5:14 tells us that Adam was “a type of the one to come”; in other words, Adam was a ‘type’ of Christ. This is why, in theology, we use the terminology of the ‘first Adam’, and the ‘second Adam’. Christ is the second Adam, and in Him, believers are moved out from under the curse of the Covenant of Works that we were subjected to in the fall of the first Adam. This is made possible because Jesus perfectly keeps the conditions of the Covenant of Works, and also takes the covenant curse upon Himself – both of these things He does as our substitute, or in our place. This is where we get the phrase ‘substitutionary atonement’, which is described in passages such as 1 Corinthians 5:21. Thus, through our union with Christ, believers are translated from Adam to Christ, & from the Covenant of Works to the Covenant of Grace, and we are saved from the curse of the law, the curse of death that was brought upon us when the first covenant representative (the first Adam) failed to keep the conditions of the Covenant of Works. (That condition being perfect obedience.). In Christ, we have a new representative, who succeeds where Adam failed. Through the first Adam came condemning judgement for all men. Through Christ comes the free gift of justification (Rm 5:16). In Adam, we are alienated from God. In Christ, we are reconciled. Christ redeems us from the curse of the law. In Him, we “receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness” and we “reign in life” (Rm 5:17) through Him as our new, final, and perfect representative.
Soli Deo Gloria!
To understand more about man having a ‘representative’ (called federalism in theology), you may find helpful the discussion in my article titled “No Other Name”.