A. Blake White > Quotes

“We must be canonical exegetes, interpreting the former revelation in light of the latter. If the “grammatical-historical” method of exegesis excludes or ignores the redemptive-historical setting of the fulfillment of God’s purposes in Christ, then we need to jettison or at least adjust our hermeneutic.[73] Dennis Johnson writes, “When any hermeneutic method disqualifies – or seems to disqualify, by pitting an Old Testament text’s ‘original’ meaning against its interpretation in the New – the ways that Jesus, the Word of God incarnate, interpreted the Word of God written and taught his apostles to do so, this dissonance is a signal that something is seriously amiss.”[74]”
― A. Blake White, The Abrahamic Promises in Galatians

“the true image of God”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“This “cruciform” (cross-shaped) love is at the heart of new covenant ethics. One”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“The Sabbath commandment is also a great test case for how we do theology. Our views on the Sabbath are determined by our hermeneutic, by how we relate the Old Testament and New Testament, by how we relate systematic theology and biblical theology, by our posture toward extrabiblical documents, by where we place final authority, and whether or not we truly and consistently let exegesis be the lifeblood of theology.”
― A. Blake White, Obey the Sabbath: Rest in Christ

“New Covenant Theology strives to keep this one plan of God—centered in Jesus Christ—primary.”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“For our purposes, most importantly, the First London Baptist Confession is not structured around Covenant Theology. It contains no command to keep the Sabbath and does not advocate a tripartite distinction of the Law. Its focus is decidedly Christ-centered. The call is not to obey the Law of Moses, but to “presseth after a heavenly and evangelical obedience to all the commands, which Christ as head and king in His new covenant hath prescribed to them.”
― A. Blake White, Obey the Sabbath: Rest in Christ

“There are two primary aspects about the new covenant that make it new: (1) full and final forgiveness of sins and (2) the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon all members of the covenant community.”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“New Covenant Theology does not teach that the church replaces Israel but that the church is the fulfillment of Israel by virtue of its union with the Jewish Messiah.”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“There is not an exegetical shred of evidence for transferring the Sabbath to the first day of the week. This comes from human tradition, not the exegesis of texts.”
― A. Blake White, Obey the Sabbath: Rest in Christ

“Luke records that Jesus began with Moses and all the prophets and the Psalms, interpreting to his Emmaus followers the things concerning himself (Luke 24:27, 44).”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“The law of Christ can be defined as those prescriptive principles drawn from the example and teaching of Jesus and his apostles (the central demand being love), which are meant to be worked out in specific situations by the guiding influence and empowerment of the Holy Spirit.”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“It is safe to assume that far more than all this counted the eschatological mold into which the Apostle’s thought had been cast from is largely derived from its antithetical structure, as exhibited in the comprehensive antitheses of the First Adam and the Last Adam, sin and righteousness, the flesh and the Spirit, law and faith, and these are precisely the historic reflections of the one great transcendental antithesis between this world and the world-to-come,”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“For the new covenant apostles, Jew-Gentile unity is pivotal to the early church. It is about more than human relational harmony. Instead, it acknowledges that God’s kingdom purposes are in Christ. He is the last man and the true Israel, the bearer of the Spirit. A Jewish person who clings to the tribal markings of the old covenant acts as though the eschaton has not arrived, as though one were still waiting for the promised seed. Both Jews and Gentiles must instead see their identities not in themselves or in the flesh but in Jesus Christ and in him alone. Jesus is the descendant of Abraham, the one who deserves the throne of David. He is the obedient Israel who inherits the blessings of the Mosaic covenant. He is the propitiation of God’s wrath. He is the firstborn from the dead, the resurrection and the life. Those who are in Christ – whether Jew or Gentile – receive with him all the eschatological blessings that are due to him. In him, they are all, whether Jew or Gentile, sons of God – not only in terms of relationship with the Father but also in terms of promised inheritance (Rom 8:12-17). In Christ, they all – whether Jew or Gentile – are sons of Abraham, the true circumcision, the holy nation, and the household and commonwealth of God (Gal 3:23-4:7; Eph 2-3; Col 2:6-15; 3:3-11; 1 Pet 2:9-10).…”
― A. Blake White, The Abrahamic Promises in Galatians

“New covenant Christians are no longer under the old covenant era of law, but are now under the new covenant era of grace inaugurated by Christ himself.”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“We must keep in mind that for Paul, the law is part of the old age,”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“while New Covenant Theology teaches that the church is the continuation of Israel through Jesus Christ.”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“This is a meaty chapter on the shortcomings of Covenant Theology, especially applied to baptism. This chapter is worth the price of the book.”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“We learn how to interpret the Old Testament from Jesus and his apostles. In many ways, this is the most important distinctive of New Covenant Theology.”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“We now “belong to another” (Rom 7:4). We look to Jesus our King. He shows us how to live in a way that pleases God.”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“These women are two covenants, which are the old and the new covenants.[90] Hagar is Mount Sinai, bearing children of slavery. She is the present Jerusalem. “Present” Jerusalem takes us back to the earlier reference to the “present” evil age (Gal 1:4).[91]. The present Jerusalem and her children are in slavery. Her children (4:25) are those who are dependent on her. She is no longer our mother. Our mother is the Jerusalem above, and she is free. To say that the Jerusalem above is our mother is to say we belong to the new age. We are the children of the new creation – the Judaizers are of the old creation. We are the people of the new age, the children of promise (4:28). Tom Schreiner writes, “The Jerusalem above, according to Paul, is the eschatological Jerusalem that has reached down into the present evil age, so we have an example here of Paul’s already but not yet eschatology.”[92] The Judaizers claimed Abraham for their father and Jerusalem for their mother, and Paul says that Christian identity is bound to Christ and the Jerusalem above.”
― A. Blake White, The Abrahamic Promises in Galatians

“Anthony Hoekema writes, “the reception of the Spirit means that one has become a participant in the new mode of existence associated with the future age, and now partakes of the ‘powers of the age to come’.”[79] Their experience of the Spirit (Gal 3:1-5) is a sign that God’s eschatological restoration of Israel has begun. The Spirit is the way the promised blessing made to Abraham is being realized in all of Abraham’s true children.[80] This is why the Spirit is referred to as the "guarantee of our inheritance" (Eph 1:14; 2 Cor 1:22, 5:5) of the world to come.[81] The gift of the Spirit is the first fruits of the eschatological harvest. The first fruits stand for the beginning of the harvest; it is an experience in part of the harvest now and a pledge of more of the same kind and quality to come (Rom 8:23). The coming of the Spirit means the age to come is here.[82] The Abrahamic covenant finds its fulfillment in the new covenant and the gift of the Spirit is at the heart of the new covenant.”
― A. Blake White, The Abrahamic Promises in Galatians

“And, God’s original creation purpose pointed to God’s eventual new creation purpose. The original creation pointed forward to the new creation. Eden pointed forward to what God would eventually do: the New Eden. Jerusalem pointed forward to the New Jerusalem. Paul”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“New Covenant Theology is robustly Christ-centered. Jesus is the interpretive key to the relationship between Israel and the church. The covenant people of God have been reworked and redefined in light of the Messiah and the new covenant he inaugurated.”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“Eschatology is generally understood as the study of the end times (or last things), so when New Covenant Theology says that the church is the eschatological Israel, we are saying that the church is the end-time Israel.”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“In other words, one fulfills the will of God not by putting oneself under the law of Moses, but by being under the jurisdiction of Jesus. These”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“But we must see external commands as train tracks. They are needed to keep us in line, but they are different from the engine. The engine is the gospel of grace, the power of the Spirit, and the example of Jesus.”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“This two-age structure is foundational for understanding most of the New Testament. This is the underpinning for all the contrasts in Paul’s writings: flesh/Spirit, letter/Spirit, Adam/Last Adam, law/grace, sin/righteousness, law/faith, slavery/freedom, death/resurrection, law/gospel, futility/hope, decay/renewal, wrath/adoption, etc.9 From Paul’s perspective, the old covenant law is on the old age side of the old age/new age equation. Adam, law, and flesh are old, while Last Adam, Spirit, and righteousness are new. As previously noted, this is how Paul can say in Romans 6:14 that we are no longer under law but are now under grace. He could have just as easily have said that we are no longer in the old age, but are now in the new.”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“In my opinion, this is exactly what the “covenant of grace” does. It tends to flatten out the old and new covenants, not doing justice to either covenant in its own biblical context.”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“but what is often left unsaid is that God only made promises to faithful Israel—and there is only one wholly faithful Israelite: Jesus of Nazareth.”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction

“In my opinion, this is exactly what the “covenant of grace” does. It tends to flatten out the old and new covenants, not doing justice to either”
― A. Blake White, What is New Covenant Theology? An Introduction