During the Passover meal on the eve of His crucifixion the Lord Jesus said the following to His Apostles: "Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, 'Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins' " (Mt.26:27-28; NKJV).

J. Dwight Pentecost writes that "The disciples who heard the Lord refer to the new covenant in the upper room the night before His death would certainly have understood Him to be referring to the new covenant of Jeremiah 31" (Pentecost, Things to Come [Findlay, Ohio: Dunham, 1958], p.124-126).

At that point in time the only "New Covenant" of which the Apostles were aware was the New Covenant promised to Israel. Charles C. Ryrie writes that "In the Upper Room that payment is clearly related to the future fulfillment of the new covenant. This is to be expected since those gathered there did not understand that there would even be an intervening church age" (Ryrie, Dispensationalism [Moody Press, 1995], p.172).

The Lord Jesus' own words make it clear that it was that New Covenant that He was referring to because He said that His blood was "shed for many" and not "for all". While on the earth the Lord Jesus said, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel" and "For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mt.15:24; Mk.10:45).

The Progressive Dispensationalists teach that there is only one New Covenant and since the new arrangement or New Covenant revealed by Paul involves the Lord Jesus dying for "all men" they must somehow turn the word "many" into "all".

Despite the fact that at Mark 10:45 reads "ransom for many" Bruce Ware writes that "For in Jesus we see the eschatological Spirit-annointed Messiah (Luke 4:16-21) who comes to offer his life as a ransom for all (Mark 10:45), thus securing the forgiveness of sins on which the new covenant rests (Luke 22:20)" [emphasis added] (Blaising & Bock, Dispensationalism, Israel and the Church [Zondervan Publishing House, 1992], p.85).

Robert Saucy also understands that in order to defend Progressive Dispensationalism the word "many" must be made to mean "all." He writes that "Although some scholars limit the meaning of 'many'-which in this statement is probably to be understood in its Semitic sense of 'all'-to the historical covenant people of Israel, most give it a more universal application" (Saucy, The Case For Progressive Dispensationalism [Zondervan Publishing House, 1993], p.127).

However, Paul said that he was made a minister in order to present the Word of God in its "fullness": "I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness" (Col.1:25; NIV). It was not until Paul was converted that anyone understood that the death of the Lord Jesus was for all men:

"Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (2 Tim.2:6).

The Apostles would be aware of the Scriptures which promises the house of Israel a "New Covenant", and according to that arrangement the Lord would "remember their sins no more" (Jer.31:34). When the Lord Jesus said that "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you" (Lk.22:20; NIV) they would understand that His death was the "earnest" or "surety" of the New Testament promised to the nation of Israel. Charles Spurgeon said that "the blood is the symbol, the token, the earnest, the surety, the seal of the covenant" (Spurgeon, Sermon delivered on September 4th, 1859, # 273).

On the day of Pentecost he Apostle Peter, being guided in all truth by the Holy Spirit, understood that the "nation" of Israel was seeing a foretaste of the blessings provided by Israel's New Covenant:

"But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams...The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come" (Acts 2:16-20).

Stanley D. Toussaint writes that Peter's words "means Pentecost fulfilled what Joel had described. However, the prophecies of Joel quoted at Acts 2:19-20 were not fulfilled. The implication is that the remainder would be fulfilled if Israel would repent" (Walvoord & Zuck, The Bible Knowledge Commentary; New Testament [ChariotVictor Publishing, 1983], p.358).

Indeed, Israel's receiving of the blessings of the New Testament promised to that nation was dependent on a national repentance, as witnessed by the words of Peter which he spoke later on the same day: "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you-even Jesus" (Acts 3:19-20; NIV).

In the "Scofield Reference Notes (1917)" we read: "The appeal here is national to the Jewish people...the promise to national repentance is national deliverance: 'and he shall send Jesus Christ' to bring in the times which the prophets had foretold" (Scofield Reference Bible, 1917, note at Acts 3:20).

With the following words in view it is certain that Peter's words were in reference to a "national" repentance: "Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins" (Acts 5:31).

The fact that Israel would reject the offer of the kingdom and therefore delay the fulfillment of that nation's New Covenant was kept secret and not revealed in the OT prophecies, as witnessed by Paul's words where he says that this was kept secret: "For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery--so that you will not be wise in your own estimation--that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in" (Ro.11:25; NASB).

The two verses that follow Romans 11:25 demonstrate that Paul knew that Israel's New Covenant would not be fulfilled until some time in the future: "And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: 'The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins' " (Ro.11:26-27; NIV).

Next