I remember the first time someone asked me the question, “Are you saved?” It was the middle of the winter and I was in Millington, Tennessee. My radiator had frozen in my 1968 Camaro in front of a place that had a huge sign in the window that said, “Free Coffee and Donuts.”
Knowing that I had to let my radiator thaw and that I liked both coffee and donuts, I walked inside and sat down. A man walked over with some coffee and a tray of donuts and introduced himself. I explained about my car and he told me I was welcome to stay as long as I needed to, asking me if I played chess. As we began the game, he began to make small talk about the weather and where I was from, and then he asked me, “Are you saved?”
As a Jewish young man raised in my hometown synagogue, I had not only never been asked that question, but I also had no reference for what he meant by “Are you saved?” I responded, “Saved from what?”
He then began what I later learned was the typical conversation about salvation. At this point, I explained that I was Jewish and that because of the Covenant of Moses (or the Torah), I was already destined for heaven. I then thanked him for the coffee and donuts, and quickly exited the building. It wasn’t until I walked out to my car that I saw the smaller signs above the large free coffee and donut sign that read, “Christian Servicemen’s Center.”
Over the years, I have thought often about this conversation and the fact that both of our understandings that day were wrong. I was not destined for heaven simply because of the Mosaic covenant or Torah, and while I did desperately need Yeshua (Jesus), my problem wasn’t that I was unsaved. What I needed was not salvation; I needed redemption. I wasn’t unsaved; I was out of covenant.
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To clarify, all those who are, or were, outside the Adamic covenant need, or needed, redemption so that they could be restored into that covenant. It isn’t about being lost or saved; it is about being in a covenant or out of covenant. That is why the Bible says to let the redeemed of the Lord say so (Ps. 107:2), and why the Bible says he that endures to the end will be saved (Matt. 24:13). In this life, we are redeemed. When we enter the world to come, we will be saved.
The question then became, outside of which covenant or covenants was I living? I had learned that being outside the covenant brings curse and death, while being inside the covenant brings blessings and life.
You see, when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they didn’t become unsaved; they broke covenant with G-D, and because they were outside the covenant, they no longer had eternal life. G-D had made a covenant with them in the Garden.
God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the land, and conquer it. Rule over the fish of the sea, the flying creatures of the sky, and over every animal that crawls on the land.” Then God said, “I have just given you every green plant yielding seed that is on the surface of the whole land, and every tree, which has the fruit of a tree yielding seed. They are to be food for you. Also for every wild animal, every flying creature of the sky and every creature that crawls on the land which has life, every green plant is to be food.” And it happened so (Gen. 1:28-30, TLV).
Then Adonai Elohim took the man and gave him rest in the Garden of Eden in order to cultivate and watch over it. Then Adonai Elohim commanded the man saying, “From all the trees of the garden you are most welcome to eat. But of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you must not eat. For when you eat from it, you most assuredly will die!” (Gen. 2:15-17).
With these words, G-D made a covenant, or an agreement, with Adam and Eve which they broke when they ate the fruit from the tree and were both expelled from the garden.
While there were many covenants made between G-D and man after He made this covenant with Adam, such as the covenant with Noah, the covenant made with Abraham and the covenant of Moses, we know that each of those covenants built upon the previous covenants, yet none of them fully restored the covenant that G-D made with Adam/mankind in the garden. This doesn’t diminish the value of any of the covenants G-D made with mankind, because each of these covenants are of great importance and hold great value.
However, when Yeshua came and gave Himself for us, it wasn’t to restore the covenant with Noah, or Abraham or Moses. It was to restore and renew the covenant of eternal life made with Adam. This is why Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians about Yeshua being the second Adam:
“For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also has come through a Man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Messiah will all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:21-22).
“So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45).
It is because Adam and Eve ate the fruit and broke the covenant that death entered the world, and it is because Yeshua died and became our atonement that death was defeated and G-D’s covenant with Adam/mankind was restored. Remember, it was only because Adam and Eve were in covenant with G-D that they were able to live forever. Likewise, it is because Yeshua renewed the covenant that you and I can live forever.
Yeshua didn’t come to restore the Mosaic covenant; He came to renew the Adamic covenant so that those who entered the covenant would once again be in covenant with G-D and live forever. And by restoring the covenant made with Adam, Yeshua also renewed and restored all other covenants, which were built upon the covenant with Adam.
Eric Tokajer is the author of “Overcoming Fearlessness,” “What If Everything You Were Taught About the Ten Commandments Was Wrong?”, “With Me in Paradise,” “Transient Singularity,” “OY! How Did I Get Here?: Thirty-One Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before Entering Ministry,” “#ManWisdom: With Eric Tokajer,” “Jesus Is to Christianity as Pasta Is to Italians” and “Galatians in Context.” Visit his website at rabbierict.com.
James Lasher 
Abby Trivett 
