The Mighty Voice of God

It has been a bit longer than usual between posts. Between researching my next post ‘Paul and the Law’, starting back at university for my final BA Semester, and family… life’s been busy. But I thought I would take the time to share something I learned/experienced in my devotional time a couple of weeks ago. I want to share it because my mind felt so overwhelmed by the breadth, depth, and significance of what I was reading in Scripture. This, in popular nomenclature, is referred to as ‘mind blown.’ Normally I like to properly get my head around things that I learn and discover, and feel restless and ‘anxious’ when I can’t. But this time I felt a sense of peace and contentment in the midst of ‘drowning in information’, and delight in the enormity of the love of God. My prayer is that as you consider these things, God will meet you in a special way too.

My time in scripture began with the reading of Deuteronomy 4 as part of a reading plan. In it, Moses was warning the people of the blessings and curses of obedience to God’s Law whilst living in the Promised Land. In particular, this warning in verses 25-27:

“…if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you.”

God’s warning was that if the people fell to idolatry, they would be exiled from the land as punishment. And, as history makes known, this indeed did happen. Despite constant warning, idolatry ran rampant in Israel and they were sent into exile first into Assyria, and then into Babylon. The next part of the reading plan took me to Isaiah 40 and this is where God showed me something I hadn’t quite seen before. The words of Isaiah 40 were written to those who were in exile, and were words of comfort saying that God would restore them and bring them back:

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
    that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord's hand
    double for all her sins..

But the part that really struck me was verses 25-26:

To whom then will you compare me,
    that I should be like him? says the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes on high and see:
    who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
    calling them all by name,
by the greatness of his might,
    and because he is strong in power
    not one is missing.

Here I’d always just read that as ‘God has names for all the stars, and how awesome is it that He knows my name too’. But note that it says that God calls out the stars, each by name. I was thinking about the context of the passage and I realised ‘God is trying to say “I have the power and wisdom to be able to call out each and every star, from darkness to light, by name. If I can do that, then surely I have the ability to call each of you, from captivity to life, by name.” This means that God called each and every person who returned from Babylon by name, they responded, and they went into the inheritance God had for them.

Also notice the second part, ‘by His power, none are missing.’ I’m not sure what ancient Israel’s concept was of stars, or how aware they were of their size, but the fact there were so many meant they knew keeping track of every star was quite a feat, but not for Yahweh. And so, if God could ensure none of His stars were lost, He’d make sure none of His people would be lost. This would have no doubt have reminded them of the Lords promise to Abraham, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars.’ So, not only can they have confidence in the power of God, they can also have confidence in the faithfulness of God.

It reminds me of this scene in Blackhawk Down after one of the crashed helicopter pilots were captured. A helicopter with loudspeakers was flying over Mogadishu declaring over and over “Michael Durant, we won’t leave you behind. Michael Durant, we won’t leave you behind…” Yahweh was doing a similar thing through Isaiah in Babylon: “Children of Judah, I won’t leave you behind…” And true to his word, when Cyrus of the Persians came to power, the southern kingdom was free to return to Jerusalem.

What was true for Israel in this instance, is a type of what is true for humanity as well. Because of his holiness, God has effectively said through scripture, ‘if you want to live with me in the fullness of life, there is a certain way you must live. If you don’t, you won’t.’ In the Garden, Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and they were expelled. Their sin, as all sin is, was idolatry: they exchanged the authority and supremacy of God for their own autonomy and the lies of the enemy of what eating it would offer: “But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate” (Gen 3:4-6). This reflects Tim Keller’s definition of idolatry:

It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give…An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, “If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I‘ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.” There are many ways to describe that kind of relationship to something, but perhaps the best one is worship (xvii-xviii).

The Garden was a place where they shared close intimacy with the presence of God and it became a sacred space. Being removed from the Garden removed them from being near to God. So because of sin, we are all in exile in the world, away from the Garden, away from the fullness of His presence. We have all exchanged the supremacy and authority of God for our own autonomy and earthly pleasures. But like He did with Israel, God calls us back to Him through Holy Spirit because of what Jesus did for us. He died for our idolatry. He took the punishment so that we can be forgiven and reconciled to God. And so now God calls all people to repentance. Just like in Babylon, not all will come out from there into God’s Kingdom, but nonetheless, He desires none to perish but all to come unto eternal life (2Pet 3:9).

In coming to faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour, we become grafted into Israel and become citizens of His Kingdom, but we are still physically in exile in the world. And like Ezekiel, we can all experience the manifest presence of Yahweh in exile, the difference now being under the New Covenant is that we ourselves are now the Temple of God with Holy Spirit dwelling within us (and this opens up a whole other analogy for another post). But a time will come that God will call His people physically out of Babylon to Himself. The church in Thessalonica was aware of this and there was fear and anxiety about people missing it, asking questions like ‘Did we miss it?’ and ‘What about those who are dead?’ And this is why Paul wrote the words of what has become famously known as ‘the Rapture Passage’:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1Thess 4:14-18)

There’s two things to note here. One, Paul is saying that those who are in Christ, whether dead or alive, will not miss out. The second is the reference to ‘a cry of command’. What the command is, we are not told, but Jesus gives us a clue in John’s Gospel:

 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live… Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:25,28-29).

So, the cry of command will be like the one the crowd heard in John 11:43, “Lazarus, come out.”

The reason we need not fear if we are in Christ is that, as Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (Jn 10:27). Jesus, on that last day will call you up to be with him. You will not miss it, dead or alive. Not merely because you’ll respond when you hear it, but the fact that you will hear it. This is how mighty and powerful the voice of the Lord is.His voice can penetrate through death and into the grave. 

We often hear, based on Elijah's experience, that 'the voice of God is a still soft voice.' But that was just one instance. John the Apostle said he heard a voice like rushing waters (Rev 1:15), and a trumpet (Rev 1:10). The people of Israel at Sinai (Ex 19:19), and the people in Jerusalem (Jn 12:29) said the voice of God sounded like thunder. I think we can conclude that God will use whatever voice the situation calls for, so if He needs to yell, he will. The implications of this are encouraging:

There is nowhere He can’t call you from.

I remember hearing stories from people in the 50s and 60s, being told that if they go to the movies and Jesus comes back He won’t get you. If Jesus can handle touching something as spiritually unclean as a leaper and a corpse, I'm sure some buttered pop-corn and coke won’t stop Him. If Jesus can enter a world containing things much worse than what you might see on a cinema screen, and live in in for 30 odd years, I’m sure He can handle going into a movie theatre for a couple of seconds. 

There is nothing He can’t rescue you from.

No matter how long or far you’ve run from Him, and no matter how deep a hole you’ve dug for yourself, it will never be too deep for him to pull you out of.

There is no one that He will miss out.

I’ve heard stories from the 70s and even up to today, about preachers warning people that if Christians aren’t ready, they’ll be left behind at the rapture because he will be coming like a thief in the night. But just like those words from Isaiah 40, He will call his saints out of the grave and the earth, one by one, each by name, and not one of them will be missing. I think about how I mix up my kids names, calling one the other and another by the first, or how easily I can lose track of where they are. I think about how my grandfather, mixing up my name with my uncles, has given me my second official name: ‘Gav-ah-ryan’, and the times I got lost in the shops as a child. Jesus won’t do that. He knows you by name, and he knows exactly where you are, always.

I feel that if I talk about it or try and explain it too much more, I’ll lose the purpose of this post. My purpose was to share with you a revelation about the might of the voice of God that just blew me away. Can I encourage you to spend some time meditating and reflecting on this? As God told Abram, go and look at the night sky and consider how many stars there are, thinking about how God knows then each by name. But don’t just go outside, too much light pollution, do a google-image search for Milky Way photos. Also, go and read Isaiah 40 and listen for God to speak into your situation right now where you might need comfort, or assurance for the future.

References:

Keller, Timothy. Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters. Penguin: New York (2009).

Between the Covenants: Jesus and the Law (Take Two)

As well as the certainty of death and taxes, an evolving theology should equally be definite part of the Christian experience. And this is the case with me. Since writing this blog post nearly two years ago, I have continued to study and discovered new things that needed to be added and came to change my mind on a few things So what follows below is an updated version of the original post.


In my last post, we explored the topic of God and Law, or Torah, and how it is a revelation of the Holiness and Righteousness of God and His intentions for humanity. In this instalment of ‘Between the Covenants’, we will be exploring what Jesus said about it and the implications it has on His disciples.

A little while ago I came across a flow-chart here made by a guy called Scott Bateman, critiquing an inconsistency of Christians when it comes to homosexuality in the bible. Although quite well thought out, a few factual errors let it down. Possibly the biggest, is the claim that Jesus never once mentioned gay marriage. And in a sense he is correct, although Jesus does reject it by defining marriage with an affirmative teaching, quoting Genesis: “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?”  (Matt 19:4-5). It’s a bit like this scenario: A parent says to their child ‘play in the yard.’ Yet, the kid runs out of the yard and down the road. Then the parent finds out, catches them, and tells them off. Scott’s argument would be like the child responding: ‘But you didn’t say we couldn’t leave’.

Another error is the claim that it is forbidden to adorn yourself with gold. This is based on verses such as 1 Peter 3:3, which is actually an instruction against vanity, not wearing gold.

But, despite its flaws in interpretation, Scott makes a great point in the middle:

“No buts! You don’t get to pick and choose which parts of God’s word you’re going to follow.” 

If the author of the diagram ever spoke a word of theological wisdom, it was this. Because, if we have indeed called Jesus the Lord of our life, he is Lord over all of it. And as He instructed in the great commission, we are to obey all that He commanded.

Bateman’s flow chart raises an interesting question about what New Covenant followers of Jesus are to do with the Old Testament Law. As I raised in a previous post, there is some continuation as God declared He would write His Law on our heart, but what that looks like is complex and debated. According to Michael Wilkins, “Some contend that none [of the law] applies to Jesus unless it is explicitly reaffirmed in the New Testament, while others say that all of the Old Testament applies unless it is explicitly revoked in the New Testament.” For example, based on Jesus’ words in the Great Commission, “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt 28:20), France concludes that “it is the ‘commandments’ of Jesus, not those of the OT, which are to be the basis of Christian discipleship” (188). But what did Jesus actually say about the Law?

In this post I want to explore two of what I consider to be Jesus’ most clear and explicit teachings on the relationship the Law has with the follower of Christ.

Jesus Fulfils the Law

The first I want to explore is in the Sermon on the Mount as recorded in Matthew’s Gospel:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:17-20).

Jesus’ critique of the scribes and the Pharisees observance and interpretation of the Law had no doubt caused some to believe that Jesus was opposed to the Law. However, here Jesus reaffirms His commitment to the Law, that He as a member of the Triune God-Head revealed to Moses at Sinai, by declaring He will not abolish, but rather fulfil them. Many take the word ‘fulfill’ to mean something like bringing to an end, treating the fulfilment of the Law like the fulfilment of prophesy. For example, since Jesus fulfilled the messianic prophesies, we shouldn't expect anyone else to do it. But is this an accurate interpretation?

In verse 15, Matthew has used the Greek word plerosi (from pleroo) which means to render full, i.e. to complete; to make full, to fill up, i.e. to fill to the full. For example:

“this joy of mine is now complete” (Jn 3:29)

“in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Rom 8:4)
“All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet” (Matt 1:22)

Based on this understanding of pleroo, Richard France paraphrases Jesus as saying “it is my role to bring into being that to which [the Law and the Prophets] have pointed forward, to carry them into a new era of fulfillment” (183). As we will explore below, this is a very true understanding, but to say that Matthew 5:17 has nothing to do with Jesus’ actions or teaching, as France does, is to isolate the statement from its textual and historical context. 

When interpreting any text, it is important to understanding it in its original historical context. The 'fulfilling of the law' was an idiomatic phrase of the Rabbis that referred to the faithful commitment to and accurate teaching of the Torah. For example: "Go away to a place of study of the Torah, and do not suppose that it will come to you. For your fellow disciples will fulfil it in your hand. And on your own understanding do not rely" (Mishnah, Pirke Avot, 4:14). So when Jesus said he came to fulfil the Law, He meant that he had come to rightly and completely teach the Torah. Notice too how Jesus contrasts 'fulfil' with 'abolish'. The word for abolish, katalyo used in this context “means to declare that it is no longer valid, to repeal or annul” (France 182). So for Jesus to fulfil the Law cannot mean to bring it to an end. But rather He said He will pleroo the Law. To abolish the law was also contrasted with fulfilling it by the Rabbis: "If the Sanhedrin gives a decision to abolish a law, by saying for instance, that the Torah does not include the laws of Sabbath or idolatry, the members of the court are free from a sin offering if they obey them; but if the Sanhedrin abolishes only one part of a law but fulfils the other part, they are liable" (Mishnah, Horayot 1:3). Based on this context, I believe it is better to define Jesus as the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets in how His person, teaching, and work provides a full revelation of Old Testament doctrine. As John Stott explains: “His purpose is not to the law, still less to annul it, but to reveal the full depth of meaning that it was intended to hold” (72).

In fulfilling the Law, we cannot say that Jesus made any of it null and void. As Jesus said, not an iota nor a dot will be removed from the Law, but this is what people in history have attempted to do. A heretic from the second century, Marcion, wanted to remove the Old Testament and its references in the New Testament from the Canon of the New Covenant. His legacy is still alive, according to Stott, among those who proclaim the ‘new morality’: the only law applicable for the Christian is the law of love (72).

As we have seen thus far, to say “Jesus fulfilled the Law so I don’t have to do it” is misguided because it over-simplifies the Law. Did you realise that Jesus did not obey all of the Law?  There are laws specifically for women that Jesus never did. There are also laws for farmers and slave owners that Jesus didn’t do either. So at the final judgement we can’t say that we have obeyed all the Law because Jesus did it on our behalf. Now, we have received by faith Jesus’ righteousness that he attained because He satisfied the righteous requirements of the Law expected of Him, but we cannot claim that we have been perfectly obedient because Jesus was.

Many people know the promise of Malachi 3:6, “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.” And this is a great promise of the enduring faithfulness of God. The same God who rescued His people from Egypt 3500 years ago will definitely rescue His people from Satan sin and death today. But the context of this verse is one of obedience. Let’s read verse 6 in that context:

“Then I will draw near to you for judgment… says the Lord of hosts. For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them.” 

So, what we find here is that God’s Holiness, morality, and character are unchanging. What he found good/offensive in the Garden, He found good/offensive at the Mountain, and still finds good/offensive today. As Ladd explains: “It is clear that the Law continues to be the expression of the will of God for conduct, even for those who are no longer under the Law” (510). Jesus makes this emphatic by saying that our status in the Kingdom will be based on our relationship with the law: 

“whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” 

At the heart of this teaching is the picture of the disciple of Jesus imitating the behaviour and teaching of their Lord and saviour?  “Since [Jesus] does not ‘abolish’ the Law and the Prophets but fulfils them… his disciples likewise must not ‘abolish’ or ‘break’ the commandments but must instead practice and teach them” (Wilkins). Two things that should be briefly noted here. One, Jesus didn’t say entrance. He said you would be least, or greatest in the Kingdom. So you’re still in there if you’ve trusted in the free gift of grace and forgiveness through Jesus, but what that experience is like will be somewhat different. In fact, the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ is best understood as principles for those living in the Kingdom, rather than mere general ethics (France 153).  And two, we shouldn’t think of first and second class citizens in Heaven, but rather being “a more or less worthy representative of those who acknowledge him as king” (France 188). But the point I want to focus on here is that these words mean that Jesus could not have possibly meant ‘we don’t have to do the law’ because He fulfilled it. In fact he warns against making such a statement.

But aren't we only under the moral law?
There are arguments out there to deal with the arguments made by the likes of Scott Bateman, such as only those commandments that are repeated on the New Testament is binding. Or maybe they might categorise the Torah into categories of ceremonial, civil, and moral law and argue that only the moral law applies today. . There are two respective arguments against these claims. The first is that 'moral law' isn't a real scriptural category. As E.P. Sanders (1992, 194) argues: "Modern scholars often try to divide the law into ‘ritual’ and ‘ethical’ categories, but this is an anachronistic and misleading division." In fact the Bible only knows of two categories: 'Love God and love neighbour', and both are connected. According to the Old and New Testament, we love our neighbour because we love our creator (Lev 19:18, 1Jn 4:20). The second is that the blank page between Malachi and Matthew doesn't belong there. It is the one God with the one standard of righteousness. Although the covenants may be different, the difference isn't the content of the Law; it's the location of the law: the heart (Jer 31:32-33). But even if we were to take the New Testament alone as our Torah, one of the most often repeated commandments is not a moral law, but a ceremonial law: worship God alone. Moreover, three of the four guidelines from the Jerusalem counsel in Acts 15 were 'ceremonial' in nature: abstain from blood, idols, and strangled meat.

But doesn’t the bible teach that ‘Jesus is the end of the Law to everyone who believes’?

Well, kind of. It says that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom 10:4). And in the context of this passage, this is righteousness for salvation. As I will explore more deeply and extensively in the next post, Paul is teaching that in order to be justified and declared righteous in status in the eyes of God, it is by faith and not by works. But what Romans 10:4 isn’t saying is that the law no longer teaches how the righteous can live righteously. For Paul instructs us to “no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds… and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:17-24). We are to live out the reality of the righteousness we have been given, and the Law can show us how to achieve this.

But didn’t Jesus re-write and re-define the Mosaic Law in the Sermon on the Mount?

This claim is made on the basis of Jesus’ repeated words in the sermon: “You have heard it said… But I say to you” (Matt 5:27-28 etc…), which is taken to mean ‘You have heard that the law says this, but this is now what you should do…’ But is this true? Well, we need to remember that whenever Jesus referred to Scripture He always referred to it as being written, as seen for example during His temptation in the wilderness: “But he answered, ‘It is written…’ (Matt 4:4). The Greek word for written here is gegrapti (written), and also used by New Testament authors such as Luke and Matthew when talking about scripture. For example, "as it is written (gegrapti) in the Law of the Lord" (Luke 2:23). But, in the case of Matthew 5 Jesus said “You have heard it errethe (speak, spoken)...” So, if for Jesus, the scripture is written (Matt 21:13, Mk 7:6, Lk 10:26, Jn 6:45), Jesus cannot be talking about the Law. What Jesus is talking about is the traditions of Pharisaical interpretation of the Law, which is reasonable considering Jesus mentioned the Pharisees in verse 20 before going on to correct the faults in their interpretation of God’s law throughout the sermon. Jesus’ complaint here against the Pharisees in their interpretation of the law was not that they made it more restrictive, but were actually making it easier and relaxing God's commandments by making it about external conformity (Stott 79).
However, an argument could be made that 'spoken' can refer to scripture since Matthew often refers to that what was 'spoken' by the prophets. Although it is only the prophets and never the Law, and Jesus never uses spoken of scripture. But even if Jesus was 'redefining' scripture, it wasn't changing the Law in the Sermon on the Mount, but rather restored the heart level obedience God always required. In fact, Jesus was not the first one to advocate for heart level obedience. God through Moses was: “You shall not hate your brother in your heart" (Lev 19:17). Thus, as John Calvin puts it: Jesus is “not a new legislator, but… the faithful expounder” (290). 

We can do the same thing today as the Pharisees did when we relax God’s commands by making them easier and saying that we are obedient to the ‘spirit’ of God’s commands. No, we shouldn’t be legalistic (see post on legalism here) by saying that only the explicit words count, but we can be just as rebellious when we ignore the specifics too. In other words, we can say to ourselves: ‘As long as how I’m living looks kind of like what he asked for, then that’s good enough.’ To borrow Paul’s analogy from Ephesians 4, when we do this we are wearing God’s commandments and the righteousness Christ purchased for us like a cheap cosplay costume, claiming we’re dressed like our hero because we’ve written their name on our outfit.

Jesus was saying to the crowd and the Pharisees; the heart and the hands must match when it comes to obedience. As Jesus warned, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (5:20). These words are not about a ‘works based’ salvation. Jesus is talking about a righteousness of kind rather than degree, and this is where New Covenant righteousness surpasses Old Covenant righteousness. The New Covenant established by the blood of Christ allows and empowers the deeper conformity to God’s commands as opposed to merely an external conformity. This is what was explored in a previous post from God’s promise in Jeremiah 31:33:

“I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts”

And Ezekiel 36:27 describes this too:

“And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

This is a process of participation. We encounter God’s law through His word, the Spirit testifies to its truth, we agree with the Truth, and the Spirit begins to transform our heart to conform to that truth.

“Thus God’s two promises to put to put his law within us and to put his Spirit within us coincide. We must not imagine… that when we have the Spirit we can dispense with the law, for what the Spirit does in our hearts is, precisely, to write God’s law there” (Stott, 75). And so not only did Jesus complete the Law by fully teaching it with his words and actions, He completed it so that by our faith in Him for salvation, we are empowered to keep it through Holy Spirit. Therefore, the deep righteousness is evidence of being filled with the Spirit and born again, without which no one will enter the kingdom (John 3:3).

In fulfilling the Law, Jesus made it everything it was intended to be. He is the sum and substance of what it was pointing towards, He demonstrated and taught what its perfect obedience looks like, His sacrifice paid the penalty for its disobedience and makes available the eternal blessings for its obedience, and He empowers and enables us to obey it from the heart.

Moses’ Seat

There is another, lesser known passage in Matthew 23 where Jesus also spoke about the Law.

“Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice’” (Matt 23:1-3).

Because of cultural and chronological distance, we tend to miss what Jesus is trying to say. Moses’ seat is a special place in the synagogue from where the scriptures were read from, and where the Pharisees and scribes would sit as they taught and expounded the Law. Although Jesus is most likely referring to the authority given them to do so as the basis of listening, He is ultimately appealing to the authority of Scripture they were being taught. In other words Jesus is saying: ‘do what they tell you because what they are telling you to do is from the Law.’ And because Jesus commanded His disciples to obey the Law, according to the Great Commission, that command is applicable to His disciples even today. 

Answering Scott

So how are we to answer Scott? First and foremost, with three main words: context, context, context. There are a number of laws we don't practice today because of our cultural context. We do not offer sacrifices because there is no Temple. All sacrifices were restricted to the location of the Temple, and so no Temple = no sacrifice. Although Jesus did make a final sacrifice for sins, not all sacrifices were about sin and forgiveness. Many were there simply to honour God and give thanks for all He has provided. Other's don't apply because we aren't in the land, such as the Sabbath years. And there are others such as laws regarding capital punishment that don't apply because not only are there no directly divinely guided priesthood and council to judge such matters, but Jesus took the death penalty we deserve for our disobedience on the cross. Also, things like shaving and the wearing of mixed fabric need to be understood in their historical context. But beyond these, I see no reason why we should not continue to observe every Law possible. They are given for blessings and a way to demonstrate love and gratitude towards our creator and saviour.  

Bereans and the Law

As products of the Reformation and a rejection of 1950's legalism, we have inherited a church tradition that irks at the thought of the Law for today, choosing to live exclusively in Grace-Land. And the grace of God is amazing and mind-blowing, don't get me wrong. But there is another side to grace. And as Berean Baptists, we need to be willing to test what our tradition and personal doctrine teaches about the role the Law has in our lives as disciples of Christ, against the words of Jesus and the rest of scripture. And as we have seen, there is an expectation that our lives do conform to the righteousness of the Law. Not for salvation, but in response to our salvation out of love for our God, our King, and our Redeemer.

While Jesus made a righteousness apart from the Law possible, He did not annul it nor remove it. Rather, He reiterates its importance in how we are to live in relationship with God and others, and empowers us to observe it in the true and deeper way.

In my next post, we will be exploring what Paul said about the Law and the Christian and how it relates to the Gospel.

References:

Calvin, John. Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark and Luke.

Chrysostom, John. Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew.

France, Richard. The Gospel of Matthew – New International Commentary on the New Testament. Eerdmans: Grand Rapids (2007).

Ladd, George. A Theology of the New Testament. Eerdmans: Grand Rapids (1993).
Sanders, E. P. Judaism : Practice and Belief, 63 BCE-66 CE. Philadelphia: Trinity Press, 1992.

Wilkins, Michael. The NIV Application Commentary: Matthew. Zondervan: Grand Rapids (2004).

https://thenib.com/are-you-against-gay-marriage-because-the-bible-f67c2d12231c

http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/making-sense-of-scriptures-inconsistency

http://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Lexicon.show/ID/G4137/pleroo.htm

Images:

http://money.cnn.com/2005/04/12/news/midcaps/jesus_dolls/jesus_moses_body.jpg

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/gundam/images/3/3e/Victory_Gundam_-_Ver_KA.png/revision/latest?cb=20130823200136

http://user-cdn.spring.me/photos/20120906/n5049061499af9.jpg

Between the Covenants: God and The Law

“If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun” (Katharine Hepburn) 
"Break the rules, find your freedom, live your life" (Unknown)

There is a perception that rules are oppressive, regressive, and restrict ‘fun’. And indeed, there have been many rules put in place by tyrants and dictators that have been put in place to ‘legalise’ and enforce oppression of a powerless people. Think of the ‘treason laws’ of the medieval Kings, Nazi Germany’s anti-Jewish laws, and Australia’s White Australia Policy. And it is possible that because of this history, people are reluctant to submit to rules that restrict their ‘freedom.’ But I believe that the rebellious nature of people this side of the fall, the ‘flesh’ demanding its own way that rebels against God, is what motivates much of this attitude. That was the serpent’s line to Eve, ‘God is trying to limit your fun and potential with His rules.’ She and Adam believed it, and we've inherited it.

There are degrees of this even within Christians, they may not articulate it as such, but the way their understanding of the doctrine of grace reveals their attitude towards the Law is telling. And to be fair, they have perhaps inherited either a Protestant  rebellion against a salvation by works, or rejecting the 1950’s style of fear-based-legalism that dominated the church. They perceive that the Law is a burdensome slave driver, and therefore the Christian should have no regard for it any more because we have been ‘set free’ from it. They often point to the words of the Apostles to the Gentiles in Acts 15:28: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements…” But is this perception correct? In part 2 of Between the Covenants (see part 1 of Between the Covenants here), we will be seeking to answer the question: Is the Law given through Moses something burdensome and negative that we should seek to be free from?

Law as Torah, not Slavery

The Hebrew word for Law, is Torah which means teaching, or instruction. Thus, when Moses was given the Law, God was not demanding, but rather instructing his people on how they are to live as His covenant people, and inviting them to wholeness, or shalom. This is seen in how obedience of God’s Torah would lead to life and blessing, as Moses said; “keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good” (Deut 10:13). That God made His instructions known is indeed an act of grace and kindness, and His rules were intended to help them live in the freedom of all they were created for as they said ‘no’ to sin, and ‘yes’ to righteousness. In fact, as Spurgeon said: “There is nothing in the law of God that will rob you of happiness; it only denies you that which would cost you sorrow.” So the Law is not about slavery. As John said “his commands are not burdensome” (1Jn 5:3). This is reflective of Deuteronomy 30:11; “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.”

Interestingly, Torah Resources explains that the 

“Hebrew word, torah, is derived from a root that was used in the realm of archery, yareh. Yareh means to shoot an arrow in order to hit a mark… Consequently, torah, one of the nouns derived from this root, is, therefore, the arrow aimed at the mark, the target is the truth about God and how one relates to Him. The torah is, therefore, in the strict sense instruction designed to teach us the truth about God.”

The Law makes God Known

It is important to remember that the Law given through Moses is a revelation of God Himself. This is why in Jeremiah 31:34, after God said He would write His law on His people’s hearts in the New Covenant, He said “No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me…” Also in Jeremiah 4:22 He said: “My people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good.” And this isn't just an Old Testament thing. John wrote: “Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him… (1Jn 2:4). And elsewhere, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments” (1Jn 5:1-3).

Since, as discussed above, the Law is a revelation of God, if we say that the Law is not important we are saying that God is not important. And the extent of that importance is one measure of our sanctification. Thus, our relationship to the Law reflects our relationship with God, as Erickson explains, “When we relate to [the Law], whether positively or negatively, we are not relating to an impersonal document or set of regulations. Rather it is God himself whom we are obeying or disobeying” (820). Thus, to know the Law, is to know God.

A significant part of this revelation is the Holiness of God. Often throughout the Law God told His people to obey His commands so that they would “Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” This ties into God’s righteousness, as Paul wrote, “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known” (Rom 3:21). Implicit in this statement is that before the crucifixion of Jesus, it was the Law that revealed the righteousness of God. This does not mean that the Law no longer reveals the righteousness of God, but rather that the Gospel reflects it more fully. Thus, “The righteousness of God means, first of all, that the Law of God, being a true expression of his nature, is as perfect as he is” (Erickson 313). This is why the Psalmist could write: “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart” (Ps 19:7-8). The reason the Law can do these things, is because God does these things in the lives of His people. The reason the Law is perfect, or tamiym (Strongs #8552, complete, sound, wholesome, unimpaired, having integrity, in accord with truth and fact), is because God is tamiym. 

What about the Jerusalem Council?

So, what about that Acts 15 passage mentioned above? Isn't that describing the Law as burdensome upon Gentile Christians? Didn't they decide Gentiles don't have to worry about the Law? 

Firstly, to make this conclusion would deny other passages that describe the law as good (discussed below) and a relevant part of the new covenant such as Jeremiah 31 (I will be dealing with Paul's words such as Romans 6:14 in a future post). Secondly, the context of that passage was a response to Judaisers teaching that one must be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses in order to be saved. And so the burden in view keeping the Law for salvation, not righteous living. This becomes clear from Peter’s words at the Jerusalem council: “Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will” (15:10). And thirdly, the instruction to abstain from “things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood” (15:20), are actually based on the Mosaic Law. As reiterated by James, “For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues” (15:21). So the Jerusalem council was about affirming Gentiles as belonging to the New Covenant people of God by faith apart from circumcision and obedience to the Law, just as it was for the Jews, and not about saying the Law is irrelevant for Gentiles.

What about beyond Sinai?

Does this mean that before the Law was given through Moses, that God’s righteousness and morality were unknown? We find something interesting in God’s words to Isaac: 

“And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge (mismarti), my commandments (miswotay), my statutes (huqqotay), and my laws (wetorotay) (Genesis 26:4-5). 

What makes this phrase particularly significant is how Moses uses a similar phrase with the same Hebrew words in Deuteronomy 11:1, "Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements (mismarti), his decrees (huqqotay), his laws (miswotay) and his commands (miswotay) always.” This means that prior to Moses, God’s Law was known and obeyed by His people, and therefore “…the Ten Commandments do not so much introduce new standards of behaviour as codify the relationship that God’s covenant people are supposed to have with him” (Carson, 63).

Paul explains that the Law is made known in the Gentiles conscience:

“For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus” (Rom 2:14-16).

What Paul is talking about here is those who do not have the Law in the written format, will still be judged according to the Law’s righteous requirement because God has written it on their conscience.

The Blessings of the Law

Considering the universality of God’s Law, the Law is still a blessing for us today and not just Israel at Sinai. If the Law is a revelation of God’s moral character, then the law serves to define sin. As Paul wrote in Rom 7:7, “… I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’” And John clarifies this further in 1John 3:4 “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.” Thus without the Law, we would have no knowledge of sin, and no knowledge of our need for forgiveness and salvation. This is especially true since, as discussed above, both sin (miss the mark) and Torah, have etymological origins in archery. So, if the Law no longer exists then there is no more sin. And if there is no more sin, then what are we calling people to repent from and why would they need a saviour?

On the flip-side of this, and more importantly, the Law also serves to instruct God’s people in righteousness. Knowing Christ has atoned for our sins, we should come to the Law no longer primarily focusing on how it defines sin and feeling condemned by where we have fallen, but rather focusing on how it defines righteousness and empowered by the Holy Spirit, seeking to live out the righteousness we have inherited from Christ (2Cor 5:21). As Paul wrote to Timothy: “All Scripture [including the Law] is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2Tim 3:16). Similarly, John Calvin positively considered the principal and proper purpose of the law to be “’to learn more thoroughly each day the nature of the Lord’s will to which they aspire, and to confirm them in the understanding of it’ (Institutes 2.7.12)” (Beach-Verhey 474).

As I will explore more in depth in a future post, the Law can be burdensome, depending on how one relates to it. If we are relying on obedience to the Law for salvation, and God’s love and favour, it will become burdensome. But when viewed through the lens of the Gospel, it becomes a thing of delight. As Keller explains in his commentary on Galatians: 

“… the more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God’s grace appears to you. But on the other hand, the more aware you are of God’s grace and acceptance in Christ, the more able you are to drop your denials and self-defences and admit the true dimensions and character of your sin. This also creates a new dynamic for discipline and obedience… it makes the law of God a thing of beauty instead of burden. We can use it to delight and imitate the one who has saved us rather than to get his attention or procure his favour.”

This motive of delight and love is what John wrote about. When we come to know the goodness, beauty, love, and majesty of God and make them the foundation of our obedience we can avoid legalism, and burdensome slavery.

We do well to consider the Law not as an impersonal and burdensome list of do and do nots, but an invitation from a loving creator and Father to life and blessing. And considering this, along with the way the Law is a revelation of a holy, perfect, and loving God, it stands to reason that the Law is something that we should be paying attention to rather than rejecting. For, if “the Law is perfect, refreshing the soul”, why would we abandon it and why would God remove it?

In my next post, I will be exploring the topic of Jesus and the Law, namely what He said about it and how He fulfilled it, as the next step in gaining a more accurate perspective of how the Law relates to us as the New Covenant people of God.

Hymn: Teach me, O Lord, your way of truth, 

Teach me, O Lord, your way of truth, 

and from it I will not depart; 

that I may steadfastly obey, 

give me an understanding heart. 

In your commandments make me walk, 

for in your law my joy shall be; 

give me a heart that loves your will, 

from discontent and envy free. 

Your word sheds light upon my path; 

a shining light, it guides my feet; 

your righteous judgements to observe, 

my solemn vow I now repeat. 

Your wondrous testimonies, Lord, 

my soul will keep and greatly praise; 

your word, by faithful lips proclaimed, 

to simplest minds the truth conveys. 

I thirst for your commandments, Lord, 

and for your mercy press my claim; 

O look on me and show the grace 

displayed to all who love your name. 

References:

Beach-Verhey, “Law, Uses of”, Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics. Baker: Grand Rapids (2011). 474

Carson, Don. The God Who is There: Finding Your Place in God’s Story. Baker: Grand Rapids (2010).

Erickson, Millard. Christian Theology. Baker: Grand Rapids (2009).

http://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/the-new-covenant-does-it-abolish-gods-law/did-abraham-keep-the-same

http://timkeller.info/quotes/

http://www.torahresourcesinternational.info/definition.php

http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/articles/index.php?view=category&cid=650

http://www.hymnary.org/text/teach_me_o_lord_thy_way_of_truth

Between the Covenants: Grace and Works

With The SCOTUS recently approving same-sex marriage, the topic of relationships and divine law has become a very common topic of discussion. My experience on social media has encountered 4 key discussions. The majority, as they display with their ‘celebrate-pride rainbow filter’ on their profile picture, are celebrating. A minority are expressing their disgust and prophesying doom over the USA. And from Christians, many are pointing out that not only are we a secular nation, but there is no mandate to creation one in the great commission. And others, like myself, are displaying the rainbow with some reference to Gen 9:13: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. (Indeed, the rainbow is a sign of grace and mercy, and not a symbol of pride). And so I thought I would explore the nature of the covenants, and the relationship between grace and works

What is a Covenant? 

Covenant is a word used often in the church and theological discussion, but sometimes with only a vague understanding of its meaning. Wayne Grudem defines covenant, in the biblical sense, as: “an unchangeable, divinely imposed legal agreement between God and man that stipulates the conditions of their relationship” (515). Being an unchangeable agreement means that humanity can never negotiate the terms, it basically comes down to ‘do you accept them or not.’ So a covenant is different to a contract, as evident by how the Greek translation of the Old Testament (Septuagint, or LXX) and the New Testament authors chose the less common term diatheke (testament, will, stipulations laid down by one party), rather than the more common syntheke (negotiated contract). Matt Chandler uses marriage to explain the difference:

“They don't turn and face one another and go, ‘I'm in this as long as you mow the lawn.’ ’Well I'm in this as long as you clean the dishes after we have dinner.’ ‘Well I'll do the dishes if you make enough money for us to go out to eat every once in a while so I don't have to slave in the kitchen all the time.’… In a covenant, we don't barter around services… We're entering into a relationship in such a way that we give ourselves to one another”

So a contract is a conditional relationship, but a covenant is a sacrificial relationship based on promises. And therefore when God enters a covenant with people, it is by grace.

How the Covenants Relate

There are a number of covenants mentioned in the Bible. The key ones are:

Adamic: made with Adam and Eve in the Garden (Gen 1:28-30, 2:16-17) as God’s ideal pattern of relationship with humanity,

Abrahamic: promise of land, children, and blessing through faith in the promises of God (Gen 12:1-3, 15:13-21, 17:1-14),

Mosaic: redemption of descendant of Abraham as His special people through faith in the blood of the Passover lamb (Ex-Deut), and

Messianic: redemption of humanity as His special people through faith in the blood of Jesus, the Messiah (Lk 22:20, Jn 3:16-21, Rom 1-11)

There are a variety of views of the relationship between the various covenants, which can be summed up into two major categories: Dispensationalism, and Covenant Theology. These are more about hermeneutics than theology per-se (gotquestions), but a hermeneutic based on theology nonetheless.

Dispensationalism focuses on the differences between 7 “distinguishable Dispensations or administrations of God’s purposes, will, and relationships with people in general and particularly his people” (Ware). And therefore, although some overlap may be recognised, there is a strong distinction between the Old and New covenants as well as the church and Israel.

Covenant Theology, on the other hand, focuses more on the continuity of the covenants and categorises them as being either a covenant of works, or a covenant of grace. The Covenant of Works is said to have been set in the Garden between Adam and Eve: “God sets Adam in the Garden and promises eternal life to him and his posterity as long as he is obedient to God’s commands. Life is the reward for obedience, and death is the punishment for disobedience.” However, because Adam failed to uphold the covenant of works, a Covenant of Grace was needed whereby “God freely offers to sinners (those who fail to live up to the CW) eternal life and salvation through faith” (gotquestions). This kind of approach sees the relationship between the two covenants as: ‘the old is the new concealed, and the new is the old revealed.’ Moreover, Israel and the church are seen as the same. These are just generalised, summary definitions and I am aware that there is a greater complexity to them. I am also aware that some may define them slightly differently, and that there are those who don’t sit exclusively in one camp or another. But for the purposes of this blog, these explanations should suffice.

My reading of the bible suggests to me that there is a significant continuity between the covenants, and this continuity is found in: God’s intention for humanity, God’s character, and our response to God’s character.

Beginning in the Garden, it was intended by God that humanity walked in shalom with Him; loving Him, trusting Him, and faithfully reflecting His Holy image. Yet, because of sin, God needed to redeem humanity from the fall and promised in Genesis 3:15 that a descendant would fulfil this purpose. And all the covenants God made with people pointed to this saviour being fulfilled in the person and work of Christ who established the New Covenant. Although Covenant Theology distinguishes them, I have found that all covenants have both a works and grace component. There was an aspect of grace in the Garden as God chose to establish a relationship with them, before they had even done anything. It’s just that because of sin that in the latter covenants, grace has a greater emphasis as well as a different basis and form. And when it comes to the Messianic covenant, although we are saved and forgiven by grace through faith (Rom 3:21-24), our response to that grace is worship and obedience (Rom 12:1-2, Eph 2:10). Both Paul and James use Abraham as an example of this since, although God established his covenant with Abram because of faith (Gen 15:6, Rom 4:1-12), Abram's faith was proved through his obedience. As James explains: “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’—and he was called a friend of God” (Js 2:21-23).

Grace and Works

This passage opens much debate between faith, works, and salvation as people try to keep both Paul and James in tension. This is particularly true when it comes to witnessing a Gospel of Grace to groups such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons who hold to a conditional/works based Gospel (God will only save you if you obey), who use James to argue this. They fail to understand that works are the ‘fruit’ not ‘root’ of our salvation. And because we are so enamoured with God’s grace, our opposition to a works-based salvation, and protestant heritage, we tend to irk at the mention of works and Law, seeing them as enemies of the Gospel. Indeed, it is often seen as a thing of slavery and burden, as reflected in the opening verse of the hymn, ‘Free from the Law’:

Free from the law—oh, happy condition!
Jesus hath bled, and there is remission;
Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall,
Christ hath redeemed us once for all.

The Law given through Moses is often understood as a Works Covenant, however, as Exodus and Deuteronomy tell us, one finds that obedience was a response to God’s work of redemption, not a condition. At the beginning of the Ten Commandments, God declared: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Ex 20:1), and then proceeded to give the Law. An implicit conjunction between verse 1 and 2 is ‘therefore’. Thus, God is saying: ‘Since you are my people, this is how I would like you to act.’ And that God chose these people by grace is evident by the declaration:

“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deut 7:6-8).

This is not much different to the New Covenant. As Paul explains in Romans: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1), (and) ^“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:6-8).

Difference and Continuity

So what exactly then, is the difference between the Old and New Covenant? One popular view is that we are now under the Law of Christ and that the Law of Moses has been done away with. Indeed, this appeals to many Protestant Christians today for the reasons mentioned above.  Proponents of this view will often refer to Colossians 2:14, in particular from the King James Version, “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.” Another is from Hebrews 8:13, “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” Prior to this verse is a quotation of Jeremiah 31:31-34, which contains both points of difference and continuity.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbour and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

The points of difference are found in the supremacy of the New Covenant, which is fitting considering that its context in Hebrews is the author describing how the New Covenant is superior to the Old on the basis of its promises and sacrifice (Heb 8:1-7). First, we have the Lord explaining that the New Covenant won’t be like the Mosaic covenant because “of the lack of faithfulness to the covenant on the part of its recipients” (Guthrie, 971). And second, the remedy to this problem with the Old Covenant is in how instead of the people having to rely on external commands written on stone, they will be written on their hearts and minds. The combination of these two points results in a deeper intimacy and knowledge of God, made possible by a once-for-all forgiveness.

But, note two points of continuation. Firstly, the New Covenant is not made with the nations (Strongs #1472: goyim, Gentiles) but with Israel, consisting of the two Kingdoms (1Kg 12): the House of Judah and the House of Israel. And just like under the Old Covenant, the Gentiles are grafted by faith in Jesus, into Israel: the people of God. Like Ruth we say to ‘Naomi’: “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” Paul talks about this two places. One in Romans 11:17-18, 23-24:

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree… And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.

The other in Ephesians 2:12-13

…remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

And so, the first point of continuation is that God is making a covenant with Israel, and invites the nations to be His people (2Cor 6:16). This becomes evident in Peters declaration that we as followers of Christ, “are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellences of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light”(1 Pet 2:9-10). These words aren’t unique to the New Covenant people of God, but also used to describe the Old Covenant members too: “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex 19:5-6). Although dispensationalists may disagree, suggesting that the church has replaced Israel, there is some truth to this. God’s people in the Old Covenant were a geopolitical entity, but we are now a people of faith. But there is continuity here too, as Paul explains to the Galatians: “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed.’ So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Gal 3:7-9). Therefore, belonging to the people of God has always been by faith. And in the future, in the New Heavens and Earth, God’s people will reign on Earth under their King.

The second is continuity of God’s Law. As mentioned above, God declared in Jeremiah 31 that He would write His Law on the New Covenant member’s heart and mind. One might suggest that this is the same Law as the one given through Moses, especially since the reason He writes it on our heart, is that the Old Testament people couldn’t keep it. As Jesus said, the Two Great Commandments, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself” (Lk 10:27), which is referred to as the Law of Christ (Gal 6:2) (gotquestions), is not only the foundation of the Law and the Prophets (Matt 22:40), but also quotations from the Mosaic Law (Deut 6:5, Lev 19:18). What the Law looks like in the New Covenant is debated and complex, and will begin to be explored in the next blog, but as this point it should suffice to conclude that there is some continuity of the Law given through Moses under the New Covenant.

Partnership of Grace and Works

So grace and works are not the two opposing concepts they are made out to be, when partnered together in the right way, create a beautiful covenant of Life and blessing. It was true of Abraham, Noah, Moses, and David, and it is true for us today. But this side of the fall, as Titus 3:5-7 tells us, “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” This side of the fall, works cannot justify us. Our works cannot make us righteous. To try and establish a righteousness by works is not only a self-righteousness that is offensive to God, but also, as Paul warned the Galatians, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” But rather, if we obey God with our works, empowered by grace, out of our relationship with God, then we will be living out a faith befitting the righteousness given us. But even when we fail, we have a creator with a Love for His creation that never gives up. And this is what the covenants are all about, an all-powerful, ever present God who loves His people, and desires to be with them in a relationship based on love and grace, and lived out in works from both sides.

I thought I would be fitting to close with the lyrics of John Mark McMillan’s song, Future/Past:

You hold the reins on the sun and the moon
Like horses driven by kings
You cover the mountains, the valleys below
With the breadth of your mighty wings

The constellations are swimming inside
The breadth of your desire
Where could I run, where could I hide
from your heart’s jealous fire

All treasures of wisdom and things to be known
Are hidden inside your hand
And in this fortunate turn of events
You ask me to be your friend
You ask me to be your friend

And you,
You are my first
You are my last
You are my future and my past
You are the beginning and the end

References:

Bliss, Philip Paul (1838-1876). “Free from the Law—Oh, Happy Condition”

https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/1001

Chandler, Matt. “The Dearest Place On Earth Pt2-What Is A Covenant?” 16 Jun 2013.

http://media.thevillagechurch.net/sermons/transcripts/201306161915DWC21ASAAA_MattChandler-TheDearestPlaceOnEarthPt2-WhatIsACovenant.pdf

Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology. IVP: Grand Rapids (2000).

Guthrie, George. “Hebrews,” Commentary on the New Testament use of the Old Testament. Eds. G Beale, and D. Carson. Baker: Grand Rapids (2007), 919-996.

McMillan, John Mark. “Future / Past”
http://www.songlyrics.com/john-mark-mcmillan/future-past-lyrics/#D8Au3X0DJTVhHmS6.99

Ware, Bruce.  “Covenant Theology and Dispensationalism”

https://www.biblicaltraining.org/library/covenant-theology-dispensationalism/systematic-theology-i/bruce-ware

“What is Covenant Theology?”, gotquestions.org.

http://www.gotquestions.org/covenant-theology.html

“What is the Law of Christ?”, gotquestions.org.

http://www.gotquestions.org/law-of-Christ.html