THE COVENANT THAT CAME BEFORE THE OLD COVENANT

THE COVENANT THAT CAME BEFORE THE LAW

                Please beware that in this article, I am not seeking to upset those that believe in keeping the Ten Commandments, nor am I seeking to release those from obedience to God who live by faith without the Ten Commandments. For those on either side of this issue, I find that most people don’t really understand the issues and so I hope and pray that we will gain understanding from the Holy Spirit and the Word that will bless us in our walk with the Lord.

                There are extreme elements in the Messianic movement who literally reject Paul, believing that he teaches heresy, while other Sabbatarian Christians simply ignore what he says when it comes to the Law. But unless we really understand what Paul is saying we are left with this uncomfortable feeling that the Bible is full of contradictions on the subject. So let’s dive into the heart of the issue. Here Paul throws down the gauntlet:

                “Does He then, who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Even so Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. THEREFORE, be sure that it is those who are of faith that are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying “All nations the nations shall be blessed in you.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the Law, to perform them.”

                “Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “the righteous man shall live by faith.” However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary “He who practices them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us- for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”- in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

                So then, let’s make a few observations concerning what Paul has just said:

1.       The Gospel that we call the New Covenant is really older than the Old Covenant, for it was preached to Abraham (as verse 17 tells us) 430 years before the Law was given.

2.       We need to understand that what the Jews called “The Law” was not just the Ten Commandments, but the Torah, the first five books written by Moses.

3.       We should also make mention here that the Gospel preached beforehand to Abraham was also under a different priesthood- the Melchizedek priesthood and we should also recognize that Jesus initiated the New Covenant as our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. So the New covenant is not a covenant of Law, but a covenant of faith, based upon God’s promises and in the place of the Law, we are given the Spirit.

4.       Paul then goes on to explain that if we try to obtain God’s favor by keeping the Law we are under a curse, for if we keep one of them, then we must keep them all, and again, let me remind you that we are not talking about Ten Commandments here but the entire Torah with all of its multitude of laws and as such you are under the Levitical priesthood and under the blood of animal sacrifices. So this is a very serious matter indeed.

5.       Paul goes right on to tell us that the Law is not of faith for it is based on the works of the flesh and so way back in verse 3 Paul asks the question: “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh?

6.       Paul could not be clearer than in this 3^rd chapter of Galatians for as he goes on to say in verses 23-25. “But before faith came we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith.  BUT NOW THAT FAITH HAS COME, WE ARE NO LONGER UNDER A TUTOR.” Gal 3:23-25. Wow! What is Paul saying? Need we ask? We are no longer under the Law, period and we don’t live by the Law, but we live by the Spirit by faith.

                Okay then, so the big question that must arise is this: Since the Law is no longer our “School Master, our tutor” are we now free to do our own thing?

ABSOLUTELY NOT! And this is where the current doctrine of false grace guides people in the wrong direction. THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER IS THAT THE SPIRIT REQUIRES INFINITELY MORE OF US THAN THE LAW EVER COULD. Let’s see how this works.

                Under the Law, I could watch all the porn I want to and flirt with my neighbor’s wife and live my life vicariously watching movies where people are sinning and as long as I don’t literally physically commit adultery or fornication with another living person, I am clear with the law. I can hate someone and wish them dead, but as long as I don’t actually physically kill them I am okay with the Law.

                But as Jesus pointed out to us in introducing the spirit of the Law, even if you lust after someone you have already committed adultery. (Oops, there goes your porn and your flirting) And if you hate someone, you have already committed murder. And now you must not only stop hating them, but you must forgive them and love them. (Oops, there go envy and strife and unforgiveness in the church, as people think that they are somehow justified in hating and judging others.)

                In others words, living by the Spirit rather than the Law requires much more of us and in fact it requires the impossible. But the Good News is that whatever the Spirit requires of us He also empowers us to do and He transforms us from the inside out so that as we walk by the Spirit we will not carry out the deeds of the flesh.

                But beware of this: Before faith came, when you sinned, you merely broke the Law. But now when you sin, you grieve the Holy Spirit. You are now dealing with a Person, the very Spirit of Jesus Christ and when you break fellowship with the Holy Spirit by choosing to sin, you grieve Him… and this is something you really don’t want to do if you love the Lord.

                In Ephesians 4:30, after Paul has explained the fivefold ministries that the Holy Spirit has given to the church to mature us into the fullness of Christ, he then warns us saying: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, but whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

                So, you might say that both those who claim that the Law was done away and those who say that we must keep the Law are wrong. And living by the Spirit is not some undefined form of antinomianism, for as Romans 8:4 tells us, “The requirement of the Law will be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”

                It is only as we walk by the Spirit that the Law can be fulfilled in us. If we set out to keep the Law, we will fail every time. But if we live by the Spirit by faith, the Law will be fulfilled in us and it will be fulfilled by the Spirit of the Law and not by the letter of the Law. A we are told in Galatians 5:22, the fruit of the Spirit will be produced in us as we live by the Spirit and as Jesus told us in John 7:38 As we believe in Him, out of our innermost being will flow rivers of living water.”

                Living by the Spirit is the REST that the Sabbath Law points forward to, because as Hebrews 4:1-10 points out, they kept the Sabbath according to the Law, but they never entered the REST to which the Sabbath pointed. Then the writer concludes that there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His (the Holy Spirit’s) rest has himself also rested from his works as God did from His.

                This is not a call to return to the Law, but to find our rest in Christ by living by His Spirit. And right after this, the writer of Hebrews begins to explain to us the Melchizedek priesthood and that Jesus has entered heaven as our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. Then the writer goes on to explain that where there is a change of priesthood there is of necessity a change of law also. Heb. 7:12.

                In Heb. 8:13 we are told that when He said, “a New Covenant,” He (Jesus) has made the first obsolete, but whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.”

                All of these things add up to very good news, but it is hard to understand and apply to our lives because we seem to live in a battlefield between law and grace…between Law and faith. We instinctively know that when we disobey the Law, we are sinning and so we think that we must redouble our efforts to keep the Law, but in doing so we never end up fulfilling the Law because we are relying on our flesh to do the impossible.

                What we really need to do is to come fully into the New Covenant of faith and to live fully by the Holy Spirit and in doing so the Law will be fulfilled in us by love for God and love for our fellow man and the Holy Spirit will produce His fruit in and through us and against those there is no law. And it is only as we live by the power of the Holy Spirit to produce His fruit in us that we attain to the REST of which the Sabbath law speaks.

                Think about this: When God created the world, each of the first 6 days was bracketed by an evening and a morning. But the seventh day was not bracketed. In other words, god created Adam and Eve and before they had done anything, He entered them into His eternal rest. And they lived in that rest because they were filled with God’s Holy Spirit and they were Spirit controlled beings. But when they broke from God, His Spirit departed from them and they fell from that eternal rest and were sentenced to live by the sweat of their brow.

                So the Law was given by Moses to remind them of the eternal rest that Adam and Eve had enjoyed and it offered them a day to keep according to the Law, but that day did not actually return them to the eternal rest that Adam and Eve had enjoyed. It could only point forward to the rest that Jesus would bring to us in the New Covenant of His Spirit.

                So Hebrews 4:7 informs us saying: “He again fixes a certain day “Today,’ saying through David so long a time just as has been said before; “today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest He would not have spoken of another day after that. There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for the one who has entered His (The Holy Spirit’s) rest has also rested from his works ( the works of the Law) as God did from His.”

                In other words, God fixes a certain day of rest in the New Covenant called “Today.” This is the eternal and ever present rest that Adam and Eve lost in the fall. This rest is restored to us in Christ as we rest from our works and trust in His, for as we trust in Jesus, we become temples of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit begins to transform our lives into the image of Christ in since it is being done by His power and not our own, we are now in the ever present rest called “Today.”

                This is why Paul can say in Romans 14:5: “One man regards one day above another, another regards ever day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind.”

                But why can He say this? It is because our rest is no longer in a day as in the Law, but our rest is in Christ as we place our faith in His work in us rather than our works of the flesh.

                This is a wonderful covenant that Jesus has brought to us. It is a covenant of rest from our own works of the flesh and a receiving by faith, the work that the Holy Spirit will do in us and through us as be become temples of His presence. Jesus is our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek and we live in a New Covenant, which is really older than the Old Covenant because it was granted to Abraham by faith 430 years before the Law was given on Mt. Sinai.

                Now ask yourself this question: “Has there ever been a time when it was okay to commit murder? No! Cain committed sin by murdering his brother long before the Law was given. But Adam and Eve were created to live by the Spirit and as such, there was no need of a Law. IN fact the Bible tells us that it was added because of transgression. People after the fall, stopped living by the Spirit and so they needed a Law to control them. But when Jesus Christ came, He brought with Him the same Spirit that Adam and Eve had lost in the fall. So in Christ we no longer need the Law is a tutor, for if we live by the Spirit we will not carry out the deeds of the flesh.

                Friends, this is why I say that both those who preach the Law and those who say it is done away are wrong. IF we try to please God by keeping the Law we will fail. And as Romans 8:14 tells us: “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” In the New Covenant we live by the Spirit and not by the Law. But in living by the Spirit we end up obeying God on a far higher level than the Law could ever bring us. Now we are talking about motive and only the Holy Spirit can change our motives and our heart. So as aspiring sons of God we need to learn to walk fully in the Spirit.

                This is why the New Covenant is called a “New and living way.” We have put behind us a dead Law that had no power to save us and we have entered into a dynamic and living relationship with Jesus Christ in which His Holy Spirit is transforming us into His image. We are being made into mature sons and daughters of God. And as Peter puts it:

                “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light: for (speaking of Gentiles) you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

                Let us now enter fully into the New Covenant. Let us now embrace the Melchizedek Priesthood. Let us enter into the new and living way as temples of the Holy Spirit. Let us live by the Spirit and not by the flesh. All of creation is anxiously waiting for the revealing of the sons of God. Let us truly be born again, not just members of a Christian club, but as functioning members of the Body of Christ in the church of the first-born. Heb. 12:18-24.

                “For you have not come to a mountain that may be touched and to a blazing fire and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard it begged that no further word should be spoken to them…But you have  come to Mt. Zion and to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of righteous men med perfect and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of Abel. Heb. 12:18-24.

                There is victory in Jesus. Let us therefore go after it by faith with all of our hearts!