thinking like a Christian
Meditations on what the Bible says
about the Christian life.
by Pastor Pete Beck III
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new covenant realities
a totally different approach to salvation
A sad story would be for someone to inherit millions but continue to live in poverty because no one told her how much she had. This story is repeated over and over again in the kingdom of God. I find very few people who truly understand the wonders of what Christ has provided for us through the New Covenant. This article will be the beginning of a new series by which I hope to illustrate just how different and glorious the Gospel of God's grace is.
The New Covenant is a totally different approach to salvation. Most Christians choose to live in some modified version of the Old Covenant. There are several different covenants mentioned in the Bible, beginning with the Edenic Covenant and followed by the Adamic Covenant, the Noahic Covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, the Palestinian or Land Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, and, lastly, the New Covenant. Some also add the Eternal Covenant, but I see that as being part of New Covenant. The Bible's structure is basically covenantal. Some covenants are conditional and others unilateral or unconditional. Some of the covenants can be viewed as added layers on top of previous covenants, but other covenants, such as the Mosaic Covenant, stand by themselves. Generally, when we speak of the Old Covenant, we refer to the Mosaic Covenant, which Paul the Apostle referred to as the Law.
The Mosaic Covenant provided a way for people to properly relate to God using a complex sacrificial system and a set of laws relating to virtually every part of life. Access to God was granted via keeping the Law and approaching him via the priesthood and sacrifices in order to receive forgiveness for transgressions and blessings. Those who keep the Law are blessed, and those who disobey the Law are cursed. It is really very simple. The only problem with the the Mosaic Covenant is that it is built upon the presupposition that people are indeed able to keep God's requirements. Old Testament history is essentially the story of man's failures to keep God's holy requirements.
The New Covenant is not a better version of the Mosaic Covenant. Jesus taught that his teaching and the new reality he brought was a "new wine" that required a "new wineskin." Trying to mix the Old Covenant with the New will never work, and, yet, that is precisely what many try to do, however unwittingly. The doctrines of grace are so radically different and so wonderful that, at first glance, they may seem to be too good to be true.
The Old Covenant failed because people always fail to keep God's holy requirements. Anyone who has seriously tried to keep God's laws knows that this is true. The only way people can feel good about trying to live under the Law is if they "dumb down" its requirements to something that seems doable. For example, many denominations have their own set of laws, such as prohibitions against using make up, drinking alcohol, playing card, gambling, etc. The idea is is that if these things can be avoided, one can feel pretty good about how he stands with God. Jesus made it clear, however, that his standards are much higher even than the bare minimums found in the Law of Moses. For example, the Law commands us not to commit adultery, but Jesus taught that we must not even lust.
The essence of the Law is that we must love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves. How many of us love God without reserve? How many of us love others unselfishly on a consistent basis? How many of us are as concerned about justice for the poor and oppressed as God is? How many of us model mercy and forgiveness properly? How many of us walk in true humility? Pride is the universal sin. Paul, a Pharisee, was a person who pursued the righteousness available through perfectly keeping the Law, and he eventually came to a place of complete despair. He wrote in Romans the following.
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. Romans 7:7-11 (ESV)
In his Letter to the church in Galatia, Paul explained in more detail the function and purpose of the Law, and, hence, of the Old Covenant.
Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. Galatians 3:21-29 (ESV)
The law serves to imprison everyone in sin so that we will understand how badly we need a Savior. Most people imagine that they are really not so bad after all. Just a little tweaking is all they really need. But the Law reveals that we are totally incapable of keeping God's commands because we are hopelessly flawed at our core. We have a sin nature that pushes us to sin. It's not just the sins we commit, but the sin nature within that is the problem. The Law (the Old Covenant) acts as a guardian who leads us eventually to Christ. Once its mission has been accomplished, we are released from the guardian's care into Christ's. In Romans Chapter Seven, Paul says that we die to the Law so that we can be married to another, our Lord Jesus.
Jesus taught a parable that illustrates just how radical the New Covenant is and how prone we are to attempt to continue living under the Old. The parable is about forgiveness, but it is important that we understand what is the deeper truth. It is about a servant who owed his master an astronomical sum of money. When he could not pay, the master called him to settle accounts. When the servant could not pay, the master sentenced him to debtor's prison. As you can imagine, the servant asked for mercy and more time to pay back what he owed. Amazingly, the master completely released him from the debt, but the servant could not really believe it and kept insisting that he would pay back what he owed. This parable illustrates that we cannot possibly be good enough to satisfy God's righteous requirements. So, God in his mercy through Christ completely releases us believers from our debt of sin. Unfortunately we have a very difficult time really believing this good news and go on living as if we still owe God. The proof that we think this way is when we find it difficult to forgive others.
Many of the early Jewish converts to Christ also had a very hard time getting their heads and hearts around this amazing New Covenant, not the least of them being Peter. God had to given him a vision three times to prepare him to even go into the home of a Gentile, much less preach the gospel to him. Peter was profoundly shocked when God poured out his Spirit upon Cornelius and his family just as he had done for them at Pentecost. This act of God's mercy did not compute with Peter's understanding of the Old Covenant requirements for how God must be approached. But even Peter eventually caught on, even if imperfectly. Paul was the one who seemed to see most clearly, as well as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews, the Jewish believers in Jerusalem. Paul wrote:
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” 11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” 12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. Galatians 3:10-14 (ESV)
Paul instructs his readers that we cannot have it both ways: either we can relate to God through faith in Christ's finished work or faith in the efficacy of our own efforts to live according to God's righteous standards. But, Paul warns, if you fail in only one area in trying to do it on your own, you are cursed. The New Covenant, however, teaches us that the curse for our failure to properly obey God already fell upon the Lamb of God when he was crucified.
The essential difference between the Old Covenant and New is this. The Old Covenant was between God and his people Israel. God's blessing on that nation hinged on their obedience. Failure to obey would result in cursing and judgment. The New Covenant, however, is primarily a covenant between God the Father and his Son, Jesus the Messiah. Jesus perfectly fulfilled God's righteous requirements as spelled out in the Law, being obedient unto death. Through the miracle of the new birth and identification, God took our sin and put it upon the Son, and took his righteousness and gave it to us believers. Now when God looks upon us, he sees the righteousness of his Son, not our failures. God has removed us from the hopeless performance treadmill of trying to be righteous through our own efforts and given us the free gift of righteousness in his Son.
If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it. 8 But when God found fault with the people, he said: “The day is coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 9 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt. They did not remain faithful to my covenant, so I turned my back on them, says the LORD. 10 But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the LORD: I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the LORD.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already. 12 And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.” 13 When God speaks of a “new” covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear. Hebrews 8:7-13 (NLT)
All our blessings are now found in one place, in Christ. We do not earn our right standing with God, nor do we earn blessings. Both are free gifts of grace thanks to the covenant keeping Son of God. We get a free ride on his amazing shoulders just by placing our faith in him and his finished work. How good is that?!!!
"I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, 7 to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. 8 "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols. 9 See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you." Isaiah 42:6-9 (NIV)
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