An analogy... old covenant vs new covenant, law vs grace

Thinking here about the old covenant and the new covenant.

We give kids toy cars to play with. They can look pretty realistic -obviously smaller than the real thing. Ultimately, toy cars are hollow; they have no engine. The best you're going to get is a battery remote control one.

The law of the old covenant is like a toy car. It represents the life God wants His people to live but in miniature. We know from Jesus' ministry that the law was not meant to be used as an excuse for divorce, or for people to be self-congratulatory because they had tithed the correct amount of mint. And when your relationship with God is nothing more than law-keeping, it's not really a relationship. It's legalism.

When you get your license and you start driving a real car, those toy cars soon get put into perspective. They were right for a time, but nothing is like the real thing. The immense feeling of freedom you get behind the wheel - that's like life with God, not under law but grace. Immensely liberating.

The toy car resembles the real thing, but cannot power itself. With the Holy Spirit living in us, we have the power to say no to fleshly dsires and live a life of godliness (see 2 Peter 1). We're not needing all the ritual that came with the law - Jesus fulfilled it. We don't need anymore sacrifice. But in our desire to be godly, our quest for holiness, we should have even more zeal than the Pharisees, and hopefully more evidence of sanctification as we seek to grow by grace.

'For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.' John 1:17

The phrase here 'grace and truth' reflects the language of Exodus 34:6, which speaks of the steadfast love (hesed) and faithfulness ('emet) of God in His covenant faithfulness to His people. John is therefore saying that Jesus is the ultimate expression of God's covenant faithfulness (ESV study notes).

In the new covenant, our relationship with God is brought to life, from the stone tablets of law to the heartbeat of grace.

'For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.' Rom 10:4

'a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ' Gal 2:16

'But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.' Gal 5:18

Paul's Teaching on the Cross

When reading the gospel narratives of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection from the dead, you could be forgiven for not really understanding what was going on. The gospel writers are focusing upon the historical events; they certainly want to show that Jesus' death was the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy and was inaugurating a new covenant and means of access to God, but they don't give a lengthy explanation of what, spiritually, was happening as Jesus hung there on the cross. Paul wonderfully complements the gospel narratives by giving us lengthy analysis and exposition about what God was accomplishing in Christ's death on the cross throughout his letters. Like the other apostles, he shows that the cross is absolutely fundamental to what Christianity is all about.

Perhaps the most complex yet vital teaching which Paul emphasises repeatedly is that through the cross, our sin can be atoned for. In the letter Romans, Paul explains that

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. Rom 3:25

The Old Testament system of offering sacrifices, culminating with the annual Day of Atonement, was just a shadow of this greater reality, that God was going to deal with sin once for all. Christians have the incredible assurance that their sins are completely dealt with, because when He died on the cross, Jesus took all of God's wrath upon Himself and was a substitute for us.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus- Rom 8:1

The cross was necessary because of God's holiness. He cannot just overlook our sin, and sweep it under the carpet. But in punishing Christ in our place on the cross, God demonstrated His righteousness (that sin must be punished) as well as His mercy, because through this, sinners could be forgiven. (See Rom 3:25)

Perhaps proof that the gospel is 100% true is the fact that no one could have made it up! It is just mind-blowing that the God of the universe would find a way to deal with sin justly, yet make a way for sinners to be redeeemed. The cross is a totally unexpected way of dealing with the problem of sin- and on the outside, it looks totally powerless, a sign of utter humiliation. Paul states to the Corinthians:

'we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles' -1 Cor 1:23

And yet, the cross was there in God's plan for salvation from the very beginning. Paul emphasises that 'Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.' (1 Cor 15:3) He shows that in the cross, the trinitarian God was working to bring about the salvation of His people, chosen before the foundation of the world. (Eph 1:4). The cross enabled God to fulfil His covenant promises to Adam and Eve (Gen 3:15)and Abraham (Gen 12), and the covenant He made with Moses and Israel at Sinai was always intended to be temporary until Christ came.

Paul takes great pains to demonstrate that the law could never justify sinners. It highlights sin in our lives, but offers no power to keep us from sinning. The sacrificial system was imperfect and repetitive, without really achieving full access for all to God. In Galatians 3:13 Paul asserts that:

'Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” ' [Dt 21:23]

In the act of hanging on the cross, Jesus was under the full curse of sinners who cannot keep God's law. He was perfectly obedient, but took on Himself the weight of the disobedience of men. This means that the charge against us of sin, which condemned us, has been totally cancelled and removed:

'he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.' Col 2:14

As Paul expands in Romans:

'For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.' (Rom 8:3-4)

These verses clearly teach the law's limitations, and the way that God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement so that those who believe in Him can have His perfect righteousness credited to their account. Those who believe in Christ are filled with the Spirit and thus empowered to live in holiness, because they are slaves to sin no longer.

An important aspect of Paul's teaching on the cross is that believers share in the cross in identification and union with Christ and thus share in all its benefits. In some mysterious way, those who trust in Christ were 'in' Him in His death, and are 'in' Him now. Listen to Paul's statement:

'I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.' Gal 2:20

Similarly, in Colossians he asserts that 'you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.' (Col 3:3) Believers can say that their sin was dealt with in Christ's body when He died on the cross, and through His resurrection they too have the certain hope of being raised up at the last day.

Paul is keen to stress the total assurance that Christians have that their sins are forgiven. The redemptive power of the cross is such that even the worst of sinners can receive full atonement there. 'In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins' states Paul in Eph 1:7, and there are no qualifications or restrictions to those who can receive this full redemption. Those who trust in the cross for their forgiveness can stand before God 'without blemish and free from accusation' (Col 1:22).

Even more wonderful than this, is Paul's teaching that Christians are adopted into God's family through the reconciliation the cross achieved. He writes that those who are redeemed receive 'adoption to sonship' (Gal 4:5), a position of great privilege, and therefore the creation closeness between God and man can be restored, even bettered. But the cross reconciled more than just individuals to God; it reconciled the whole of creation to God. Paul writes that it was God's full intention that, through Christ's death, He could 'reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.' (Col 1:20) Paul also specifically addresses the fact that both Jews and Gentiles have been reconciled to God through the cross, and the cross destroys any hostility between them (Eph 2:16).

But moving beyond the impact of the cross on us, one of the main emphases Paul continually stresses is the way that the cross leads to Christ's exaltation:

'And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.' Phil 2:8-11

Christ's willingness to become a man and suffer such a humiliating death proved His divinity and led to God exalting Him as Lord over creation. Although it did not seem glorious at the time, the cross brought and still brings glory to God. It shows His wonderful victory over all the powers of evil: 'And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.' Col 2:15

The cross should lead us to love and worship God more and more, the more we understand it. We can never lose the wonder that God has made it possible for us to have eternal salvation through the shedding of Jesus' blood. And aside from inspiring our love and worship, the cross also gives us three things:

1. A hatred of sin

'Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.' Gal 5:24

If we've really understood the cross, and seen how serious sin is that God had to punish His only beloved Son in order to decisively deal with it, then we can't be happy to continue living a life that is sinful and against God. Our sins sent Jesus to the cross; we should now live with an absolute hatred of our own rebellion and strive, through the Spirit's power, to live differently as 'new selves' in Christ.

2. A pattern of suffering

'In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus' Phil 2:5

If Jesus had to suffer, then it shouldn't be a surprise to us when we go through difficult times on this ungodly earth. The cross shows us a pattern of suffering for righteousness, then being exalted. We may suffer now, but ultimately we will one day be raised up and share in glory for ever.

3. Hope

'For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.' 1 Thess 4:14

The historic events of Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection give us a certain hope that God is going to fulfil every one of His promises towards us. He will not let us eternally die, but He will raise us to eternal life and bring us to an eternity of glory that He has prepared and planned since the beginning of creation.

Do Christians have to keep the Law?

Recently I've been studying the first five books of the Old Testament (the Pentateuch) for an exam. One of the past questions was concerned with how the 10 Commandments relate to the New Covenant, which Christians are under. I've always found this issue really hard to get my head around, so this post is very much my current musings.

Covenant: Old and New

The concept of covenant is very prominent in the Pentateuch. By creating the world, God committed Himself to it. But after the rebellion of mankind and the Flood, God chose to make a covenant with Noah to never again destroy the world by flooding. (Gen 9:11) After the building of the tower at Babel, and God's subsequent scattering of mankind and confusion of languages, God chose to make a covenant with Abraham:
'I will make you into a great nation... I will make your name great... all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.' (Gen 12:2-3)

This covenant was eventually fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He was a descendant of Abraham (Matt 1:1), and through His death on the cross and resurrection, He offers all people on earth the blessing of being reconciled with God, and an eternity in heaven. Paul explains this in the book of Galatians:
'Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you." So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.' Gal 3:7-9

430 years after God made His covenant with Abraham, Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt (by this time they had indeed become a 'great nation' as God had promised), and at Mount Sinai God made a covenant with Israel as a nation. He gave them the 10 Commandments and a covenant code to follow (these are detailed in Exodus and Leviticus). In Deuteronomy, just as Israel are poised to enter the promised land after 40 years of rebellion in the wilderness, Moses gives three speeches which outline to Israel the options laid before them:

• Obey God's commands and be blessed and stay in the land (Deut 4:40)
  
• Disobey God's commands and be cursed and exiled from the land (Deut 4:26-27)
  

The problem was, and this is really what the rest of the Old Testament is about, that Israel could not obey God's commands. They repeatedly turned against God, and so they were indeed sent into exile. Even when a remnant returned, the same mistakes were made, and the latter prophets such as Malachi preached about the rebellion of the people and urged them to turn back to God.

This, then, is where the concept of the New Covenant comes in. Jeremiah prophesies that there will come a time when God will put His laws into men's minds and hearts, and remember their sins no more (Jer 31). The writer of Hebrews explains that this time has now come: it was inaugurated through Jesus Christ's ministry.

Jesus fulfilled the law of Moses by sacrificing Himself once, for all. His innocent death was the high price necessary to pay for our sins. His blood was shed to cleanse mankind from past, present and future sins, if men claim it for themselves through faith.

'When Christ came as high priest... He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.' (Hebrews 8:11-15)

The 'new covenant', then, is the promise of God that all who believe in Jesus can receive forgiveness through His blood. (see Rev 7:15) Christians do not have to offer up animal sacrifices as the Israelites did, because Jesus' sacrifice was enough. The animal sacrifices of the law of Moses were a shadow of the greater reality of Christ that was to come. For believers before Christ came, sacrifices were a God-given means of forgiveness through His covenant with Israel. They were made valid before God on the basis of Christ's future sacrifice (note that the Old Testament itself recognises that the blood of bulls did not take away sin; God graciously forgave the one who offered the sacrifice if their heart was genuinely repentant and seeking Him -see Ps 51:16 and Hosea 6:6).

The essence of the Gospel

The Christian message is this: that everyone has sinned and turned against God in their heart, and consequently is under God's judgement. So God sent His Son Jesus to earth, to live a perfectly obedient life, and to die an innocent death, so that the price for our redemption could be paid. If we want to escape God's punishment, we need to believe in Jesus and trust that He took our punishment for us. We can be credited with His righteousness through faith in Him.

The Gospel in the Old Testament

Now that message wasn't really 'new' with Jesus' coming to earth. In fact, as Paul points out in Romans and Galatians, God's people have always been saved through faith rather than works. Abraham believed and it was credited as righteousness to him. (Gen 15:6) Also, the prophets looked towards Jesus' coming and Isaiah famously predicted that God's Servant would take on Himself the punishment for our sins:

'But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.' (Isaiah 53:5-6)

What, then, was the point of the law?

The law had two purposes:
1. To guide God's people in how they should live, at a time when believers did not have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them
2. To expose the fact that men can never perfectly live up to God's standards

The problem with the law, as James explains, was that if you kept all of it except one point, you were guilty of all of it and condemned (James 2:10). Jesus said that the most important commandments were 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength' and 'Love your neighbor as yourself' (Mark 12:29-31, quoting Deut 6:5-6). No one can ever keep these perfectly- hence why Jesus challenged the rich ruler who claimed he had kept all the commandments to:

'Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.' (Luke 18:22)

It was obvious that the ruler was not loving God and his neighbour with all his heart, because he walked away with sadness, unable to relinquish his great wealth.

The law then, as Paul writes, 'was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.' (Gal 3:24-25)

So do Christians have to keep the Law?

Finally I'm coming round to this crucial question. The answer is that Christians do not have to keep the Law in order to be saved.

'All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." ...Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.' (Gal 3:10-14)

We are justified through Jesus Christ, not the things that we do. Jesus Christ was the only man to ever keep the law perfectly. He kept it perfectly FOR us. When we have faith in Him, His perfect righteousness becomes ours (see 1 Cor 1:30). God chooses not to see our filthy sins, but Christ's perfection, and that is how we can be accepted into heaven.

The Law has no power to save us, because it cannot give us the strength we need to obey it. It is not life-giving, but brings death and condemnation because we cannot keep it.
'the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life' (2 Cor 3:6)

But, as Christians who are saved by grace and given God's Holy Spirit, the Law and the Old Testament are helpful to us in revealing God's character and how He wants us to live.

'Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.' (Gal 3:21)

It is important to stress that the law is in no way morally deficient. It is not primitive as some may suggest, but it perfectly reveals God's standards and holiness. The ceremonial laws (concerning food to eat and clothes to wear and sacrifices to be made etc) clearly do not apply to Christians, because the New Testament explains that these were fulfilled in Christ and Christians are not like Israel, a physical nation in one physical place separate from other peoples. (see Acts 10) Israel was chosen to be 'a kingdom of priests and a holy nation' (Ex 19:6) in the physical region of Palestine, whereas Christians are 'a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God' (1 Pet 2:9) who are sent out into all the world to make disciples of all nations (Matt 28).

The 10 Commandments, as TD Alexander suggests, are fundamental principles of life in covenant with God, universal and timeless. Whilst our salvation does not depend on how well we can obey God, Christians should desire to please God by living to glorify Him. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus expounded what keeping the 10 Commandments really means: not looking at someone lustfully, not feeling angry with your brother in your heart... It's much more than simply not sleeping with another man's wife, or stabbing someone in the chest. The Pharisees tended to do the bare minimum when it came to the law and think they were right with God, but actually Jesus said that the Tax Collector who declares his sinfulness and repents is more in the right with God than a self-righteous religious man. (see Luke 18:13)

If we strive to bring all areas of our life under God's rule, and stay humble to realise that we will never be acceptable to God through the things that we do, then we shall respond rightly to God's grace to us in Jesus.