Monday, January 01, 2007
Old Covenant vs. New Covenant
Recently I had a misunderstanding with a friend over our definitions of the old vs new covenants. Turns out we were thinking the same way, just saying it differently. What a difference our backgrounds and definitions of words makes. Because, what my friend and I were saying, in different ways, is that the old covenant and the new covenant have existed, side by side since God first made His covenant with man at the gate of the Garden of Eden.
What a sad day that was for Adam and Eve. Standing outside their beautiful home, condemned to die because they had sinned. "For the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23, 1st part). It had seemed like such a little thing, eating the fruit of which God said, "Don't eat." And yet, there they were, no longer able to talk to God face to face; shut out from their home by and angel with a flaming sword; wearing the skins of an animal they had known and loved (see Genesis 3). How they must have longed to be able to go back in time a few hours and get it right. How they must have longed for one more chance.
And yet, in the midst of their sorrow there was hope, because God made a promise, a covenant, with them. They could be restored to their homes, in the future, thru the blood of the lamb, the son of God. "And the Lord God said unto the serpent. Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Genesis 3:14-17). God's promise to Adam and Eve, His covenant to all who have faith in His word, is that Jesus, God's son would die (his heel will be bruised), but He would live again and He would kill Satan and sin would be no more (it shall bruise thy head). For the "gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23, last part).
How do we know that Adam and Eve received the covenant? God said it, and they offered lambs as sacrifices to God, a sign that they looked forward to the Lamb of God who would be slain for their sins. How do I know? Because in Genesis 4, Able brought a lamb "and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering" (Genesis 4:4).
And, right from the beginning we see the "old" covenant and the "new" covenant working side by side. Because Cain brought an offering of the firstfruit of his labor "but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect" (Genesis 4:5). Cain brought an offering, he even came to the "temple" the place of sacrifice. He brought the best that he had and he believed he was worshiping God. But God had asked for a lamb because "without shedding of blood is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22). Cain operated under the old covenant, the covenant that believes that you can work your way into eternal life. Cain missed the point. It is only total submission and trust in God and the blood of Jesus that saves. Our works avail nothing unless they are the fruit of obedience because we love God and believe His word.
Cain demonstrated that he didn't love God. If he had loved God he would have brought the sacrifice that God asked for. Cain demonstrated that he didn't trust God. By bringing the produce he had grown himself, he showed that he was trusting in himself and not in the blood of the lamb for salvation. Able showed he loved and trusted God because he brought a sacrifice that God asked for and by it he demonstrated that he trusted in the blood of Jesus to save him.
For 2,500 years the followers of God brought sacrifices of lambs to worship God. By it they showed that they trusted in God's mercy and the blood of His son to save them. Abraham received the covenant of circumcision which many people believe to be the old covenant. But a careful reading of God's promise shows that it is the original covenant expanded.
1) Abraham was promised the covenant on the basis of his walking with God (Genesis 17:1). To walk with God means to have faith in God, to go where God leads, to let God be Lord, and obey God's law. Enoch faithfully walked with God and was translated, taken to heaven without dying (Genesis 5:24) because he lived a life that was pleasing in God's sight (Hebrews 11:5). Paul explains how we please God: "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Romans 8:6-9). Therefore, Enoch walked with God and kept God's law, because that is the only way to please God. It follows then that if Abraham walked with God, he walked with God as Enoch did. Proof of this is that Abraham built altars and presented his sacrifices to God wherever he went. Abraham was subject to the law of God.
2) Abraham was told that it was thru HIS lineage that the Savior would come. The Savior that had been promised to Adam and Eve. "And in they seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice" (Genesis 22:18). Once again, obedience to God was Abraham's part of the covenant. Once again, the Savior is promised as well as an inheritance.
3) Circumcision was given as a sign that the old man of flesh had been cut away and a new man had taken his place. Before he died, Moses pointed out the role of circumcision: "And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live" (Deuteronomy 30:6). "'Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.' How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised" (Romans 4:9-11).
When God thundered His law from Mount Sinai, the Israelites said "All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do!" (Exodus 24:3). And they meant it at that moment. But less than forty days later they had already followed after other gods by building the golden calf and worshiping it. (See Exodus 32). Because they had circumcised the flesh but not the heart. Moses tried over and over to explain to them what God expected. "Now, Israle, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord you God, to walk in all His ways and love HIm, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord's commandments and His statues which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Yet on your fathers did the Lord set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day. So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer" (Deuteronomy 10:12-16 NAS).
Most of the time Israel operated under the old covenant of works instead of the new covenant of a renewed life. "Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Isreal and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," delcares the Lord. "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," delcares the Lord, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. "They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." (Jeremiah 31:27-36 NAS).
By the time of Jeremiah, God had already declared the old covenant to be obsolete. Israel had already broken the covenant they had made with God because they made it into a covenant of works, when God expects a covenant of love. The New covenant Jeremiah says God will provide is a covenant where everyone knows God. And how do we know we know God and are therefore under the new covenant? "by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments" (1 John 2:3 NAS).
What did Jesus say are the commandments we are to keep? "One of them a lawyer, asked HIm a question, testing HIm, 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?' And He said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment. They second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments depned the whole Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:34-40 NAS c.f. mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27 see Leviticus 19:34 and the texts below).
People say, "The old covenant was nailed to the cross and now we are all under the new covenant, which is just 'Love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself."
People are wrong. The old covenant is the covenant that says you can make yourself good enough to earn heaven by your own merits. Long before the cross, God said this "covenant" doesn't work.
The new covenant has been in place all along for those who believe. The new covenant is what happens in our lives when we quit trying to earn salvation and we submit ourselvs to God because we love Him and we allow Him to circumcise our hearts and minds and make us into new people. All of us start out under the old covenant. Once we accept Christ and His grace that not only pardons our sins, but also gives us power to obey (see Hebrews 4:16; 2 Corinthians 6:1; 7:1; Acts 20:32; Romans 1:5). The new covenant is what Moses and the Old Testament prophets offered the people if they would just accept it. But few allowed God to circumcise their hearts and so they were lost under the old covenant that depended on their own works and not on the works of God. Over and over God called his people into a relationship based on loving Him. Over and over they rejected Him.
Deuteronomy 6:5 - You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Deuteronomy 7:9 - Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments.
Deuteronomy 10:12 - Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deuteronomy 11:1 - You shall therefore love the Lord your God, and always keep His charge, His statues, His ordinances, and His commandments.
Deuteronomy 11:13-15 - It shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul, that He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early and late rain, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil. He will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.
Deutoronomy 11:22 - For if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and hold fast to Him, then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mighteir than you. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours; your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea. No man will be able to stand before you; the Lord your God will lay the dread of you and the fear of you on all the land on which you set foot, as He has spoken to you.
Deuteronomy 13:3 - If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign of the wornder, comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,' you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul. You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.
Deuteronomy 19:9 - If you carefully observe all this commandment which I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in His ways always -- then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three.
Deuteronomy 30:6 - Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
Deuteronomy 30:15-18 - See, I have set before you today life and properity, and death and adversity; in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. But if your hearts turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish.
Joshua 22:6 - Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God and walk in all His ways and keep His commandments and hold fast to Him and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Obedience to God has always been a matter of love. According to the Jewish Ten Commandments, the first command is: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:2,3). I like that. First God delivered them from slavery, then He asked for their loyalty.
Because God has delivered me from my sins thru the blood of Jesus, shed on the cross for me, my response from a heart full of love and gratitude is loyalty to His commandments. I desire to do His will, to follow where He leads me. To allow Him to cut away all the sin and selfisheness that reside in my heart and to make it fresh and clean. How can I not make Him Lord of my life when He gave His life so that I don't have to die. Why would I want to continue sinning (transgressing the law) when that sin killed Jesus?
My prayer today, and every day, is "Take me Jesus, make me pure and clean within. Come live in my heart and be my Lord. May every word, every action, every thought and every desire be submitted to you."
Recently I had a misunderstanding with a friend over our definitions of the old vs new covenants. Turns out we were thinking the same way, just saying it differently. What a difference our backgrounds and definitions of words makes. Because, what my friend and I were saying, in different ways, is that the old covenant and the new covenant have existed, side by side since God first made His covenant with man at the gate of the Garden of Eden.
What a sad day that was for Adam and Eve. Standing outside their beautiful home, condemned to die because they had sinned. "For the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23, 1st part). It had seemed like such a little thing, eating the fruit of which God said, "Don't eat." And yet, there they were, no longer able to talk to God face to face; shut out from their home by and angel with a flaming sword; wearing the skins of an animal they had known and loved (see Genesis 3). How they must have longed to be able to go back in time a few hours and get it right. How they must have longed for one more chance.
And yet, in the midst of their sorrow there was hope, because God made a promise, a covenant, with them. They could be restored to their homes, in the future, thru the blood of the lamb, the son of God. "And the Lord God said unto the serpent. Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Genesis 3:14-17). God's promise to Adam and Eve, His covenant to all who have faith in His word, is that Jesus, God's son would die (his heel will be bruised), but He would live again and He would kill Satan and sin would be no more (it shall bruise thy head). For the "gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23, last part).
How do we know that Adam and Eve received the covenant? God said it, and they offered lambs as sacrifices to God, a sign that they looked forward to the Lamb of God who would be slain for their sins. How do I know? Because in Genesis 4, Able brought a lamb "and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering" (Genesis 4:4).
And, right from the beginning we see the "old" covenant and the "new" covenant working side by side. Because Cain brought an offering of the firstfruit of his labor "but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect" (Genesis 4:5). Cain brought an offering, he even came to the "temple" the place of sacrifice. He brought the best that he had and he believed he was worshiping God. But God had asked for a lamb because "without shedding of blood is no remission" (Hebrews 9:22). Cain operated under the old covenant, the covenant that believes that you can work your way into eternal life. Cain missed the point. It is only total submission and trust in God and the blood of Jesus that saves. Our works avail nothing unless they are the fruit of obedience because we love God and believe His word.
Cain demonstrated that he didn't love God. If he had loved God he would have brought the sacrifice that God asked for. Cain demonstrated that he didn't trust God. By bringing the produce he had grown himself, he showed that he was trusting in himself and not in the blood of the lamb for salvation. Able showed he loved and trusted God because he brought a sacrifice that God asked for and by it he demonstrated that he trusted in the blood of Jesus to save him.
For 2,500 years the followers of God brought sacrifices of lambs to worship God. By it they showed that they trusted in God's mercy and the blood of His son to save them. Abraham received the covenant of circumcision which many people believe to be the old covenant. But a careful reading of God's promise shows that it is the original covenant expanded.
1) Abraham was promised the covenant on the basis of his walking with God (Genesis 17:1). To walk with God means to have faith in God, to go where God leads, to let God be Lord, and obey God's law. Enoch faithfully walked with God and was translated, taken to heaven without dying (Genesis 5:24) because he lived a life that was pleasing in God's sight (Hebrews 11:5). Paul explains how we please God: "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Romans 8:6-9). Therefore, Enoch walked with God and kept God's law, because that is the only way to please God. It follows then that if Abraham walked with God, he walked with God as Enoch did. Proof of this is that Abraham built altars and presented his sacrifices to God wherever he went. Abraham was subject to the law of God.
2) Abraham was told that it was thru HIS lineage that the Savior would come. The Savior that had been promised to Adam and Eve. "And in they seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice" (Genesis 22:18). Once again, obedience to God was Abraham's part of the covenant. Once again, the Savior is promised as well as an inheritance.
3) Circumcision was given as a sign that the old man of flesh had been cut away and a new man had taken his place. Before he died, Moses pointed out the role of circumcision: "And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live" (Deuteronomy 30:6). "'Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.' How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised" (Romans 4:9-11).
When God thundered His law from Mount Sinai, the Israelites said "All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do!" (Exodus 24:3). And they meant it at that moment. But less than forty days later they had already followed after other gods by building the golden calf and worshiping it. (See Exodus 32). Because they had circumcised the flesh but not the heart. Moses tried over and over to explain to them what God expected. "Now, Israle, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord you God, to walk in all His ways and love HIm, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord's commandments and His statues which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Yet on your fathers did the Lord set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day. So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer" (Deuteronomy 10:12-16 NAS).
Most of the time Israel operated under the old covenant of works instead of the new covenant of a renewed life. "Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Isreal and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," delcares the Lord. "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," delcares the Lord, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. "They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." (Jeremiah 31:27-36 NAS).
By the time of Jeremiah, God had already declared the old covenant to be obsolete. Israel had already broken the covenant they had made with God because they made it into a covenant of works, when God expects a covenant of love. The New covenant Jeremiah says God will provide is a covenant where everyone knows God. And how do we know we know God and are therefore under the new covenant? "by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments" (1 John 2:3 NAS).
What did Jesus say are the commandments we are to keep? "One of them a lawyer, asked HIm a question, testing HIm, 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?' And He said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment. They second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments depned the whole Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:34-40 NAS c.f. mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27 see Leviticus 19:34 and the texts below).
People say, "The old covenant was nailed to the cross and now we are all under the new covenant, which is just 'Love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself."
People are wrong. The old covenant is the covenant that says you can make yourself good enough to earn heaven by your own merits. Long before the cross, God said this "covenant" doesn't work.
The new covenant has been in place all along for those who believe. The new covenant is what happens in our lives when we quit trying to earn salvation and we submit ourselvs to God because we love Him and we allow Him to circumcise our hearts and minds and make us into new people. All of us start out under the old covenant. Once we accept Christ and His grace that not only pardons our sins, but also gives us power to obey (see Hebrews 4:16; 2 Corinthians 6:1; 7:1; Acts 20:32; Romans 1:5). The new covenant is what Moses and the Old Testament prophets offered the people if they would just accept it. But few allowed God to circumcise their hearts and so they were lost under the old covenant that depended on their own works and not on the works of God. Over and over God called his people into a relationship based on loving Him. Over and over they rejected Him.
Deuteronomy 6:5 - You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Deuteronomy 7:9 - Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments.
Deuteronomy 10:12 - Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deuteronomy 11:1 - You shall therefore love the Lord your God, and always keep His charge, His statues, His ordinances, and His commandments.
Deuteronomy 11:13-15 - It shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul, that He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early and late rain, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil. He will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.
Deutoronomy 11:22 - For if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and hold fast to Him, then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mighteir than you. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours; your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea. No man will be able to stand before you; the Lord your God will lay the dread of you and the fear of you on all the land on which you set foot, as He has spoken to you.
Deuteronomy 13:3 - If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign of the wornder, comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,' you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul. You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.
Deuteronomy 19:9 - If you carefully observe all this commandment which I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in His ways always -- then you shall add three more cities for yourself, besides these three.
Deuteronomy 30:6 - Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
Deuteronomy 30:15-18 - See, I have set before you today life and properity, and death and adversity; in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. But if your hearts turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish.
Joshua 22:6 - Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God and walk in all His ways and keep His commandments and hold fast to Him and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Obedience to God has always been a matter of love. According to the Jewish Ten Commandments, the first command is: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:2,3). I like that. First God delivered them from slavery, then He asked for their loyalty.
Because God has delivered me from my sins thru the blood of Jesus, shed on the cross for me, my response from a heart full of love and gratitude is loyalty to His commandments. I desire to do His will, to follow where He leads me. To allow Him to cut away all the sin and selfisheness that reside in my heart and to make it fresh and clean. How can I not make Him Lord of my life when He gave His life so that I don't have to die. Why would I want to continue sinning (transgressing the law) when that sin killed Jesus?
My prayer today, and every day, is "Take me Jesus, make me pure and clean within. Come live in my heart and be my Lord. May every word, every action, every thought and every desire be submitted to you."
