[soc.religion.christian] OLD COVENANT == NEW COVENANT - God's Law did not change

davidbu@loowit.wr.tek.com (David E. Buxton) (04/05/91)

In my previous post I  showed  that  the  administration  of  the  Covenants
changed, the symbols changed and the promise, based upon a risen Saviour, is
a superior promise of salvation.  Yes, and there is baptism and  the  Lord's
Supper.  In all other respects the two Covenants are the same.

                                     =======================================
                                     |   Old Covenant   |   New Covenant   |
============================================================================
| For all who obey Him               | Deut. 7:9        | Heb 5:9          |
+------------------------------------+------------------+------------------+
| Also for strangers, Gentiles,      | Lev 24:22        | Gal 3:28,29      |
|    and the "nations"               | Isa 42:6; 45:22  |                  |
|                                    | Ps 67:1-7; 22:27,28                 |
+------------------------------------+------------------+------------------+
| Don't add or subtract from it      | Deut. 12:32      | Heb 9:16,17      |
|                                    |                  | Gal 3:15         |
+------------------------------------+------------------+------------------+
| Love your neighbor as yourself     | Lev 19:18        | Matt 22:39       |
|                                    |                  | Mark 12:33       |
+------------------------------------+------------------+------------------+
| With all your heart, soul and might| Deu 6:5; 10:12,13| Mat 22:37        |
|                                    | Deut 11:13; 30:6 | Mark 11:30       |
|                                    | 2 Kings 23:3     | Luke 10:27       |
+------------------------------------+------------------+------------------+
| Law to be placed in the heart      | Deut 6:5,6       | Jer 31:31-33     |
|                                    | Ps 40:8          | Heb 8:10         |
|                                    | Prov 3:1         | Rom. 2:14-16     |
|                                    |                  |                  |
+------------------------------------+------------------+------------------+
| Circumcision of the Heart          | Deut 30:6        | Rom 2:28,29      |
+------------------------------------+------------------+------------------+
| Forgive and remember sins no more  |2 Ch 7:14 Ps 86:5 | Jer 31:34        |
|                                    | Ez 18:21-24, 31  | Heb 8:12         |
|                                    | Ez 33:11-16      | 1 John 2:1-4     |
+------------------------------------+------------------+------------------+

It should now be clear that there are far too many parallels between the two
Covenants to be able to say that God's law and His desire to place it in our
hearts has changed in the least.  Jesus clearly stated that He had not  come
to  change even the punctuation of God's law (Matt 5:17-20; Luke 16:17).  If
God's promised blessings in the Old Covenant were  defective  then  the  New
Covenant  has equally defective blessings to offer.  If the terms of the New
Covenant are perfect then God's requirements in the  Old  Covenant  must  be
perfect.   "He is the rock, His work is perfect. . . ." (Deut 32:4)  He does
not change.

For example, to love your neighbor is nothing new to the New Testament.   By
the  time of Jesus it was a popular debate among the Rabbi to ask "who is my
neighbor".  And the different Rabbi had their various answers.  The  typical
answer  was  that  God  does  not expect people to love the unlovable and so
neighbors were seen to be lovable compatible people.  One reason Jesus  came
was  to  show what God really meant in the Old Testament when He asked us to
love our neighbor - to love even the neighbor who  hates  us.   The  way  we
understand  "love  your neighbor", as Jesus explained it, is what God had in
mind under the Old Covenant.  From God's perspective, "Love" is nothing  new
to the New Testament and the New Covenant.

MAN'S BROKEN PROMISES

In Jeremiah 31:31-33 we read a prophecy about  the  New  Covenant  to  come.
Note  that the reason given is - "My covenant which they broke, though I was
a husband to them" (vs 32).

     " "Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when I will make a new
     covenant  with  the  house of Israel and with the house of Judah;  "not
     according to the covenant that I made with their  fathers  in  the  day
     that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My
     covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, "But this is
     the  covenant  that  I  will make with the house of Israel: After those
     days, says the LORD, I will put My law in their minds, and write it  on
     their  hearts;  and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. "
     --  Jer 31:31-33  (NKJ)

This prophecy was given in the context of  Israel  being  in  captivity  and
looking  forward  to  their  return from bondage.  In that context it can be
seen as simply an anticipated renewal of the Old Covenant.  A  New  Covenant
to  be  established when they came out of captivity.  Paul applies this pro-
phecy to the New Covenant ratified at the cross.

Paul reads from the same prophecy, offering the same explanation:

     " . . . because they did not continue in My covenant . . . "  (Heb 8:9)

There are other texts like this one to be found:

     "The earth is also defiled under its  inhabitants,  because  they  have
     transgressed  the  laws,  changed the ordinance, Broken the everlasting
     covenant."  --  Isa 24:5  (NKJ)

Here is a clue as to why Israel failed their part of the Covenant; how  they
responded in spite of God's eagerness to place His law in their hearts:


     Israel wants a king and rejects Samuel.  God says  they  are  rejecting
     Him. (1 Sam. 7:4-19)

And so it was that they ended up trusting themselves and their kings instead
of  God's  power  to  change  their hearts.  And so they ended up in bondage
again and again.  Even the Jews of today insist  that  it  is  within  man's
ability  to be good and to keep God's laws, that while God may be needed for
other things He is not needed in order to obey the law.

Let this be a lesson to us under the New Covenant.  Paul explains  why  they
failed  so  that  we  will  not fail in the same way under the New Covenant.
Even if they had kept the Old Covenant perfectly there would still have been
the  New  Covenant  ratified  at the cross, else Adam and Abraham would have
been doomed relative to eternity.  So the  N.T.  warns  us  about  how  they
failed  under  the Old Covenant so that we will not fail similarly under the
New Covenant.  Is there really much difference between trying to keep  God's
laws  without  calling  upon God to place them in our hearts vs setting them
aside on some theory that they are now done away with?  Depending  upon  God
and doing things God's way is the spirit of the law.  Proposing that the law
of God is done away with is to deny the power of  the  Gospel.   Devising  a
Mishna  of  law keeping is a keeping of the letter of the law.  Only when we
call upon God is there any hope.

NEW COVENANT    EVERLASTING COVENANT:

     Everlasting Covenant with "all flesh"  (Gen 9:16,17).  With Abraham and
     following  generations  (Gen  17:5-7).   Covenant  because Abraham kept
     God's Commandments  (Gen  26:4,5).   Same  as  with  forefathers  (Deut
     6:17,18).   With  David  (2 Sam 23:5).  Everlasting Covenant with Isaac
     (Gen. 17:19).  Same Everlasting Covenant with Abraham, Isaac,  Jacob  &
     Israel   (1  Chr  16:16,17;  Ps  105:9,10).   Everlasting salvation for
     Israel (Isa 45:17).  Everlasing Gospel (Rev 14:6).

     " "For this is My blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for
     the remission of sins. "--  Mat 26:28  (NKJ)

     "Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the  dead,
     that  great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the Everlasting
     Covenant. "  --  Heb 13:20  (NKJ)


OLD COVENANT LAW = NEW COVENANT LAW

The Old Covenant and the New Covenant are really the same Covenant with  the
same terms and conditions and the same 'law' of God.

     "Law in the heart" (O.C.)  ==  "Law in the heart" (N.C.)
           "Law" of God (O.C.)  ==  "Law" of God (N.C.)

This is especially made clear when we consider all  the  texts  that  insist
that  God,  His  law does not change and Jesus does not change.  (Num 23:20;
Deut. 4:2; 12:32; 32:4; Ps 111:7,8; 119:89, 152; Prov. 30:6; Eccl. 3:14; Isa
8:20;  Hab  3:6;  Malachi  3:6;  Matt. 5:17-20; Luke 16:17; Heb. 1:12; 13:8;
James 1:17.

     "Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but  an  old  commandment
     which  you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word
     which you heard from the beginning. "--  1 John 2:7  (NKJ)

     ". . . . not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which
     we have had from the beginning . . . ."  --  2 John 1:5  (NKJ)

     "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or  the  Prophets;  I
     have  not  come  to  abolish  them but to fulfill them.  I tell you the
     truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest  letter,  not
     the  least  stroke  of  a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law
     until everything is accomplished.  Anyone who breaks 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 practices and teaches these
     commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I tell you
     that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and  the
     teachers  of  the  law,  you  will  certainly  not enter the kingdom of
     heaven."  (Matt. 5:17-20) (See also Luke 16:17)

Jesus is making it clear that He did not come to change the law.  His state-
ment  makes  it  clear  that He saw no reason why the cross would change the
law.  The only way to change the law without doing  violence  to  the  above
scripture  is to confine the changes of the law to changes ordained from the
beginning under the plan of salvation, under the Everlasting Covenant.   The
plan of salvation called for Jesus sacrifice which would do away with sacri-
fices and the Old Covenant priesthood.  After the cross, to continue to per-
form  sacrifices,  or any other aspect of the ceremonial system, would be to
break the law that ordained that these  systems  would  end  at  the  cross.
Clearly, the law written by God's own hand does not change even in its punc-
tuation.  And when we examine the 4th commandment  it  is  abundantly  clear
that  these  are commandments that only God can claim to have authored - who
else can claim to have created this earth.  The  4th  commandment  makes  it
clear that neither Moses nor Hammurabbi nor any king of this earth wrote the
law of God.

There are those who insist that Paul does away with the law.   According  to
the following text, such a conclussion would make Paul a false Apostle:

     "To the law and to the testimony! If they do  not  speak  according  to
     this  word,  it  is  because  there is no light in them."  --  Isa 8:20
     (NKJ)

Peter warns about such notions about  Paul  (2  Peter  3:15-18).   A  proper
understanding  of what Paul has written will uphold him to be a true Apostle
of the Bible and of God.

Some will say that the Old Covenant failed  because  it  was  impossible  to
keep. But that is to say the the New Covenant is just as impossible to keep.
In the Old Testament we find that there  were  indeed  people  who  accepted
God's law in their hearts and did keep God's law:  Enoch (Gen 5:24), Abraham
(Gen 26:5), Joseph (Gen 39:2-6), Moses (Deut 34:10), Job (Job  1:1),  Daniel
(Dan  1:8-20),  Samuel ( 1 Sam 3:19), Boy king Joash who repaired the temple
(2 Kings 11,12), Josiah (2 Kings 23), Solomon for a time was a royal example
(1  Kings  10:1-9)  keeping  God's  commandments with all his heart (1 Kings
14:8). The prophecy that Jesus would magnify the law, and make it  honorable
(Isa. 42:21). Jesus life was a perfect keeping of the Old Covenant and God's
law (Luke 2:52).  While there were kings of idolatry there were  also  kings
who  brought  their  people back to God.  As a whole, in generalities, God's
people did not keep their end of the deal with God  as  called  for  in  the
Covenant.   But  clearly there were exceptions. And in the New Covenant con-
text Jesus said - Enter through the narrow gate for wide is the road to des-
truction.   Small  is  the  gate to life and few will find it.  (Matt. 7:13;
Luke 13:24)  There were exceptions under the Old Covenant and there will  be
exceptions under the New Covenant.

Each time God gave a new covenant to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Israel,  and  to
David;  was  God  giving  them  each  a  brand  new  and radically different
covenant? No! Not at all.  It really is the same Everlasting Covenant  given
again  and  again  from  generation  to  generation!   So it is with the New
Covenant.  Rather than giving Christianity a  radically  new  and  different
Covenant;  God  was  simply establishing for Christians the promises that He
gave to Israel.

     "And if you are Christ's,  then  you  are  Abraham's  seed,  and  heirs
     according to the promise. "--  Gal 3:29  (NKJ)

Under the New Covenant we are simply inheriting  the  promises  of  the  Old
Covenant  with  Israel.  The New Covenant and the Old Covenant are really no
different - except for the way in which they were ratified,  celebrated  and
administered.

Dave (David E. Buxton)
From the Silicon RainForest of the Northwest