OLD COVENANT-NEW COVENANT
KEY VERSES: GALATIANS 2: 14-16
THE JUDAIZERS (JEWISH CHRISTIANS) INSISTED THAT SOME CEREMONIAL PRACTICES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT WERE TO BE PRACTICED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH. THE APOSTLE PAUL CORRECTED THE ERROR. THEOLOGICALLY, PAUL KNEW ALL PEOPLE (NOT JUST GENTILES) ARE SINNERS. ROMANS 3:23 READS “FOR ALL HAVE SINNED AND FALL SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD.” (NKJV). ALL MEANS ALL!
THE APPARENT RUB WAS THAT THE JEWS BY BIRTH BECAME CONCEITED AND PUFFED UP TOWARD THE GENTILES (NON-JEWISH) BELIEVERS). ADMITTEDLY, JEWS DID HAVE A SLIGHT EDGE. AFTER ALL, ISRAEL WAS GOD’S COVENANT PROMISE. READ GENESIS 12: 1-3. LATER, THE MOSAIC LAW CAME WITH ITS SACRIFICES AND ORDINANCES (REF. EXODUS CHAPTERS 19 AND 10). . ROMANS 7:6 STATES, “BUT NOW WE HAVE BEEN DELIVERED FROM THE LAW, HAVING DIED TO WHAT WE WERE HELD BY, SO THAT WE SHOULD SERVE IN THE NEWNESS OF THE SPIRIT AND NOT (IN) THE OLDNESS OF THE LETTER.” (NKJV)
PAUL’S CORRECTION WAS THAT ALL MEN MUST BE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH IN CHRIST AND NOT BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW. THE MOSAIC LAW WAS A COVENANT OF WORKS. THE NEW COVENANT GIVEN BY CHRIST IS A COVENANT OF GRACE, OPPOSED TO WORKS.
EPHESIANS 2: 5 “EVEN WHEN WE WERE DEAD IN TRESPASSES, MADE US ALIVE TOGETHER IN CHRIST (BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED)”.
EPHESIANS 2:8-9 “FOR BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED THROUGH FAITH, AND NOT OF YOURSELVES; (IT IS A GIFT OF GOD). NOT OF WORKS, LEST ANY MANY SHOULD BOAST.”
OTHER SUPPORT SCRIPTURES: ROMANS 10:4, GALATIANS 3:13, ROMANS 10: 4, HEBREWS 8:13
APPLICATION: CLEARLY, YOU ARE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH IN CHRIST AND NOT BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW. BE CAREFUL OF THOSE TEACHING OTHERWISE!
REF: NOTES FROM THEODORE EPP, JASON MEYER, DR. THOMAS CONSTABLE, HOLMAN CSSB, DAVID GUZIK
