The Old Covenant

Let’s look at the Mosaic covenant and how it prepared for the new covenant. After freedom from Egypt the people were still slaves, to sin.

“Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.’ “ (John 8:34 ESV)

The old covenant was established to expose sin and prepare for Christ.

“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Galatians 3:24 KJV)

Was the law bad?

“So the Law itself is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.” (Romans 7:12 CEB)

The law was not weak in itself, but we are weak.

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:2-3 NKJV)

Murmurings

Israel complained a lot. Do Christians also complain a lot (Exodus 16)? Are we satisfied with the bread from heaven? How important is communion to us?

“And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.’ “ (John 6:35 NKJV)

Do we complain to God that we are thirsty for physical things (Exodus 17) or spiritual things?

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6 NIV)

Have we come to the One who can freely give us the water of life?

“but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:14 WEB)

“To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life.” (Revelation 21:6 NLT cf. Revelation 22:1, 17)

The Covenant

Did you know that there are about 8 different ways that Christian and Jewish groups count the Ten Commandments? No matter how they are counted, nobody leaves any commandment out, though some make ignorant and false accusations that they do.

Did you know that the Ten Commandments were the Old Covenant?

“And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.” (Exodus 34:28b KJV)

“So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.” (Deuteronomy 4:13 NASB)

Posting a plaque listing the Ten Commandments, the Old Covenant, is not wrong, but it gives the impression of legalism. Ought not Christians post something of faith in Christ?

“These things are an allegory: the women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, which gives birth to slave children; this is Hagar… Throw out the slave woman and her son, because the slave woman’s son won’t share the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” (Galatians 4:24, 30 CEB)

Does this contradict Jesus’ instructions?

“Don't suppose I came to do away with the Law and the Prophets. I did not come to do away with them, but to give them their full meaning. Heaven and earth may disappear. But I promise you not even a period or comma will ever disappear from the Law. Everything written in it must happen. If you reject even the least important command in the Law and teach others to do the same, you will be the least important person in the kingdom of heaven. But if you obey and teach others its commands, you will have an important place in the kingdom. You must obey God's commands better than the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law obey them. If you don't, I promise you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-20 CEV)

How can we obey the law better than the meticulous Pharisees? Isn’t the old covenant obsolete?

“In that He says, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” (Hebrews 8:13 NKJV)

The harmony of such seemingly contradicting statements is that Christians keep the law in a transformed manner, in the spirit not the letter.

“who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:6 ESV)

How does the spirit of the law operate in practice? One excellent example is the law of circumcision.

“But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” (Romans 2:29 KJV cf. Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4)