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The Old, Mosaic
Covenant was established by God with the
people of Israel alone at Mount Sinai after
he led them out of slavery in Egypt
(Exod. 19; Lev. 26:46; Rom. 9:4). The covenant was
meant to govern every area of Hebrew life.
The Ten Commandments formed the basis for
the rest of the 613 laws of the Old Covenant
(Exod. 34:28; Deut. 4:13). As part of the
Old Covenant, the people at Mount Sinai also
agreed to obey all the laws given in Exodus 20-24.
The books of Leviticus and Numbers
both have additional laws governing Israel,
and the book of Deuteronomy contains even
more laws and regulations for Israel
regarding how they should conduct themselves
in the Promised Land, but those laws were
all still considered part of the same
covenant that God made with the people of
Israel at Mount Sinai (Deut. 4:44-49; 5:1-5; 6:20-25).
The Old Covenant
law was only a temporary guardian meant to
prepare the way for Christ.
Galatians 3:23-26 says, “Now before faith
came, we were held captive under the law,
imprisoned until the coming faith would be
revealed. 24 So then,
the law was our
guardian until Christ came, in order that we
might be justified by faith. 25
But now that
faith has come,
we are no longer under a
guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all
sons of God, through faith.”
The
Greek word translated as either, “tutor” or
“guardian” in Galatians 3:24 is
“paidagôgos.” It describes a slave who took
care of a child until they reached
adulthood. They watched over the children at
school and at home and were often very
strict causing those under their care to
look forward to the day when they would be
free from their tutor’s custody.
The law was given to show us how
sinful we really are and our need for the
Savior, Jesus Christ.
The
Jews under the law were like children under
the control of a guardian, but this was only
until Christ came. Once He came, those who
put their trust in Him were forgiven for the sins
they had committed against the law and were
made right with God. Instead of being like
young children under a guardian, they could
now enjoy the freedom of full-grown children
of God (Gal. 3:23-26). Since Christ has
come, all those who believe in Him are
united as God’s children, regardless of
their race, sex, or social status (Eph. 2:11-16; 3:6;
Rom. 8:14-17; Gal. 3:28-29).
In Christ, we are completely forgiven and
justified by faith and are Abraham’s true
heirs (Gal. 3:27-29).
Christians are
never told to keep the Old Covenant law in
the New Covenant. You can’t be under two
competing
covenants at the same time. You have to live
by one, or the other.
The New
Covenant is better than the Old Covenant in
every way!
The book of
Hebrews says that Jesus is the “guarantor of
a better covenant” (Heb. 7:22).
Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love
me, you will keep my commandments.”
With the New Covenant we have a new way of
living. Those who love Christ
will obey His commands and experience the
Father’s love and presence personally.
What are the commands that Jesus wants
us to keep?
John 13:34 says,
“A new commandment I give to you, that you
love one another: just as I have loved you,
you also are to love one another.” And John 15:12
says, “This is my commandment, that
you love one another as I have loved you.”
The Life
Application Study Bible says this about John 13:34. “To love
others was not a new commandment (see Lev. 19:18),
but to love others as much as Christ
loved others was revolutionary. Now we are
to love others based on Jesus’ sacrificial
love for us. Such love will not only bring
unbelievers to Christ; it will also keep
believers strong and united in a world
hostile to God. Jesus was a living example
of God’s love, as we are to be living
examples of Jesus’ love.”
[1]
1 John 2:7-10 says, “Beloved, I am
writing you no new commandment, but an old
commandment that you had from the beginning.
The old commandment is the word that you
have heard. 8 At the same time, it is a new
commandment that I am writing to you, which
is true in him and in you, because the
darkness is passing away and the true light
is already shining. 9 Whoever says he is in
the light and hates his brother is still in
darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother
abides in the light, and in him there is no
cause for stumbling.”
“Love must be the distinguishing mark of
Jesus’ disciples. Jesus’ “new command” takes
its point of departure from the Mosaic
commands to love the Lord with all one’s
powers and to love one’s neighbor as oneself
(Lev. 19:18; cf. Deut. 6:5; Mark 12:28-33),
but Jesus’ own love and teaching deepen and
transform these commands. Jesus even taught
love for one’s enemies (Matt. 5:43-48). The
command to love one’s neighbor was not new;
the newness was found in loving one another
as Jesus had loved his disciples (cf.
John 13:1; 15:13).”
[2]
We can only
have Christ’s love in our hearts when we are
born again and the Holy Spirit comes to live
inside of us!
When the Holy
Spirit indwells us, God’s love will reign in
our hearts and empower us to love others.
John 14:23 says, “Jesus answered him,
“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word,
and my Father will love him, and we will
come to him and make our home with him.”
(cf. John 14:21; 15:10; 1 Jn. 2:3; 5:3; 2 Jn. 1:6)
In all of these verses, the
disciples’ love for Christ is revealed by
their obedience to His commands. Christ set
the pattern of love and obedience for us and
His disciples are told to follow His example
because as Romans says, love is the fulfillment of the law
(Rom. 13:8-10; cf. Gal. 5:14; James 2:8).
The New Covenant has it’s own
laws to keep.
James,
the Lord’s half brother told us to keep the
royal law of liberty:
James says, “If you really fulfill the
royal law according to the Scripture, “You
shall love your neighbor as yourself,”
you
are doing well. 9 But if you show
partiality, you are committing sin and are
convicted by the law as transgressors. 10
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in
one point has become accountable for all of
it. 11 For he who said, “Do not commit
adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If
you do not commit adultery but do murder,
you have become a transgressor of the law.
12 So speak and so act as those who are to
be judged under the law of liberty. 13 For
judgment is without mercy to one who has
shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over
judgment.” (James 2:8-13).
The command to “love your
neighbor as yourself” is quoted from
Leviticus 19:18, and when combined with the
command to love God (Deut. 6:4-5),
summarizes all the Law and the Prophets
(Matt. 22:36-40; Rom. 13:8-10).
James 2:8 says the royal law of liberty is
the law of love. It was superior to all of
the other laws. James said if you show
partiality, you are committing sin... Some
of the Pharisees were guilty of this. They
carefully observed some of the requirements
of the Law, such as Sabbath-keeping, but
ignored others, such as honoring their
parents (compare Mark 3:2; Luke 6:7 and
Mark 7:1-13). Sin is a violation of the perfect
righteousness of God, who is the Lawgiver.
James was saying that if you want to keep
the Old Covenant law then you have to keep
the whole law perfectly to be accepted by
God. Any violation in either thought or
deed, of even one of the commandments
separates the individual from God.
[3]
Paul says the very same thing about the
Old Covenant law in Galatians 3:10-13, “For
all who rely on works of the law are under a
curse; for it is written, “Cursed be
everyone who does not abide by all things
written in the Book of the Law,
and do
them.” Now it is evident that no one is
justified before God by the law, for “The
righteous shall live by faith.” But the law
is not of faith, rather “The one who does
them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us
from the curse of the law by becoming a
curse for us — for it is written, “Cursed is
everyone who is hanged on a tree.”
Despite what some people think, James and
Paul were in complete agreement. Both men
quoted from Deuteronomy 27:26 to show that
failure to keep the Old Covenant law
perfectly brings divine judgment and
condemnation on the guilty party (James 2:8-12;
Rom. 7:7-12).
James 2:12-13
tells us that “believers will be
judged by the law of liberty, which is the
law of love.” Only those who practice love
and mercy will triumph in the judgment (see
James 2:5, 8]. James’s statement, “judgment
is without mercy to one who has shown no
mercy” is comparable to Paul saying those
who do such things are under a curse. We are
saved by God’s free gift of grace through
faith in Jesus Christ alone, not by keeping
the laws of the Old Covenant.
Love
is the fulfillment of the Law:
Christ
freed us from our bondage to the Old
Covenant Law and calls on us to live by the
law of love. 1 John 4:7-8 declares,
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love
is from God, and whoever loves has been born
of God and knows God. Anyone who does not
love does not know God, because God is
love.” Then 1 John 5:3 continues, “This is
love for God: to obey His commands. And His
commands are not burdensome.”
According to the Apostle Paul, love
is the law Christians should strive to keep.
This is what Paul called “the law of Christ.”
Paul says in Galatians 6:2 that we are to,
“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill
the law of Christ.”
Paul clearly
used the phrase, “the law of Christ” to mean
something other than the law given to Israel
at Mount Sinai. The law of Christ is what
Christ said were the greatest commandments
in Matthew 22:34-40. “But when the Pharisees
heard that [Jesus] had silenced the
Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And
one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question
to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great
commandment in the Law?” 37 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. 38 This is the great and
first commandment. 39 And a second is like
it: You shall love your neighbor as
yourself. 40 On these two commandments
depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
The law of Christ is to love God
with all of our heart and to love our
neighbors as ourselves.
Paul
said in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, he wasn’t
under the Old Covenant law of the Jews any
longer because he was under the law of
Christ. The only laws Christians are
required to keep are the laws expressed in
the New Covenant. Not a combination of laws
from both the Old and the New Covenants.
Paul spoke of another law in
Romans 8
that actually empowers us to keep the law of
Christ. He called it, “the law of the Spirit
of life.”
Romans 8:1-11
says, “There is therefore now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life
has set you free in Christ Jesus from the
law of sin and death. 3 For God has done
what the law, weakened by the flesh, could
not do. By sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he
condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that
the righteous requirement of the law might
be fulfilled in us, who walk not according
to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5
For those who live according to the flesh
set their minds on the things of the flesh,
but those who live according to the Spirit
set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death,
but to set the mind on the Spirit is life
and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the
flesh is hostile to God, for it does not
submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8
Those who are in the flesh cannot please
God.
9
You,
however,
are not in the flesh but in the
Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells
in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit
of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if
Christ is in you, although the body is dead
because of sin, the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him
who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in
you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the
dead will also give life to your mortal
bodies through his Spirit who dwells in
you.”
The Holy Spirit replaces the
Old Covenant law in a Christian’s heart with a new
law of faith that produces life instead of
condemnation and death (Rom. 3:27-28). The
Holy Spirit is the one who gives us the
power we need to live the Christian life on
a moment-by-moment basis (Acts 1:8; 1 Cor. 12:7;
2 Cor. 3:18; Gal. 5:22-23). Our
salvation is not achieved by anything we do
but comes by God’s grace alone when we
are born again and have Christ living in our
hearts.
Being under God’s
grace does not mean we are free to sin:
Christ has called us to an obedient
faith. The power of sin is broken in our
lives through the power of the Holy Spirit
who dwells within us (Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 8:9;
1 Cor. 6:19).
Romans 6:1-4 says,
“What shall we say then?
Are we to continue
in sin that grace may abound? 2
By no means!
How can we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Do you not know that all of us who have
been baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into his death? 4 We were buried
therefore with him by baptism into death, in
order that, just as Christ was raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father, we too
might walk in newness of life.”
Romans 6:16 says, “What then?
Are we to sin
because we are not under law but under
grace? By no means! Do you not know that if
you present yourselves to anyone as obedient
slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you
obey, either of sin,
which leads to death,
or of obedience,
which leads to
righteousness?”
Titus 2:11-12 says,
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing
salvation for all people, 12 training us to
renounce ungodliness and worldly passions,
and to live self-controlled, upright, and
godly lives in the present age.”
1 Peter 1:13-15 says, “Therefore,
preparing your minds for action, and being
sober-minded, set your hope fully on the
grace that will be brought to you at the
revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient
children, do not be conformed to the
passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as
he who called you is holy, you also be holy
in all your conduct.”
2 Peter 3:17-18
says, “You therefore, beloved,
knowing this beforehand, take care that you
are not carried away with the error of
lawless people and lose your own stability.
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be
the glory both now and to the day of
eternity. Amen.”
And Galatians 5:16-18
says, “But I say, walk by the
Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires
of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the
flesh are against the Spirit, and the
desires of the Spirit are against the flesh,
for these are opposed to each other, to keep
you from doing the things you want to do. 18
But if you are led by the Spirit,
you are
not under the law.”
The New
Covenant is Christ’s covenant of love.
God’s revelation to mankind was
progressive and Jesus Christ is God’s
greatest revelation to the human race. We
should interpret all the scriptures in light
of what Christ has done for us. Jesus said
the scriptures were given to point to Him and the work that
He would do for us (John 5:39, 46; Matt. 5:17-18;
Luke 24:27,44; John 1:1-3; 2 Tim. 3:16-17).
His law, called the law of Christ,
or the law of the Spirit of life, is the
only law Christians are required to keep (Gal. 6:2; 1 Cor. 9:19-23; Rom. 6:14; 8:1-11).
It is made up of Christ’s law of
love (John 13:34-35; Matt. 5:44; Gal. 6:2;
Rom. 13:8-10; James 2:8; 1 Jn. 4:7-8; 5:3),
Christ’s commands and teachings (John 13:34;
Phil. 2:4-12; Matt. 28:20; 2 Pet. 3:2); and
the commands and teachings taught in the New
Testament epistles (Acts 1:1-2; 15:1-28;
2 Pet. 3:2; Rom. 8:1-4; Eph. 2:20; Jude 1:17;
1 Jn. 5:3).
The New Covenant
is a better covenant because Christ has
reconciled us to God. We now have the
complete forgiveness of our sins through His
death on the cross, and the Holy Spirit now
lives in our hearts through faith — in Him!
Romans 5:1-5
says, “Therefore, since we have been
justified by faith,
we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him
we have also obtained access by faith into
this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice
in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only
that, but we rejoice in our sufferings,
knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4
and endurance produces character, and
character produces hope, 5 and hope does not
put us to shame, because God’s love has been
poured into our hearts through the Holy
Spirit who has been given to us.”
Jesus Christ came into this world to
show us the meaning of love. God’s love for
us was revealed in the death and
resurrection of His one and only Son. Christ
Jesus died for us so we could have peace with God
and eternal life.
Jesus
said, “Greater love has no one than this: to
lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
(John 15:13 NIV)
And Romans 5:6-11
says, “For while we were still weak, at the
right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7
For one will scarcely die for a righteous
person—though perhaps for a good person one
would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his
love for us in that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since,
therefore, we have now been justified by his
blood, much more shall we be saved by him
from the wrath of God. 10
For if while we
were enemies we were reconciled to God by
the death of his Son,
much more,
now that we
are reconciled,
shall we be saved by his
life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in
God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through
whom we have now received reconciliation.”
The hostility that existed between us
and God has been crucified with Christ.
There is no sin remaining to block our relationship
with him. Having peace with God was only
made possible because Jesus paid the price for
our sins on Calvary’s cross.
Christ made the ultimate
sacrifice so we could be with Him for
eternity!
2 Corinthians 5:18-21
says, “All this is from God, who
through Christ reconciled us to himself and
gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19
that is, in Christ God was reconciling the
world to himself,
not counting their
trespasses against them,
and entrusting to
us the message of reconciliation. 20
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ,
God making his appeal through us. We implore
you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to
God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin
who knew no sin, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God.”
Christ suffered torture and death on
a bloody cross so that we could have His
righteousness credited to our account.
“Christ, the only entirely righteous
one, at Calvary took our sin upon himself
and endured the punishment we deserved,
namely, death and separation from God. Thus,
by a marvelous exchange, he made it possible
for us to receive his righteousness and
thereby be reconciled to God.”
[4]
We need to remember what Christ has done
for us! “For you know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet
for your sake he became poor, so that you by
his poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor.
8:9).
Jesus is the only one
who can give us rest from the condemnation
and guilt of being under the Law!
Matthew 11:28-30 says, “Come to me, all
who labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and
learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in
heart, and you will find rest for your
souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is
light.”
Christ has called each and every one of His
followers to be His ambassadors to a corrupt
and fallen world. We are called to share the
good news with those who are lost. Christ’s
command to us is simple, “love one another
as I have loved you.” (John 15:12).
Christians should try to do good because
Christ lives in their hearts, not because we
have a list of rules and regulations to
follow. When we strive to love as Jesus
loved us, we fulfill everything the law
requires of us (Rom. 13:8-10).
References:
1. The Life
Application Study Bible: John 13:34.
2.
The ESV Study Bible: John 13:34-35.
3.
see: The Nelson’s NKJV Study Bible: James 2:8-10.
4. The NIV Study Bible: 2 Corinthians 5:21.
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