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Each
covenant has its own laws and regulations.
If you buy a new
home you have to sign a new contract and you
have to live by the terms of that contract,
not the contract from a previous home.
Jeremiah 31:31-33 says, “Behold, the
days are coming, declares the LORD, when I
will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and the house of
Judah, not like the covenant
that I made with their fathers
on the day when I took them by the hand to
bring them out of the land of Egypt, my
covenant that they broke, though I was their
husband, declares the LORD. For this is the
covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel after those days, declares the LORD:
I will put my (new covenant)
law within them, and I will write it on
their hearts. And I will be their God, and
they shall be my people.”
The law God writes on our hearts and
minds is the New Covenant, law of Christ.
New does not mean the same as the old!
The Holy Days of Judaism and the entire
system of laws have never applied to
Christians!
The New Covenant
is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant.
The New Testament writers point out
repeatedly that the New Covenant fulfills
the Old. By this they mean that God brings
to completion the plan he had been working
out for the human race through the history
of Israel. There is a pattern in God’s
activity, a repetition of his acts of
judgment and salvation. This pattern reaches
its completion and fulfillment in the life,
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ
(Deut. 4:25-31; Judg. 2:13-16;
1 Kings 8:33-34; Ps. 81:7-10; 89:29-37; Isa. 1:16-20; Acts 2:36-39;
Rom. 3:21-26).
Paul clearly told his
converts that Christians are no longer under
the rule of the Mosaic law. This is stated
in various ways and in no uncertain terms
(cf. Rom. 6:14; 7:1-14; Gal. 3:10-13; 3:24-25;
Gal. 4:21; 5:1, 13; 2 Cor. 3:7-18).
The New
Covenant that Christ gave us has its own
legal code.
First Corinthians 9:19-23 says, “For though I am free from
all, I have made myself a servant to all,
that I might win more of them. To the Jews I
became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To
those under the law I became as one under
the law (though not being myself under the
law) that I might win those under the law.
To those outside the law I became as one
outside the law (not being outside the law
of God but under the law of Christ) that I
might win those outside the law. To the weak
I became weak, that I might win the weak. I
have become all things to all people, that
by all means I might save some. I do it all
for the sake of the gospel, that I may share
with them in its blessings.”
Paul was
saying that he adopted certain Jewish
customs when he was among the Jews, even
though he was not under the Old Covenant law
anymore; and that he adopted some of the
customs of the Gentiles when he was with
them so he could win as many as possible to
Christ. Then he went on to say that he is
not without a law to live by, because he was
under “the law of Christ" which is the law
of love.
The
law of Christ is not the Law of the Old
Covenant written on our hearts.
Look at these
terms about the end of the Law and the Old
Covenant:
• The Law was a guardian
until Christ came ( Gal. 3:24-25 ),
•
The Law imprisoned us ( Gal. 3:19 ),
• We have died to the law ( Rom. 7:4 ),
•
We have been released from the law ( Rom. 7:6 ),
• The Law has come to an end
( Rom. 10:4 ),
• The letter of the Law
kills ( 2 Cor. 3:6 ),
• The Law was
a ministry of death ( 2 Cor. 3:7 ),
• The Law was a ministry of condemnation ( 2 Cor. 3:9 ),
• The Law had no glory
at all ( 2 Cor. 3:10 ),
• The Law
was brought to an end ( 2 Cor. 3:11 ),
• The Law had to change ( Heb. 7:12 ),
• The Law was set aside ( Heb. 7:18 ),
• The Law is obsolete ( Heb. 8:13 ),
•
The Law was done away with ( Heb. 10:9 ).
Under the New Covenant, where is anyone
commanded to keep the Seventh-day Sabbath,
circumcision, or the dietary restrictions
from Leviticus 11? Where is anyone told to
keep the Levitical Priesthood, new moons
celebrations, Holy days, annual feasts, or
offer animal sacrifices that the Old
Covenant commanded?
The New Covenant
is not the Old Covenant all over again (Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25; 2 Cor. 3:1; 3:6-11; Heb. 8:8-13; 9:1-4; 9:15; 12:24).
The law
written on our hearts is not the Mosaic Law
with the Ten Commandments (Heb. 8:8-10).
God never intended the Old Covenant to be
permanent. It was given for Israel's
benefit, but it failed to produce the
promised blessings, because the people
failed to obey its commandments. Under the
New Covenant, God’s law is written on our
hearts. It depends totally on God's grace
where the Holy Spirit changes His people
from inside out.
The New Covenant is not an
external set of rules and principles like
the Old Covenant was. The Holy Spirit
reminds us of Christ’s words which guides
our consciences. It is the Holy Spirit who
influences our motives and desires, and
makes us want to obey Christ out of love.
We now desire to do God’s will with all our
heart and mind and not because we are
following a set of rules. God gives His
people an inner spiritual life that makes
them loyal to him and enables them to do his
will (Heb. 8:8-10; Gal. 6:2; 1 Cor. 9:21; John 13:34; 1 Jn. 3:23; 5:3).
Hebrews 10:9-10 says, “then
he added, Behold, I have come to do your
will. He does away with the first in order
to establish the second. And by that will we
have been sanctified through the offering of
the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Jesus Christ made a complete remission
of sins for all who believe in Him. He paid
the price for our redemption with His own
blood (1 Pet. 1:18, 19) and freed us from
sin's curse and the demands of the Old
Covenant Law to become the children of God
when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior
(Gal. 3:13; 4:5). The Old Covenant
sacrifices were never able to completely
atone for sin. The sacrifice Jesus made sets
aside all of the Old Covenant practices and
secures total forgiveness and sanctification
for God’s people through
His blood (Heb. 10:1-18).
The death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ changed everything! The New
Covenant that Christ offers us is a “better”
covenant than the old and is the only
covenant Christians are told to live by.
When someone tells you to keep any of the
laws from the Old Covenant they are telling
you to keep a law that never applied to you.
The Old Covenant has come to an end.br>
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