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The
New Covenant:
Jesus
instituted the New Covenant with His
disciples the night before he died, and
brought it into effect by His death and
resurrection three days later (Jer. 31:31;
Matt. 26:28;
Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; Rom. 11:27; 1 Cor. 11:25;
2 Cor. 3:6-11; Heb. 7:22; 8-10; 12:24; 13:20;
1 Pet. 1:19; 1 Jn. 1:7).
The Mosaic Covenant had served as a
dividing wall, or partition that was meant to
separate Israel from the unbelieving
Gentiles (Eph. 2:11-15; John 4:22; 7:35; Acts 14:1, 5; 18:4;
Rom. 3:9; 3:29; 9:4, 5, 24; 1 Cor. 1:22-24). Christ
brought the Old Covenant to a complete end
by doing away with the dividing wall that
separated Israel from the other nations.
Ephesians 2:14-18 says, "For he himself is our peace,
who has made the two one and has destroyed
the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,
15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with
its commandments and regulations. His
purpose was to create in himself one new man
out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in
this one body to reconcile both of them to
God through the cross, by which he put to
death their hostility. 17 He came and
preached peace to you who were far away and
peace to those who were near. 18 For through
him we both have access to the Father by one
Spirit." (NIV)
Christ abolished the
dividing wall by fulfilling it and removing
the law’s condemnation for those who believe
(Matt. 5:17; Rom. 8:1; Heb. 9:11-14; 10:1-10). When we are in Christ, we become a
new person, part of a new human race made in
the image of Christ, the second Adam (1 Cor. 15:45, 49;
Eph. 4:24). All
of the divine promises from the previous
covenants find their fulfillment in Christ
through the New Covenant (2 Cor. 1:20; Heb. 7:20-22; 8:6; 9:15).
The New Testament points out repeatedly that
the New Covenant is the fulfillment of the
Old Covenant. By this they mean that God
brought to completion the plan of salvation
He had been working out for the human race
through the history of Israel. All of the
Old Testament prophecies and promises about
the coming messiah and the salvation He
would accomplish for us were fulfilled in
the life, death, and resurrection of the
Lord, Jesus Christ (Deut. 4:25-31;
Judges 2:13-16; 1 Kings 8:33-34; Ps. 81:7-10; 89:29-37;
Isa. 1:16-20;
Matt. 5:17-18; John 1:45; Acts 2:36-39;
Rom. 3:21-26; 2 Cor. 1:20;
Eph. 1:9-10; 3:3-9; 5:32; Heb. 1:1-3).
The Old Covenant that
God made with Israel was very different from
the New Covenant made with Christ’s Church.
The book of Hebrews says that the New
Covenant is a better covenant. It has a
better priesthood, a better sacrifice, and a
better rest (Heb. 7:20-28; 9:23; 4:1-11).
It is a better covenant in every way.
Hebrews 8:7-13 says, "For if that first
covenant had been faultless, there would
have been no occasion to look for a second.
8 For he finds fault with them when he says:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the
Lord, when I will establish a new covenant
with the house of Israel and with the house
of Judah, 9 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. For they did not continue
in my covenant, and so I showed no concern
for them, declares the Lord. 10 For this is
the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel after those days, declares the
Lord: I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts, and I will
be their God, and they shall be my people.
11 And they shall not teach, each one his
neighbor and each one his brother, saying,
‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest. 12
For I will be merciful toward their
iniquities, and I will remember their sins
no more.” 13 In speaking of a new covenant,
he makes the first one obsolete. And what is
becoming obsolete and growing old is ready
to vanish away."
There was a
controversy in the early church over whether
or not the Gentile converts had to keep the
laws of the Mosaic Covenant so a council was
convened in Jerusalem to decide the matter
in A.D. 49/50.
Acts 15:1-5
says, "But some men came down from Judea and
were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are
circumcised according to the custom of
Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 And after
Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension
and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and
some of the others were appointed to go up
to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders
about this question. 3 So, being sent on
their way by the church, they passed through
both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in
detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and
brought great joy to all the brothers. 4
When they came to Jerusalem, they were
welcomed by the church and the apostles and
the elders, and they declared all that God
had done with them. 5 But some believers who
belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose
up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise
them and to order them to keep the law of
Moses."
The issue at the Jerusalem
Council was whether or not the Gentiles
needed to become Jews and follow all of the
Old Covenant ceremonial laws in order to
join the Church. Under the terms of the Old
Covenant, a male Gentile had to be
circumcised and become a Jew to be a part of
the covenant community. Circumcision was one
of the signs of the covenant that God
established to show that a man was a
follower of the God of Abraham and Israel
(Gen. 17:9-14; Lev. 12:1-3). The
Pharisees were thinking in terms of the Old
Covenant requirements to join the community.
But when Christ gave us His New Covenant, He
replaced the Old Covenant laws and
regulations with the New Covenant, law of
Christ (Mark 12:28-31; Gal. 6:2; 1 Cor. 9:19-23).
The
Apostles taught that trying to keep the law
of Moses was too hard for a person to bear.
Acts 15:6-11 says, "The apostles and the
elders were gathered together to consider
this matter. 7 And after there had been much
debate, Peter stood up and said to them,
“Brothers, you know that in the early days
God made a choice among you, that by my
mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of
the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows
the heart, bore witness to them, by giving
them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9
and he made no distinction between us and
them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.
10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God
to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of
the disciples that neither our fathers nor
we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe
that we will be saved through the grace of
the Lord Jesus, just as they will."
The Jerusalem Council’s decision.
Acts 15:28-29 says, "For it has seemed
good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on
you no greater burden than these
requirements: 29 that you abstain from what
has been sacrificed to idols, and from
blood, and from what has been strangled, and
from sexual immorality. If you keep
yourselves from these, you will do well.
Farewell."
Notice that it was the
Holy Spirit that made these requirements,
and the Apostles were careful to say that
"no greater burden" was to be laid upon the
Gentiles than these four requirements. The
Church leaders made it clear to all the
churches that they would never place the
burden of keeping the Mosaic Law upon the
new converts. The four requirements were: 1)
that you abstain from what has been
sacrificed to idols; 2) from blood, 3) from
what has been strangled, and 4) from sexual
immorality. Those were the only restrictions
placed upon the new converts. Nothing is
said about keeping the Sabbath, or the
dietary restrictions from the Law of Moses.
It is also important to note that the
controversy in Acts 15 seems to be concerned
with Jews and Gentiles coming together for
fellowship and meals.
These
questions continued to be debated in Paul’s
churches. Were the new Gentile converts
expected to keep the Law of Moses? Are the
unclean meats from Leviticus 11 still
forbidden today? Did the new converts have
to keep the Sabbath and the other Holy days
of the Mosaic Covenant?
Paul dealt with these issues in the
books of Colossians, Galatians, and Romans.
Colossians 2:13-17 says, “When you were
dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision
of your sinful nature, God made you alive
with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14
having canceled the written code, with its
regulations, that was against us and that
stood opposed to us; he took it away,
nailing it to the cross. 15 And having
disarmed the powers and authorities, he made
a public spectacle of them, triumphing over
them by the cross. 16 Therefore do not let
anyone judge you by what you eat or drink,
or with regard to a religious festival, a
New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17
These are a shadow of the things that were
to come; the reality, however, is found in
Christ.” (NIV)
And Galatians 4:10-11 says, “You observe
days and months and seasons and years! 11 I
am afraid I may have labored over you in
vain.”
From these two passages, it is
obvious that new converts were being
pressured to observe Jewish dietary laws and
holy days from the Mosaic Covenant. Paul
taught that Christ’s followers have been
freed from practicing the customs that
Israel was required to keep under the Old
Covenant Law.
The phrase, "a
festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day"
from Colossians 2, and the phrase, “days and
months and seasons and years” from Galatians 4,
both refer to the annual, monthly, and
weekly cycle of holy days from the Jewish
calendar. The Old Testament prophets used
the same way of illustrating the yearly
cycle of worship required under the Mosaic
Covenant that Paul was using in Colossians 2
and Galatians 4 (see: 1 Chron. 23:31; 2 Chron. 2:4; 31:3; Ezek. 45:17; Hosea 2:11).
The weekly Seventh-day
Sabbath is clearly meant in both passages.
In Colossians 2:16, Paul had already
mentioned the ceremonial festivals and new
moon celebrations and would have no reason
to repeat himself. And in Galatians 4, Paul
had to rebuke the Galatians for thinking God
expected them to observe special holy days,
including the ‘weekly’ seventh-day Sabbath,
as if they were required by God and
necessary for salvation under the New
Covenant. Any insistence on the observance
of the Old Covenant ceremonies is a failure
to recognize that their fulfillment has
already taken place. The yearly cycle of
Jewish Holy days pointed forward to the work
of the messiah and would only end when the
messiah came.
False teachers
in Galatia were teaching the heresy of works
righteousness.
Galatians 1:6-9 says, "I am astonished that you are so
quickly deserting him who called you in the
grace of Christ and are turning to a
different gospel— 7 not that there is
another one, but there are some who trouble
you and want to distort the gospel of
Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from
heaven should preach to you a gospel
contrary to the one we preached to you, let
him be accursed. 9 As we have said before,
so now I say again: If anyone is preaching
to you a gospel contrary to the one you
received, let him be accursed."
When someone tells you to keep the
Old Covenant law they are teaching you a
false gospel.
Acts 15:10
says, "Now, therefore, why are you putting
God to the test by placing a yoke on the
neck of the disciples that neither our
fathers nor we have been able to bear?" And
Galatians 5:1-4 says, "For freedom Christ
has set us free; stand firm therefore, and
do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. 2
Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept
circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage
to you. 3 I testify again to every man who
accepts circumcision that he is obligated to
keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from
Christ, you who would be justified by the
law; you have fallen away from grace."
A yoke was used on domesticated animals
to control their movements. The New
Testament tells us that trying to keep the
Old Covenant law was like a yoke too hard
for anyone to bear. Christ has set us free
from our bondage to the Law to be justified
by grace.
The New Covenant does not
require us to keep any day of the week holy.
Christians are free to worship together on
whatever day they choose. The day you go to
church is a matter of personal conviction.
Whether you set apart the seventh day of the
week, the first day of the week, or any
other day of the week for corporate worship,
each person needs to be fully convinced in
his own mind.
The Jews living under
the New Covenant had to come to understand
that the Mosaic Covenant was no longer
binding on anyone. We have been freed from
our bondage to the Old Covenant law of sin
and death by the law of Christ. At the same
time, Christians shouldn’t let their freedom
cause another person to stumble and fall.
Love, not law-keeping, should be the focus
of our lives because, "Love is the
fulfillment of the law" (Rom. 13:8-13).
Anyone who tells you that Christians
have to keep the Old Covenant ceremonies and
Holy Days are teaching the same false gospel
of legalism that Paul dealt with in the book
of Galatians (Gal. 1:6-9; 3:1-14; 5:1-15).
This is
an excerpt from:
https://In-Him.com/SDA/the-law-of-moses-and-the-jerusalem-council.htm
(Further reading:
One
Law:
The End of the Law:
Matthew 5: The Old Covenant was Fulfilled:
The People of God in History:
Jesus was a Jew: and
Is the Sabbath Still Required for Christians?)
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