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A covenant was an
agreement between two parties that laid down
conditions and guaranteed benefits,
depending upon a person’s keeping or
breaking the covenant, and then it was sealed by some
form of witness (Gen. 21:22-32; 31:44-54;
2 Sam. 18:3-4; Mal. 2:14).
Covenants
between God and the people he created,
however, differed from purely human
covenants. They were not agreements between
equals, because God was always the one who
gave, and people were always the ones who
received. No human being could negotiate an
agreement with God or make demands upon him.
God’s promises originated in his sovereign
grace alone, and those who received those
promises could do nothing but accept his
directions.
Christians live
by the New
Covenant.
Each of the
Bible’s
covenants had different laws. Each covenant is a new legal contract. A
contract has to have all of its requirements
spelled out in the contract. We are never
told to keep the Law of Moses in the New
Covenant. Just the opposite!
The
Mosaic Covenant was one of several ethical
codes of conduct that God has given
throughout human history. That particular
code contained 613 commandments. There have
also been other codes. Adam lived under what
may be called the code of Adam or the code
of Eden. Noah was expected to obey the laws
God revealed to him, so there was a Noahic
code (Gen. 7-9), and we know that God revealed commands
to Abraham that may be called the Abrahamic
code (Gen. 26:5). The Mosaic code contained
all the laws of the Mosaic Covenant, and
today we live under what Paul called the law
of Christ, or the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ (Gal. 6:2; 1 Cor. 9:19-23; Rom. 8:2).
And what James, the Lord’s brother called the royal law of liberty (James 1:22-27; 2:8-13).
This code contains all of the specific commands recorded in the New Testament.
[1]
The Old and New Covenants have similarities
and differences:
The law of
Christ and the Law of Moses have similar
commandments, but just because nine of the
Ten Commandments are reapplied in the New
Covenant doesn’t mean that the Law of Moses
is still in effect today. If a Christian steals
something, they break the law of Christ, not
the Law of Moses. If we choose to keep parts
of the Old Covenant law, such as the Sabbath,
or the dietary restrictions, we are free to
do so, but keeping the laws of the Mosaic
Covenant out of
the belief that we are obligated to keep
them denies the perfect and finished work of
Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross.
The law of Christ:
The Apostle Paul said in Galatians 6:2,
“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way
you will fulfill the law of Christ.” What
exactly then is the law of Christ, and how
is it fulfilled by carrying each other’s
burdens?
Paul argues in Galatians that
the law (the Old Covenant), given to Israel at Mount
Sinai has no authority over anyone
who believes in Jesus Christ, Jew or Gentile
alike (Gal. 2:15-21; 3:10-14; 3:23-26;
Gal. 4:4-5; 4:21-5:6). Then Paul told
the Galatians to act ethically and walk in
the Spirit and be led by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-18).
In 1 Corinthians 9,
Paul demonstrated how Christians should have
love for their weaker brother or sister and
refrain from demanding their own personal
rights.
1 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.”
Notice the points
that Paul made:
1. Paul was not under the Law of the
Jews;
2. But
he was not without
law;
3. Paul
was under a different
law from the Jews;
4.
He was under the law of Christ!
Paul clearly used the phrase, “law of
Christ”, to mean something other than the
law given to Israel at Mount Sinai and
considered by most Jews to be their special
possession. The law of Christ is what Christ
said were the two greatest commandments in
Matthew 22:34-40 which says, “But when the
Pharisees heard that he had silenced the
Sadducees, they gathered together. And one
of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to
test him. “Teacher, which is the great
commandment in the Law?” 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. This is the great and first
commandment. And a second is like it: You
shall love your neighbor as yourself. On
these two commandments depend all the Law
and the Prophets.”
The law of Christ, then, is to
love God with all of our heart and to love
our neighbors as we love ourselves.
In Mark 12:32-33, Jesus and the
scribe agreed that those two commands were the
most important commands in the entire Old
Covenant Law. All of the
Old Covenant laws can be placed in the
category of either, “loving God”, or “loving your
neighbor.”
Various New Testament
scriptures state that Jesus Christ fulfilled the
Old Covenant Law and brought it to
completion (Rom. 10:4; Gal. 3:23-25; Eph. 2:15). In place of the Old
Covenant Law, Christians are to obey the
law of Christ. Rather than trying to
remember all of the 613 individual commandments in
the Old Covenant,
[2] Christians are
told to simply focus on loving God and loving others. If
Christians would truly obey those two commands, we would be
fulfilling everything that God requires of
us.
Christ freed us from our bondage
to the Old Covenant Law and instead calls
upon us to live a life of love.
1 John 4:7-8 says, “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.”
Romans 13:8-10
says, “Owe no one
anything, except to love each other, for the
one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
For the commandments, “You shall not
commit adultery, You shall not murder, You
shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and
any other commandment, are summed up in this
word: “You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.” Love does no wrong to a
neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling
of the law.”
And finally James 2:8
says, “If you really fulfill the royal law
according to the Scripture, “You shall love
your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing
well.”
There is only
one law Christ’s followers are expected to
keep.
No one is
commanded to keep the Old Covenant Law in
the New Covenant. They are separate and
distinct covenants and you can’t be under
both at the same time. If you are teaching
people to keep even some of the laws from
the Old Covenant, you are teaching the false
gospel of the Galatian heresy (Gal. 1:6-9; 2:21; 3:1-6). Telling
people they have to keep even part of the Old Covenant law is a
false and destructive gospel (Gal. 1:6-9; 3:1-5; 5:1-4).
The
law of Christ defined:
Jesus Christ is the greatest revelation of
God to man, and because of that, all the
scriptures should be interpreted in light of
Him. Jesus said the scriptures all pointed
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).
The law of Christ is the only binding law
for the New Covenant Church (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 of 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).
I like how Charles Ryrie
explains the difference between the Old and
New Covenants.
“The law of Christ contains
some new commands (1 Tim. 4:4), some old
ones (Rom. 13:9), and some revised ones
(Rom. 13:4, with reference to capital
punishment). All the laws of the Mosaic code
have been abolished because the code has.
Specific Mosaic commands that are part of
the Christian code appear there not as a
continuation of part of the Mosaic Law, or
in order to be observed in some deeper
sense, but as specifically incorporated into
that code, and as such they are binding on
believers today. A particular law that was
part of the Mosaic code is done away; that
same law, if part of the law of Christ, is
binding. It is necessary to say both truths
in order not to have to resort to a
nonliteral interpretation of 2 Corinthians 3
or Hebrews 7 and in order not to have to
resort to some sort of theological
contortions to retain part of the Mosaic
Law.” [3]
The only laws Christians are expected to
keep are the laws given in the New Covenant.
The New Covenant is the promise that God
will forgive all of our sins and give us
eternal life when we put our trust in Jesus
Christ alone for our salvation. The Old Covenant has
served its purpose, and it has been replaced
by “a better covenant” (Heb. 7:22; 8:6-13).
Christians need to understand that
they have been set free from trying to keep
the Old Covenant Law to live God-honoring lives by
walking in His Spirit. When we do that—we
are fulfilling the law of Christ, which is
the law of the Spirit of life in Christ (Mark 12:28-31;
Gal. 6:2; 1 Cor. 9:21; Rom. 8:1-11).
All
we need to do is put our faith in Jesus
Christ, the One who fulfilled the Law on our
behalf through His own death on the cross. When we are in Christ, we share in
His inheritance and can enjoy a permanent,
unbroken relationship with God through the
life-giving Spirit who indwells us
(Heb. 9:15; Rom. 8:9-11; Eph. 1:3-14).
Why would anyone
want to go back and live under the Old Covenant Law
of sin and death, when Christ has given us His new covenant of
love, and grace, to live by in its place?
References:
1.
See:
The 1,050 New Testament Commands.
2.
See:
A List of the 613 Mitzvot (Commandments).
3. From:
Basic Theology by Charles C. Ryrie
– The End of the Law.
See also:
The Sabbath and the New Covenant
The Law of God vs.
the Law
of Moses
The Old Covenant
Law Has Come to an End!
The Old and New Covenants are not the same!
What was the law placed beside the ark of
the covenant?
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