Covenant Theology II

Covenant Theology II                                        February 28^th evening.

Recap

• My previous teaching concluded that Noah’s, David’s, and Abraham’s covenants are all intact and are everlasting. In Abraham’s case the covenant has a two way split. (i) All nations are blessed because of Abraham, because anyone from any nation can believe on Jesus, who has come from Abraham’s lineage. (ii) The land covenant to Abraham was an everlasting possession forever; so this also remains intact for the Jews today. I finally argued that for all people, Jew or Gentile, to be true sons of Abraham, they must repent and believe on Messiah Jesus.

• But the other covenant that exists is the New Messianic Covenant through Jesus. It has replaced or superseded Moses covenant. In total then we have 4 covenants in existence today.

The Messianic Covenant

• The Mosaic covenant is all about sacrifices and rituals. It’s about blood for the forgiveness of sins. The details of it in the Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy in particular, are immense! In absolute contrast to the everlasting covenants we have observed, Moses covenant is highly conditional! In this covenant there are many ‘you must’ and ‘do’ requirements! The Torah, the OT Law, is linked deeply with this Covenant to Moses. We have the Ten Commandments and then 603 other minor ones!

• Dress, marriage, murder, work and worship are all part of its details. Blessings, cursings, rewards, punishments are all found, and the keeping of the covenant is to do with the person’s obedience to the Law.

Jeremiah

• Amazingly the prophet Jeremiah predicted that many years later the Mosaic covenant would be written on people’s hearts, Jeremiah 31v32! It would be engraved spiritually within people. With the coming of Jesus Christ, and by belief upon him, this covenant becomes a spiritual reality in people.

• We, in our own strength, were simply unable to meet all the demands of Moses’ covenant. The Law shows us how sinful we are. Without the Law we would never even know what sin is or isn’t!

• So God sent his only Son so that he could meet the Law’s demands on our behalf! And if there is any book in the NT that focuses on what this means, it is the book of Hebrews!

The Book of Hebrews

• In chapter 1 in the book of Hebrews we discover that Jesus is God! In the second chapter we discover that the gospel of Jesus is greater than the Law. Because Jesus came and shed his blood instead of an animal, as under Moses’ Law, many sons can come into glory. It also tells us that Jesus was also a Man and thus can identify fully with the Mosaic Law and meet its demands.

• Chapter 3 details that Jesus is greater than Moses! This is proof of the overriding power of the New over the Old, Mosaic covenant. The next chapter tells us that he has come so that people can enter into the Sabbath Rest of God. In other words they can enter into the spiritual rest Jesus has created for them; rest from trying to honour the Mosaic covenant in their own strength.

• Chapter 5 details that this Great High Priest goes on forever and ever, and thus never fails. Chapter 6 refers to the importance of holding onto Jesus and not slipping back into the Moses covenant; which are what many Jews were tempted to do. Chapter 7 goes on to tell us more about Jesus as the Great High Priest, that he is eternal and that through his sacrifice which was done just once, we have forgiveness forever.

   

  • Finally chapters 8-12 tell us that because of these things Jesus is the Great High Priest of the New Covenant, and that we do not need any animals to sacrificed anymore because his blood, shed once, is all we need. Thus he overturns the Mosaic need for sacrifices and rituals. And all of it was done in his own body! He is a far better sacrifice! Finally that which Jeremiah promised about laws written on hearts, has come true solely in Jesus and those under his covenant. Thus we are to live by faith and know the discipline of God our Father accordingly.

   

  • After all, Luke 22v20 and 1 Corinthians 11v25 inform us that we through Jesus’ broken body and blood, are under a new Messianic covenant! And we celebrate this and his return, at Communion time. So it’s the Mosaic covenant, the one made to Moses, that has been replaced by Jesus!

   

  Additional teaching

   

  • Is every part of the Mosaic Covenant and its Law irrelevant to us now then, because of Jesus? No! The sins that the Mosaic Covenant lists, are still sins! Therefore the Mosaic Law is relevant to us at least in this regard! Some of its ethics will also be of relevance as well.

   

  • After all Jesus reaffirmed nine of the Ten Commandments and gives the sixth and seventh commandments, to do with murder and adultery, a far stricter application. The relevance of the Law can be seen further, in...

   

  Torah.

   

  • This word refers to the Law of the Old Testament. The word ‘Law’ often makes us think in terms of court rooms, judiciaries and the like. It’s important to note that the biblical understanding of the word ‘Law’ is more coloured than that. Torah also means ‘instruction,’ to ‘point out’ or ‘show’ a person the way he/she should live. The Torah/Law is from God and is therefore for the enrichment of one’s life, when properly interpreted, and always finds its fulfilment in Jesus.

   

  • If so the Law cannot be regarded as irrelevant. Indeed any negativity the New Testament writers had towards the Law was always to do with a misapplication of the Law. For example, asking Gentiles to get circumcised for salvation. Such a requirement was only needed for Jews, not Gentiles. To insist that a Gentile needs this, is to judaise them. This is the sort of teaching that the book of Galatians warns against.

   

  Examples of Mosaic Laws which are still relevant

   

  • We are to: (i) show reverence for the house of worship, Leviticus 19v30, (ii) learn God’s word and teach it, Deuteronomy 6v7, (iii) say grace at meal times (the text actually says after meals), Deuteronomy 8v10 and (iv) pay wages to an employee as soon as the job is done, Deuteronomy 24v15. Clearly all these things are still important. It would be wrong to say that these ethical expectations have ended because of the New Covenant in Jesus.

  Summary

  • We have discovered that 4 covenants are still intact, and the only covenant that has been superseded is Moses’ one. All matters to do with sacrifice, blood, forgiveness, grace and mercy, are fulfilled in Jesus’ and his work on the cross. However, even though that is so, it doesn’t mean that the Law isn’t relevant to us. We need it for a correct understanding of sin and certain ethics too. There are many good things in the Law which have relevance today.