In reference to the New Covenant, you may have been told that God would put his law, commandments and statutes in our minds and write them on our hearts. However, in the same passage, God declared the New Covenant would not be like the one made with Israel when they were delivered out of Egypt. Since the old law brought death, condemnation and increased sin, why would God choose to write it on our hearts, since it could not provide life or righteousness to us? There was a change of law with the new priesthood of Jesus Christ, and it brought a new heart to us with a new ministry that would far surpass the old way.
This week we look further into the differences between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The first one was established between God and Israel. It was an arrangement that never included Gentiles (non-Jews), not before the cross and certainly not after. The Old would become obsolete and be replace by the New, as a result of the superiority of the ministry of Jesus Christ. This covenant would bring Jew and Gentile together.
This week we provide a perspective on the story of The Rich Young Ruler. He asked Jesus what he needed to do to have eternal life. Interestingly, Jesus did not say what we Christians might have expected — He did not say, "believe in me." He answered the law-based question with a law-based answer by telling the young man to obey the commandments from the Mosaic law. Why? Jesus was trying to show him the impossible standard of perfection the law demanded without any provision to be able to accomplish it. Have you ever walked out of church feeling worse than when you went in? It was probably for the same reason as the young ruler... The good news was missing.
It is a dangerous doctrine to assume Jesus was usually ministering a message directed at future believers who would be under the New Covenant. Jesus came to proclaim a message for Israelites first, not to those of us who were born as (non-Jewish) Gentiles. He was born under the law to redeem those who were under the law. Righteousness was never meant to be attained by the commandments, but to be received freely as an heir. On this week's podcast, we look at a few more instances of Jesus ministering to these people who were under the first covenant.
Our second in the series of why Jesus taught two covenants lays a further foundation on why Adam fell and how the covenant began through Moses with the Jewish people. A covenant must be agreed upon by at least two parties, so the law within the first covenant was not forced upon Israel, but they agreed to do all of it as required. They declared with pride it would be righteousness for them. They would have been better off humbling themselves by saying they couldn't do it. They chose to trust in themselves and their ability.
We begin a series on why Jesus ministered both the Old Covenant and the New. Before we get to some of the teachings of Jesus, we'll lay a foundation that provides reasons why Jesus did this. We'll start at the beginning with Adam in the garden being faced with an element of law already at work when he was commanded not to eat from The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It's the tree of law, and Adam's motivation on why he chose to eat from it may sound familiar in the lives of many Christians today.
Even after the cross where we abide in Christ and have entered into a new and better covenant, the religious crowd will advocate that Jesus now empowers us to fulfill the law. They claim the law from the former covenant did not end and the commandments within that law are still meant to be followed by Christian believers in order to acquire or maintain life, righteousness and sanctification. The question that never gets fully addressed is this: Exactly which of the 613 laws are to be followed and which are no longer meant to be applied? We discuss the inconsistencies with this type of mixed covenant teaching.