How the New Covenant Works

I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to suggest that most Christians have heard of the Ten Commandments. I am even confident for that matter that, were they asked, most believers could locate them in Exodus Chapter 20, and most of those would probably be aware that they are reiterated in Deuteronomy Chapter 5. Indeed, so iconic are the words of God’s Law given to Moses that there has been a running battle for many years in the United States over whether they should be openly displayed in public buildings as an overt endorsement of Judaeo-Christian morality.

I am not going to rehearse here the whole argument over the Constitutional principle known as ‘Separation of Church and State’, except to say that we British may enjoy a clearer view of the original intentions of those who drafted America’s Constitution, because England still has an Established Church whose bishops are appointed by the Prime Minister and who sit in the House of Lords. That’s precisely the kind of cosy arrangement that America’s Founding Fathers found so objectionable: That the State could interfere in the running of the Church. The Church of England is called the Established Church because it forms part of the Establishment – part of the government and ruling elite who make the country’s laws and determine policy. And even today, the portmanteau term for any English Christian of a denomination other than the ‘C of E’ or Church of Rome (be they Methodists, Baptists, Brethren, Quakers, Pentecostals, charismatics or whatever) is simply ‘Non-Conformist’. For historical reasons, Scotland is quite separate and has no Established Church, and, although the Church of Scotland is known as our National Church, it has no constitutional role in national government. As a result of the State monopoly vested in the Anglican Church, non-conformist denominations (including the Church of Scotland and the Covenanters) were once subject to tremendous and even bloody persecution from the Establishment which is why so many Christians, like the Puritan Pilgrim Fathers, fled to Britain’s North American colonies to escape it. And that was exactly what Thomas Jefferson had in mind when he enshrined the principle of religious freedom from State interference in the United States’ Constitution. It was never his intention to stop the Ten Commandments being displayed in American courtrooms, but to ensure that the State could never interfere by saying they couldn’t. So, I’m sorry to tell any historically ignorant Americans out there, but your Judiciary’s current Constitutional interpretation in this area is diametrically opposed to the spirit in which it was written.

I just thought I’d mention it!

But back to the Ten Commandments, which first feature in Exodus 20:1-17. Here they are with God’s names as originally recorded: And Elohim spoke all these words, saying: “I am Yahweh your Elohim, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other elohim before me. You shall not make to yourselves any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them. For I Yahweh your Elohim am a jealous Elohim, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth generation of those that hate me, and showing mercy to thousands of those that love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of Yawheh your Elohim in vain. For Yahweh will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of Yahweh your Elohim. You shall not do any work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger within your gates. For in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and sanctified it. Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long upon the land which Yahweh your Elohim gives you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour. You shall not covet your neighbour's house. You shall not covet your neighbour's wife; nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbour's.

As I say, it's a passage of Scripture that is very familiar to countless millions the world over: Believers and non-believers alike. Even those who don’t know every word are usually well enough acquainted with the general thrust to recognise the basis of most of our laws today:

1) You shall have no other Gods before me. 2) You shall not make or bow down before any graven image. 3) You shall not take the name of Yahwe your God in vain. 4) Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. 5) Honour your father and your mother. 6) Do not murder. 7) Do not commit adultery. 8) Do not steal. 9) Do not bear false witness against your neighbour. 10) Do not covet what is your neighbour's.

Indeed, so central are these commandments that they have given their name to the first five Books of the Bible – Torah (or ‘Instruction’; although more commonly, if less accurately, translated as ‘Law’). Also known as the Pentateuch, or simply Moses, to whose authorship they are attributed. That’s why no rabbinical Jew owns a copy of the Old Testament. Their holy book contains the same scriptures that Christians call the Old Testament but differently ordered and classified, which together are called the Tanakh; an acronym contracted from its full name: Sefer Torah Navi’im Ketuvim – ‘Book of the Law, the Profits and the Writings’.

If you think you know what that means, their layout may surprise you, which is this: Torah is familiar as: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Next come the First Prophets, listed as: Joshua, Judges, First and Second Samuel (also known as First and Second Kings), and First and Second Kings (also known as Third and Fourth Kings). Then come the Later Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. Only now come the Writings: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and First and Second Chronicles.

It's an order not at all familiar to Christian readers of the Bible but as you can see all the Books there and, for the most part, even their verses are numbered identically to the Christian Old Testament. The point is though, that Torah is more than the Ten Commandments and the Ten Commandments is more than Torah. Depending on the context, when Jesus referred to Moses he could be speaking either of the prophet himself, or the whole Pentateuch. For example, in Mark 10:4, when addressing a group of Pharisees about divorce, Jesus answered: “…Moses allowed a bill of divorce to be written, and to put her away.” But, in John 5:44-47 Jesus referred to both the prophet and the whole Pentateuch when he said: “How can you believe, you who receive honour from one another and do not seek the honour that comes from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you, Moses, in whom you trust. For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how shall you believe my words?” So, Torah is more than the Ten Commandments, but what about the claim that the Ten Commandments is more than Torah?

Well, notice my deliberate departure from the expected grammar – ‘the Ten Commandments is more than Torah’: Surely Ten Commandments must be plural. Actually, in this instance, no; and the explanation for this can be found in Moses’ own writings. First, look at Exodus 34:28: ‘And he (Moses) was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.’ Now, consider Deuteronomy 4:13: ‘And he (God) declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.’ And lastly, Deuteronomy 10:4: ‘And he (God) wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which Yahweh spoke unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and Yahweh gave them unto me.

In each of those three instances the law given by God to Moses at Sinai is called ‘the ten commandments’. But notice also that in the first two, they are called ‘the words of the covenant’ and ‘his covenant’. So what covenant is Moses talking about here? Nothing less than what we now call the Old Covenant; which here is unambiguously identified as the Law of Moses.

This is why, in James 2:10, the apostle writes: ‘whoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.’ It sounds kind of harsh until you realise that Judaism never envisaged the Law as a list of ten separate regulations to be observed, but as clauses, as it were, of a single Covenant. Break any single clause, then, and the whole covenant is negated. Moreover, the Decalogue, as the Ten Commandments is sometimes known, is further expanded into some 613 individual statutes, although no Israelite was expected to keep them all as some were applicable only to men, others only to women, while some were exclusive to the priesthood. Nevertheless, pretty much everybody was required to observe pretty much all of them. Why? – Because they had promised to.

In Chapter 19:5-8, immediately preceding the giving of the Law we read: “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel." So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that Yahweh had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, "All that Yahweh has spoken we will do." And Moses reported the words of the people to Yahweh.

This was actually the first of three occasions where God asked Israel if they would accept the terms of the Law, and each time they said, yes. The next occasion is in Exodus 24:3: Moses came and told the people all the words of Yahweh and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, "All the words that Yahweh has spoken we will do." And again in verse 7: Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, "All that Yahweh has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient."

Notice that here Moses calls the Law: ‘The Book of the Covenant’. And what is also interesting is how that Covenant was confirmed, as recorded in verses 4-8. And Moses wrote down all the words of Yahweh. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to Yahweh. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, "All that Yahweh has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient." And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant that Yahweh has made with you in accordance with all these words."

As well as the people’s verbal affirmation, now given for a second and third time, we are told that Moses ‘…sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to Yahweh. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar.’ All holy covenants with God are cut with blood, and this one was no different, which is why Moses concluded by saying: "Behold the blood of the covenant that Yahweh has made with you in accordance with all these words."

Solemn, binding and irrevocable; like it or not and uniquely among all peoples, Israel was now under the Law – bound by what would later become known as the Old Covenant. This is significant when we return for a moment to the often overlooked opening two verses of Chapter Exodus 20: And Elohim spoke all these words, saying: “I am Yahweh your Elohim, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”

Often merely skipped over as a rhetorical preamble to the real meat of the Ten Commandments, these two short verses actually reveal the true heart of God, because he is reminding his people that he rescued them from their cruel captivity in Egypt before he gave them the Law. In other words, his merciful provision was not predicated on their obedience but on his grace. Now, however, things would be very different. You see, grace and law are like oil and water; they just don’t mix. You can either strive for righteousness by keeping the law or you can receive by God’s grace: You cannot do both; a point reiterated time and gain throughout Scripture, but perhaps most succinctly by the apostle Paul, in Galatians 2:20-21: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. That word nullify in verse 21 is the Greek athetó, which different translations render: ‘frustrate’, ‘render void’, ‘turn back’, ‘make of no effect’, so I think we get the point. And that point is the crux of the entire Gospel.

Remember Moses’ words to Israel, in exodus 23:8? - "Behold the blood of the covenant that Yahweh has made with you in accordance with all these words." Now compare them with Jesus’ own words spoken at the Passover Seder we call the Last Supper, as recorded in Matthew 26:28. “For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Likewise, in Luke 22:20. “In the same way He took the cup, after having dined, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is being poured out for you.”

Jesus was acutely aware that what he was doing was more than just handing round a cup of wine. He was portraying his own crucifixion as the establishment of something spoken of by the prophet, in Jeremiah 31:31-34. I find it difficult to read these words without a lump in my throat: "Behold, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, 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 Yahweh. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Yahweh: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbour and each his brother, saying, 'Know Yahweh,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares Yahweh. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

What a searing indictment of ancient Israel’s inability to keep the Old Covenant, but what a wonderful declaration of God’s grace; that he would make ‘…a new covenant…not like the covenant that I made…when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke’. Very often, I’m afraid, Christianity is miss-sold to believers and unbelievers alike as ‘the Old Covenant plus Jesus’, whereas the writer of Hebrews puts it this way, in Hebrews 8:6-13…And these are scary words, if you still believe Christians are under the Ten Commandments, so some might like to look away: But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. 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, 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. “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. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbour and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." 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.

Time and time and time again, I have heard those who should know better, often with their collars worn the wrong way round, teach from the pulpit that this was the ceremonial law or the animal sacrifices, but not the Ten Commandments: Actually, that’s exactly what it was. There was no other law God called his covenant which he gave to Israel after he brought them out of Egypt and which they then broke. Or, as the apostle Paul similarly mentions in 2 Corinthians 3:3: ‘…you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.’ If you don’t believe me, believe Moses; and if you don’t believe Moses, said Jesus; you can forget the whole thing.

‘Ahhh!’ some may be howling, ‘But that’s Antinomianism!’

No it’s not. It’s the undiluted Gospel of the Kingdom of God which says that we are so totally forgiven by the Blood of Jesus that we become a clean vessel in whom the Holy Spirit is able to dwell and ‘…if any one is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new’ (2 Corinthians 5:17) or what Jesus called Born Again (John 3:3). But surely, without the Ten Commandments we would just descend into chaos. No, because what we have now is the New Covenant ratified in Jesus’ Blood, whereby we are now led directly by the Holy Spirit, who will never lead anyone into sin. The whole point of the Law is that it was given to instruct a people without the Holy Spirit dwelling inside them, on what to do and what not to do. Essentially, it instructed them not to do many of the things they wanted to do and to do a lot of stuff they didn’t want to. This is not the New Covenant at all, which is that the Born Again believer is transformed from the inside by the Holy Spirit who, the more we yield to him, does not need to tell us not to do what we no longer want to do anyway. You see, the Holy Spirit is God and God is love (1 John 4:8) and who, being guided by love, would want to blaspheme, commit adultery, murder or steal?

So is the Law abolished? The answer is, Yes and No, because there was nothing wrong with the Law per se. It reflects God’s holy, perfect and righteous standard which never changes. The problem was we couldn’t keep it. So why did God give it? For the same reason he made the ocean for fish – Because it was good. Countless trillions of sea creatures dwell in the deep where you and I would drown. That doesn’t make the sea evil; it just isn’t suitable for us to live in. Likewise, you or I can flap our arms till we turn blue, but we won’t fly. We can do it mechanically, of course, in balloons or planes or gliders, but that’s not our natural state in the way that it is for birds or bats or insects. And that’s how it was with the wider principle of law – the system of self-earned righteousness, which God withheld from man from the beginning when he set apart the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When Adam ate of it he released the law of sin and death into the world from which only the New Covenant could save us (Romans 8:2) because, as the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:56, ‘The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law.’ Even then, God always met faith with grace, which should come as less of a surprise when we realise that true faith is really just grace-consciousness.

So, the Law is abolished? Not necessarily. The answer depends on whether you are grace-conscious or law-focussed. Because the answer depends on whether or not we believe in the finished work of Jesus on the Cross, and acknowledge him as our Lord and Saviour. If so, we are Born Again and New Creations in the Kingdom of God, according to the terms of the New Covenant. That means that Ephesians 2:15 applies to us, which speaks of Jesus ‘having abolished in His flesh the enmity (the Law of commandments contained in ordinances) so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, making peace between them’. For the rest of humanity, the picture is somewhat different, because Jesus is the only Way because the New Covenant is ratified in his Blood alone. Reject Jesus and you reject the New Covenant; reject the New Covenant and you cannot be born Again; and if you cannot be Born Again, the Law has not been abolished and you remain under God’s judgement and condemnation. If that sounds harsh, don’t complain to me, because it was what Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:17 & 18 – For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Grace is undeserved and Salvation is free, but they are not compulsory. And just as God asked ancient Israel whether they wanted the Old Covenant and they said yes, he still asks us today whether we desire the New. Grace is what God has already done and freely offers. Faith is how we freely respond to his offer. The decision is yours.