Covenant (21) New and Better

The new covenant established by Jesus is a wonderful covenant. It dealt fully with all the consequences of sin and restores back to us everything that was lost to the spiritual powers of evil when Adam and Eve sinned and gave them authority on earth. With such a wonderful covenant, I am amazed that Christians should want to slip back into living by rules. Walking in the spirit by obeying his voice may be harder than obeying rules, but it is an amazing privilege to be a friend of God.

The glory of the new covenant, means that we no longer need much of what the mosaic covenant provided, but it has not been cancelled. When a new covenant is given, the old one is not annulled.

Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise (Gal 3:15,17).

The covenant with Moses did not set aside the covenant with Abraham. In the same way, the covenant of Jesus did not set aside the covenant with Moses. Each covenant builds on the previous one. However, in establishing his covenant, Jesus fulfilled many of the requirements of the covenant with Moses. We now have much better spiritual protection through Jesus, than the law was able to provide. Jesus shifted the authority situation much further than the covenant with Moses did. However, we still need the system of government provided through the law of Moses, so we do not need to get rid of it.

Some Christians paint the law as bad in order to made the gospel look better. That is unnecessary, as the gospel is wonderful and can stand on its own feet. Other Christians portray the covenant with Moses as based on works, to highlight the grace of Jesus, but that is wrong, as every covenant that God makes is based on grace. God has a plan to restore his authority on earth. He began with a covenant with Noah and then built on this with covenants with Abraham and Moses. He completed this plan with the covenant made through Jesus. All the covenants were part of a coherent plan, so we denigrating one covenant to make another look good is futile. If we fail to understand how God’s plan worked together, we will miss out on some of what he provided.