CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
July 5, 2009
25424 Aldine-Westfield, Spring, TX. 77373
www.blakehart.com/cypresswoodbulletin.htm
www.cypresswoodchurchofchrist.com
PRAYER FOR THE FOLLOWING:
God’s will for our congregation Peace
Various relatives, friends, and co-workers Our nation, leaders and military
COVENANTS OF GOD (4)
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17).
We have looked at the four major covenants of the Old Testament, covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses (the Law of Moses or Torah), and David. Each flowed out of the previous covenant as God responded to the problems that humans have brought into the world. It will not do for us to end with just those four covenants, for there is another one that we must look at. This is the covenant that God has made with us in Christ.
We begin however in Jeremiah 31. The kings were to lead Israel in right ways as a holy nation before God. They failed in their mission over time until the sins of Manasseh lead to the Babylonian captivity. Warnings were given before Manasseh but he was the one who led the nation over the cliff. In this context, God gives Jeremiah a prophecy of a new covenant. He begins by saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (verse 3). From verse 3 through 30, God tells Israel that they will return from captivity and will be blessed, all based on His love. Then in verse 31, God announces a new covenant, a covenant unlike the one made with Moses. Among the elements of this new covenant are that one isn’t automatically a covenant person, but would come to know the Lord and then be committed to the covenant, and that there will be the forgiveness of sins which will be remembered no more. Then the Lord calls creation as a witness to the new covenant (verses 35-37).
As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, He came to fulfill the Law and Prophets. What does He mean when He said He came to fulfill? We have often stated that He lived the perfect and holy life, never breaking the Law in one point, and so accomplished what God intended (Hebrews 4:14). While this is true, are we reading the Law more in legal terms rather than in relational terms? In Matthew 5:18, Jesus said that “until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” Jesus is using Jewish idioms here. While we might understand “fulfill” as doing what the Law says, contrasting that with “abolish” gives it another idiom that comes from rabbinic studies. What Jesus is saying is that He came to “properly interpret the Torah” (1). To cancel or abolish the Torah is to misinterpret it.
We can see this better interpretation in the rest of the Sermon. For instance, what can we compare gossip with, murder or stealing? It is equated with murder because a thief can return what is stolen but a gossip cannot not take back words spoken and a murderer cannot give back life. We are to watch our words. Throughout His ministry, Jesus is properly interpreting the Torah. What is the greatest commandment?, He was once asked. To love God is a given, but to love one’s neighbor is the second. Who is my neighbor? He is the one we can serve in some way.
Jesus is the fulfillment of the covenant with Abraham. In Acts 3:25-26. “And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ When God raised up his servant he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.” We see the promise of blessings and of holy living in Christ. It is Jesus who brings to the full the covenants, the correct or proper interpretation of both the Law and the Prophets.
Consider Galatians 3. Paul uses the covenant with Abraham to show the covenant with Jesus. Faith or trust is what is needed in the work of God. “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (verse 3). “Scriptures foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nation will be blessed through you.” so those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, a man of faith” (verses 8-9). Then Paul goes to a discussion of the law in verses 15-25. “What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come” (verse 19). As we have said earlier, each covenant was added in response to human sin by a loving Father seeking His children (2).
Jesus became the Reconciler between God and us and between us and us (see Galatians 3:26-29; Ephesians 2:11-22). Jesus is the ideal son of David and leads God’s people to love the Lord and walk in His ways, fulfilling the covenant with Abraham (3).
“Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness” (Romans 10:3). Paul is speaking to the Jews of Rome in Romans 9-11. They, like their ancestors, had a choice; 1] to do the law or 2] to circumcise the heart by faith. By choosing to “do” the law, that is, to go through the motions with no heart involved, they developed a legalistic view that if we do what God wants, we can live anyway we want. They lost sight of holy living and failed to develop a relationship with God, even though He lived among them in the Tabernacle. To know God is to have a relationship with Him and to receive the blessings of the covenant that would also include the land. The four Old Testament verses quoted in Romans 10:5-8 all come from the Torah. Is it a contrast or a compliment? Yes, we need to do, but we also need faith, or to say it another way, our faith causes us to do or live righteously (see Titus 3:3-8).
The Hebrew writer’s argument is that Jesus is better than what they had under Moses. Each covenant flows out of the previous. The New Covenant is better than the Old because it is based on better promises. The blessings of Abraham are fulfilled in Christ and continues to be fulfilled until He returns. The blessings of the covenant with Abraham involve salvation and relationship. This relationship involves our fellowship with God and with each other.
There are two other aspects we will look at under covenants, Lord willing. The first is holiness and the second is the land. Then we will follow that with a look at how the covenants compare with other ancient covenants.
George B. Mearns
(1) Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg, Sitting At The Feet of Rabbi Jesus, Zondervan, 2009, p. 166.
(2) See Romans 4 for another discussion about Abraham and faith.
(3) Tim Willis, Did We Through the Baby Out with the Bath Water, Pepperdine University Bible Lectureship, 2009.