1. The 10 Commandments ARE the Covenant made at Sinai Deut. 4:13 And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, [even] ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.
2. The only thing inside the ark of the covenant was the ten commandment, this confirms the Old covenant was the ten commandments.
3. Galatians 4:24-31 tells us the old covenant is bondage and needs to be cast out.
4. Hebrews 8:13 In that he said, A new covenant, he has made the first old. Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away.
5. This means the 10 commandments are not authoritative anymore. We must be born again and have God’s law of love written in our hearts. We are moved by LOVE, not by the letter. God puts LOVE in us and that causes us to not want to steal or lie etc.
ANSWER to #1 1. The 10 Commandments ARE the Covenant made at Sinai Deut. 4:13 And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, [even] ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.
Yes, God's ten commandments are the law of the covenant. But that does not mean the commandments ARE the whole covenant. God's people are to be commandment keeping people, (This is true in both the Old Testament and New Testament) but is that all there is to the covenant?
The basic flaw here is in reducing the whole concept of “covenant” to the ten commandments, and then reducing that even further to the two tablets of stone, devoid of the principles and far reaching meaning contained in each of God's ten "Words".
Basically, this NCT (New Covenant Theology) turns God's covenant to Israel into a work for your salvation covenant. An impossible covenant under which they lived and died for more than a thousand years. Was God expecting the impossible from them?
This view of the covenant is the failure to realize that God's covenant with ancient Israel included God's gracious provision of salvation. It included the gospel. For Heb. 4:2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them:
When speaking of "law" it can mean the whole Torah, it can mean ceremonial, temple related laws, and it can mean the ten commandments. The NCT person in this instance recognizes that the ten commandments are distinct from the ceremonial laws. Yet, all the ceremonial laws were also part of the old covenant.
Some things ended at the cross, but we need to be very careful to determine what ended and what continues if we don't want to be disobedient children of God.
The written Law was added, not that it could of itself save people from their sins, but to show them what sin was so they could seek the remedy for sin. Galatians 3:19 says it did not nullify the promise of salvation by faith, it simply gave the people a concrete record of the will of God and tells them what sin is.
The reasoning of the NCT fails to recognize the true meaning of a covenant with God, and what it means to be in a covenant relationship with God. It fails to see the covenant as God's commitment to save His people FROM sin, as well as the people's commitment to obey and follow God's will, and thus God brings them back into harmony and relationship with Him. It is ONLY by this relationship that anyone can keep God's law.
The NCT fails to see God's emotional appeal throughout the O.T. as well as the NT, for His people to turn away from sin (the breaking of moral law) and return to Him who alone can forgive, save and cleanse, giving them a new heart so they can keep His commandments.
Yes, the ten commandments (as well as many directives expanding the meaning of those then commandments) were the standard for living in the old covenant. The law pointed out that they ALL needed a Savior, they needed forgiveness and cleansing and Divine transformation of heart, so they could walk in God's commandments and ways.
The commandments show sin-- and point to righteous living. The bondage is not obedience to the will of God, the bondage IS SIN AND GUILT due to sin. God's covenants with mankind are made to SAVE FROM SIN, not to save people from God's the commandments. Yes, the old covenant has the commandments as a central feature AND the new covenant has God's commandments as a central feature as well. ---they are to be written upon the heart in the full magnification of their principles.
ANSWER TO #2 2. The only thing inside the ark of the covenant was the ten commandment, this confirms the Old covenant was the ten commandments
Yes, there is the ARK OF THE COVENANT in which were placed the ten commandments of the covenant! Here we start to see God’s side. What does that ark signify. Was it only a fancy storage box, or was it a very important piece of furniture teaching the people about God’s covenant?
Now we see that not only are the ten commandments part of the covenant, but the ark is also part of the covenant.
Yes, the commandments are placed in the ark, and what is ABOVE those commandments? There’s a special covering called THE MERCY SEAT. That mercy seat was BETWEEN the commandments and the glorious Shekinah. And on the mercy seat was sprinkled the cleansing blood.
Now the Mercy Seat covers the law inside the Ark of the Covenant which was written on two tables of stone (Exodus 25:21-22). And yet, at the same time, it also bridges the gap as it connects the law inside the Ark with the Shekinah Glory above the Mercy Seat.
It bridges the gap caused by sin and the transgression of the law, and brings mankind back into relationship with God!
The Ark of the Covenant held the very presence of God revealed by the Shekinah Glory, dwelling with men, to guide them, to protect them and to defend them. Now the Ark of the Covenant by itself was not Holy, it was made Holy by the very presence of God.
You see -- The covenants are based on God’s eternal law, His standard of righteousness. All through scripture we see what God wants His people to be – He wants them to live in perfect compliance to His law, which, if rightly understood is the law of love. Love supreme for God, and love for the people around us.
God’s covenants were made to restore mankind back into a relationship with Him. And the commandments (with all their magnifications) are the standard.
One last comment on the ark of testament-- read Rev. 11:19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.
You see -- Christ didn't die on the cross to get rid of God's immutable law. Christ took upon himself our sins and died the death that the broken law demanded we pay so that we might have life! Do we now continue in sin [remember those ten commandments point out sin Rom. 7:7] because through grace and faith in Christ we have been pardoned? Paul says emphatically "God forbid"
ANSWER TO #3. Galatians 4:24-31 tells us the old covenant is bondage and needs to be cast out.
Paul makes it perfectly clear what BONDAGE mankind is in. The commandments point out what that bondage is -- that's true enough. Without Christ's salvation, mankind is in bondage TO SIN.
Romans 6:17 ye were the servants of sin, 6:18 made free from sin, 6:20 ye were the slaves of sin 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God
Galatians 4:24-31
4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. 4:23 But he [who was] of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman [was] by promise. 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. 4:30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. 4:31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
Why is Jerusalem still in bondage to sin?
They are still in bondage because they rejected the ONE to Whom all their ceremonies pointed. The whole sacrificial ceremonies were good only in so far as they taught the people to look to the coming Messiah Who would die for their sins and set them free from the guilt and power of sin, and release them from sin to serve God.
They had rejected their Savior.
There were two covenants made at Sinai.
Those two covenants run parallel to each other to this day. The true and the counterfeit. A covenant built on faith, and the counterfeit built on "doing it my way".
What? You exclaim – two covenants at Sinai? Yes!
Let’s look at the story closely.
Notice, how God was referring to their deliverance FROM slavery. Was God now going to offer them a covenant that would make them slaves, bondmen and bondwomen like Hagar? No, that was not the covenant He was offering to them.
But instead of reflecting on how incapable they HAD been in gaining their freedom from Egyptian bondage on their own; instead of saying, yes Lord, You carried us out of Egypt and freed us slavery, now Lord, we trust You will continue to carry us and help us follow Your will; they rashly announced: “Everything you say, we will do”.
They had no sense of the awesome, burning holiness of God, nor of their unholiness and inability to keep God’s commandments. They figured they could do it – no problem.
God then gives them a awesome demonstration of His holiness and majesty as He speaks to them His perfect law. He again reminds them how HE HAD delivered them from bondage in Egypt. The Israelites were sorely frightened, but they still did not sense their need for Divine strength and mercy.
God again tries to get through to the Israelites when telling them how to build an altar for their worship,
In other words – immediately after giving the ten commandments God tells them – they would need an altar as part of their worship, but they were NOT to add any of their own handiwork or they would pollute it!
What a striking object lesson! No human works were to be offered! God was trying to teach the truth of the gospel! But still that truth did not sink in; they didn't recognize their need for grace, faith and strength from God. When Moses shares more of what the Lord says, they repeat: Ex. 24:7 All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.
Moses again climbs Mt. Sinai to be with God (and notice, WHY isn’t the awesome presence of God death to Him? Why? because Moses understood and was in the true covenant relationship with God) Moses is on the mountain for 40 days. Meanwhile what do the Israelites do?
They basically break every one of the ten commandments which just days before they had promised they would obey.
By their disobedience the Israelites had nullified the covenant. At this point they had not accept the provisions of grace – there was no mercy seat. The terrors of a broken law before Jehovah was their only future.
If the children of Israel who came out of Egypt had but walked "in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham" (Romans 4:12, KJV), they would never have boasted that they could keep the law spoken from Sinai, "for the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." (Romans 4:13, KJV)
But now there was only one future for them – death. Even Aaron was under the sentence. But we see Moses as a type of Christ – mediating for the people. Pleading for the people. The people finally recognize their dependence upon God’s grace, strength and guiding in their lives.
They could not hope for the favor of God through a covenant which they had broken; and now, seeing their sinfulness and their need of pardon, they were brought to feel their need of the Saviour revealed in the Abrahamic covenant and shadowed forth in the sacrificial offerings. Now by faith and love they were bound to God as their deliverer from the bondage of sin. Now they were prepared to appreciate the blessings of the covenant first made with Abraham. The everlasting covenant.
Now they build the tabernacle – the law is placed under the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant. The sacrificial system is established which is the gospel in types and symbols.
The difference is just the difference between a free woman and a slave, not in the law itself. Hagar's children, would have been slaves while those of Sarah would be free. So the first failed covenant experienced at Sinai holds all who adhere to it in bondage "under the condemnation of the law." But the everlasting covenant from above gives freedom, not freedom from obedience to the law, but deliverance from sin, and freedom FROM disobedience to God's law. The freedom is not found away from the law, but that law becomes internalized in hearts and minds. Christ redeems from the curse, which is the transgression of the law, so that the blessing may come on us. And the blessing is obedience to the law. "Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord." Psalm 119:1. This blessedness is freedom. "I shall walk at liberty; for I have sought Thy precepts." Psalm 119:45
Answer to #4 4. Hebrews 8:13 In that he said, A new covenant, he has made the first old. Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away.
The counterfeit covenant based on man working his way into acceptance with God must be abolished for true change of heart and mind to take place. Yet we need to remember the works covenant is not God's true covenant.
Hebrews however, isn't comparing the counterfeit with the true. Hebrews is speaking of the Old Testament intercessory covenant with the reality of Christ's intercessory ministry.
Hebrews shows us where the difference is between the two.
The difference is this:
The OC centered on an earthly sanctuary The NC centers on a heavenly sanctuary
The OC centered on human priests (shadows) The NC centered on JESUS CHRIST our heavenly priest.
The OC centered on the blood of animals (shadows) The NC centers upon JESUS CHRIST who with HIS own precious blood entered the heavenly sanctuary to be a priest for us.
The OC could only promise that sins were forgiven, (looking forward to Christ) for the blood of goats and bulls could not cleanse anything. The NC CAN CLEANSE for only Christ's blood can do that!
The OC promises were based on something that was yet to be.-- something preordained from the foundation of the earth-- The NC promises are based on the REALITY of Christ's life, death, and priestly ministry.
The OC is based on shadows The NC is based on REALITY!
Thus, though both have the commandments pointing out sin both have people looking to a substitute to redeem them from sin both covenants have the promise of a new heart and a new spirit and seek to make us "new creatures" by walking with our God,
yet, HOW MUCH GREATER is the New Covenant in the REALITY we have in Christ Jesus.
For the law [ceremonial] having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which thy offered year by year continually make the comers perfect. (Heb. 10:1 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. (Heb. 10:4) Sacrifices and burnt offerings which are offered according to the [ceremonial] law for sin, are not what you [God] want, nor do they give you pleasure. (Heb. 10:8) Then said He, [Christ] Lo I come to do your will, O God. He takes away the first [the ceremonial] that he may establish the second (Heb. 10:9) [which is] Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands...neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy places, ..(Heb. 9:11,12) A priest forever after the order of Melchisedec. (7:17) Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them. (7:25)
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So we see a counterfeit covenant: 1. The covenant of works where people are trying to earn their own way to salvation. It is legalism or licentiousness – a false covenant not of God’s design, yet it was how Israel first responded to God's attempts to make a covenant with them there at Sinai.
The true covenant: 2. The everlasting covenant, first announced in Eden, made to Abraham and offered to Israel after their disasterous attempt to "do it on their own. The everlasting covenant has two parts:
* 1. The gospel in types and symbols, pointing forward to Christ, His death and priestly ministry * 2. The gospel in the reality of Christ.
Yes, the ceremonial laws and rituals were done away with, their purpose in for-shadowing Christ's ministry was complete. The reality of Christ's sacrifice and ministry is exceedingly better than the symbolic ceremonies. But the bases of God's moral government has not changed. The standard, His commandments have not been replaced.
The problem in Paul’s day was that the conterfeit covenant of works had again eclipsed the covenant of grace revealed through types and symbols. In the minds of most of the Jewish people, the types and symbols had become an end and means in themselves. While scripture says there end point is Christ. (Romans 10:4) To a large extent they had lost their sense of need for a Savior to grant them grace and deliverance from sin. They looked upon the symbols themselves as a means for acceptance with God.
But notice what is all new in the above texts:
---a better ministry ---a better mediator ---a better covenant, not built on human promises ---the writing of God’s law on hearts and minds ---people will KNOW the Lord personally ---God is merciful and forgiving and will FORGIVE their sins and iniquities
Notice – the new covenant does NOT abolish God’s ten commandment law. It writes the law in our hearts and minds, through the workings of the better ministry and mediator, Jesus Christ.
5. This means the 10 commandments are not authoritative anymore. We must be born again and have God’s law of love written in our hearts. We are moved by LOVE, not by the letter. God puts LOVE in us and that causes us to not want to steal or lie etc. (See 2 Cor. 3)
No, for the Ten Commandments were never abolished, they are still authoritative. The rest of your statement is true, but that has always been God's way with His people. Love is the motivation, the "how", love is not the law itself. A born again child of God is motivated by love that influences His relationship with God and with others, but that doesn't replace the law.
As to 2 Cor. 3
The glory that was fading in 2 Cor. 3, concerns the ministry of the former covenant.
To understand we need to include Hebrews 3:1-2 "consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house.
This is speaking of Moses -- the man -- who stood as a mediator between God and his people. His ministry was glorious
Moses, whose life was in proper covenant relationship with God, spoke to God face to face as he received instructions from the Lord. God again writes the commandments because the first set had been broken. When Moses came down from the mountain, his face revealed the glory of God. It was radiating so much light that the people couldn't look at it!
If the children of Israel were so in awe over the glory beaming from Moses face, how much greater is the glory of Christ, the BETTER minister of the covenant?
Now I have a question for those who insist the commandments were abolished—
#6 If the ten commandments were abolished why does Paul re-enact them all again? If obedience to the ten commandments is placing ourselves “under the curse of the law” why does Paul tell us we need to obey them again?
There is something obviously and seriously wrong with the theory that reduces the old covenant to the ten commandments, saying it is absolutely necessary for us to see them as abolished. Some will even say that and to obey God's moral law spoken at Sinai, is placing ourselves under the curse of the law. Some go even further saying it is spiritual adultery to render obedience to the ten commandment law (quoting Romans 7:1-5).
But then they agree Paul is re-act them all again. How can they reconcile this?
Well, there is only ONE of the ten that they actually want abolished and upon the rebellion against this ONE commandment in the heart of the decalogue revolves all this antinominism debating.
In the following verses Paul tells us to obey the ten commandments, he also links the ten commandments with the so called new commandment to love ones neighbour.
Ephesians 6.2 Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment (5th) (entole) with promise;
Corinthians 10:14-15 Therefore my dear friends, flee from idolatry. (1st) I John 5:21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols (2nd)
Romans 2.23 "Even though you boast of the law, it is your breaking of the law that dishonours God. For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you." (3rd)
So that’s nine of the abolished commandments still in force.
What about the Sabbath?
Acts 16.13 And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where it was reported that people gathered for prayer; and we sat down,
Acts 17.2-4 And Paul, as his manner was, went to the synogogue, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs of suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.
Acts 18.3,4 And because he was of the same craft, he stayed with (Aquilla and Priscilla) and worked: for their occupation they were tentmakers. And every Sabbath he went to the synagogue, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.
Paul’s example gives the evidence. Acts 13 he meets with Gentiles on the Sabbath. Acts 18 we clearly see Paul working-- making tents during the week but on Sabbath he goes to worship—Acts 16, even when there IS NO SYNOGOGUE, and he has to find a small group worshipping by the river Paul still worships on the Sabbath..
Paul kept the Sabbath. And remember the sabbath command says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it HOLY? No one can keep anything holy without Christ. It's impossible. To keep the Sabbath holy it MUST be spent with Christ.
The Sabbath comes to us from the Creator. It was set apart, blessed and made holy on the seventh day of Creation.
Our Creator Himself, set the day apart and gave us the example of resting upon that day.
BUT objects the anti-Sabbath person, all the other six days have a "morning and evening" the seventh does not, thus the it merely shows that God ended his work and is resting from the work of creating. It's not limited to any day.
No, my friend -- read the verse again, God is speaking of a DAY! The seventh DAY!
Gen. 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventhday from all his work which he had made. 2:3 And God blessed the seventhday, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Three times the word DAY is repeated.
The word "day" is used in the same way as the previous texts. The first "day", the second "day" the third "day" etc. Each "day" signifying 24 hours with evening and morning. And so the seventh "day" does not suddenly jump into a completely different category of meaning. It is a DAY, thrice declared to be a DAY!
This is the same language used in the fourth commandment. (Ex. 20:8-11) 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 the Lord your God; ... For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day, therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.,
Thus the Sabbath was made for mankind. As Jesus said, "the Sabbath was made for man" Mark 2:27
It was made for man from the time of Creation, a time to delight ourselves in the Creator!
It continues -- For in Revelation 14 the last warning message calls for mankind to return to
"Worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."... " Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."
1. The 10 Commandments ARE the Covenant made at Sinai Deut. 4:13 And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, [even] ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.
2. The only thing inside the ark of the covenant was the ten commandment, this confirms the Old covenant was the ten commandments.
3. Galatians 4:24-31 tells us the old covenant is bondage and needs to be cast out.
4. Hebrews 8:13 In that he said, A new covenant, he has made the first old. Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away.
5. This means the 10 commandments are not authoritative anymore. We must be born again and have God’s law of love written in our hearts. We are moved by LOVE, not by the letter. God puts LOVE in us and that causes us to not want to steal or lie etc.
The above is a classic "New Covenant Theology" line. No matter how you cut it, those who follow that line opt for a spirit ethic and abandon the 10 commandments.
Nothing new, of course, antinomians have been doing it ever since sin began.
Bible Protestantism united spirit and form and rightly showed and taught that you cannot have one without the other.
The bible form of obedience (law) must be coupled with the spirit (right motive) of obedience.
The "New Covenant Theology" abandons the biblical form (law) and opts for a spirit ethic with no stated form.
If they can do that with the Sabbath, they can do it with any and all other stated forms of obedience and do as they please while stating they are "resting in Christ" and trusting in His righteousness.
So, they can lie, steal, commit adultry, covet, and still claim they are "resting in Christ." Of course they will rationalize their actions to comply with their definition of "love". But that definition is then based on situational ethics, not on the commandments of God.
The whole theory is convoluted and non-biblical. No matter what fancy names they put on it, it is simply "lawlessness".
The covenant at Sinai: We discussed this on the other thread, but to refresh --
There was nothing wrong with the people stating they would do what God commanded. The people made this response to what God had promised for the future and based on what God had done in the past.
Their commitment was not a faulty response. Even God said to Moses, "The people have rightly said all they have promised, oh that there was a heart in them to do it." Deut. 5:28-29 There was no fault in or with the covenant itself, the fault was with the people to do it. So the covenant is not faulty, the people are.
And so today, people are still faulty and instead of acknowledging the need to be "born again" they want to "change the law".
The law does not need to be changed, the people do. And so neither does the covenant need to be changed.
From all eternity, God's covenant with all created moral beings is this, "obey and live, disobey and die." Read Genesis chapter 3. Adam and Eve were told "obey and live, disobey and eat of the fruit of the tree of good and evil and they would die."
Never has this condition been altered or changed. And neither will it be changed in the future.
The sinful human mind must be changed, not the covenant.
But the mind can not be changed by the offering of the "blood of bulls and goats." Neither can an adequate payment for sin be made by these sacrifices.
Jesus not only makes an adequate payment for our sin, He also creates the moral influence to change the mind and hearts of men. So we sing....
"Be for sin the double cure, cleanse me from its guilt (legal pardon) and power (moral influence)."
"Obey and live" is fully retained in the covenant and the only law "changed" is the earthly ministry and priesthood to the heavenly ministry of Christ and His priesthood.
Thus, clearly, the only "law" that can be "blotted out" or "changed" or "done away" when the seed should come, is the ceremonial law.
This can never refer to the moral law or any part of it.
The book of Hebrews is all about "The ceremonial law is vanishing away".
But while the ceremonial law is "vanishing away" the law of intercession is not. It is established by Christ's death and priestly ministry.
That is, the intercession of Jesus in heaven maintains the law of intercession.
In Galatians, the moral law is not Paul's primary concern. All through Paul's writings and letters, his primary concern is to defend the ministry of Jesus in heaven and the saving of people FROM sin, the moral law is herein implied as a given but not as the primary concern of Paul.
Eriel wrote: "There was nothing wrong with the people stating they would do what God commanded."
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Maybe there was nothing wrong with what they stated, but there was something wrong with what was NOT said.?
Yes, we are to choose to do what God commands but the great lesson Paul teaches is that we can't unless....
Well, read Romans 7 -- --though I want to do right --I keep doing the wrong --The law of sin is in my members and it resists the righteous law of God. --For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Romans 8 The carnal (sinful) nature is at enmity against God and is not subject to God's law and can't please God.
So then simply promising to "do what God commands" just can't stand on its own. There must be a change of heart. And we can't change our own hearts. The holy Spirit needs to regenerate our hearts, it is only by the Holy Spirit that we can put to death the deeds fo the flesh.
So they needed to say:
Ps. 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Ez. 11:19 (paraphrased) Place a new spirit within me; and take the stony heart out of my flesh, and fill my heart with your love and goodness 11:20 That I may walk in Your statutes, and keep Your ordinances, and do them: and be one of your people, and You will be my God.
Actually, Eriel, you got me thinking -- challenging my first understanding, you sent me back to read the passages more carefully again.
What was the Main Weakness of the Sinai Covenant?
Many people assume that the problem with the old covenant was with the law of God!!! And therefore this needed to be changed.
Others, to counter this unscriptural conclusion say, No, the fault with the old covenant was that it was based on the promise of weak sinful human beings who promised something they couldn't keep.
You challenged that position.
So what is true?
Hebrews is actually quite plain as to what the problem was.
Hebrews 8:6-7 says:
"8:6 But now has he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. 8:7 For if that first [covenant] had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
NOTICE -- the word "covenant" is not in the original in verse seven, it is supplied. Was the author referring directly to the first "covenant" or was he referring to the better ministry which can mediate a better covenant.
Verse six refers to "a more excellent ministry" which makes the covenant better.
AS to the next verse:
8:8 For finding fault with them,
Who are the "them"? Are they the people in general OR Does the "them" refer back to the " priests that offer gifts according to the law" in verse 4
When we read this whole chapter, as well as chapter seven we see the author is talking about "the ministry" -- the change in the "ministry" from earthly priests in an earthly temple to our heavenly Priest in the heavenly temple.
The first ministry operating under the old covenant, being governed by the laws pretaining to all facets of the earthly sanctuary. The second looks to the heavenly temple and the BETTER ministry going on there.
It is the "ministry" of the old covenant that was faulty -- as outlined in these verses:
---"they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:" 7:23
--"daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: 7:27
--the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity 7:28
-- If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, what need that another priest should arise 7:11
CHRIST'S MINISTRY IS BASED ON BETTER PROMISES
7:21 For those priests [in the earthly temple] were made without an oath; (sworn promise)
BUT CHRIST ---
7:21---with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou [art] a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec: 7:22 By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.
It is quite obvious as we saw in the post above that this talking about the change in MINISTRY from the earthly priests in the earthly temple to the far better heavenly sanctuary with Christ Our High Priest ministering for us!
Chapter seven in Hebrews details that the earthly priests BY THE LAW must come from the tribe of Levi, but Christ did not come from that tribe. Heb. 7:14 For [it is] evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.
The whole chapter is NOT speaking of disannauling God's moral law! NO not at all. It is trying to convince the Jewish converts that Christ is their High Priest and the laws governing the earthly priests are no longer relevant.
One must realize the situation being addressed! Jewish converts would have raised considerable questions when first told that Someone from the tribe of Judah was now their High Priest. The Author of Hebrews is bringing in the argument that Christ is High Priest after the order of Melchisedec, not after the Aaronic priesthood, thus is not bond by the laws governing the Aaronic priesthood.
To read into this passage that Hebrews is abolishing God's moral law here, and the Sabbath in particular is just NOT correctly reading the passage.
