Today I wanna start off by sharing what is probably one of the most misunderstood Scripture verses ever when it comes to the relationship between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.
I’m talking about Jeremiah’s declaration that in future days the Lord will make a new covenant that will be written on the hearts of His followers.
Here are the famous and so-often quoted verses…
“Here, the days are coming,” says Adonai,
“when I will make a new covenant with
the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers
on the day I took them by their hand
and brought them out of the land of Egypt;
because they, for their part, violated my covenant,
even though I, for my part, was a husband to them,”
says Adonai.
“For this is the covenant I will make with
the house of Israel after those days,” says Adonai:
“I will put my Torah within them and
write it on their hearts;
I will be their God, and they will be my people.
No longer will any of them teach his
fellow community member or his brother,
‘Know Adonai’; for all will know me,
from the least of them to the greatest;
because I will forgive their wickednesses
and remember their sins no more.”
-Jeremiah 31:30-34
Now in light of everything we’ve learned over the past couple of years of deep-diving into the Torah, I have some questions I wanna pose to those who preach and teach that the “Old” Covenant has been done away and replaced by the New Covenant.
Whether you’re preacher, a teacher, a highly acclaimed Bible scholar, or just a lay student, I would like to challenge your doctrine with the following five (count ’em) questions.
So here goes.
CHALLENGING QUESTION 1:
In verse 33 of Jeremiah 31, God declares “I will put MY LAW inside of them“. Now my question for you is exactly what Law is being talked about here? Or let me rephrase, if the Law has been done away with, how can God put into a human being something that has already been done away with and no longer exists? Heck, even the original Hebrew word for “Law” here is TORAH.
CHALLENGING QUESTION 2:
One doctrine (which I wholeheartedly agree with by the way) is that the Lord our God does NOT change. Once He establishes something, He does NOT change His mind. If this is true, how can you on one hand say God never changes yet on the other hand claim that He did change? How can you say that He created one Law and then in a flippant fashion just threw it away and created a whole new law that was completely different from the first one that says we no longer need to obey God’s original instructions? Does this even make sense?
CHALLENGING QUESTION 3:
What meaning is there in even having a Law if we aren’t required to obey it? Heck, can you even call it a “Law” then? Does it really make sense that God created a new Law that says “Here’s your life insurance in the form of only accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior” and then afterwards you can continue on living your life like you always have without any further obligations or expectations from the One who called you to follow Him?
CHALLENGING QUESTION 4:
Recall Deuteronomy 6:6…“These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart“. Doesn’t this mean that the original law given at Mount Sinai was also to be “written on the heart”? If so, then isn’t it inaccurate to say that the difference between the “Old” Covenant and the New Covenant is that one was written on the hearts of believers and the other wasn’t?
CHALLENGING QUESTION 5:
Does it make sense that we are to respond only to the subjective promptings that God decides to show us “in our hearts” completely separate from the instructions He gave to His Chosen People at Sinai? Heck, isn’t that basically saying it’s okay for each of us to go our own way and create our own personal set of Laws…in effect taking on the role of God Himself?! Is that not bordering on idolatry? Remember when Paul said “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”, he could ONLY have been referring to the “Old” Testament because those were the only Scriptures in existence at the time. Therefore, isn’t it even going against Paul’s words to say that the Law has been done away with?
So those are the five questions I wanted to pose to all those who would dare to preach or teach that God’s HOLY instructions given at Sinai have been done away with.
However, I’m not done just yet.
There’s another really interesting piece of information I’d also like to share with you.
Have you heard about the Tyndall Commentary on the Bible?
This is considered to be one of the most respected commentary series on the Bible.
This series takes its name after William Tyndale who was a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation.
In fact, in 1611, the 54 scholars who created the original King James Bible were highly influenced by Tyndale.
I don’t make that statement lightly.
It’s been estimated that the New Testament in the King James version is a whopping 83% Tyndale’s!
And the “Old” Testament is a whopping 76%.
To get back to my point, there’s a really interesting quote from one of the contributors to the massive Tyndale Bible Commentary I’d like to share with you.
Here it is…
“Even in the great day of renewal envisaged by Jeremiah (Je. 31:31-34) it is the SAME Law that is to be written on the heart, the eternal law of God. The SENSE in which the law would be new in that day would be that it would be differently administered, it would have a different mediator, but it would fundamentally be the SAME COVENANT….”
This particular contributor to the Tyndale Bible Commentary is J.A. Thompson.
So who is this J.A. Thompson dude?
Well, according to Wikipedia, he was an Australian Old Testament scholar and biblical archaeologist who lived from 1913-2002.
He was a Professor at the University of Melbourne’s School of Middle Eastern Studies AND…
…also taught at the Baptist Theological College of New South Wales!!
Not only did he write a very respected commentary on Deuteronomy (the ISBN number is 0-8308-4205-5) but he was also one of the translators of the New Living Translation of the Bible!!!
So what’s my point in sharing this information?
My point is that if one of the most traditional and conservative evangelical commentators of the esteemed Tyndale Bible series understands that it is retarded beyond belief to to even think that the so-called “Old” Law (what gentiles call the Old Testament) was somehow done away with and was replaced by a new law doesn’t hold one drop of water Scripturally whether from an OT or NT perspective…
…then those who hold to the belief that the Law is no longer valid should maybe reconsider their doctrine.
Finally, there’s just one other critical point I need to mention before closing.
When you read Jeremiah’s declaration concerning the New Covenant, who does he say God is going to make the New Covenant with?
Does it say that God is going to enter into a New Covenant with foreigners or gentiles?
Absolutely not.
The New Covenant will be between God and the House of Israel and the House of Judah or “all Israel” as the Apostle Paul put it.
Well, this topic is a whole other can of worms.
We’ll dive into this subject at another time.
Shalom.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“For truly I tell you,
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.”
-Matthew 5:18
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