Once the distinction between the historical and experiential dimensions of the old and new covenants is understood, much of the apparent tension between biblical statements regarding God's law can be resolved.
This chapter will provide numerous examples as it explores New Testament passages in which the historical/experiential distinction is critical for a proper interpretation.
The First Covenant is Obsolete
After giving its version of the new covenant first cited in Jeremiah, Hebrews 8:13 says, "By calling this covenant 'new,' he has made the first one [referring to the Sinaitic covenant] obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear." This text has been cited as evidence that the Ten Commandments, and more specifically the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, are now obsolete. But a closer examination yields a different conclusion.
Hebrews is the New Testament's most comprehensive book on the covenants. While both historical and experiential dimensions of the old and new covenants are in view at different places throughout the book, chapters 7-10 focus primarily on the historical dimension. More specifically, the emphasis of these chapters is on the priesthood and sacrificial systems established by the Sinaitic covenant, both of which were imperfect and could not take away sin. The imperfect old covenant priesthood has been replaced by Christ, "a high priest [who] meets our need--one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens" (Heb. 7:26). The animal (typical/symbolic) sacrifices of the old covenant sanctuary services which could not take away sin have been replaced by their corresponding and eternal Type, Jesus Christ, who "appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Heb. 9:26). (See appendix A for an expanded comparison of the historical old and new covenants in Hebrews 7-10.)
What Hebrews 8:13 declares as "obsolete and aging...soon [to] disappear" is clearly the ceremonial system of the historical old covenant, its priesthood and animal sacrifices which were types of the priesthood and sacrifice of Christ. This fulfillment of the old covenant ceremonial system types in the priesthood and sacrifice of Jesus, replacing the old covenant ceremonies, was definitely a historical transition. This ceremonial transition from the historical old covenant to the historical new covenant had been prophesied in the Old Testament ("the Anointed One...will put an end to sacrifice and offering" [Dan. 9:25, 27]) and was noted in the gospel record itself (at the very moment Jesus died, "the curtain of the temple [where the priests performed the sacrifices] was torn [by God] in two from top to bottom" [Matt. 27:50-51]). Clearly, what Hebrews declares as obsolete is the symbolic and typical priesthood and animal sacrifices of the Old Testament now that Christ, their anticipated Type, has come. The key to understanding Hebrews 8:13 is firmly rooted in the historical perspective of the covenants.
The same is not the case in some other New Testament epistles. When Paul writes about the law and the covenant(s) in Galatians, for example, his emphasis is just as clearly experiential.[1]
Personal and National Examples of Old Covenant / New Covenant Experiences
Note this highly-instructive treatment of the covenants in Galatians 4:
Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way [Greek, kata sarka, "according to the flesh"]; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.
These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. ...
Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born in the ordinary way [Greek, kata sarka, "according to the flesh"] persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does the Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son" [quoted from Gen. 21:10]. Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Gal. 4:21-5:1)
Understood historically, this passage would accuse God of making a covenant with Israel at Sinai that would result in spiritual slavery, and of structuring it such that those who remained faithful to it would live "according to the flesh" and "never share in the inheritance" of the saints. But such a covenant would be very different from every other covenant He has ever made. How uncharacteristic of God to make a covenant that would doom those who entered into it to unconverted lives and eternal loss. Such a repugnant idea has been fully discounted by our discovery that the four DNA markers of the new covenant were embedded in God's covenant with His people at Sinai. We've established that the Sinai covenant was grace-based, gospel-bearing, faith-inducing, and mission-directed--the most complete revelation God had given of His grace, forgiveness, and holiness.
A close examination of Paul's list of the characteristics of "the two covenants" in Galatians 4 reveals that the old covenant he speaks of cannot possibly be the grace-based, gospel-bearing, faith-inducing, mission-directed covenant God invited His people into at Sinai. It rather describes Israel's horrible distortion and wrongful application of that covenant and the consequences of their perversion of, and deficient response to, the gospel.
Note the following table that lists the distinctive characteristics of the old and new covenants as described in Galatians 4.
1. The First or Old Covenant
a) Abraham's experience with Hagar, the slave woman (4:22)
b) Mount Sinai corresponds to the "present" city of Jerusalem (4:24-25)
c) "Born in the ordinary way," literally, "according to the flesh" (4:23, 29)
d) The persecutor (4:29)
e) Cannot "share in the inheritance" (4:30)
f) "Burdened by a yoke of slavery" (5:1)
2. The Second or New Covenant
a) Abraham's experience with Sarah, the free woman (4:22)
b) Corresponds to Jerusalem above which is "free" (4:26)
c) "Born as a result of a promise," "born by the power of the Spirit" (4:23, 29)
d) The persecuted (4:29)
e) Receives "the inheritance" (4:30)
f) Free in Christ (5:1)
These two lists do not describe two different covenants initiated by God in sequential historical eras, the first spanning the 1500-year period from Sinai to the incarnation, and the second encompassing the generations following. They describe two different human experiences based on opposite human responses to the timeless everlasting-gospel invitation God has embedded in every covenant He has ever made with humanity. This becomes unmistakably clear when the following lists of New Testament contrasts between "the flesh" and "the Spirit" are considered:[2]
1. The Flesh
a) "That which is born of flesh is flesh" (John 3:6).
b) "The righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh" (Rom. 8:4).
c) "Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh" (Rom. 8:5).
d) "To be carnally [literally, 'fleshly'] minded is death" (Rom. 8:6).
e) "The carnal [literally, 'fleshly'] mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be" (Rom. 8:7).
f) "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8:8).
g)"If you live according to the flesh, you will die" (Rom. 8:13).
h) "The flesh [wars] against the Spirit" (Gal. 5:17).
i) "The works of the flesh are ... adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry. ... Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Gal. 5:19-21).
j) "If anyone thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so:... concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless" (Phil. 3:4-6).
2. The Spirit
a)"That which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6).
b) "The righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who ... walk ... according to the Spirit" (Rom. 8:4).
c) "Those who live according to the Spirit, [set their minds on] the things of the Spirit" (Rom. 8:5).
d) "To be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Rom. 8:6).
e) "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Rom. 8:9).
f) "You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you" (Rom. 8:9).
g) "If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live" (Rom. 8:13).
h) "The Spirit [wars] against the flesh" (Gal. 5:17).
i) "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering. ... Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (Gal. 5:22-24).
j) "What things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ ... not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith" (Phil. 3:7-9).
According to Paul in Galatians 4, those who live according to the first or old covenant are "born in the ordinary way" [literally, "according to the flesh," cf. NKJV] (4:23, 29), while those who live according to the second or new covenant are "born by the power of the Spirit" (4:29). Jesus said, "Flesh gives birth to flesh [a left column, old covenant experience], but the Spirit gives birth to spirit [a right column, new covenant experience]. ... You must be born again [i.e., converted from a left column experience to a right column experience]." "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again" (John 3:6-7, 3). This is a timeless truth applicable to people in every age. The "old covenant" characteristics of the Galatians 4 list above do not represent the experience of saved people who lived during the era of God's historical old covenant. They represent the old covenant experience into which every human being is born. Everyone must be converted from this experience to enter the kingdom of God.
God did not design the covenant He initiated for His people at Sinai to engender a life "according to the flesh" that would burden them with "a yoke of slavery" and foreordain them to "never share in the [eternal] inheritance" of the saints. But the way many of the people responded to the saving gospel of His covenant did engender just such a result.
Note how Galatians 4 refers to "two covenants" (the only place in Scripture where that exact phrase is used) and then illustrates these covenants with contrasting experiences from the life of the man who is considered the paragon of the everlasting covenant-Abraham (4:24). God had promised Abraham a son through his aged wife, Sarah. When the promised child was delayed in coming, Abraham grew impatient and took matters into his own hands. He produced a child through Hagar, his wife Sarah's "maidservant" (literally, "maid-slave").
Abraham's relationship with the slave woman Hagar represents those who confine themselves to spiritual slavery by attempting to produce through the flesh, their own efforts, what they are incapable of producing, but what God has promised to produce--eternal salvation, obedience, and a godly life that can influence others toward salvation. Abraham's subsequent trust in God and His promise to produce a child through Sarah represents the spiritual freedom of faith and submission to the control of the Spirit who has the power to produce what we cannot produce.
"These women represent two covenants." Abraham's independent efforts with Hagar exemplified an old covenant experience; his dependence on God in his relationship with Sarah exemplified a new covenant experience. When Paul presented his case regarding the two covenants, he presented as his "Exhibit A" these experiences of Abraham, the revered man of God who received the everlasting covenant and became "the father of all who believe" (Rom. 4:11). No greater evidence could be presented that the old and new covenants are rooted in experience and predate both Sinai and the advent of Jesus.
Abraham's personal old covenant experience with Hagar was nationalized through the experience of Israel subsequent to God's covenant with them at Sinai. "The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother" (Gal. 4:24-26).
If Paul submitted Abraham's unbelieving actions as "Exhibit A" of an old covenant experience, he presented Israel's experience at Sinai as "Exhibit B." Unfortunately, examples of a national new covenant experience were harder to come by. There were some: "By faith the people passed through the Red Sea....By faith the walls of Jericho fell" (Heb. 11:29-30; cf. Exod. 4:31; 14:31; Ps. 106:12-13). But on the whole, "Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works" (Rom. 9:31-32). This is the meaning of Paul's statement in Galatians 4:24, "One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar." The legalistic way Israel tended over the years to respond to God's Sinai covenant exemplified an old covenant experience of legalism and spiritual slavery that leads to spiritual death.
While "the two covenants" in Galatians 4 are exemplified by historical figures--Abraham and Israel at Sinai and beyond--they do not represent historical eras but rather religious experiences, as Rayburn asserts:
The "covenants" here [Gal. 4:21-31] have nothing to do with our division between the Old Testament and the New Testament. There is and always has been only one salvation and only one true relationship with God. ... That salvation and that relationship is one of these two covenants in [Galatians] 4:21ff. The other is the religious situation which arises when that true relationship is spurned in unbelief and when legalism instead of grace is embraced as the true principle of righteousness. This point is, in our view, very clear in Galatians. The issues discussed here: legalism versus grace, unbelief versus faith, slavery versus sonship, and the two "covenants," have nothing to do with our division between the time before Christ and the time after his coming. These issues are timeless.[3]
It is difficult to overestimate the significance of this crucial insight. In Galatians 4:21-5:1 Paul reveals what he has in mind when he refers to "the two covenants." They are not historical eras but experiences. One covenant represents a life "according to the flesh." Both Jesus and Paul describe such a life as one that is controlled by the sinful nature that is at war with the Spirit and destined for destruction unless converted (John 3:3-6; Rom. 8:5- 14; Gal. 5:16-25). At conversion a person moves from the left column to the right in the Galatians 4 list above--moves from an old covenant experience of life in the flesh to a new covenant experience of life in the Spirit.
In Galatians 5:16-25 Paul describes the war between the flesh and the Spirit in the human heart and declares that those who choose to live according to the flesh "will not inherit the kingdom of God." This is a timeless and universal truth. The two covenants of Galatians 4 cannot represent different God-initiated historical eras--one controlled by the flesh or sinful nature and the other lived in submission to the Spirit--because no one living in the first historical era in accordance with the old covenant of the flesh could inherit the kingdom of God. Rather, the two covenants represent two contrasting responses to God's grace. Both are human experiences that have existed side by side from the time of Cain and Abel to this very day. Unless this is understood, the Bible's teaching on God's holy law might appear to be a quagmire of contradictions.
Equipped with the understanding that Paul used old and new covenant terminology in an experiential rather than historical sense, we will now examine in detail a number of significant New Testament texts on the covenants and the law.
Not Under the Law's (Schoolmaster's) Supervision
In a passage related to his discussion of the two covenants in Galatians 4, Paul writes: "But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law" (Gal. 3:22-25).
Understood from a strictly historical perspective, one would have to conclude from this passage that the generations that lived from the time God gave the law on Sinai until Christ came some 1500 years later were all kept locked in the prison of sin until faith came in with the advent of Christ. And only after faith came with Christ could people finally be released from the prison of sin and be saved by faith. This would mean that no one living in the Old Testament era could have been justified by faith, because saving faith would not have come until Christ came in the flesh. There is virtually no way out of this interpretation if these verses are viewed from a strictly historical perspective. "If it is the temporary character of the law and Christ's bringing it to an end that is contemplated in Gal 3:23ff., ... it follows by a rigorous necessity that there could have been no justification by faith in the Old Testament age (3:24). ... In our view this is an unavoidable conclusion."[4]
However, when Galatians 3:22-25 is viewed experientially, then the experience of salvation by faith comes back into view. People of every era are held prisoner by sin until faith comes. The phrase "Before this faith came" cannot be read historically, as though such faith came only with the advent of Christ. It must be read experientially. Before faith comes into the life, a person is still kept under lock and key by sin.
But, one might ask, does the text not say, "Before faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed" (italics added)? Yes. But does this mean that the law itself, and not sin, kept people locked up and under guard up until faith came? No. For God "was a husband to them" when He gave His law as a manifestation of His covenant love for His people (Jer. 31:32). He did not give it to enslave them or keep them spiritually imprisoned. The law in and of itself has no power to do anything. It cannot make "the trespass ... increase" (Rom. 5:20), in the sense of causing us to sin even more. Only our own sinful nature leads us to sin more (Rom. 7:21-23; 8:2).
Except by the Holy Spirit's supervision, the law has no power whatsoever to spiritually awaken us to the point that "sin might become utterly sinful" in our eyes, convicting us of our sin and need for God (Rom. 7:13). The law has no power to enable us to obey it except by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:2-4). It cannot even lead us to Christ except by the Spirit's tutelage. If it's true that we can do nothing without Christ (John 15:5), it must be equally true, if not more so, of the law-the law can do nothing without Christ's Spirit enabling it to do so in the life of an individual.[5] This has always been the case.
Even the best construction that can be placed on Galatians 3:22-25 when it's interpreted historically--that the law acted as a temporary supervisor, tutor, or schoolmaster to get people by until faith would finally come with the advent of Christ--is inadequate. A strict historical interpretation of this passage means that regardless of how benevolent the law's ministry to people in the Old Testament might have been, saving faith did not come in history until Christ came in history.
But that cannot be what Paul meant because in the same letter he writes that Abraham "believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness" (Gal. 3:6, quoting Gen. 15:6), and quotes the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk's teaching that "the righteous will live by faith" (Gal. 3:11, quoting Hab. 2:4).
Those who apply a strictly historical interpretation to this passage often use it to teach that the law God gave on Sinai was only valid until Christ came. But a consistent historical interpretation must conclude that saving faith was not available to humans before Christ's advent.
When Galatians 3:22-25 is interpreted from an experiential perspective, it can be understood something like this:
But the Scripture declares that the whole world is [and always has been, experientially] a prisoner of sin ["for God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all" (Rom. 11:32)], so that what was promised [that is, salvation through the everlasting gospel taught consistently in all God's covenants], being given through faith in Jesus Christ [at a person's conversion during any historical era], might be given to those who believe. Before this faith came [i.e., while we were still unconverted], we were held prisoners by the law [the Spirit's first use of the law to constrain wickedness until conversion might occur], locked up until faith should be revealed [through the converting influence of the Holy Spirit on the heart]. So the law was put in charge [or, "was a schoolmaster," KJV; "was our tutor," NKJV; the second use of the law as a convicting influence as the Holy Spirit applies it to the conscience of the sinner in every historical era] to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith [at conversion]. Now that faith has come [conversion and a new covenant experience through the Holy Spirit's justifying and sanctifying ministry], we are no longer under the supervision of the law [or, "under a schoolmaster," KJV; "under a tutor," NKJV; the Spirit's use of the law as an instrument to initially awaken us to our lost condition and our need for Christ and conversion[6].
Concerning this experiential interpretation, two models of the law may be instructive. The first is Calvin's three uses or functions of the law, as summarized by Louis Berkhof:
• [First use--Civil] The law serves the purpose of restraining sin and promoting righteousness,...it serves the purpose of God's common grace in the world at large [i.e., the law serves society as a whole as a guide to social order].
• [Second use--Tutorial] In this capacity the law serves the purpose of bringing man under conviction of sin, and of making him conscious of his inability to meet the demands of the law. In that way, the law becomes his tutor to lead him unto Christ, and thus becomes subservient to God's gracious purpose of redemption.
• [Third use--Normative] This is the so-called tertius usus legis, the third use of the law. The law is a rule of life for believers, reminding them of their duties and leading them in the way of salvation.[7]
Paul's reference in Galatians 3:23 to being "held prisoners by the law" could correspond to the first use of the law as a divinely appointed restraining influence in society, with application to the non-believer as well as the believer. Paul's reference in Galatians 3:24-25 to the law as a supervisor, tutor, or schoolmaster could correspond to Calvin's second use of the law. Indeed, it was in his discussion of his "second use" that Calvin acknowledged that "the law was a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ": "For all who have lived for a considerable time in ignorance of God will confess it to have been their experience, that they were constrained by the law to a certain kind of fear and reverence of God, till, being regenerated by his Spirit, they began to love him from their hearts."[8] It is this second use of the law--its specific, Spirit-supervised role as a tutor or schoolmaster to initially bring sinners to Christ and conversion--from which the believer is released "now that faith [conversion] has come" (Gal. 3:25).
But if believers are released from the first and second uses of the law at their conversion, it is done so that they might graduate to its third use as a guide for holy living, "giving joy to the heart" and "light to the eyes," serving as "a lamp to my feet and a light for my path" (Ps. 19:8; 119:105). In his commentary on Galatians 3:25 and its reference to the believer's no longer being under the law as a schoolmaster once "faith is come," Calvin wrote: "Is the law so abolished that we have nothing to do with it? I answer, the law, so far as it is a rule of life, a bridle to keep us in the fear of the Lord, a spur to correct the sluggishness of our flesh,--so far, in short, as it is 'profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that believers may be instructed in every good work,' (2 Tim. iii. 16, 17)--is as much in force as ever, and remains untouched."[9]
Indeed, Calvin taught that this "third use of the law ... is the principal one ... [which] relates to the faithful, in whose hearts the Spirit of God already lives and reigns"[10] (italics added). "Wherefore, when David represents the life of a righteous man as spent in continual meditations on the law (Ps 1:2), we must not refer it to one period of time only, because it is very suitable for all ages, even to the end of the world. ... This truth remains for ever unshaken, that the law has sustained no diminution of its authority, but ought always to receive from us the same veneration and obedience."[11]
A second, complimentary model of the law, "embedded in the very grammatical structure of the Decalogue," also supports an experiential understanding of Galatians 3:22-25. Davidson points out that the grammatical form of the original Hebrew construction of the Ten Commandments allows for them to be understood either in their traditional portrayal as commands ("emphatic imperative"[12]) or as promises ("emphatic promise"[13]). Thus, "while it is possible to interpret the commandments as prohibitions, we can also interpret them as divine promises. For those redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, it is no longer the command 'You may not have any other gods before Me,' but instead, the promise 'You will not have any other gods before Me.' You will not make any graven images, you will not take My name in vain. I promise you! You will no longer want to do those things that interrupt our intimate personal relationship."[14]
We may view the prohibitive nature of the Ten Commandments as representative of its role as supervisor, tutor, and schoolmaster. Only converted believers, in whom the Spirit of God dwells, can appreciate and experience the promissory role of God's law to which they graduate upon conversion.
To one who is used to reading Galatians 3:22-25 from a historical perspective, this experiential interpretation may seem strained at first. But in light of what we have learned about the unity of the covenants, the experiential interpretation proves to be the most natural and consistent one.
Here is what Galatians 3:22-25 might look like when rendered interpretively from a strictly historical perspective:
But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised [salvation by faith as exemplified in God's covenant with Abraham], being given through faith in Jesus Christ [at such a time when such faith would become available], might be given to those who believe. Before this faith came [i.e., before Christ came in history], we were held prisoners by the law [as God gave it at Sinai], locked up [by God Himself through His covenant, without faith] until faith should be revealed [at the advent of Christ]. So the law was put in charge [at the time God gave it to Israel on Sinai] to lead us to Christ [at the point He would come in history, some 1500 years after God gave the law on Sinai] that we might be justified by faith [at the advent of Christ when faith would come]. Now that faith has come [with the advent of Christ], we are no longer under the supervision of the law [i.e., now that Christ has come, and faith with Christ, whatever role the law played in the lives of His people before He came is no longer needed, because Christ, and more specifically, faith, saving faith, is finally available at long last].
No reputable scholar holds to this strictly historical interpretation, for that would mean that justifying faith was not available until Christ came. But such an interpretation is demanded if this passage, and others like it, is meant to be interpreted from a historical perspective. Yet many commentators assign the historical perspective to the phrase, "we are no longer under the supervision of the law," in an attempt to render the law of God of no effect for those who live in the new covenant historical era. They use such texts in Galatians in an attempt to pit the Abrahamic covenant against the Mosaic covenant, and in so doing miss the vital point of the passage. Robertson holds that Galatians "clearly indicates that the ultimate contrast in Paul's mind is not between the Abrahamic and the Mosaic covenants, but between the way of justification advocated by the Judaizers and the way of justification provided by Christ."[15]
It is indeed true, as Hebrews 7-10 attests and as was prophesied in the Old Testament, that the ceremonial priestly and sacrificial system was fulfilled and abrogated with the atoning sacrifice and priestly enthronement of Jesus (Dan. 9:27). But the same cannot be true of God's moral law, which is as "holy, righteous and good" (Rom. 7:12) as "spiritual" (Rom. 7:14), and as necessary for the hearts of God's people (Ps. 40:8; Isa. 51:7; Jer. 31:33; Heb. 8:10) in the historical new covenant era as when it was written into the very nature of Adam and later codified and issued by God to His covenant people.[16]
There are segments of Galatians 3-5 that must be understood from a historical perspective. But Paul uses these historical references primarily to drive home the experiential point he makes. When Paul writes, "The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise" (Gal. 3:17), he certainly has historical developments in mind. He spotlighted God's covenant with Israel at Sinai and His covenant with Abraham 430 years earlier to establish that the law God gave on Sinai did not contain a different gospel from that communicated to Abraham in which God first explicitly stated His promise of righteousness by faith. Hebrews 11:4-7 makes it clear that this promise was first made available immediately after the entrance of sin. The timeless, universal gospel promise of righteousness by faith contradicted the Pharisaical interpretation of Paul's day that the law offered righteousness to those only who "rely on observing the law" and "pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works" (Gal. 3:21; Rom. 9:32). That was the point Paul drove home in Galatians 3:17 by his statement that God's covenant with Israel at Sinai did not change the gospel promise of righteousness by faith in any way.
Faithfulness to the wider scriptural teaching on the continuity and unity of the covenants and the plan of salvation requires that Galatians 3:23-25 be understood from an experiential perspective.
Not Under Law but Under Grace
Paul's statement, "You are no longer under law, but under grace" (Rom. 6:14) is also an experiential statement. There is a historical element to it because before conversion we are all under "the law of sin," the control of the sinful nature (Rom. 7:25). Sin has its way with us as "the law of sin," the sinful nature, bends some of us toward immorality and others toward legalism, both of which are expressions of sin and antithetical to grace (Gal. 5:19-21; Phil. 3:4-6). But after conversion we are bent by the Spirit toward grace and "the obedience that comes from faith" (Rom. 1:5). Not that life "under grace" is free from intense struggles with sin, as Scripture and any Spirit-led believer can testify. Indeed, Paul characterizes Christian experience as spiritual warfare (Eph. 6:10ff). The difference is that before conversion we are "hostile to God" (Rom. 8:7), but at the moment of conversion we switch sides and begin fighting as citizens of heaven against "the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Eph. 6:12ff.).
The context of Romans 6:14 demands an experiential interpretation, for the full text says: "For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace." C.E.B. Cranfield concludes similarly: "[Romans 6:14] may then be interpreted as a promise that sin will no more be their Lord, because another Lord has taken possession of them, namely, Christ."[17]
The mistaken interpretation that the phrase "under law" in this text addresses the historical period from Sinai to Calvary, and that since Calvary we no longer need to live by the moral commands of Sinai, conveys a skewed view of salvation history. It suggests that when God gave the law He made sin the master over His covenant people, and that He intended that this tyranny would last until Christ's atoning sacrifice was made--that the promise that "sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace" has been in effect only since Jesus established the new covenant.
Some have used Romans 11:6--"if by grace, then it is no longer by works"--to further promote the idea that the old covenant promoted a system of works while the new covenant is entirely grace-oriented. But God did not institute a system of works righteousness as a method for His people's salvation at Sinai. Salvation has always been by grace through faith. Understood experientially, this text teaches that until sinners are converted they seek to placate God with good works. But following conversion, God's redeemed children understand that their salvation "is no longer [nor ever was] by works" but "by grace." Salvation "by works" can legitimately be spoken of only if it is the perfect works of Christ that are meant-works that have been vicariously performed and graciously imputed to sinners to be applied by faith. (See appendix B for a more complete discussion of the "under law" versus "under grace" texts.)
Died to the Law
Another text often used to pit the new covenant against the Ten Commandments is Galatians 2:19: "Through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God." But reading this text experientially leads to understanding it as grace-based: "Through the law [the true gospel insights gained through the grace-based, gospel-bearing, faith-inducing, mission-directed historical old covenant God gave His people at Sinai], I died to the law [an old covenant experience of unbelief and legalistic self-righteousness] so that I might live for God [the goal-directed intent of every covenant God has ever made with humankind, enabling people to live for God]."
A related passage (Rom. 7:1-6) speaks to the same point:
Do you not know, brothers--for I am speaking to men who know the law--that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.
So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, not in the old way of the written code.
The Galatians 2:19 formula, "Through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God," becomes in Romans 7:4, "You also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another." The two expressions carry the same meaning. An internalized relationship with God by means of the new birth, born of the Spirit, puts to death a legalistic marriage to the law. A few verses later (Rom. 8:2) Paul reiterates this same timeless truth: "Through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life [a new covenant experience through the converting, justifying, sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit] set me free from the law of sin and death [an old covenant experience of being married to law rather than to God, and relying on obedience to the law rather than on the righteousness of God as the basis of salvation]."
The "law of the Spirit of life" (Rom. 8:2) is the holy law of God applied by the Holy Spirit to sinners as a converting influence and to believers as a sanctifying influence as the Spirit writes it on their hearts (Ps. 19:7; Rom. 8:4; Jer. 31:33; Heb. 8:10). The "law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2) is that same holy law of God at work under the power of the evil one and the sinful nature, perverting it into an illegitimate system of works righteousness--"sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death" (Rom. 7:11). Indeed, "the law of the Spirit of life" is none other than God's law ingrained in the heart by the Spirit of God--a new covenant experience enjoyed by every believer in every age. On the other hand, "the law of sin and death" is God's law externalized in granite and relied on as a basis for salvation--an old covenant experience.
Thus Paul could say, "By dying to what once bound us [that is, the sinful nature], we have been released from the law [that is, the illegitimate use of and reliance on the law], so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit [a new covenant experience, the law ingrained in the heart], and not in the old way of the written code [an old covenant experience, externalized obedience, the law in granite only]" (7:6). Paul's contrast of "the new way ['newness,' NKJV] of the Spirit" with "the old way of the written code ['oldness of the letter,' NKJV]" clearly contrasts the proper and improper use of the law.
As Cranfield observes: "[Paul] does not use 'letter' as a simple equivalent of 'the law.' 'Letter' is rather what the legalist is left with as a result of his misunderstanding and misuse of the law. It is the letter of the law in separation from the Spirit. But, since 'the law is spiritual' (v. 14), the letter of the law in isolation from the Spirit is not the law in its true character, but the law as it were denatured. It is this which is opposed to the Spirit whose presence is the true establishment of the law."[18]
The story is told about Melissa. As a young girl she was married to a mean, abusive husband named Edgar who wrote out a long "to do" list for her every day before he went to work. If she hadn't finished everything to his satisfaction by the time he returned, he would beat her. She lived in fear and misery, and, needless to say, when Edgar died she hardly missed him. A few years later she fell deeply in love with a man named Allen. His loving concern for her made her life totally different. Rather than ordering her to do things, he discussed with her what needed to be done, and they divided their duties around the house.
A few years later Melissa came upon one of Edgar's old lists up in the attic. She felt the rush of adrenaline and a crawling sensation on her skin as she began to read the list. But then suddenly she realized that everything on that list was something she was still doing regularly. But now she loved doing it because she loved the man she was doing it for!
What a great illustration of Romans 7:1-6! The law hasn't changed. But love can transform begrudging subservience into joyful cooperation. Is that not what conversion and covenant is all about?
Law Not Based on Faith
In Galatians 3:12 Paul states, "The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, 'The man who does these things will live by them'" (quoting Lev. 18:5). Since Paul is quoting from the Sinaitic law, does this text teach that the Sinai covenant was not a grace-based, gospel-bearing, faith-inducing covenant? Is Paul saying that God made a covenant with Israel that was designed to keep them from saving faith?
Our study thus far has already demonstrated that this is not what Paul meant. Trust/faith was central to the covenant relationship God invited His people into at Sinai. When Moses struck the rock in disobedience to God's command that he simply speak to it, God indicted Moses for his lack of faith, using the same Hebrew word, aman, translated "believed" in Genesis 15:6: "Abraham believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness"--"you did not trust [Hebrew, aman] in me enough to honor me as holy" (Num. 20:2-12). In the covenant book, Deuteronomy, Moses similarly indicted the people for failing to respond to God in faith--"You did not trust in the Lord your God" (Deut. 1:32; cf. 9:23). Thus Barton Payne concludes, "The fundamental requirement of the law was faith, belief in God (Deut. 1:32; 9:23)."[19] Jesus Himself identified "the weightier matters of the law [as] justice and mercy and faith" (Matt. 23:23 KJV, NKJV, NRSV, ASV). The law taught faith! Remember that when God gave His law to Israel, it was the most complete revelation of God's character of love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness given to humankind, and it pointed forward to Christ's atoning sacrifice. God's Sinai covenant was a grace-based, gospel-bearing, faith-inducing, mission-directed covenant.[20]
In context, Leviticus 18:5 addresses life in the land that God had promised to them and their descendants: "The man who does these things [obeys God's laws--civil and health laws as well as moral and ceremonial] will live by them [will reap the practical and positive benefits--good health, rewarding relationships with family and neighbors, etc.]." Over the years, however, this principle had become misapplied into a salvation principle--obey God's commandments in order to gain a right standing before God and to merit eternal life. It is this misunderstanding of God's law that Paul seeks to remedy in Galatians 3. Leviticus 18:5, isolated from the gospel elements of the law, cannot bring sinners into a right relationship with God. Paul wants his readers to understand that God proclaimed the gospel throughout His Sinaitic covenant law and embedded Leviticus 18:5 within that gospel context.
This being true, how could Paul say that "the law [which teaches faith, induces faith] is not based on faith"? Again, the juxtaposition of the historical and experiential dimensions helps us understand. The historical old covenant was a grace-based, gospel-bearing, faith-inducing, mission-directed law. But that same law can be perverted into an old covenant experience of unbelief and legalism.
That this is certainly what Paul meant is clear from the immediate context. Here is the text again, including the verses just preceding it, with interpretative comments in brackets:
All who rely on observing the law [an old covenant experience of pursuing righteousness "not by faith but as it were by works"--Rom. 9:32] are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law" [i.e., someone who relies on the law, rather than on God and His righteousness, must live a perfect life, for perfection is demanded by the law]. Clearly no one is justified before God by the law [because no one has lived a perfect life, except Jesus], because "The righteous will live by faith" [quoting Hab. 2:4]. The law [an old covenant experience of relying on the law] is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them" [quoting Lev. 18:5--i.e., those who rely on their law keeping as the basis for their acceptance with God or even as the basis for their ongoing sanctification will have to live without fault, for they will have no other righteousness to rely on but their own]."
The End of the Law
Paul writes in Romans 10:4, "Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes." Is he saying that the law God gave to Moses at Sinai, and God's expectations of obedience, were terminated by Christ? In Christ the End of the Law: Romans 10:4 in Pauline Perspective, Robert Badenas argues that in Romans 10:4 Paul uses the term "law" in reference to the Torah (the entire Old Testament Scripture), and the term "end" to mean "purpose, goal or ultimate meaning," not "termination."[21] This is the position that most interpreters from the early church through the Reformation held. Badenas further points out that the gospel was deeply embedded in the Torah. "Since for Paul there is only one gospel (Gal. 1:6-9) and Christ is both the telos (sum, apex, climax, etc.) of the Torah and the center of the gospel, the gospel was heard wherever the Torah was heard, and therefore, it should have been known all through Israel's history. ... For Paul the eternal gospel of God is the true meaning of every passage of the Torah. ... From such a perspective, Paul saw that the law always required a response of faith."[22]
A similar view is represented by the scholarly note on Romans 10:4 in the NIV Study Bible:
Christ is the end of the law. Although the Greek word for "end" (telos) can mean either (1) "termination," "cessation," or (2) "goal," "culmination," "fulfillment," it seems best here to understand it in the latter sense. Christ is the fulfillment of the law (see Mt 5:17) in the sense that he brought it to completion by obeying perfectly its demands and by fulfilling its types and prophecies. The Christian is no longer "under the law" ([Rom.] 6:15), since Christ has freed him from its condemnation, but the law still plays a role in his life. He is liberated by the Holy Spirit to fulfill its moral demands (see 8:4).[23]
If we take "Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes" to mean that Christ is the termination of the law God gave to Moses, or the termination of God's expectations of obedience to that law as a standard of righteousness, then we must ask, does that mean that before Christ came into the world the only way to achieve righteousness was by obeying the law? Isn't that the very idea Paul argues so vehemently against throughout Romans (e.g., 4:1-24; 9:30-32)?
If "Christ is the end of the law" has any nuance of termination intended, it must be because Paul uses "the law" in this passage to mean a mistaken use of the law to establish one's own righteousness. The immediate context supports this reading, for the previous verse says, "Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness" (10:3). And just a few verses earlier Paul pointed out that "Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works" (9:31-32). In this light Paul could be understood to have legalistic works, an old covenant experience, in view in Romans 10:4, resulting in the following interpretation: "Christ [His perfect righteousness imputed to the sinner] is the end [termination] of the law [legalistic efforts to establish our own righteousness and merits before God based on our own works-an old covenant experience] so that there may be righteousness [the only true saving righteousness] for everyone who believes [a new covenant experience]." The truth expressed in this passage is timeless and eternal.
The Power of Sin is the Law
In his chapter on the resurrection of the righteous dead at the second coming of Jesus, Paul wrote, "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 15:56-57).
A casual reading of this text might lead someone to conclude that just as death results from sin, so sin results from the law, and that if God had never given humankind any laws, there would have been no sin. But of course He did, and yet we know that neither He nor His holy law is the instigator of sin.
But, some will say, the law Paul is referring to here is not just law in general but specifically the law God gave to Moses for Israel at Sinai. And yet Paul himself wrote, "Before the law was given [at Sinai], sin was in the world" (Rom. 5:13). The degenerative conditions that developed in the antediluvian world certainly illustrate that truth. So, sin certainly had power over people before Sinai. Does anyone think that Israel would have been better off, less sinful, more holy, and better equipped to be God's representatives to the nations if only God had not come down to them at Sinai and invited them into the expanded covenant He designed for them?
Moses asked, "What great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law that I am setting before you today?" (Deut. 4:8). The most truly righteous people in Israel delighted in God's law and meditated on it day and night (Ps. 1:1-2). They loved God's law, which they cherished as a revelation of the One who loved and cared for them (Ps. 119). "Jesus, the faithful Son, does not deviate at all from this understanding of the law that is truly God's law. He could easily have written Psalm 119 Himself."[24] What then might Paul have had in mind by referring to the law as "the power of sin"?
The triad "death ... sin ... law" Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 15:56 occurs several times in Romans 7:7-8:2. Indeed, the entire thought of 1 Corinthians 15:56-57 is included in Romans 8:1-2: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death" (italics added). In the extended passage Paul testified that "in my inner being I delight in God's law" which is "holy, just, good, ... spiritual," and "intended to bring life" (Rom. 7:22, 12, 14, 10). But at the same time Paul found "the law of sin [i.e., his sinful nature] at work within my members," a powerful law which "seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death" (Rom. 7:23, 11). Paul did not find fault with God's law, but with his sinful nature that maliciously commandeered God's holy law and converted it into a law of sin and death. Thus his phrase, "the power of sin is the law," as used in 1 Corinthians 15:56, addressed an experiential salvation issue.[25]
The law, any law from God, is "the power of sin" because the sinful nature will war against it by urging us to break it, or to observe it legalistically. The law is "the power of sin" in that under the influence of the Holy Spirit its holy and righteous precepts alert us to the spiritual reality that all is not well with us and we need help--"through the law we become conscious of sin" (Rom. 3:20). The law is "the power of sin" because the eternal consequences of sin remain embedded in it--"the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23; cf. Deut. 30:19).
But "thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 15:57). Jesus was stung with the sting of the second death, exhausting it of its poison for all who put their wholehearted trust in Him. Thus the grace of God makes possible "the gift of God [which] is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 6:23). "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1).
The Ministry of Death Versus the Ministry of the Spirit
Paul's discussion in 2 Corinthians 2:14-4:6 about two ministries that represented two covenants focuses on how those ministries were received rather than on the gospel-sufficient content, or lack thereof, of those ministries. The complete passage involved follows:
2 Corinthians 2:14-17
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God.
2 Corinthians 3:1-18
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant--not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!
Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect [alternate reading: "contemplate"] the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 4:1-6
Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
While Paul does not specifically use the term "the two covenants" as he did in Galatians 4, his reference to Moses's ministry and his own, with Paul's ministry representative of "a new covenant," seems to have the two covenants in mind. Note some of the major characteristics of these two covenants.
1. The Covenant Represented by Moses's Ministry
a)"Written with ink" (3:3)
b) "On tablets of stone," "in letters on stone" (3:3,7)
c) "The letter [that] kills" (3:6)
d) "The ministry that brought death [and] condemns men" (3:7,9)
e) A "glory" that "was fading away" (3:11)
f) "A veil that covers their hearts" (3:15)
2. The New Covenant Represented by Paul's Ministry
a) "Written...with the Spirit of the living God" (4:22)
b) "On tablets of human hearts" (3:3)
c) "The Spirit [that] gives life" (3:6,17)
d) "The ministry that brings righteousness" (3:9)
e) "Ever-increasing glory" "which lasts" (3:18,10)
f) "The veil is taken away" (3:17) "Freedom" (3:17)
Many interpreters view this passage from a dispensational, historical perspective, understanding the characteristics in the left column as representative of the teaching of the Old Testament, and more specifically of God's covenant with Israel at Sinai. These same interpreters understand the characteristics in the right column to refer to the full gospel teaching of the New Testament which was lacking in the Old. But such a strictly historical interpretation would leave all Old Testament people without hope of salvation.
In reality, the left-column characteristics describe a lost condition, not a partially enlightened salvation. They describe stone cold hearts that resist the appeal of God's covenant. And the right-column characteristics describe the results of the Holy Spirit's work in the life of "anyone [who] turns to the Lord" (3:16) and is "being transformed into his likeness" (3:18)--a saving condition fully experienced by all believers in both Old and New Testament eras. In other words, Paul employed these terms primarily to describe experiential, not historical, conditions which apply to all believers (right column) and unbelievers (left column) of all time. Thus the characteristics in these two columns represent experientially-based, timeless, and eternal truths describing responses to the gospel by believers and unbelievers, rather than different gospels (or even differing levels of understanding of the one true gospel) ordained by God for separate historical eras.
This is not to deny that 2 Corinthians 2:14-4:6 contains some historical elements, particularly events associated with Sinai on the one hand and the church at Corinth on the other. However, the historical elements serve as the canvas on which Paul paints a primarily experiential theme, namely, the contrasting responses to the gospel "among those who are being saved and those who are perishing" (2:15). Implicit in his presentation is the appeal made explicitly just a few verses later: "We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God" (5:18).
Paul bracketed this passage with statements that focus on the results of gospel preaching to different populations--namely, to those who received the gospel by faith on the one hand, and to those who resisted through unbelief on the other. "For we are the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other the fragrance of life" (2:15-16). "If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing" (4:3).
In these passages, the references to "those who are being saved and those who are perishing" apply timelessly and universally to all people to whom the gospel has ever been preached throughout the history of the covenant of redemption, from its first announcement at the fall of Adam to the second coming of Christ.
It is within the context of this truth, universally applied, that Paul's contrast of "the ministry that condemns men" and "the ministry that brings righteousness" (3:9) must be understood. These terms describe the contrasting responses of specific populations to Moses's ministry at Sinai and Paul's ministry at Corinth.
Moses's ministry of the gospel to the covenant nation of Israel met largely with unbelief and/or a self-reliant spirit, responses that would result in eternal death. According to Paul, God's law and gospel proclaimed at Sinai got no further for these unbelieving, self-reliant Israelites than the "tablets of stone" they were written on or the "ink" they were written with (3:3).
By making such statements Paul was not suggesting that the historical "old covenant" (3:14) God gave to Israel through Moses was not grace-based, gospel-bearing, or faith-inducing, or that its gospel message was not received by many in Israel by faith, resulting in their salvation and sanctification--a new covenant experience. Rather, he focused in this particular instance on the majority of Israel who hardened their hearts in unbelief and perverted the gospel into a system of works righteousness (Rom. 9:31-32), holding them up as examples of those in every age who "are perishing." Even though "on Mount Sinai ... [Moses] received living words to pass on to us" (Acts 7:38), the persistent unbelief and disobedience of the majority of Israel had perverted the law and its gospel into "the smell of death" (2 Cor. 2:16) and "the letter that kills" (3:6). Through their own willful and stubborn unbelief, Moses's potentially lifesaving ministry to them became a "ministry that brought death" (3:7) and a "ministry that condemns men" (3:9). In that it offered them the hope of salvation, his ministry still "was glorious" (3:10), but in that it was rejected and/or perverted, its glory "was fading away" (3:10).[26]
Here we should remind ourselves how God introduced the new covenant: "The time is coming, declares the Lord, 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 forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord" (Heb. 8:8-9).
In this passage God clearly distinguished the old covenant from the new in terms of the experiential response of His people.
To be a minister of the new covenant is to be a minister who, having preached the gospel, finds that the Spirit has written the message on the heart of the hearer and given him faith and life. To be a minister of the old covenant is to preach the same message but find that the words have fallen on hearts of stone which will not believe. ... Paul is a minister of the new covenant because he, by God's grace, has ministered salvation to the Corinthians. Moses is a minister of the old covenant, and according to the argument of 2 Cor. 3 this can only be because he ministered the gospel to a stiff-necked people--to "old" men who took the covenant offered to them by God and broke it, perverting it into something old, dead, and ineffectual. The message is the same, but the results are different.[27]
While Paul's ministry in Corinth did not convert the entire city to Christ, he focused in 2 Corinthians 2:14-4:6 on those who received his gospel by faith and thus "are being saved" (3:15). These he held up as contemporary examples of new covenant believers who take their place in line with the true believers of all ages (Hebrews 11). In this context Paul described himself and those who labored with him as "ministers of a new covenant ... of the Spirit [who] gives life" (3:6).
Because Paul views his ministry from the perspective of those who received the gospel by faith and "are being saved," he describes it as "the ministry of the Spirit" (3:8), "the ministry that brings righteousness" (3:9), and "the glory of that which lasts" (3:11). No one reading Corinthians can harbor the illusion that the believers there had achieved high levels of spiritual understanding and maturity by modern Christian standards, but their lives nevertheless had been transformed into "a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Cor. 5:17; cf. 1 Cor. 6:9-11). And Paul was confident that the work the Spirit had begun in their lives would continue "with ever-increasing glory" (3:18) as they continued to respond in faith to the ongoing sanctifying work of the Spirit and to gospel teaching.
Paul's reference to Moses putting "a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away" has been interpreted by many to mean that God's covenant at Sinai, as glorious as it was, was only temporary and was always meant to fade away once the greater glory of the new covenant would come in the earthly ministry of Christ. And while on the one hand that understanding has been misapplied by some who want to deny that the Sinai covenant applies to New Testament Christians, it does on the other hand affirm an important truth, namely, that the coming of Jesus made every previous revelation "old" by comparison. Not "old" in the sense of abolished (cf. Matt. 5:17-19) except in the case of the Old Testament ceremonial/sacrificial system (cf. Dan. 9:27; Heb. 7-10), but "old" in the sense that once Christ came as the "surpassing glory," all previous revelation could be seen in a glorious new light.
However, Paul's reference to the veil Moses put over his face also seems to represent the guilt, fear, unbelief, and self-reliant spirit with which the Israelites responded to the gospel given to them at Sinai. Note the description of this historical incident recorded in Exodus 34:29-35:
When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai. When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever he entered the Lord's presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord.
It is important to carefully follow the sequence of events in this incident. As he communed with God on the mount, Moses received the second giving of the Ten Commandments, the renewal of God's covenant with Israel, and a new revelation of God's glory. As a result Moses's face was radiant, physically reflecting in a dimmed but miraculous way the glory of God (34:29).
The Israelites, who recently had crafted and worshiped the golden calf as their deliverer from Egypt, and had experienced the severe discipline of God in their camp, were filled with guilt and fear at the sight of Moses's radiant face, feeling they were still under God's displeasure. As such, "they were afraid to come near him" (34:30). Nevertheless, at Moses's invitation and Aaron's urging, they did come near to Moses, and Moses in an unveiled state told them all God had commanded (34:31-32).
After "Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face." In other words, after Moses finished speaking to the people, then in deference to the people's fearful response to him he compassionately veiled his face (34:33). When Moses went into the tent where he would meet directly with God, "he removed the veil" (34:34). Then when Moses came out from God's presence, he would again in an unveiled state tell the people what God had commanded him (34:34). Once again, after seeing their response, no doubt of continuing fear and perhaps their unbelief and/or self-reliant spirit, "Moses would put the veil back over his face" (34:35). This cycle--appearing before God unveiled, speaking to the people unveiled, then veiling himself again as a result of their response to him and his message--appears to have continued for some time (34:35).
What is quite clear from this sequence is that Moses's act of veiling his face to protect the people from seeing the glory on his face was a direct result of their response to him and to the messages he was giving them from God. For in each instance he did not veil his face until he "finished speaking to them" (34:35). By veiling his face, Moses symbolically portrayed the guilt, fear, unbelief, and/or self-reliant spirit he saw in their faces and read in their hearts. The veil represented the divine wish, "Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always" (Deut. 5:29).
The veil represented not the grace-based, gospel-bearing, faith-inducing, mission-directed historical covenant of God, but rather the fear, unbelief, and even self-reliant spirit of the people. Thus Paul could say, "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing" (4:3), "but whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away" (3:16)--spiritual realities as true in Moses's day as in Paul's.
The emphasis throughout 2 Corinthians 2:14-4:6 appears to be on the responses of the people to the ministries of Moses and Paul, and thus on the results of their ministries more than on the contents of their ministries. Because of the general unbelief with which Moses's ministry was received, his ministry can be viewed as a ministry of condemnation and death. Because the church at Corinth believed, Paul's ministry among them proved to be a ministry of righteousness, a ministry of the Spirit who gives life. The universal appeal of this passage is for the conversion of unbelievers--"whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away" (3:16)--and for the sanctification of believers--"we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord" (3:18 NKJV)[28]
A careful exegesis of 2 Corinthians 3 will not allow for an interpretation that nullifies the continuing validity of the role that God intends for His law to play in the life of a believer following conversion. Calvin expresses a similar understanding of 2 Corinthians 3:6-7:
The passage is deserving of particular notice, as teaching us, in what way we are to reconcile those encomiums which David pronounces upon the law--(Psalm xix. 7,8)--"the law of the Lord converteth souls, enlighteneth the eyes, imparteth wisdom to babes," and passages of a like nature, with those statements of Paul, which at first view are at variance with them--that it is the ministry of sin and death--the letter that does nothing but kill (2 Cor. iii. 6, 7). For when it is animated by Christ, those things that David makes mention of are justly applicable to it. If Christ is taken away, it is altogether such as Paul describes. Hence, Christ is the life of the law[29] [emphasis in the original].
Law for Sinners Only
I once received a paper intent on discrediting God's law of Ten Commandments and persuading me to abandon my defense of them. The author referred to many of the texts cited in this chapter but focused especially on Paul's statement in 1 Timothy 1:8-9: "We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinners, the unholy and irreligious." Paul then lists the kinds of horrible sinners he has in mind--those who murder their parents, slave traders, perverts, etc.--but then also extends the list to include "whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me" (1 Tim. 1:10-12).
The author of the paper kept asking me whether I considered myself a righteous person saved by grace or a sinner who needed the law. It was a rhetorical question. The way he posed the question strongly implied that to admit that I was a sinner would be tantamount to denying my faith in the efficacy of Christ's atoning sacrifice on my behalf and saving righteousness granted to me as a divine gift. His question disturbed me for several days.
As I prayerfully studied this, I was struck first by Paul's own characterization of himself only three verses later than the ones cited by my questioner: "Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am [Greek, eimi, present tense] the worst" (1 Tim. 1:15). Most scholars believe First Timothy to be one of Paul's last letters. Yet here he is still identifying himself in present tense not only as a sinner but as "the worst." The closer he was drawn to Jesus, and the more sanctified and righteous he became by God's grace, the more he saw himself as a sinner in need of continuing grace. The one time Paul characterized himself otherwise was in Philippians 3:6 where he described himself "as for legalistic righteousness, faultless." And in the same breath Paul repudiated this legalistic righteousness and considered it "rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith" (Phil. 3:8-9). In this confession he again showed his solidarity with the Old Testament/covenant gospel.[30]
Some would suggest that when Paul wrote that "law is made not for the righteous," he had the imputed righteousness of Christ in mind. However, the immediate context in which he characterizes himself as the worst of sinners suggests otherwise. When Jesus was criticized for associating with sinners, He responded, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mark 2:17). Paul seems never to have outgrown his sense of need for the Physician. The ability to recognize oneself as a sinner in continual need of grace is a healthy component of the experience of sanctification.
Paul's statement--"law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinners"--expresses a timeless, universal truth.
And just as the holy law of God was applicable to the daily life of the Old Testament believer who was deemed righteous by faith, it remains applicable for the New Testament believer who is declared righteous by that same faith.
When studied from an experiential old and new covenant perspective, other puzzling passages we may not have commented on can also be understood to harmonize with the consistent proclamation of the everlasting gospel throughout the ages and in all of God's covenants (see chart 2--"Graphic Summary of the Covenant[s]"--in appendix D).
One cannot interpret the passages we have been discussing and others like them from a strictly historical perspective without making God the author of legalism. Understanding them experientially reveals the unity of Scripture and the divine covenant(s) in harmony with the character of our loving God who changes not.
Perfection Demanded by the Covenant(s) Supplied in New Covenant Experience
Believers should never lose sight of the timeless truth that not just the law but salvation and the everlasting covenant itself demand perfection. It wasn't just demanded in the historical old covenant but in the new as well: "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). Doing a word study of Jesus's statement doesn't help us lower the bar the tiniest fraction, for the perfection that Jesus commands and demands is "as your heavenly Father is perfect"! The fact is, it's a perfection beyond our ability to comprehend. It's not a perfection that is somehow less than it first sounds, but greater! That truth must never be compromised. To do so would make a mockery of the perfect life Jesus lived on our behalf: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21). In the loom of heaven that one perfect life was woven into a robe of perfect righteousness that is draped by grace over every believer so that we might approach God's throne with confidence and receive grace to help us in time of need (Zech. 3:1-7; Isa. 61:10; Gal. 3:27; Rev. 7:13-14; Heb. 4:14-16). It is also true that "he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed" (1 Pet. 2:24).
Note the following classic statement that holds together the major issues and components of God's eternal covenant with humankind and is as clear a statement as any on the nature of the gospel and a new covenant experience:
It was possible for Adam, before the fall, to form a righteous character by obedience to God's law. But he failed to do this, and because of his sin our natures are fallen and we cannot make ourselves righteous. Since we are sinful, unholy, we cannot perfectly obey the holy law. We have no righteousness of our own with which to meet the claims of the law of God. But Christ has made a way of escape for us. He lived on earth amid the trials and temptations such as we have to meet. He lived a sinless life. He died for us, and now He offers to take our sins and give us His righteousness. If you give yourself to Him, and accept Him as your Saviour, then, sinful as your life may have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous. Christ's character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned.
More than this, Christ changes the heart. He abides in your heart by faith. You are to maintain this connection with Christ by faith and the continual surrender of your will to Him; and so long as you do this, he will work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. So you may say, "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20. So Jesus said to His disciples, "It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." Matthew 10:20. Then with Christ working in you, you will manifest the same spirit and do the same good works-works of righteousness, obedience.
So we have nothing in ourselves of which to boast. We have no ground for self-exaltation. Our only ground of hope is in the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and in that wrought by His Spirit working in and through us.[31]
New Covenant Experience in Old Covenant History
In Hebrews 11, the chapter following his extended treatment of the transition from the priesthood and sacrifices of the old covenant to the priesthood and sacrifice of Jesus, the author of Hebrews did something remarkable. He provided a representative list of believers who lived during the period of God's historical old covenant yet manifested a new covenant experience. Long before the new covenant was articulated by Jeremiah and ratified by Jesus's "blood of the everlasting covenant" (Heb. 13:20), the Holy Spirit was converting sinful hearts and living in them and through them in a new covenant experience--beginning with Abel, son of Adam, who "by faith ... was commended as a righteous man" (Heb. 11:4). That sort of deep intimacy with God is possible only through a new covenant experience: "By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; ... For before He was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God" (Heb. 11:5).
Hebrews 11 extends the list through the major representatives of God's covenants--Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. But the list doesn't stop there. The author also mentions Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, Samuel, and the prophets. The list includes some rough characters, to be sure. But whoever the Spirit draws to faith and salvation surrenders also to the operation of the Spirit, whether it be Samson in the Old Testament or the thief on the cross in the New, both of whom appear to have come up far short of a high level of spiritual maturity, and yet seem to have been included in God's list of saved new covenant believers (Heb. 11:32, 39-40; Luke 23:40-43).[32]
But still the list in Hebrews 11 goes on, including large bodies of people. "By faith the people passed through the Red Sea" (Heb. 11:29). Aren't these the ones who only a few weeks later were making a golden calf? Yes, for the most part. Faith doesn't always equate with spiritual maturity. And "not all the Israelites accepted the good news" (Rom. 10:16), but some did. And God honored their faith. "By faith the walls of Jericho fell" (Heb. 11:30).
The list further includes many unnamed believers who were persecuted, tortured, even martyred: "all commended for their faith" (Heb. 11:35-39). "Before this faith came" through the Holy Spirit's converting influence, every one of them was "a prisoner of sin" (Gal. 3:22-23). Yet because of their submission to the work of the Spirit, "all these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. ... Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them" (Heb. 11:13,16).
These representative believers of God's historical old covenant era, even though most of them lived historically after Sinai, did not live "according to the flesh," but "by the power of the Spirit" (Gal. 4:23,29). They were not the persecutors of the saints but were themselves the persecuted (Gal. 4:29; Heb. 11:25,35-38). Many will find it hard to imagine that the Old Testament believer who testified, "I delight in your commands because I love them" (Ps. 119:47), "your statutes ... are the joy of my heart" (Ps. 119:47), and obedience to Your law is for me to "walk about in freedom" (Ps. 119:44-45), would have described this experience in covenant relation with God as being "burdened by a yoke of slavery" (Gal. 5:1). An Old Testament believer who sang from his or her heart, "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul" (Ps. 19:7), and "I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life" (Ps. 119:93), surely would have been shocked to hear others describe God's gracious covenant with them as "the letter that kills" and a "ministry that brought death [and] condemned [them]," a covenant which they understood only through a dull mind and veiled eyes since they had never "turned to the Lord" (2 Cor. 3:6-9,14-16). It is only reasonable to envision them as people who embraced His covenant and law as that which is "perfect, reviving the soul," "holy, righteous and good," "spiritual," "of the Spirit [that] gives life" and "brings righteousness" with "ever increasing glory," one that lasts and "gives freedom" (Deut. 4:7-8; 10:13; Ps. 119:39,119; Rom. 7:12,14; 2 Cor. 3:6-9,17-18; James 2:10-12). Far from being a people who related externally to God's covenant as something written on stone only, they were people on whose hearts His law was being written by "the Spirit of the living God" (2 Cor. 3:3; cf. Deut. 30:6, 11-14; Ps. 40:8; Isa. 51:7).
These heroes of faith were not a hopeless people who "will never share in the inheritance with the [saints]" but rather a people who "admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth," "looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God" (Gal. 4:30; Heb. 11:10,13). "Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them" (Heb. 11:16). By virtue of their experience with God--an experience initiated and sustained by grace and responded to through faith-they bore the divine credentials of new covenant believers.
God was writing His law on the hearts of each of those in this list--promise/provision 1 (sanctification) of the new covenant. God's law was more perfectly written in Enoch's heart than Samson's, just as it was more perfectly written in the apostle John's than in the heart of the thief on the cross. It is always a work in process short of Christ's return, but a new covenant work nonetheless. Of all those on the list it could be said that God was their God and they were His people--promise/provision 2 (reconciliation). All of them were ambassadors of the knowledge of the true God to the darkened minds of their generation until that Day when no one will need to teach neighbors about God, for all will know Him--promise/provision 3 (mission). Each was no less forgiven "through the blood of the everlasting covenant" (Heb. 13:20) than was any of us in the new covenant era, though each looked forward to the promise of Christ's atoning act by means of lamb sacrifices while we look back on it in remembrance by means of the holy communion--promise/provision 4 (justification).
Each believer in the Hebrews 11 list lived in God's old covenant historical era; each manifested a new covenant experience. Christ was the Author and Finisher of their faith (Heb. 12:2). Hebrews 12:23 classifies them as part of "the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven, ... the spirits of righteous men made perfect." The NIV Study Bible note on Hebrews 12:23 says: "For the most part, these were pre-Christian believers such as Abel (11:4) and Noah (11:7). They are referred to as ... righteous because God credited their faith to them as righteousness, as he did to Abraham (see Ro 4:3). Actual justification was not accomplished, however, until Christ made it complete by his death on the cross (see 11:40; Ro 3:24-25; 4:23-25)."[33]
Old Covenant Experience in New Covenant History
There was another group of people living in God's new covenant historical era who were "turning to a different gospel--which is really no gospel at all" (Gal. 1:6,7): the Galatians. Having tasted a new covenant experience, they were in danger of regressing into an old covenant experience: "You foolish Galatians! ... Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard [the gospel]? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit [of grace and faith--a new covenant experience], are you now trying to attain your goal [of salvation and sanctification] by human effort [reliance on observing the law--an old covenant experience]?" (Gal. 3:1-3,10; 4:21).
Paul countered the Galatians' regression into an old covenant experience with this theme: "We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified" (Gal. 2:16). The author of the NIV Study Bible commentary note considers Galatians 2:16 "a key verse" in which Paul "is arguing against an illegitimate use of the OT law that made the observance of that law the grounds of acceptance with God" [italics added][34]--which is precisely the old covenant experience.
The very fact that by the Spirit's inspiration this warning letter to the Galatians was adopted into the canon of Scripture is evidence of the possibility of living an old covenant experience within the new covenant historical era. The serious tone of Galatians warns every sincere seeker of the truth about the lethal effect that such an experience can have on one's spiritual life, converting it into a burdensome yoke of slavery, transforming the holy covenant into "the letter that kills" and a ministry that brings death and condemnation, whose end "will never share in the inheritance with the [saints]" (Gal. 4:30; 5:1; 2 Cor. 3:6-9).
This may be the meaning of Jesus's teaching about the need for new wine to be poured into new wineskins: "No one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins" (Luke 5:37-38; cf. Matt. 9:17; Mark 2:22). Jesus did not mean that the gospel God taught through His historical old covenant era, a gospel which was able to make them "wise for salvation" (2 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 4:2), was incompatible with the gospel He was proclaiming in the new covenant historical era. Jesus was responding to those who questioned why the disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees fasted but Jesus's disciples did not.[35] Jesus's answer pointed away from judging ourselves or others based on external observances. The temptation to rely on one's religious practices to earn merit with God will always be present as long as the sinful nature maintains any influence in the matter. Luke adds Jesus's statement to this incident: "And not one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, 'The old is better'" (5:39). By this He acknowledges the powerful pull of the sinful nature to keep people of every historical era steeped in legalistic attitudes and practices, and resistant to the gospel, a condition that Paul himself experienced for much of his life as his testimony in Philippians 3:4-6 reveals.
A converted person who backslides into legalism has reverted to "a different gospel-which is really no gospel at all," and unless reconverted stands in jeopardy of being "eternally condemned" (Gal. 1:6-9). This concern forms the basis for Paul's admonition to the Colossians, "Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord [by grace through faith], continue to live in him [by grace through faith]" (Col. 2:6). With this same concern that had loomed into a present threat he confronted the Galatian church more directly: "Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?" (Gal. 3:2-3). Living in the historical new covenant era, even learning about and teaching the new covenant, does not insulate any of us from the age-old temptation to attempt to attain to righteousness by our own works. Even the New Testament, when read through the veil of a legalistic understanding, and apart from prayer and reliance on the Holy Spirit, can be converted into a "letter that kills" and a "law of sin" that produces an old covenant experience (1 Cor. 2:10-14). "But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away"--a profound spiritual truth and promise that is timeless and universal, offering hope and salvation to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people (2 Cor. 3:16; Rev. 14:6).
Covenant Love in Focus
Paul concluded his intense letter to the Galatians warning against an old covenant experience and appealing for a life of faith: "But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6:14). For new covenant Christians, the cross of Christ becomes the cross on which the world is crucified to them, and they are crucified to the world. In context, "the world" in this text represents both the evil "acts of the sinful nature" and reliance "on observing the law" as a means of righteousness and salvation (Gal. 5:19-21; 3:10). Both are crucified on the cross of Christ from which grace streams and hope is born. Just as a magnifying glass can focus the rays of the sun to a pinpoint that can start a fire, so the cross of Christ gathers the rays of God's covenant love and focuses them to a pinpoint that can ignite faith and inscribe His law in the heart.
Summary
The interpretative key to understanding the New Testament's position on God's covenant(s) and law is found in a prayerful discernment and application of the historical and experiential dimensions of the covenants to the texts in question. In general, Hebrews 7-10 focuses on the historical old and new covenants (the historical periods before and after the coming of Jesus), while the other epistles usually focus on the experiential old and new covenants (disobedience and legalism produced by the sinful nature versus faith and loving obedience that proceed from faith as produced by the Holy Spirit). Hebrews emphasizes Christ's fulfillment of the Old Testament sacrificial and priesthood system, making the former ceremonial system obsolete. In the other epistles, Paul's contention with "the law" seeks to rescue it from the misunderstanding and misapplication of it experienced by the majority in Israel, and to restore it to its original gracebased, gospel-bearing, faith-inducing, mission-directed purpose. This understanding results from a careful examination of the immediate and wider scriptural context of the texts involved, and reveals the symmetry and unity of God's plan of salvation throughout the covenant of redemption which spans from paradise lost to paradise restored.
Notes: