This is the Covenant, May 24, 2005

There has been quite a lot of discussion during the last couple of decades concerning the place of the Law of God as it relates to New Testament Christianity. People generally fall into one of two camps. Either they believe that the law, as given in the Older Testament, is no longer authoritative for the present time, or they contend that the authority of the law is still applicable (albeit with some modification). The debates over this matter have often been heated. To suggest, for instance, that there is an abiding duty for Christians to observe a weekly Sabbath will get you into hot water fast. Or to advocate the execution of convicted sodomites will certainly raise the volume of discussion just as rapidly. Sadly, this seems to display a remarkable ignorance concerning the New Covenant that God has promised His people.In the midst of a discussion on the ending of the Older Testament, the author of Hebrews makes a surprising assertion. He shows that the New Covenant supersedes the Old. He establishes the necessity for this to occur, and quotes from the Old Testament to show that this transition was foreordained by God. But he then makes an assertion that many would have trouble agreeing with in these times. Quoting from Jeremiah, he presents the following:Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people…(Hebrews 8:8-10)Whatever else we may think this passage says, it clearly and obviously asserts that the laws of God will be engrafted and internalized as a central aspect of the New Covenant. This being the case, there can be no room for contradiction between New Covenant faith and the acknowledgement of, submission to, and a holy affection for the Laws of the Covenant Maker. His Laws transcend the differences and distinctions between the Older and New Covenant.So where is the controversy?Many evangelicals simply dismiss all of this with the standard (but unbiblical) assertion that the Old Testament laws are completely negated, along with the greater proportion of inspired and prophetic writings contained in the Bible. Reformed types kibitz around the edges, agonizing that these laws are not directly transferable to the New era. All of this can only be figured out by a few learned scholars, don’t you know? And even they are not sure.I am inclined to believe that the resistance to submitting to the Law of God is, at its root, a bit simpler than most of the argumentation of the last twenty years. It goes like this:Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:7-8)So there you have it, brothers and sisters, right from the pen of the apostle Paul (a New Testament writer). The reason we resist the Law of God is that we are carnally minded. And this is death (see vs. 6). It would appear that some serious soul searching is needed by all of us, and especially by those who seem to have an aversion to the lawful applications of the Law of God.