When God
introduced his people to the first covenant, Moses described it like this, “And he declared to you his covenant, which
he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them
on two tablets of stone.”[1]
The first covenant involved Ten central Commandments, they were written on the
two stone tablets, and they required performance by the people in order to
bring about God’s blessing.
When Jesus introduced
the second covenant, Paul described it like this, “In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup
is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance
of me.’”[2]
In this case, the new covenant involved Jesus doing all the work for our redemption,
requiring him to lay down his life for his sheep.[3] The
covenant was in his own blood, not on stone tablets, and it was to be received
as a gift, expressed by the Church’s drinking from the cup that was given to
them.
The early
church was hit with a particular strain of false teaching where people claimed
that believers required the salvation that came through the new covenant in Jesus’
blood, but still needed to keep the laws that were given under the old
covenant.[4] However,
the two covenants are so different that, just as stone and Spirit, they cannot
be combined.
So, Paul
teaches us that the covenant “carved in
letters on stone,” which we know to mean the Ten Commandments, was called “the ministry of death,” and “the ministry of condemnation.”[5] The
reason was that the first covenant declared what man would have to do to earn
right standing with God, and all the years of Israel living under that covenant
proved that it could never be done. Hence, everyone remained condemned under
the sentence of death.
On the other
hand, the new covenant is described as “the
ministry of the Spirit,” and “the
ministry of righteousness.”[6] When
Jesus shed his blood for our sins, the law was perfectly satisfied, all just
demands against us were met, the price for us breaking the covenant carved in
letters on stone was paid by one whose body was nailed to a tree.
This contrast
between two covenants is presented in beautiful expression when Paul wrote,
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for
those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you
free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the
law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order
that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not
according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8)
The law of sin
and death gave us condemnation. The law of the Spirit of life has set us free
from sin and condemnation to live in fellowship with God. The law, which was
weakened by our sinful flesh, could never do what it set out to do, which was
to make people in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. On the other hand,
God presented a new covenant in which he sent his Son in the image of man,
condemned him for our sins, satisfied the righteous requirements of the law on
our behalf, and set us free in Christ Jesus to walk according to the Spirit.
Now we have a
covenant that is “written
not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but
on tablets of human hearts.”[7] Now we have a covenant in Jesus’ blood, “not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the
Spirit gives life.”[8] That is why Paul would write, “Now
the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”[9] Freedom from the “law of sin
and death,”[10]and into the “right to become
children of God.”[11]By faith in Jesus Christ, those who were once under a ministry of
death and condemnation have this promise that, “all who are led by the
Spirit of God are sons of God.”[12]
When Paul was
dealing with the false teachers trying to squeeze the Spirit into the stone
tablets, he wrote:
23 Now before faith came, we
were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be
revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian
until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has
come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God,
through faith.”[13]
Those who have
faith in Jesus Christ are no longer under the guardian that could only give us
death and condemnation. Now we are in a new covenant, in the blood of our
Savior, written on our hearts, securing our return to the image and likeness of
our Savior. This is why Paul could conclude II Corinthians 3 with that
beautiful verse I wrote about in my last post: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory
of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory
to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”[14]
Fact
is, deliverance from sin had to come from the Lord who is the Spirit, because letters
of law, written in tablets of stone, weakened by sinful flesh, could never
bring it about. Jesus wanted a creature in his own image and likeness,[15] and through the new covenant, that is what he has accomplished.
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Deuteronomy 4:13
[2]
I Corinthians 11:25
[3]
John 10:11, 15
[4]
The whole book of Galatians is Paul’s strong focus on ridding the church of such
heresy.
[5]
II Corinthians 3:7-9
[6]
II Corinthians 3:7-9
[7]
II Corinthians 3:3
[8]
II Corinthians 3:6
[9]
II Corinthians 3:17
[10]
Romans 8:2
[11]
John 1:12
[12]
Romans 8:14
[13]
Galatians 3:23-26
[14]
II Corinthians 3:18
[15]
Genesis 1:26-27
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