What is the Law?

37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

The Issues

Two Separate Plans?

Numbers 23:19

God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

It seems apparent that God is unchanging. The Old Covenant, therefore, could not have been a mistake. I would submit that it was an integral part of His plan of Salvation from the very beginning. Would we have been able to understand the New Covenant if there had not been an Old Covenant? I don't think so.

Before going any further, I think we need to determine exactly what we mean by the terms Old Covenant and New Covenant. Typically, the term Old Covenant is equated with a covenant of works, while the New Covenant is considered a covenant of faith and grace.

When were these covenants made? Let's look at the Old Covenant first. In Exodus 19:5-6 God says

5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' ...

7 Then he [Moses] took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey." 8 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words."

31 "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. 32 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 broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. 33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, `Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

The New Covenant was ratified by the blood of Christ at Calvary's Cross. When was the New Covenant promised? Well, certainly, as seen in Jeremiah, it was promised long before the coming of Christ. But just how long? Let's look in Galatians 3 for the answer.

6 Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." 7 Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. 8 The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you." 9 So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

15 Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ. 17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

If God's New Covenant (the gospel plan of Salvation) was promised and made known at least 430 years before the Old Covenant, a couple of questions pop into mind. First, why, if it was actually promised first, is the New covenant called 'new'? This is actually pretty easy to answer. The New covenant was not ratified and made binding until Jesus died on the cross. This occurred long after the Old Covenant had been ratified, so therefore it makes sense to call it the New Covenant, even though it was promised first. Keep in mind that just because the New Covenant wasn't ratified until Jesus died, it doesn't mean it was not in effect from the very time it was promised. God's promise is far better than any covenant. Abraham knew this, and therefore accepted by faith that he was saved by the New Covenant.

The second question that arises is: Why, if the New Covenant was already promised and in effect, was there a need for the Law (Old Covenant) to be introduced 430 years later? Let's see what Paul has to say in Romans 3:20.

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet."
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11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified through faith.

Remember back in Exodus when the Israelites agreed to the Covenant with God? They said, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey." Little did they realize that without the help of their Saviour, Jesus Christ, they would have no way of obeying God's Law. It was only a short time later that the Israelites were worshipping a golden calf! From that very moment, the Old Covenant was no longer binding, for the people had broken their end of the agreement. From that point on, they needed to rely on the Gospel promise previously given to Abraham, for that promise contained their only hope for Salvation.

No, One Perfect Plan

I thank God for His wonderful power and wisdom. I praise Him, for it is only by His Son, Jesus Christ, that I might live forever!