If you read the Old Testament, especially the Old Covenant Laws, and feel condemned GOOD JOB! You’re taking it seriously. That’s what the Law is supposed to do, condemn you and highlight your sin. Even some of the teachings of Jesus were delivered through the lens of the Law. He did so to point out your inability to keep the Law.
For clarification, there is a difference between the Old Testament and the Old Covenant. All the books of the Old Testament are the inspired Word of God. But the Old Covenant, the agreement between God and the nation of Israel, along with its 600+ rules and laws, have been fulfilled by Jesus, thus rendering the set of laws obsolete.
Hebrews 8:13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
We’re not throwing out a huge part of God’s Word, we’re simply putting the Law in its proper perspective as affected by the finished work of Jesus. Jesus is the end of the Law for the believer. The Law was made obsolete regarding righteousness for you. Jesus didn’t throw out the Law, he just fulfilled it for you.
“Romans 1:15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.””
You are saved by grace through faith, and you stay saved by grace through faith, not through the Law. You don't start a spiritual journey with God based on the free gift of righteousness and then keep it by your works.
Yes, your salvation will produce good works, but the presence of those works is not the security of your salvation, Jesus is. Don’t let any academic, sola Scriptura minded person cause you to question your salvation based on the level of fruit they think is necessary. The blood of Christ alone secures your eternal redemption.
Jesus is your once and forever sacrifice for sin. He is the one that holds your place in God’s everlasting covenant of peace. Rest in his finished work.
Take a look at these passages to make sure your perspective of the Law is correct. As I taught in my series REPENT AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL, we must have a finished work hermeneutic. Everything we know about God must align with what Christ accomplished through his sinless life, substitutionary work on the cross, sacrificial death, conquering of death and the grave, and his ascension to glory with his own blood. Every belief we have about God's character and will must align with who Jesus showed us God to be.
God doesn’t change, the stories in the Old Testament are true. He gave the Israelites the Law, but we don’t stay there regarding our relationship with God. Jesus changed everything.
Read through these passages and make adjustments in your thinking, repenting along the way, to make sure you believe the GOOD NEWS of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ!!
Romans 7:12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
James 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
Matthew 5:17-19 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Galatians 2:16 Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Galatians 3:24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
Romans 3:20 because by the works of the Law none of mankind will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes knowledge of sin. 21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 but it is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction, Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.
Romans 3:28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Romans 6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Romans 7:4 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you also were put to death in regard to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were brought to light by the Law, were at work in the parts of our body to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
What stands out to you as you read through these passages? Did you recognize any areas where you are mixing the Old and New Covenants? What do you need to change in your thinking to align with our deliverance from the Law?
