Our Covenant with God - Part I

In Genesis 2:16-17 God made a covenant with Adam saying that he could eat of every tree in the garden with the exception of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve broke this covenant and death entered into the world.

Later, in Genesis 6, God made a covenant with Noah to build the ark to save his family and the animals from the coming flood. In Genesis 6:22 the Bible says that Noah did all that God had commanded him. In Genesis 8:15-17 Noah, his family, and the animals came out of the ark on dry ground. They were saved.

In Genesis 12:1-3 God made a covenant with Abram to leave the land of his fathers and go to the land He would show him. In doing so, there was the promise of blessing and cursing, and, that through him all the families of the earth would be blessed. Abram did as God told him, and it is through Abram’s [Abraham] seed that all the nations of the earth are blessed (Galatians 3:8, 16, 29).

God also made a covenant with Moses and the children of Israel in Exodus 19:3 thru 31:18. Leviticus gives more details of the law, and Deuteronomy is a “second giving” of the law of Moses. Israel failed to keep this covenant and God cast them into captivity many times to punish
them.

There have been other covenants that God has made with individuals and groups that are given in the Bible. But these are the ones that are readily familiar to most Bible students. Each of these covenants was distinct and separate from one another. For example, Abraham did not have to build an ark. God did not command Moses not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Noah did not have to go to Jerusalem to offer a sacrifice for sin each year.

Today, Christians do not have to travel to Jerusalem to offer an animal sacrifices on the alter. Why not? Isn’t the law of Moses still in the Bible?

During the time that the law of Moses was in power, Jeremiah prophesied that the time would come when God would make a new covenant with Israel and Judah (Jeremiah 31:31-34). This covenant was “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt…” This covenant would be different.

The writer of the book of Hebrews, after quoting Jeremiah 31:31-34, wrote, “In that He says, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13).

Paul wrote, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law…” (Galatians 3:13). In Romans 10:4 he wrote, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” In Romans 7:4 he wrote, “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law [of Moses, see verse 7, sv] through the body [death] of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.” Anyone who claims to be under the law of Moses is under the curse of the law. And, it is evident that a person cannot be married to, and be in subjection to, both Moses and Christ. Paul said that was under the law of Christ in 1 Corinthians 9:21.

Besides this, Christ could not be the high priest if the law of Moses was still in power. For under it the priests had to come from the tribe of Levi. But Christ was of the tribe of Judah. Hebrews 7:11-14 makes it clear that the law had to be changed in order for Christ to become the high priest. In Hebrews 9:16-17 teaches that when Christ died on the cross the new testament came into power. Jesus fulfilled the law of Moses and took it out of the way (Matthew 5:17; Colossian 2:14).

Paul describes the Law of Moses as a tutor that was designed to bring its people to Christ. But once the faith came Paul says, “we are no longer under a tutor” (Galatians 3:23-25).

Christ is the mediator of the new testament (new covenant, Hebrews 9:15). He is not the mediator of the old covenant of Moses. If He were, then we would still be killing goats and heifers before the altar in Jerusalem .

-Steve Vice