THE OLD COVENANT versus THE NEW COVENANT (PT 5)

“For there is a setting aside of the former commandment because it was weak

and ineffectual – for the Law made nothing perfect - and instead,

a better hope is introduced through which we now draw near to Elohim (God).” Hebrews 7:18-19

THE great majority of believers – followers of Yahshua Mashiach (Messiah)the Way – know well enough that we are not under the Law given to Moses, and that we have been brought into a new covenant which is, in fact, a new dispensation – an age of grace. But there is often confusion arising from a failure to understand the purpose of the Law, and the differences between the Old and the New Covenants.

Some believers have the idea that we have been justified by faith, and now we must lead a righteous life and be sanctified through trying to keep the Law – or, at least as much of it as seems relevant today.

Recently I was shocked to read an erroneous statement by a Messianic Jewish woman. She wrote that there was no change to the Law – there was only a change in location of the Law. In the Old Covenant it was on stone; in the New Covenant it is on the heart.

The woman, however, makes a distinction between laws, ordinances, precepts and statutes. And while Aaronic sacrifices have become obsolete, she says, the rest of the Law remains intact and mandatory, including food laws, tithing and holy days and convocations.

The basis for making that statement, of course, was a sentence in Jeremiah:

“I will put My Law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” Jeremiah 31:33

This verse leads this ardent woman to conclude that the Old Covenant Law was also the Law of the New Covenant, and this is what is now implanted in the hearts of believers in Yahshua Mashiach (Messiah).

But that cannot be! Let’s look at the passage more carefully:

‘See, the days are coming,’ declares YAHWEH, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah, not like the covenant I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt - My covenant which they broke - although I was a husband to them,’ declares YAHWEH. ‘But this is the covenant I will make with the House of Israel after those days,’ declares YAHWEH: ‘I will put My Law (My torah-teaching) within them, and I will write it on their hearts’.” (Jeremiah 31:31-33)

The prophecy clearly says it is a New covenant. It is not the Old Covenant, and it is not like the Old Covenant.

Now:- “I will put My Law within them.” The Hebrew word translated “law” here is torah, which has the meaning of “teaching” or “instruction.” Torah is distinguished from the Hebrew words for laws (as in decrees) chok chakak, and command tsavah, and commandments misvah or mitsvot.

Torah does not have the ring of legal severity that “Law” has; rather, it means something highly desirable, something that brings encouragement and hope through instruction - torah-teaching. In the Messianic 40th psalm, Yahshua expresses delight in the will and torah of YAHWEH:

“See, here I am! I have come - in the scroll of the book it is written of Me. I delight to do Your will, O My Elohim (God); Your Torah is within My heart.” Psalm 40:7-8

And this is what Jeremiah is talking about – not a set of commands, but the joy and blessing of Elohim's (God’s) instructions and Elohim's will implanted in the believer’s heart. And the New Covenant (NT) is full of torah-teaching.

It would be wrong to presume, even for Jewish believers, that Elohim's (God’)s implanted torah-teaching is the Old Covenant instructions. Clearly the Old Covenant is obsolete, or as the Book of Hebrews says, the Old Covenant Law has been set aside:

“For it is declared of Y’shua Mashiach (Messiah) our Great High Priest: ‘YOU ARE A PRIEST FOREVER AFTER THE ORDER OF MELKIZEDEK.’ [Psalm 110:4]. For there is a setting aside of the former commandment because it was weak and ineffectual - for the Law made nothing perfect - and instead, a better hope is introduced through which we now draw near to Elohim (God).” Hebrews 7:17-19

It is wrong then to go through the Old Covenant instructions for the purpose of salvaging what may seem applicable for us. We can profit a lot from the OT, but as Hebrews 7:19 says, there is a “better hope.”

The apostle Paul is emphatic in teaching the superiority of the New Covenant, and the futility of going back to the bondage of Old Covenant law.

“Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the Law through the body of the Mashiach (Messiah), that you might belong to another - to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for Elohim (God) … But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old way of trying to follow the letter of the Law.” Romans 7:4, 6

....next...WHAT IS “THE LAW”?