CHAPTER NINE
THE OLD AND THE NEW COVENANT
The Old Testament was powerful. As we study the lives of those who lived by this covenant we can see the power they showed and lived by. People like Moses who divided the red sea in two, Joshua who stopped the sun from going for a whole day, Daniel, over whom lions had no power, Shedrach, Meshach and Abednego who could not be burnt by the kings fiery furnace, David defeating the philistine giant Goliath, Samuel whose word never fell to the ground, Elijah holding back rain for three and half years, Elisha raising the dead son of the shunamite woman back to life and a host of others were people that lived by the old covenant. These are people that up till this day when we read of them in the scriptures, we are always left in a state of “unbelief”, a state of awe.
As powerful as these people were, they were first of all “ordinary” men. James talking about Elijah said “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are…” James 5:17. They had no societal status. They were just ordinary everyday people doing everyday ordinary jobs like everyone else. Moses was just tending his father in-law’s sheep when God called him. Daniel, Shedrach, Meshach and Abednego were just slaves carried off into Babylon. Samuel was a temple servant etc.
This teaches us an important truth about the covenant and the kingdom of God. The covenant does not recognize any worldly status! Rather, the covenant causes us to be recognized by the world. It always begins with God picking you up from the “ordinary” to the “extraordinary”.
As powerful and as true as all these “miracles” were, they were of the Old Testament and are not in comparison to the new covenant that Christ has brought us into.
Righteousness: the old covenant required Israel to have a form of righteousness. They had to make themselves righteous by their acts and the way they lived. They had to meet certain standards to be able to activate the power of the covenant. God was dealing with them on the basis of “this will happen if you do this” cause and effect.
Wherever Israel broke their own requirement of the covenant, they faced certain consequences even as far as death. Aaron’s son was slain when he offered strange fire before God. We read in the book of Judges of all the times that Israel fell out of line with God and God would allow certain cruel kings of other nations to deal with them until they return back and cry unto the Lord.
If the requirements of a covenant are broken in the Old Testament, they were always unable to activate the power of that covenant. An example was shown when Achan a man of Israel and of the tribe of Judah took some of the accursed things which God had commanded Israel to destroy and not touch of them in the destruction of Jericho. “But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel. And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai. And they returned to Joshua, and said unto him, Let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; and make not all the people to labour thither; for they are but few. So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men: and they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.” Josh 7:1-5
Joshua had finished destroying Jericho and it was time to move on. Joshua’s confidence was in the Lord. God had already told Joshua “There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” Josh 1:5. But what unfolded after the destruction of Jericho seemed to negate God’s word to Joshua because the covenant was broken by one man in the camp of Israel.
So as long as they remained “righteous”, they could activate the power of the covenant.
Another example we can see in the Bible was Samson. Samson was a child of covenant right from his mother’s womb. The angel instructed her of a type of “righteousness” that must be maintained upon the boy’s life. He said to her “Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing: For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.” Judg 13:4-5. After he was born he was to maintain also a type of righteousness that kept the power of the covenant on him. His head was not to be shaven. Unfortunately, Samson broke the covenant of the Nazarite in the laps of Delilah and the Spirit of God left him. He became like any other man and was captured of the Philitines.
But in the New Testament, our righteousness is not required to enter the kingdom or to walk in the power of the kingdom of God. We have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Christ has fulfilled the requirements of the law for us.
Jesus teaching about the kingdom told the people: “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matt 5:20. But how could the righteousness of these people who were not so learned in the scriptures be more than that of the scribes and of the Pharisees? The scribes and the Pharisees were the religious heads that the people looked up to and Jesus is saying that their righteousness is not enough to make a man enter the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus was not trying to create a struggle in the people. All He wanted to show them was their inability to meet up with the required righteousness. The righteousness required by the kingdom is humanly impossible that’s why Isaiah said: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Isa 64:6
The righteousness of the law is self righteousness not the righteousness of God. That’s why the scribes and the Pharisees had the pride of being righteous. Self righteousness makes you to be quick in judging others. It brings a feeling of “I’m better than him because I have not sinned as he has”. It is a righteousness of works where you struggle to keep up with the requirements of the law. This is the kind of righteousness that births “religion”. It brings about a ritual rather than true worship.
Jesus gave an example sighting two men who went up to pray in the temple to show the righteousness of works: “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” Luke 18:10-14
All the Pharisee could see was his own righteousness, yet this is the kind that Jesus said cannot see the kingdom of heaven. He felt that he had earned a place in God by the works he had done but this is what appears to God as filthy rags.
Religion is based on self righteousness. It is religion that teaches “do not eat this or that” “do not wear this or that” etc. but Jesus came to teach grace not religion. Christianity then is meant to be a lifestyle not a religious ritual.
But does it mean that it is ok to just sin and live recklessly? NO! In Christ Jesus, we have been taken from the point where we keep away from sin because we “fear” God and the consequences of such actions to the point where we keep from sin out of love for God. Jesus said “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15 so obeying God now is born out of love rathe
r than religion. Being born out of love, it becomes a lifestyle rather than a ritual. But that you stay away from sin is not what makes you righteous for our righteousness is no longer of works but of God. Isaiah puts it this way: “…and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.” Isa 54:17