Summary: Grace for the Humble, Stiff Task for the Self Righteous

Reading back my 9 posts on Covenant, it is pretty hard work to read them, and I wrote them. There are a lot of points in there.

I will now try to summarise my basic underlying beliefs about the Bible, regarding the Sinai Covenant and the New Covenant.

For a long time I called out to God for understanding about what was fundamental about His Character as revealed in the Bible. Yes, God is love, and we cannot in any way minimise that. But I wanted a little more detail and filling out.

In particular I wanted to understand more fully the picture behind these two main covenants between God and man.

I believe God has started to answer me. I am indebted of course to others I have read and considered, without agreeing on everything they have said. I have particularly benfited from Terry Virgo and Joseph Prince. Going back further my theology has been shaped by Watchman Nee, Rick Joyner ('There were Two Trees in the Garden') and Colin Urquart.

I believe there are two basic approaches for man when he believes in God. They might be summarised as 'negotiation' or 'surrender'. Also by 'self-righteousness' or 'contrition'. By 'proceedure' or 'relationship'. By 'demands' or 'empowerment'. 'Struggling or yielding'. 'Worrying or resting'.

Continuing using Scriptural ideas, these two ways of relating to God involve 'The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil' or 'The Tree of Life'. Also 'Hagar or Sarah', 'Ishmael or Issac', 'Law or Grace', 'Faith or Works'. 'Slave or Friend'. Also 'Judgement or Mercy'.

Actually many of these pairs of ideas are not either/or but a matter of emphasis.

They are not about God himself. God is the same throughout the Bible. He remains Holy, All Powerful, All Knowing, All Loving, Unchangeable, without beginning or end.

The two perspectives are about how we see God and about how we attempt to relate to Him.

The first of each either/or pair above is where the emphasis is for the Sinai (Old) Covenant. The second is about where the emphasis is for the New Covenant.

Is this important? Yes, extremely. Galatians is all about shifting ones perspectives from the Old to the New and keeping it there.

The old Covenant is about how the deluded and self-righteous imagine they could relate to God sucessfully. The New Covenant is about how God knows how sinful man may sucessfully relate to Him. The contrast is there to keep you from banging your head against a spiritual brick wall. It comes from God's heart of love after all. The message is; reject ways of trying to relate to God which belong to the Old Covenant, and embrace the ways that belong to the New.

Covenants Part 9- The Jews and Christ

God's present attitude to the Jews 


The Jews are the descendants of the biblical Israelites, who are the children of Abraham through Isaac. Paul commonly refers to them as 'Israel'.


1 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 2 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
Romans 10:1-4 (KJV)  


I finished the last post by stating that God still desires Israel to be saved. He will still fulfill His promises to them. However He will do so through the Gospel and not through the Law of Moses. The sufficient sacrifice of Christ is the only finally effective one offered by God for all humanity.


As far as the gospel is concerned, (the Jews) are enemies on your (Gentile believers) account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.    (Rom 11:28-29 NIV) The Jews, now as then, are in a ‘holding pattern’. The Law is a holding pattern. A holding pattern is an aviation term. A plane is awaiting permission to land. It flies this pattern in the meantime. The plane is not at rest until it lands. The Jews are being held in a partial revelation of the nature of God.

The Law represents as much grace and intimacy as the Jews were willing to receive at that time. The Israelites where not willing at that time to loose their independent lives, let go of their own 'righteousness', and become one in spirit with God.

If the Jews ‘land’, it will be by coming to Christ. They will then enter into the rest God promised for them. They will rest from attempting and failing to establish their own righteousness. The Jews have the promises of God held out to them because they are physically descended from Abraham. However they are currently, temporarily, enemies of the Gospel. They have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

To submit to the righteousness of God, you must believe that God offers it to you, and, you must believe you need it. This requires a humble and contrite heart. Sacrifice and burnt offering are not required; they are brought by people who still imagine they have something they can do to appease 

God.

Now there are Jews, such as David, who got revelation about this, even though they were under the dispensation of the Law. For the people who, like David, saw beyond the veil of the Law, God allowed them to glimpse and enjoy some of the benefits of the New Covenant.

16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. 

Psalms 51:16-17 (of David, KJV)

On the whole the Jews still do not believe, and therefore they do not receive the full realization of what is theirs. However, as the age comes to an end, the Jews who are true will believe in and receive their Messiah Jesus Christ. 

For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Romans 10:12-13 (KJV)

The Jews are in a holding pattern because the unconditional promises God made to Abraham still stand. He is faithful even when men are not. However they are still in it because so far they refuse to believe in the Gospel, just as they did in the days of Moses. God becomes angry with those who persist in self justification and resist the Gospel, even if they are natural sons of Abraham. He may withdraw His hand of protection and hands them over to those driven by Satan, as history confirms.

Refusing intimacy and mercy from God will put a person under the anger and wrath of God.

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Psalms 2:12 (KJV)

God does not lose His temper with us as New Covenant believers in Jesus. We know we are not good enough, deep inside anyway. He will not reject us, or anyone who comes near to Him with his or her heart. There is, and always has been, grace for the humble and contrite heart. Remember why David was so beloved of the Lord? He had a humble and contrite heart (Psalm 51v17. See also Isaiah 66v2 which is not referring to David in particular). He was also a man after God’s heart (1 Samuel 13v14).  I think such a man is prepared in his heart attitude for the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.

Covenants Part 8- Reasons For the Old Covenant based on Law

In Part 7 I looked at a sudden change in the approach God takes with the Israelites at Sinai under the leadership of Moses. I want to now discuss reasons why the Law was given. I believe we can draw out 6 points:

Regarding the nature of God and how He sees humanity

God wanted to spell out what righteousness looks like in day to day life. This remains true today under the New Testament, where 9 of the 10 commandments are endorsed. But remember we cannot keep them outside of the transforming truths and power available under the New Covenant. The New Birth, and life under the Covenant sealed in the Blood of Jesus, give us the inner motivation and ability to live in true love with God and each other. In this condition we will keep the commandments.

We can see from the Ten Commandments that God is certainly not someone who accepts any and every form of behaviour. He is a Holy God. He has precise ideas about how we should conduct our lives. This is an eternal truth, which did not change when Jesus came. This is obvious from a complete examination of the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 make it clear that those who violate the ten commandments, as a matter of unrepentant habit, are not those who will inherit the Kingdom of God.

God wanted to foreshadow the sacrificial system of highest heaven. The Tabernacle, the Ark, and the Ceremonies of the Law all serve to prepare us for a full revelation of the ministry of Christ, who now constantly intercedes for us before the Father. Remember that in Christ we now have a completed and totally effective sacrifice so we need not be continually conscious of our sins. Our yoke to guilt, shame and condemnation has been supernaturally broken through faith in him alone!

God wants us to see the severity of sin and the high price which must be paid to deal with it. The Law shows us, again only in an illustrative way, the severity of sin and the non-trivial price for dealing with it. The many passages telling of the details of what was sinful, and of the demanding, exacting and elaborate sacrifices required to cover it, serve to show us that sin and atoning for it were very major issues in God's sight. 

Regarding the attitude of the Israelites at that time

Moses was a human mediator, and therefore the approach God took with the Israelites was in part a response to his mediation. Now mediation is not surrender to one party. God accommodated Moses to a degree. Within this mediation, God had an inflexible agenda. He was seeking as always to show them Christ! 
                                                                                                                                                             The Israelites did not seem to recognize, appreciate and rest in the grace being shown to them prior to Sinai. They did not see that the grace of God was and would always be enough. Basically, they displayed unbelief in the essence of the Gospel!


 God had begun by making the Israelites aware of the nature of the Gospel. He did this by delivering them, in response to the signs of the Passover and the blood of sprinkling, before the Exodus. He then showed by miraculous signs like the Red Sea crossing and the Manna that He could be relied upon even where no other help was available or even possible. The Promised Land would be theirs for the taking. We tend to receive from God's grace, getting a supernatural provision or deliverance, and then assume this was a special case and now it is up to us; either to earn God's favor to get another miracle or to sort things out ourselves. This is how people often treat one another. We show goodwill but soon expect something back. But God is an infinite, eternal God. He has endless resources. He will always be there for us. Earthly parents will feel the need to hand off all responsibilities to their kids for their own lives, knowing they will not always be there. But the sort of dependency we have on God will be eternal, an eternal joining. (I think that if you do not accept and want this, you cannot enter the Kingdom.)

The Israelites did not trust God dependability and mercy enough to continue to believe that He would always be all they needed. They did not believe in His resourcefulness; that He would always find a way to provide for or deliver them when they needed it.


These issues boil down to trusting or not trusting in His love, mercy and power. Or else we want to preserve our independence.


If we are aware of the existence of God and we do not want to surrender fully to Him, we will attempt to barter with Him. All human religion smacks of this. Only a full dose of God's love will fix it. But we must be willing to die. Otherwise we have an attitude of doing certain things for God and in return He hopefully does certain things for us. The Israelites, I believe, wanted a negotiated settlement with God. They certainly believed in His existence. But they were saying, in effect, 'What are the rules?' They wanted a negotiated settlement. In a sense, the Gospel is a negotiated settlement, since it was agreed within the Godhead. But in a more profound sense, the Gospel is a merger of God and man. It is God who brings wholeness and sufficiency into that situation. We are to become one with God in Christ, just as God and Christ are One. We must surrender to God, not negotiate, if we are to enter into His rest fully.

The Israelites did not seem to want to extend their blessed status to others but to become special and elite. Why do I say this? Look at Exodus Ch19v5. This verse may be a response to an unstated aspiration of the Israelites. But we know from 1 Timothy 2v4 and elsewhere in the New Testament that God wants all men to be saved. God had said to their forefather Abraham that all men would be blessed through him and presumably Abraham approved of that. It seems the Israelites at this time did not. (It is true that at this point in history there were evil races who presumably God knew to be beyond repentance and therefore He wanted them to be destroyed. Indeed He commissioned the Israelites to do this. However God’s heart has always been to include whoever will come to Him in faith with a humble heart).


The Israelites were trying to establish their own righteousness.



2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them*, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 
Heb 4:2-3 (KJV)

*the Israelites led out of Egypt by Moses, see Heb 3:16

They assumed that they had been chosen for their own virtues and righteousness. They displayed an arrogant and unrealistic moral self- belief. The Israelites failed to realize that the only acceptable and appropriate heart response to the presence of God is contrition and grateful surrender to His mercy. This is not some phony display you conjure up but an inward posture of humility. Instead of this  they were full of self-righteousness (Romans 10v3, Deuteronomy 9v4-6). God had to show them that they were not the morally superior people they thought they were and they needed a savior (Galatians 3v24-25).

God is in reality acting consistently throughout. He has no arbitrary favourites. He always opposes the self-righteous, those with pride and self-belief in who they are without Him. Even in the case of Adam and Eve, He was opposed to who they thought they could become without Him. That is why they were not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. it would take them into independence. He is always looking for humility before Him and faith in Him. He is not looking for inherent virtue within us. He knows there isn’t any which meets His requirements. Jesus taught as such:

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 KJV)

To summarize: It seems God responded to the persistent self-righteousness and unbelief of the Israelites, moderating it with the mediation and intercession of Moses. This resulted in the Old Covenant; a system designed to steer them to Christ. It was a harsh system designed to make them desire a 'divorce' from it and to yearn for a merciful and compassionate savior instead. 


Positively, the Law as a whole contained illustrative shadowings of the full realities of sin and righteousness, and of heavenly priesthood and sufficient sacrifice. However the focused fulfillment of these things is revealed in Christ. This is the main theme of the New Testament book of Hebrews.

God still desires Israel to be saved and will still fulfill His promises to them. However He will do so through the Gospel and not through the Law of Moses. The sufficient sacrifice of Christ is the only one offered by God for all humanity.

Covenants Part 7- Exodus 19 and 20: A Sudden Change of Approach?

What we have been describing in the last article is how Old Testament characters were relating to God in a way akin to how we do under the New Covenant. It is like they were adopted into the family of God but before Christ came. God calls Moses and develops relationship with him, in this way. He introduces Himself as the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. He gives him a specific job to do. Moses is to lead the Israelites out of oppression in Egypt and into the land promised to Abraham, Issac and Jacob. Initially all goes well, and despite doubts and complaining, God always graciously uplifts the Israelites and leads them on. 

Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.    (Exo 19:4 KJV)

God’s promises to Abraham and Moses were being fulfilled. It was essentially grace at work.

However….

Things seem to change quickly and very substantially when we proceed further into Exodus. The Old Covenant is instigated. A new element to the relationship appears. God seems to change the way He chooses to relate to the Israelites. Previous encounters with God had seemed, if certainly not light, then relatively informal and spontaneous. Now there is procedure and rule piled high. There are formal warnings of punishment and a general curse for those who transgress these rules and procedures. There is angry and sudden retribution for violation of the rules. We are suddenly under the regime of ‘The Law’. From Exodus Chapter 20 through to the end of Deuteronomy, we see a code of conduct spelt out in ever increasing detail for the Israelites to observe. It is exacting and spontaneity-crushing stuff. This Law is appealed to, both by God and by the Israelites, right through to the New Testament. There the Old Covenant is declared to be obsolete (see Hebrews 8v13, presented at the beginning of article).

Why God bought in the Law (also called the Mosaic Law and the Old Covenant) is worth examining. He is the same God (Hebrews 13v6) but He seems to be acting differently to the way He did with either the faithful Old Testament ancients or with New Covenant believers in Christ. A nurturing and resilient love and commitment, as experienced by the patriarchs, seems, for a period of many hundreds of years, from Sinai to Jesus, to have given way to an exacting, scrutinizing and demanding perfectionism. We then return in the New Testament to a call to friendship with God (John 15v15).

Did God suddenly lose His temper with humanity (in this case the Israelites) for no real reason other than He had finally had enough? Or can we find the reason? Does God reject people in this way, in the way we reject one another? This question has huge implications! Please keep reading.

Covenants Part 6- Relationship or Procedure as a Starting Point

The old covenant is based on our natural nature without new birth and it's performance. We are trying by ourselves to meet the behavioral requirements of God. God knows that this will never work. It seems though, that in the days of Moses, He gave us a chance to prove Him wrong!

I have heard the old covenant of law described as "the preference of procedure over relationship". 

The old covenant requires our adherence to masses of procedures and rules. Relationship with an all consuming, jealous God can seem threatening. The old covenant is about mankind adhering to rules and procedure. This can seem safer, less threatening, less all consuming. The new covenant is about promises from God and relationship with God. The old covenant is about our performance, the new is about God's initiatives to us, regardless of our performance at the time.

Which 'P&R' do you want? Promise and Relationship; or procedures and rules?

In the books commonly called 'the Old Testament', there are relationships between individuals and God. Not every book in the Old Testament emphasizes the Old Covenant. Indeed the Old Covenant did not kick in until several hundred years in to Old Testament history.

Both before and after the Law was given, there are people who experienced God first hand, i.e. relationally. 

Old Covenant encounters emphasizing Promise and Relationship, and not procedure and rules

The broad sweep of biblical history involves the Creation and Fall as set out in Genesis chapters 1-3. Subsequently we see God make initiatives and promises to men. Men such as Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Moses. Chapter 11 of the New Testament book of Hebrews records many heroes of the faith, including these men. They are mentioned because of their faith and not because of their rigorous attempts to uphold legalistic righteousness. Rahab the prostitute is in the list and so is Samson the womanizer. Does that excuse prostitution or depravity? No. But it did allow God to overlook them at the time and still work with these individuals! 

God talks with Abraham and enters into a covenant with him. God promises to bless the whole earth through Abraham and calls him an exalted father. Abraham is asked to believe this even before he has a child. He and his wife are very old.

Reading Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, in particular Chapter 3, we can see that there is a strong link in Paul’s thinking between the way God related to Abraham and the way He relates to us through the Gospel. The link is that both are based on a promise, and not good works. What exactly is the New Covenant promise? In a word, redemption. Redemption of everything the Devil has stolen and corrupted. Firstly, our relationship with our heavenly Father in all it's wonder and splendor. It is a complete package. Redemption, sanctification, provision, intimacy, security, righteousness, joy, peace, goodness etc. Also, in this age, persecution and suffering for righteousness' sake.

Let’s go back to Genesis 15v6.

And (Abraham) believed the LORD; and (the LORD) counted it to him for righteousness.    (Gen 15:6)

(Remember this verse is quoted by Paul twice and also by James to help them develop their doctrines in the New Testament. It must be significant!).

God is after people who take His relational initiatives seriously. For those who do, righteousness will pretty much sort itself out as time goes on. Hebrews 11 records people who had a living, current relationship with God. Yes it was imperfect, but it was definitely there. The New Covenant revolves around this one thing; a living fellowship, first with God, second with each other as believers (see 1 John 1v1-4).  

To people who hear from God and obey Him in this way, even imperfectly and intermittently, God always seems to show ongoing forbearance and commitment. He treats them as a patient and loving father would treat his children. We can see this in lives of men like Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and David. All these men lived and died before Jesus was born in Bethlehem.