It seems that in the last few years as I have studied and listened to God’s word, a stark and amazing contrast of truths stand out like never before. A purposeful contrast that is categorical throughout the entire bible. It is the contrast between His two covenants. God has laid out this contrast for the intent of diagnosing the ills of humanity and then liberating them from those ills. But the people of God have been stuck between the diagnosis and the healing. The law served for a time for the diagnosis of sin in the human race. The blood of Jesus still serves as the cure for sin in the human race. But much of the church today utilizes the system of diagnosis as way of control, while ignorantly diminishing the value of the cure.

We are 2000 years removed from the cross and yet much of the church has not entered into the revelation of the finished work of Christ. We have received the salvation that is in Christ but we measure our morality by portions of the law (ten commandments). We received Jesus by the hearing of faith, but we try to make it in by our good works. We say that Christ paid for all our sins but what we really mean is he has paid for all our past sins. We preach that Jesus paid for sin but we practice looking for sin in others. All of this is the way of a religiously imposed system by men who in most cases thought it good to employ the law of commandments with the grace that is in Christ. And down through the centuries and years, this composite of law and grace has been passed down by the elders from generation to generation.

I believe that the Church of Jesus Christ is at a crossroads. I believe we are at a place where defining moments will be experienced. I perceive that we are in a day and hour that the Lord from heaven is shinning the spotlight on the cross for the church to learn the entire message of the cross.

When the church can believe that the message of the cross is complete they will see that the law is obsolete.

THE FIRST COVENANT

When God gave the law to Moses, the ten commandments, on Mt. Sinai, He called those writings the covenant that he made saying,

‘I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel‘ (Exo 34:27).

God called the covenant His covenant while stamping His disapproval on it; when He said,

‘. . . because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.’ (Heb 8:9b)

That covenant was given for a purpose and a time. Then in the dispensation of the fullness of time Christ was manifested namely to establish the second covenant from God, except the second covenant is directly opposite and in contrast to the first covenant. In fact, the second covenant came to replace the first covenant not reinforce it. These two covenants are God’s Covenants and they are against one another. The first covenant was powerless to change a man and even less to save a man.

This is why God found fault with the first covenant saying, ‘For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.’ (Heb 8:7)

There are many directions to go in from here. But first things first. Before I go any further, I think it is important to make it absolutely clear what is the first covenant. Let’s look at a couple of witnesses in the word.

Top Of Mt. Sinai

(Deut 4:13) states, ‘And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and wrote them upon two tables of stone.’

In another place He said, ‘And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.’ (Exodus 34:28)

This the bible makes very apparent, that the ten commandments that God gave Moses is a covenant.

Secondly, I think it is necessary to understand all that was included with the ten commandments. The ten commandments included some 600 plus civil laws given for the Israelites to keep. Also there was the tabernacle with it’s priesthood, furniture, courts, animal sacrifices and instructions to make offerings. All of these were part of the first covenant.

And of course the mediation of this covenant was given to Moses. It is often referred to as the Mosaic Law or the Law of Moses. But in either case it is the first covenant. It is not, as some have taught, the law to the Abrahamic covenant. The Abrahamic covenant is really the star of the show because it is the second covenant that God established with blood of Jesus, who is the seed of Abraham. So then the Mosaic law and the Abrahamic covenant have nothing to do with one another and are directly opposite one to another.

The more I studied how God destroyed sin through Jesus Christ, the more I realized that the church was not preaching pure gospel of God; but was rather preaching a convoluted and perverted gospel. You may ask; what is the perversion of the gospel?

The perversion of the gospel is when the message of the law is made to be observed in conjunction with the preaching of Christ. Or when  the weight of rules for living right are laid on the believer as means of remaining saved. This demand of human effort for the result of righteousness is a perversion of the gospel.

The Church has been practicing this for years and years. They preach faith in Jesus for salvation and when the sinner comes walking down the isle to give their life to Christ by faith, like a bird caught in a snare, the yolk of good works of the law is in part placed on them. Now they have to behave good enough to make it in. This is a perversion of the gospel. The pure gospel is faith in Christ alone.

Thirdly, It is also vitally important to know the actions of the law or first covenant when wrought upon the people of God.

a) The law strengthens sin (I Corinthians 15:56)(Romans 7:8b)

b) The law named sin-it gave identity to sin

c) The law established a knowledge of sin,(Romans 3:20)(Romans 7:7)

d) The law demanded death because of sin,(Romans 3:26)( Romans 7:10,13)

e) The law stained the conscience with guilt from sin,(Romans 3:19)

f) The law was applied to a man’s sinful flesh, (Romans 7:18)

g) The law worked wrath for sin, (Romans 4:15)

h) The law made God’s people bond-slaves to sin (Galatians 4:21-31)

I) The law produced the curse of sin (Galatians 3:10)

To understand any of these characteristics of the law when appropriated with humanity is to understand that this first covenant was against us and contrary to us. The worst of these characteristics of the law is ‘death’.

It was called the law of sin and death(Ro 8:2), It was called the ministration of death(II Co 3:7), It is called the letter that killeth(II Co 3:6). No wonder the writings of the New Testament opens up with the salutation of ‘Grace and Peace be unto you’. Because the new covenant was established and it is all about life not death. Why would anyone want to be under the law. Why would anyone have anything to do with the law at all except to know that it was replaced.

What the church has done, is conveniently borrowed parts of the law to establish their own regulation of rules and righteousness.

There are a great deal of God’s people in various denominations who are good-hearted, well-intending people from the clergy to the congregation whose desire is to please God, but they are victims of a religious culture that has shaped them with a mixed message of grace and law.

Much of the Pentecostal Church, who were suppose to be on the cutting edge of spiritual maturity  by virtue of having the Holy Ghost, missed the mark being tempted to regulate people by blindly invoking a system of rules to govern the believer’s behavior and appearance as a means to insure salvation. This was a critical mistake. God’s not ruling people with an external system of law. God rules people with an internal relation of love. The Pentecostals have it right in receiving the Holy Spirit, but they jumped ship from the full purpose of the Spirit, which Jesus revealed when he said, ‘Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:’ (John 16:13)

Most of God’s people that has received the Spirit only follow the Spirit to the point of speaking in tongues. If the spirit-filled people of God’s church would continue to follow the Spirit into all truth, they would see the purity of the gospel being without fleshly works. They would cease from embracing the law while embracing Jesus.