COVENANT-OLD
The end of
the Old Covenant came as He promised. God dramatized it marvelously with one
great climatic event, which occurred when Jesus died on the cross. The veil of
the Temple was torn from the top to the bottom, signifying that God had ended
the whole system. The Holy of Holies was exposed. Access to God was open to
all. The shadows gave way to the substance. And just to make sure no one was
confused about the old system, in A.D. 70 God allowed Jerusalem and the Temple
to be destroyed. It has never been rebuilt.
The Ultimate Priority, Moody Press 1983, p.
92-93.
The Old
Testament is not our testament. The Old Testament represents an Old Covenant,
which is one we are no longer obligated to keep. Therefore we can hardly begin
by assuming that the Old Covenant should automatically be binding upon us. We
have to assume, in fact, that none of its stipulations (laws) are binding upon
us unless they are renewed in the New Covenant. That is, unless an Old
Testament law is somehow restated or reinforced in the New Testament, it is no
longer directly binding on God's people (cf. Rom. 6:14-15).
Fee, Gordon and Douglas Stuart
How to Read the Bible For
All It’s Worth, Zondervan, 1993.
The Law’s purpose was temporary. Unlike God’s unchanging covenant with Abraham, the Mosaic one was at risk due to Israel’s persistent rebellion (Dan. 9:7-14; Hos. 6:7; 8:1). The solution God promises is not a renewal of what He gave at Sinai, but a new arrangement “not like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke” (Jer. 31:34). That promise of something new was not lost on its intended audience.
Scott
Klusendorf
Cherry Picking the Commandments, www.prolifetraining.com, Used by Permission.