THEOLOGY-NEW
COVENANT
But the
Gordian knot is easily undone when it is understood that Jesus is to Moses what
the butterfly is to the caterpillar. Moses is not struck down. Moses did not
"fail" (Lk. 16:17). Nor was he "destroyed" (Mt. 5:17).
Moses was "fulfilled." In Christ, Moses reaches maturity and emerges
in full bloom. Moses' law still has relevance, but only as it comes to us from
the hands of the Lord Jesus. Christians today must still read Moses, and for
great profit, but when they read him they must be careful to wear their
Christian lenses. Moses' law is not simply incorporated into the New Covenant
as it was revealed through Moses-it is fulfilled, advanced, and brought to
completion.
Fred Zaspel
Tom
Wells and Fred Zaspel, New Covenant Theology, 2002.
In
hermeneutical debate it is often asked whether it is right to assume that all
of Moses' law remains unless it is specifically abolished, or if it is right to
assume that it is all abolished unless it is specifically stated to remain. In
one sense the question is irrelevant, for it is the entire Old Covenant that is
abolished (2 Cor. 3) and not just certain categories of the law. But in another
sense the question is wrong, for Christ's claim (Mt. 5:18-20) is that all of
Moses is to be continually taught and observed-only, in the new form He gives
it. It is all of the law that remains, but it is to be obeyed as interpreted by
Christ.
Fred
Zaspel
Tom Wells and Fred Zaspel, New Covenant
Theology, 2002.
The
Antinomian heresy is the view that the law of God revealed in the Old Testament
has nothing to do with the New Testament church; that the New Testament church
is a church without law, a church that lives and breathes exclusively on the
basis of grace… But the New Testament is far from abolishing God’s moral law. Jesus
calls his disciples to obedience. He says, ‘If you love me, you will obey what
I command’ (John 14:15).
R.C.
Sproul
The Purpose of God, An
Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 64-65.