What if the Old Covenant was God’s final word to man?
What if the Ten Commandments were the only means available to us to gain entry into heaven, or to earn God’s love and acceptance?
Where would this leave us?
What would our eternal fate be?
How would this affect our lives here and now?
The Old Covenant was God’s word to Israel. Not His first word to Israel, nor was it His last. But it did define Israel’s way of life as a nation from Moses until Jesus. The teachers of the Law believed Israel’s role in the world was to live out the righteous requirements of the Law, and in so doing, become a blessing to all other nations.
Where did this leave them? The same place it leaves anyone who attempts to gain God’s acceptance through obedience to Law – judged, condemned, fearful and dead in sin.
That’s the Old Covenant, a ministry of condemnation and death.
When read correctly, the Law is God’s word about man, the plain, stark truth. It answers these questions: What is the destiny of a people caught in the throes of a lie? What will be their end? According to the Law, the final stop is death, but only if the Old Covenant is God’s final word.
The denouement of this story has a twist. It is revealed on a hill called Calvary, outside the walls of Jerusalem. A man hung there on a cross, suspended between heaven and earth. He was no ordinary man, and the death he died was no ordinary death.
The man whose hands and feet were pierced was the Lord Himself, the unblemished Lamb of God. His death was in place of ours. Live out the full story of the Law and it ends at the foot of this cross. Look up and see God’s final word to man – Jesus.
Death is not God’s end for man, it is Jesus. In Him we have forgiveness of sins, righteousness and a new way of life defined by the New Covenant. That leads to several questions.
What if we truly believed that Jesus was and is God’s final word to man?
Where would this leave us?
How would it affect us here and now?
The New Covenant answers – in Jesus totally forgiven, completely loved and fully alive!
Thanks Bob for communicating the truth of the gospel.
This amazing truth has the power to unify the body of Christ.
Everything else seems to divide.
PTP has been a part my world for maybe 20 years, and I am thankful for your continued faithfulness.
jim
Jim, I think you are right. the New Covenant is the thread that ties us together as believers. Thanks for your kind, encouraging words.
Beautifully put, sir.
Thanks Jeremy. Hope all is well with you.
Thank you for this post, this was the theology that i heard upon getting saved. Told that now that Christ had forgiven and saved me that it was up to me to keep it. Thank the Lord for when He said it is finished, He mean’t it IS Finished.
Hey Lance, the New Covenant makes our relationship with Jesus so clear, simple and powerful. He finished the Old completely, so that we can enjoy the fullness of His love and grace in the New.
Brother Lance,
That’s how I interpretted it. That salvation was not just by grace through faith plus nothing; but that salvation was by grace through our own faith plus works.
Great to hear from you, it helps us when we know others have been down that same road. After receiving salvation and being Born Again, I so desperatly wanted to please the Lord. I tried and tried but always seemed to fall short of what I thought was expected of me. And it grieved my heart, but Glory to God He never left me there. He gave me the desire to keep looking and digging deeper into His word, until finally i saw that He keeps us.Its GRACE thru Faith plus Nothing, and for that I am eternally grateful, God Bless you Sis.
Bob thanks for the blog. I am so thankful for the truth received frim realanswers over the years. So many believers live in a defeated and frustrated state because of not understanding the New Covenant. No one ever told the Old Covenent people that the 10 commandmends actually expressed the very character of God as I learned from PTP. Many people stay in a state of argument because of their not understanding the truth and as the word says ” are not free”.
Hey Brad, thanks for adding to the conversation.
Bob,
Thank you for the message, I read it first thing this morning and it helps me to stay grounded in truth. I have spent many years “stumbling over the stumbling stone” and viewed righteousness as something that was gained through works and not in the life of Christ. Faith was the “tool” I used in these works. It wasn’t until God opened my eyes through his Son that I truelly understood what faith is and I can rest in Christ’s finished work and grow in His knowledge through Him who lives in me.
Even though the Jewish nation under the Law had ceremonial and a way of living that had to be followed their righteousness was still from God through faith and not of their works. The men and women of the old testiment were loved by God not because of what they did but because they believed God.
It is through the People to People ministry that God used to open my understanding and I am deeply appreciative. Keep up the good work and I look forward to hearing more.
Sincerely,
Keith Lear
Haven’t we all at one time or another stumbled over the clear message of Jesus. Apart from Him, we can do nothing.
My main problem with a lot of what your ministry teaches is the condescending tone towards those of us who still value Yeshua’s teachings with regard to the Torah (which you misinterpret as “law”–more accurately it means teaching or instruction). It’s not that we are relying on Torah to save us. We realize that it is by faith alone that we are reconciled to God through the sacrifice of Yeshua. The difference is that we attempt to follow His teachings because we know that he loves us and that there is value in Torah. Those who don’t agree aren’t any less loved by God or any less saved. We simply choose to learn more about our Chief Rabbi and Savior, Messiah Yeshua, and attempt to live as He did. Take care and my God richly bless you and yours.
Hey Ray, thanks for jumping in and sharing your thoughts. I agree with you Ray that there is value in the Torah. I do not diminish that value in any way. I think in embracing the new covenant, we give Torah its full worth. Isn’t Jesus the story of the Old Testament? Doesn’t everything in the Old find its fulfillment in Christ? And as far as we are concerned, isn’t the encouragement of the Old a life of faith in the anointed One?
Moses’ supreme moment was not at the top of Mt. Sinai, but on the mount of transfiguration. There he stood along with Elijah before the glorified Lord. Moses saw Him, the One he wrote about. He and Elijah stood together as witnesses to the truth that the Law and Prophets point to Jesus. He is the story of Torah. But there we only see Him as a shadow (Hebrews 10:1). In the New, we see the reality of who He is.
I ask you to consider Paul. His life was defined by Torah. As to legalistic obedience, he was faultless.Yet, Jesus was a stumbling stone to him, until he met Him on the road to Damascus. Jesus transformed his thinking about Torah, and revealed to him the true message. He found in Jesus everything his soul longed for, and he experienced fulfillment in the promises and provisions of the New covenant. As he wrote to the Galatians, he died to the law to live for God. Moses would think well of Paul, and even hold him up as someone who in trusting Jesus and abiding in Him found the true meaning of his words.
May I ask, how do you attempt to live as He did? Do you try to mimic His actions, or try to carry out the requirements of the law? What does attempting to live like Jesus look like? Jesus did show us how to live while He was here. He trusted His father to live through Him. Time and time again, Jesus pointed to His miracles and His teachings as evidence of this dependent relationship. Just as He lived in dependence upon His Father, we are to live in dependence upon. His key illustration is in John 15, the vine and the branch. that is how we are to live. When we do, we will bear the fruit of His love in our lives.
I’m sure Bob would say to you, stop trying and start trusting and believing. Christ is the end of the law (Torah) for those who believe. No matter how you cloak it, law is law and grace is is grace and never the two shall reconcile. So, good luck to you.
Reminds me of Bob George saying to those who posed these types of propositions: The Jews couldn’t keep the law, but you just watch “my smoke”.
Hi Ray, thanks for sharing your heart. I appreciate what you have to say about the Torah and your beliefs it is helpful I hope you continue to share. Bob I also want to thank you for your heart. The love and compassion that comes through you is a true testimony of the result of abiding in the vine. Thanks to all for sharing your faith!
Hi Bob! It’s been a long time and just a week ago I caught up with PTP again. It was 1986 when I first began listening to PTP in New Orleans and eventually went to the week long seminar. God used PTP greatly in influencing my life, understanding of the Scriptures and in my ministry still today. I hope to be able to catch up and keep in touch more frequently on line. May God continue to bless you, the entire team and your ministry!
As I learned back then, our understanding of the difference between Law and Grace will always color our understanding of the Gospel itself. Deuteronomy 28 sums up the terms: If you obey all, then blessing; If you do not obey all then curses. If and all. The Law is terrible. Paul sums up grace in Ephesians 2:8-9:It is by faith through grace, it is a gift. Grace is free. If we begin to mix the two then the Law is no longer terrible and grace is no longer free. If we add to Jesus, then we take away from Him and He was not sufficient.
Thank you for continuing to maintain the course!