Pastor's Corner

The average Christian in today’s modern evangelical church often buys into a theological teaching that God, and His interaction with people, is drastically different in the Old Covenant than in the New Covenant.  This misunderstanding stems from a belief that the God of the Old Testament was a God of wrath while the God of the New Testament is a God of love.  The God of the Old Testament, however, is the same God represented in the New Testament writings, and He does not change.  (Heb 13:8, Mal 3:6)  This misconception of God’s character as revealed in the two Covenants comes from a basic misunderstanding of the Covenants themselves.  One common misunderstanding is the idea that the Mosaic Law was given as a means for the Old Testament saints to attain righteousness, and that those who transgressed the Law would suffer under the wrath of God.  Another erroneous idea that has been mistakenly drawn from the New Testament is that God will overlook every transgression because He “loves us so much.”  However, if Christians were to begin with a Biblical presupposition that God is consistent in His dealings with people, then we would quickly come to understand that the Old and New Covenants are far more similar than they are usually given credit for being.  In fact the differences are far smaller than we might imagine, yet as Christians we always seem to “laser focus” on the differences while ignoring that the God of both Covenants is the same God. 

Two Purposes of the Law

One area that is often a focal point for modern Christians is the detail of the Old Testament Law itself with all its rules and sacrifices.  The New Testament is curiously absent of many of these rules, and some people prematurely conclude that this as a major indicator of the differences between the two Covenants.  This leads many Christians to a false assumption that those who were alive during the Old Testament period were somehow made righteous by keeping these rules and performing these sacrifices.  However, we know from the teachings of the Apostle Paul that no one has ever been made righteous by keeping the Law.  (Rom 3:20, Gal 2:16, 3:10-11)  With that in mind we are led to search out the true purpose(s) of the Law.

One of the purposes of the Law is to reveal to us what sin is.  This is accomplished by defining right and wrong in two ways – casuistic law and apodictic law.  In the casuistic portions of the Law we are given possible scenarios that the Israelites might encounter and what punishments are to be imposed for transgression in those areas.  The easiest and most familiar example would be “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”  (Deut 19:15-21)  These portions of the Law are there to serve as paradigms, and they were never intended to be exhaustive.  Understanding that these examples are paradigmatic begins to help us in understanding what Jesus meant by saying that the second commandment was to love your neighbor as yourself.  This is because the casuistic portions of the Law typically deal with showing respect, love, fair treatment, and honor to other people.  If a person’s actions show that they truly do love their neighbor in the manner Jesus commands, then they will be fulfilling the heart of the casuistic portions of the Law. This leads us to consider the second way that sin is defined, which is through the apodictic portions of the Law such as the Ten Commandments.  These statements were divine commands, and a large portion of them, including the entire Ten Commandments, were either explicitly or implicitly stated again in the New Testament.  This makes it clear that the Law was actually used in both Covenants for the same purpose, the purpose of defining sin, thus converting in our mind one of the major differences into a similarity.

The second purpose of the Law was to provide care and protection for God’s people.  Many Christians mistakenly view the laws that deal with care and concern of Israel as being impossible rules imposed by a legalistic God who is standing ready to smite people for the smallest transgression.  Examples of these laws would be those dealing with the cleansing of lepers, restricted foods, and even the command to observe the Sabbath.  As we read the laws dealing with the cleansing of lepers they seem difficult, if not impossible, to observe properly.  However, we now know just how contagious leprosy is, and we can understand the great lengths that God went to in order to help the Israelites keep from spreading the disease.  We also have gained new insights into many of the dietary restrictions with the advent of modern science.  Science has shown us that many of the animals that were declared unclean were often carriers of parasites that were very painful and often deadly.  Even the command to observe the Sabbath has been misunderstood by many people in both Covenant groups, but Jesus clears up the purpose of the Sabbath law by pointing out that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.  (Mark 2:27)  This shows us that God is actually more interested in caring for people in the Old Testament than in setting them up to fall under his wrath, which lines up perfectly with what Jesus tells us about God in John 3.  Once again we can clearly see that what has often been viewed as a major difference bears more marks of similarity than we might have initially thought. 

Grace Throughout the Whole Bible

Another area that is often focused on as a major difference between God’s character, as revealed in the two Covenants, is the seeming absence of God’s grace and mercy in the Old Testament.  Christians often focus on the Great Flood, the plagues in Egypt, and the destruction of the inhabitants of Canaan as examples of the wrathful nature of God during the Old Testament period of history.  But is it really fair to label God as wrathful for these actions, and is the New Testament really devoid of similar examples of the wrath of God?

On the surface the Great Flood during Noah’s day looks like the prime example of a wrath filled God who is uninterested in showing grace or mercy to the people of the world.  We read in the Genesis account that God was sorry that He had made man and He was ready to wipe him from the planet.  (Gen 6:6-7)  Yet we see that Noah was shown grace and mercy because he had the faith to obey God and build an ark.  We are also told in the New Testament that Noah was a preacher of righteousness (2 Pet 2:5), which is further evidence that God was willing to show grace and mercy to those who would repent.  Repentance is the same key for receiving grace and mercy in the New Testament as well, and so this also points us toward more similarities than differences.

But didn’t the plagues in Egypt and the destruction of the inhabitants of Canaan show us a wrathful God?  As we study the plagues in Egypt through the historical record in Exodus we can see that the real cause of those plagues was the hard heart of Pharaoh and his unwillingness to let the people of Israel go.  Each time that Pharaoh would start to repent God would stop the current plague, but then Pharaoh would again choose to oppress the Israelites and God would bring a new plague.  The Canaanites were also destroyed for their unwillingness to repent, but the grace and mercy of God is very evident even in the midst of this.  God clearly exhibited grace and mercy toward the prostitute Rahab and her family because they were willing to turn from their wickedness and trust in the God of Israel.  (Josh 6:24-25, Heb 11:31)

            Furthermore, we see several examples of the wrath of God still present in the New Testament.  Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead for lying, Jesus exhibited the wrath of God when he drove the money changers from the temple, and Revelation is full of prophecies concerning the coming wrath of God and the destruction of the planet.  Though God is full of grace, mercy, and love, those attributes are never to be used as an excuse to continue in sin.  (Heb 10:26)  These examples clearly indicate to us that the God of the New Testament will not merely overlook our sin(s) because of His great love, and they further serve as constant reminders that repentance and faith in Christ is the key to forgiveness. 

The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Christians

As we have been able to see God has been, and continues to be, consistent in dealing with those who would be called by His name.  While some differences between the Old and New Covenants exist, the heart of God remains constant between them both, and therefore we see more unity between the Old and New Covenants than we see disunity.  Even the differences in the way that sin is dealt with, how we approach God, and the need for helpful mediators have great similarities.  Though we no longer sacrifice animals for our sin, the Lamb of God stands as a perfect sacrifice for sin.  Though we no longer can approach God through the physical temple/tabernacle, we can approach him still, through prayer, as he resides in us – the temple of the Spirit.  Finally, though we no longer need a human priest as a mediator between man and God, the Lord Jesus stands as our Great High Priest serving as a mediator of the New Covenant.  Thus it is shown to be true that Christ did not abolish the Old Covenant but rather he fulfilled it (Matt 5:17), and we can see that He, Jesus, is the common thread of similarity between both Covenants uniting all the children of faith in the family of God.