To start with the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. We see that it is the story of three covenants between God and man: the covenant with Noah (Gen 6-9), the covenant with Abraham (Gen 17) and the covenant with Moses and Israel (Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy). We'll come back to the first two later, but first let's look at the important promises in the covenant with Moses. Throughout the books of the law God says if you keep my laws I will reward you, if you disobey them I will punish you (e.g. "now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations I will make you a treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" Gen 19:5-6; see also Ex 34:10; Lev 26; Deut 4:23-40, Deut 6-11; Deut 28-30).

Now we know that Israel repeatedly failed to keep God's commands, and hence the punishments in the books of the law came to be fulfilled. However when we look at the prophets we see that what God demands is not simple obedience to a set of commands. The prophets do a lot more than point out that Israel is not obeying the law: the prophets expound the law, for them the law - what God wants - is not a list of commands, but a living thing. The books of the law do not simply contain lists of commands, but many stories of Gods dealings with Israel, most particularly the Exodus. The prophets more often than not explain the meanings of these stories than recite the law. Let's take Isaiah chapter 1 as an example. After reading Deuteronomy it comes as a big surprise to read: "'The multitude of your sacrifices, what are they to me ?' says the LORD. 'I have more than enough burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and goats. When you come to meet with me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts ? Stop bringing me meaningless offerings ! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations - I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight ! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right ! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow'." (Is 1:11-17) So in the prophets to we get a call to righteousness, not an outward form of ceremonies but a call for justice and mercy ("for I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings" Hos 6:6). And again we get the two alternatives given to Israel: turn from your disobedience and be blessed, or continue and be punished. In the prophets we get further details of the good things God will do for Israel (Is 2, 4, 11, 25, 35, 61, 65; Hosea 14; Joel 2:28-32, Micah 4; Zech 14; Mal 4).

But look at the history of Israel, she is split in two, invaded by Assyria, exiled in Babylon, they maintain semi-independence under Persia, until they are invaded by Greece in the 4th century BC, they overthrow Greece under the leadership of Judas Maccabaeus and remain independent until 37 BC when they are invaded by Rome. Clearly all the good things promised by God still do not look like appearing.

So here is the problem. God has made a covenant with Israel, promising wonderful things if she will obey his commands and laws. But it seems all the law does is show Israel's sin, never bring the Kingdom of Heaven God has planned, where all the nations worship God (e.g. Is 2, 56, Mic 4), God's law is known by everyone, and is written on their hearts (Jer 31:33-34), there will be no more hunger (Is 55) or war (Mic 4:3), the dead will be resurrected (Ps 16:9-11; Is 26:19-21; Ez 37:1-14; Dan 12:1-3,13) and God's Spirit will be poured out on all people (Joel 2:28-29).

So what does God do ? Does he continue to wait until Israel keeps his laws ? No ! For no reason other than he has chosen to do so, God decides to send his Son to keep his commandments, to obey his demand for righteousness that Israel was unable to do, so that he can initiate his Kingdom of Heaven. This is the grace of God, for clearly he didn't have to do this, it was not part of the covenant with Israel, but he does so anyway. Jesus explains this strange "justice" of God that plays both parts in the covenant in his parable of the Good Shepherd, God is an active God who seeks the lost.

So the prophecies that were applied to Israel and now applied to Jesus (e.g. Hos 11:1, "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son") because Jesus is going to keep the covenant that Israel couldn't. Paul understands that the law is good, but it has only brought destruction and punishment to Israel, "I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death" (Rom 7:10). The law is not opposed to God's promise, indeed we know that God's promise to Israel was that if they kept the law they would be blessed, but what is wrong isn't the law but man's inability to keep the law: "is the law then opposed to the promises of God ? Absolutely not ! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law" (Gal 3:21). So we find that when Israel was given the law, all that happened was their sins became evident. But this didn't stop God from giving to his people the good things he had planned for them, God stepped in and kept the law himself ! Where sin increased, so did God's grace ! "The law was added that trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more" (Rom 5:20).

So now the covenant has been kept, but not by Israel - by Jesus, through God's grace ! So what of the Kingdom of Heaven, the new earth God promised he would give to Israel when the laws had been kept ? We find that Israel rejected Christ, so God has appointed a New Israel of all believers. But where is this new kingdom ? God's promise has been kept, the Kingdom of Heaven is available through faith: but let's stop a moment and see what this kingdom is.

Imagine you were part of Israel in the Old Testament, what sort of world would you expect to inhabit at the resurrection ? What sort of rules do you think there would be ? Or put it another way, look at the Christian resurrection, what sort of rules do you think there will be in God's kingdom ? This 'new age' after the resurrection is the new life we enter into when we believe, because just as Christ was resurrected, so have we been resurrected 'in him', ("we were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life" Rom 6:4), because we are one with Christ.

"I in you" (John 14:20, 15:4), "I in them" (John 17:23,26), "I in him" (John 6:56, 15:5), "know ye not your own selves, how that Christ is in you" (2 Cor 13:5, c.f. Rom 8:10, Col 1:27). Paul says Christ has apprehended him (Phil 1:12) and put his power in him (2 Cor 12:9), set his truth in him (2 Cor 13:3), is always magnifying and glorifying Himself in his person (Phil 1:20). This new life of the resurrection is the sort of life with God promised in the Kingdom of Heaven, the old life has gone, "I no longer live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal 2:20), "we have the mind of Christ" (1 Cor 2:16). So in being one with Christ we have taken part in the resurrection, "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25), we have eternal life because we have been resurrected (John 5:24, 8:5, 10:28). Paul is clear that the resurrection of the body will only change the body (2 Cor 4, 5:1-10), we "groan inwardly as we await eagerly... the redemption of our bodies" (Rom 8:23), the new relation with God promised at the resurrection is here now. Imagine we have been resurrected (in the body) and are living in the Kingdom of Heaven. Will there be sin or falling away in the new earth ? Surely not ! For if someone could somehow break this new covenant, God would have to 'save' them again. This is why the writer of Hebrews says anyone who has been resurrected into the new life cannot leave the kingdom and reenter again, because "they are crucifying the Son of God all over again" (Heb 6:6) and indeed once we have entered "behind the curtain" (Heb 6:20) i.e. the presence of God, or heaven, we have "an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Heb 6:19).

So we have seen that the promise God made as part of his covenant with Israel has been kept, and so that covenant is finished ("By calling this covenant 'new' he has made the first one obsolete and what is obsolete and ageing will soon disappear" Heb 8:13). The law of Moses was a part of the old covenant, which is now obsolete. We now have a new conversant promised by God (Heb 7). So we are in a between time, as the new age, the Kingdom of Heaven has arrived but not outwardly. In the Old Testament the outer rule of God coincided with the new conversant, in the New Testament we see the second is still to arrive, but the new conversant has started. The new relationship with God, the coming of his Spirit, has arrived, and all we are waiting for now is now is the Second Coming, which will not establish a new relation with God but will be the visible rule of God.

So what are the "commands" of God in the new covenant ? The first thing to remember is that we are behaving as if we were in the Kingdom of Heaven, its THOSE 'rules' that apply now. So obviously in heaven you aren't going to be concerned about salvation all the time, you HAVE been saved by participating in Christ's resurrection. Let's look at some of the controversies about 'what we must do' that we around in the early Church.

The most obvious one is about circumcision. This relates back to the covenant with Abraham. Obviously the early church realised that the covenant with Moses was finished, but what of the covenant of circumcision ? To this Paul says "circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code" (Rom 2:29), and shows that Abraham was not justified by the 'work' of circumcision but by faith (Rom 4).

Secondly there are those who still want to keep the Torah (presumably Jewish Christians). Here Paul points out that the only way God could allow one who keeps the law to enter the kingdom is if they keep all of it perfectly (as explained earlier, this was the original covenant between God and Israel which only showed Israel unable to keep the law). This keeping the Torah as if under the old covenant ignores the fact that Christ has kept it for us, and so allowed us to be resurrected into the kingdom of heaven. The argument of all the new testament writers against keeping the Torah (even the Ten Commandments) is that you have to obey all of it perfectly all your life then when you die you could look forward to being resurrected into the kingdom of heaven (Rom 2:21-25,James 2:10-11) - as promised in the covenant; but if you fail to keep any of the commands you will be punished for disobedience, even if you fail in one point only, as also promised in the conversant.

Another example perhaps comes from a reading of Isaiah 66, where in the new heavens and new earth we read "from one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me" (Is 66:23), perhaps in this new age we need to keep new moons and Sabbath days, though some early Christians. No, says Paul, these were "a shadow of the things that were to come" (Col 2:16-17). Similarly the writer of Hebrews interprets Gen 2:3 as being a promise that is 'realised' in the new covenant. He points out that that God promised that Israel would never enter his rest (Heb 3:16-19), so the promise of entering his rest still stands (Heb 4:1). The writer then quotes Gen 2:3 to show that God rested on the seventh day, (Heb 4:4) so the seventh day is the day of God's rest, but that later God said "they shall never enter my rest" (Heb 4:5). So the writer has made two points: firstly that since Israel never entered God's rest, the promise of entering his rest still stands, and secondly that since the day of God's rest is the seventh day, but God has said "they shall never enter my rest" the seventh day can't be the day we enter his rest on. But if we are to entered his rest, but not on the seventh day, we must enter it on another day, what is this other day ? The writer now points out that "God again set a certain day" (Heb 4:7). So God set the seventh day as a rest, but then swore that Israel would not enter that rest, having done that he AGAIN set a certain day, "for if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day" (Heb 4:8). What is this other day ? "Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts" (Heb 4:7, Ps 95:7). So there does remain a Sabbath-rest, not on the seventh day but on another day, and that day is "today".

Jesus is often called a prophet (Matt 16:14, Mk 6:4, 8:28; John 4:19) and we can see that he preached God's requirements for righteousness the same as the prophets (e.g. Is 10:1-4), and he spoke with authority (Matt 7:29). Notice that he shows that man's righteousness is never enough (Matt 19:16-30) and his deeds will always fall short, but faith is always rewarded (Matt 8:5-12, 15:21-28), people are healed not by doing good but by faith, so we must see God as the one who acts for us. The message of Jesus is that the Kingdom of Heaven, which the Jews had waited so long for, was at hand. But it was not at hand because the Jews had obeyed the law enough to have satisfied their part of the covenant ! Rather God had chosen in his grace to fulfil the covenant himself so he could bring in the new age, in his parables Jesus showed a new testament of God. In the Old Testament God was a covenant God with his partner Israel, in the New Testament God is the partner as well ! Hence he is an active God, seeking, knocking, blessing those who will receive him, and Jesus testifies to this new age in fulfilling the prophecies (e.g. Is 35:5-6, see Matt 1:22,2:15,3:15,5:17,8:17 etc.).

We shall now look at how John explains the way we live in the new covenant. John is particularly interesting because he has a special use for the words "law" and "command". The law refers to the old covenant, it is the law of Moses: "the law was given through Moses" (1:17), "Moses wrote about in the law" (1:45), "it is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat" (5:10), "has not Moses given you the law, yet not one of you keeps the law" (7:19), "the law of Moses" (7:23), "this mob knows nothing of the law" (7:49), "the teachers of the law" (8:3), "in the law Moses commanded us to stone..." (8:5), "we have heard from the law that the Messiah will remain forever" (12:34), "we have a law and according to that law he must die" (19:17), "judge him by your own law" (18:31). But "command" is the new commandment of Christ: "a new commandment I give you: love one another" (13:34), "if you love me you will obey what I command" (14:15), "whoever has my commands and obeys me, he is the one who loves me" (14:21), "I do exactly what my Father has commanded me" (14:31), "if you obey my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love" (15:10), "my command is this: love each other as I have loved you" (15:12), "you are my friends if you do what I command" (15:14), "this is my command, love one another" (15:17), "this command I received from my Father" (10:18), "for I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know his command leads to eternal life" (12:49-50). Indeed, John shows that "the law" belongs to the Jews and has nothing to do with the new age, "the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17), the Jews speak of "our law" (7:51), Jesus calls it "your own law" (8:17) and "your law" (10:34), hence Jesus new commandment of love is for Christians under the new covenant, the old covenant of the law of Moses is passed away. These meanings of "law" and "command" are repeated in John's writings: "we can be sure we know him if we obey his commands, the man who says 'I know him' but does not do what he commands is a liar" (1 John 2:3-4, see 1 John 2:7-8, 3:21,23-24,4:21,5:2-3, 2 John 1:4-6, also Revelation "keep God's commandments" Rev 12:17,14:12).

Through the gospels it is clear that these "new commands" of the new covenant are not opposed to the Torah, but really are the basis of the Torah. However the Torah was the old covenant, the written code, whereas in the new age, the Kingdom of Heaven, we have God's Spirit in us, which is the Spirit of Jesus, and this is the way we serve God now "in the new way of the Spirit, not in the old way of the written code" (Rom 7:6). Paul explains why are not under the law of the old covenant in Romans 7. He says "the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives" (7:1), well of course we know that we have all died and risen again, so the old law of the old world has nothing to do with the new covenant, we are a "new creation", we live under the rule of heaven, not earth, but we wait for the revealing of that rule in the second coming. Thus all believers have died and risen again, this is what John calls the "first resurrection" (Rev 20:5-6). The important thing about Revelation 20 is that in Christ's resurrection Satan is already "thrown into the abyss" (Rev 20:3), we believers have already passed the judgement. But there are those who were before Christ, and they still have to pass the judgement (Rev 20:11-15). Notice that although Christ has "bound" Satan, just prior to the Second Coming "he must be set free for a short time" (Rev 20:3). This explains the strange verse in 1 John 3:4, "sin is transgression of the law", because as we have shown, John has set "the law" within the old covenant. The explanation is the phrase "transgression of the law" is the same Greek term used elsewhere as "lawlessness", and indeed in the NIV translation it is "sin is lawlessness", linking the work of sin with Satan and the antichrist (see 2 Thess 2:8).

So to conclude, we have shown that the problem with the covenant of the law between Israel and God was that in order to release God's promises, Israel had to keep the law, but this was impossible to do. So God decided to do Israel's part in the covenant, by sending his Son Jesus to keep the law. In doing this God could now give all the good things he had been promising, and start his reign on earth, with the new covenant, the Kingdom of Heaven etc. Under this new covenant the old has passed away, and there is no point trying to keep it any more, "the righteous shall live by faith" (Gal 3:11), we enter the new age by participating in Christ's resurrection, which is the celebration of God's victory. Although this new age has started, it is still hidden. Although we have entered the new world through being resurrected with Christ, out bodies are still waiting for his second coming. The law was until the Promise (Gal 3:15-25), now the new covenant of the Spirit has come "we are no longer under the supervision of the law" (Gal 3:25). Imagine you are in heaven, how do you feel ? Free ! Because you know you've made it, you have eternal life. But what is the difference between our life now and that in heaven ? All that will change is the redemption of our bodies, in spirit we are already there.

© John Mann 1983