Caretaker
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There were those who sought to impose the Law of Moses upon the Bride of Christ. They were called Judaizers and these were a plague which Paul had to counteract.
The "Judaizers" seem to be a group of Jewish Christians in the first century CE who preached to the recently founded churches of the Gentiles the need to conform to the Law of Moses, even after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This group originated in Jerusalem; we know little about them, only that they appear to be Pharisees (Acts 15:5). We do not know how organized they were or any names of any individuals within the movement. They are called the "Judaizers" for lack of a more official term; they attempted to make Jews out of Gentile Christians.
Gal. 3:
1: O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
2: This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
3: Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
4: Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.
5: He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
6: Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
7: Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
8: And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
9: So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
10: For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
11: But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
The New Covenant
The Covenant with Israel and the New Covenant
The relationship between the covenant between God and Israel and the new covenant can be analyzed in three ways: fulfillment, supercession, and superiority.
1. Jesus Christ fulfills the covenant between God and Israel. Jesus says the following in Matthew 5:17-18:
"Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came not to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished."
Many wish to believe that this passage teaches that Jesus in no way will ever fulfill the law, but the text shows this to be not so. Jesus confirms here that the law, the obligations of the Israelites in their covenant with God, will not change at all "until all things are accomplished [or, "fulfilled"]." After His death and resurrection, Jesus says the following to His disciples in Luke 24:44:
And he said unto them, "These are my words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms, concerning Me."
Truly, therefore, Jesus did fulfill the law.
2. The new covenant supercedes the old. Most of the covenants we have seen beforehand have been complementary: the covenant with all flesh at the time of Noah is not superceded by God's covenant with Abraham; the covenant between God and Israel represents a partial fulfillment of His promises to Abraham, and does not supercede His previous covenant; the covenant between God and David functions fully within His covenant with Israel. The prophets, however, spoke of a new covenant which would be made that would replace the old, as shown above; likewise, the New Testament speaks of this replacement, in Ephesians 2:11-18, Colossians 2:14-16, and Hebrews 8:13:
Wherefore remember, that once ye, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands; that ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in the flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, so making peace; and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: and he came and preached peace to you that were far off, and peace to them that were nigh: for through him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father.
having blotted out the bond written in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us: and he hath taken it out that way, nailing it to the cross; having despoiled the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day.
[previously citing Jeremiah 31:31-33] In that he saith, "A new covenant,"
he hath made the first old. But that which is becoming old and waxeth aged is nigh unto vanishing away.
The most manifest evidence of the change is from Hebrews 7:12, when the Hebrew author argues regarding Christ's priesthood in the order of Melchizedek, since He was not of Levi:
For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
The change is manifestly necessary: the Law of Moses was in no way to be changed, either by addition or subtraction (Deuteronomy 4:2). Likewise, the covenant between God and Israel was made only between God and Israel: it did not include all other nations. The covenant between God and man through Christ, however, includes all peoples, and is founded under the authority of Christ Jesus (Matthew 28:18). The new covenant, by necessity, supercedes the old.
3. The new covenant is superior to the old covenant. One of the significant challenges in the early church was the spread of the "Judaizers," those "Hebrew Christians" who believed that the Law of Moses was to be imposed upon all Gentile converts to Christianity. Because of these the New Testament authors spend much time demonstrating not only that Christ has superceded the old, but that the new covenant is vastly superior to the old. Paul speaks of the two covenants allegorically in Galatians 4:21-30:
Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
For it is written, "that Abraham had two sons, one by the handmaid, and one by the freewoman."
Howbeit the son by the handmaid is born after the flesh; but the son by the freewoman is born through promise. Which things contain an allegory: for these women are two covenants; one from mount Sinai, bearing children unto bondage, which is Hagar. Now this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to the Jerusalem that now is: for she is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother.
For it is written," Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; Break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: For more are the children of the desolate than of her that hath the husband."
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, so also it is now.
Howbeit what saith the scripture? "Cast out the handmaid and her son: for the son of the handmaid shall not inherit with the son of the freewoman."
The same contrast between bondage and freedom is the primary message of Paul in Galatians 3-5.
The main means by which the superiority of the new is demonstrated may be found in Colossians 2:16-17 and Hebrews 9:23-24:
Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day: which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ's.
It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us.
Both of these passages provide the same type of indication: the covenant between God and Israel was fleshly, physical, a copy, a shadow; the covenant between God and all men through Christ Jesus is spiritual, heavenly, the reality, the substance. The contrasts are many: the earthly sabbath on the seventh day vs. the perpetual heavenly rest (Hebrews 4:1-11); the earthly animal sacrifices vs. the perfect sacrfice of Christ (Hebrews 9:16-25); the earthly, imperfect priesthood of Levi vs. the spiritual priesthood of all believers, with Christ Jesus the Head Priest, in the order of Melchizedek (1 Peter 2:9, Hebrews 7); the ministration of death vs. the ministration of glory (2 Corinthians 3); and so on.
The conclusion is evident: Jesus Christ, through fulfilling the Law, was able to replace the covenant between God and Israel with a better covenant based on better promises, an everlasting spiritual kingdom open to all who obey: this was the eternal purpose of God in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:11)!
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A Servant of Christ,
Drew
1 Tim. 3:
16: And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh..
Posts: 3978 | From: Council Grove, KS USA | Registered: Jun 2002
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