Chapter Fourteen – Are Christians Freed From the Old Covenant?

Next Part Christ Married Ancient Israel

Many professing Christians are confused about what Christ’s sacrifice actually did away with, and what God requires of His people today. Many view the Old Covenant this way: If priestly duties, such as ceremonial washings, animal sacrifices, etc., are done away, then so is everything that God commanded under the Old Covenant. The following letter excerpts received at our Headquarters show the need to properly understand this subject:

“You probably will notice the emphasis of the book [of Leviticus] is on the ceremonies and rituals that God commanded of the Israelites. The book…seems to be a book documenting ceremonies and rituals; it basically explains the whole sacrificial system that the Israelites were commanded to perform, daily, weekly, monthly, annually, every seven years and every 50 years. Take note of what is part of that sacrificial system: Instructions regarding offerings, rules for ritual clean/unclean situations, instructions for the priesthood, tithing associated with the sacrificial system, association with the Sabbath and annual Holy Days.

“It is interesting that no church group has made any effort to explain how we could cease most or all of the practices of virtually all of 26 chapters of this book and yet maintain that we must keep ‘parts’ (but not all) of chapter 23. Is there an understanding that we can glean from this book that is consistent with scripture in the rest of the Bible?

“The book of Leviticus is an intriguing book that provides extensive guidelines about the sacrificial system as practiced by the Israelites and by the Jews in Jesus’ time. But why do churches carefully ignore or misunderstand most, if not all, of its message? Have we even gotten the message right?

“This book does seem to present many of the ‘practices’ of the Israelites resulting from the covenant agreement that the Israelites made with God. An interesting question to consider: Does everything that this book teaches cease as a result of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? Or just how much has ceased? Why has anything or all of the commands ceased? Is the sacrificial system outlined in this book to be considered as a package?”

Another person wrote, “Could you tell me if the health and other statutes in the Old Testament are still binding? We hear a lot about the Ten Commandments and Feasts, but hardly anything on these.”

Why Such Confusion?

The core of these questions is this: How can something that was required of ancient Israel, and defined in excruciating detail, no longer be binding, while other requirements are still valid today? And what are those requirements? This confusion stems from misunderstanding the relevance today of the many laws given to ancient Israel. To understand, we must first define the term civil law.

A civil law is any mandate, law, decree or code regulating conduct and activity within the defined jurisdiction of an established municipality. The civil laws God gave to ancient Israel, through Moses, are presented in the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. They reveal how to apply the principles set forth in the Ten Commandments. Together, the commandments, civil laws and statutes, and sacrificial laws comprise the Old Covenant. We will examine some of the civil laws that governed ancient Israel, and show how they apply in the lives of Christians today, according to the principles Christ established in the New Testament.

Other than tithing and the observance of the Holy Days and the weekly Sabbath, what was required of ancient Israel, and adhered to by the Jews of Christ’s day, that Christians must still practice today? To properly understand this issue, we must recognize a few basic principles, some repeated from earlier:

(1) Israel was a physical, carnal-minded nation, without God’s Holy Spirit. They were not offered eternal salvation. Many places in the Old Testament refer to them as the “congregation of Israel.” Acts 7:38 refers to Israel as the “church in the wilderness.” These terms mean the same thing. God chose them to be a physical “type” of His New Testament Church (those begotten of His Holy Spirit).

Notice I Corinthians 10:6: “Now these things [Israel’s experiences] were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.” Their slavery in Egypt, deliverance under the leadership of Moses, crossing of the Red Sea and wandering in the wilderness were recorded in God’s Word so that we can learn from their experiences.

Without God’s Spirit, Israel could not properly keep God’s spiritual laws (notice Romans 8:8). God gave them a long list of specific “do’s and don’ts” because they could not keep the spirit of the Law. The Israelites could not obey God “in Spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24). Because this was impossible, they had to have things spelled out in extra detail.

Hebrews 11:6 shows that it is impossible to please God without faith—and true faith is both a fruit (Gal. 5:22) and a gift (I Cor. 12:9) of the Holy Spirit. Only by receiving the Holy Spirit—“circumcision of the heart”—can one become a “spiritual Jew” (Rom. 2:28-29).

(2) Israel was established as a union of church and state (Ex. 19:6; Acts 7:38), with detailed laws governing both their civil and religious matters. Ancient Israel was actually the Old Testament Church.

Critics of the Bible attempt to prove that God’s Word is contradictory, and therefore invalid, by pointing to Malachi 3:6. There, Christ, the Rock of the Old Testament (I Cor. 10:1-5), stated, “For I am the LORD, I change not.”

Such critics argue, “How can the Bible be valid as the Word of God if things changed between the Old Covenant and New Testament?”

The answer is simple: Think of God’s Word as a contract between God and His people. The Old Covenant was essentially a marriage contract. The terms of the contract never change. But the terms cease to be in effect between those two parties if either party defaults—fails to keep his end of the bargain. The contract would have been broken. The terms of the contract would not change. But, within those terms are built-in “annulment” provisions.

Notice Hebrews 8:8: “For finding fault with them [ancient Israel and Judah], He says, Behold, the days come, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” To understand, consider the following: “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship [the beast], whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8).

God knew well in advance of man’s creation that he would be capable of sinning. Adam was a free moral agent. He was given the choice of either obeying or rejecting God’s laws. He could have chosen not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and rather to eat of the Tree of Life.

But Adam made the wrong choice. It was not at that point that God decided, “Oops! I didn’t think of that. I’ve got to come up with something to pay for it! I guess I am going to have to send My Son as the sacrifice for sin.” God knew that, even if Adam had made the right choice, someone would have eventually made the wrong choice.

The only mention God makes of something happening that was not part of His pre-ordained Plan was Israel’s sacrificing of their children to pagan gods: “They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spoke it, neither came it into My mind” (Jer. 19:5). This does not mean that God was taken off-guard. In His eyes, sin is sin (notice James 2:10-11). Israel was committing acts of murder as part of ceremonies for worshipping pagan gods. As horrific as this was, it did not require God to re-think His Plan.

When Paul states, in Galatians 3:19, “It [the body of law governing sacrifices] was added because of transgressions,” he is referring to a “contractual provision,” one that would not have been put into effect had Israel obeyed God. How do we know this? Notice Hosea 6:6: “For I [the Eternal] desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” (Also notice Psalm 40:6, 8.)

But animal sacrifices were not instituted by God as an afterthought, anymore than was Christ’s sacrifice.