Friday, 05 December 2008

• Old or New Covenant

  Disclaimer:  This is a discussion for people who put their faith in Jesus/ Yeshua.  The instructions in the Bible are for believers and those who are seeking God.    
  
  Looking this info up for someone specifically, but you guys feel free to jump in.
  
  I found a different verse for you that talks about the New Covenant
  
  Hebrews 8:7-13
  7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. 8 For finding fault with them, He says,
  “BEHOLD, DAYS ARE COMING, SAYS THE LORD,
  WHEN I WILL EFFECT A NEW COVENANT
  WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH;
  9 NOT LIKE THE COVENANT WHICH I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS
   ON THE DAY WHEN I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND
   TO LEAD THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT;
   FOR THEY DID NOT CONTINUE IN MY COVENANT,
   AND I DID NOT CARE FOR THEM, SAYS THE LORD.
  10 “FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL
   AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD:
   I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS,
   AND I WILL WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS.
   AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD,
   AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.
  11 “AND THEY SHALL NOT TEACH EVERYONE HIS FELLOW CITIZEN,
  AND EVERYONE HIS BROTHER, SAYING, ‘KNOW THE LORD,’
  FOR ALL WILL KNOW ME,
  FROM THE LEAST TO THE GREATEST OF THEM.
  12 “FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES,
  AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE.”
  13 When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.
  
  
  
  and here is the verse that was first brought up:
  Matthew 26:28
  28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.
  
  or here is a quote later on
  1 Cor 11:25
  25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
  
  Did Jesus do away with the "old covenant"?
  
  What does this imply?  Maybe that everything in the "old covenant" doesn't pertain to us anymore?
  
  So not only would the things that seem little like eating unclean food, Sabbath, gluttony, homosexuality, would be ok, but also things things that seem big would be done away with too like do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not lie, do not steal, greed, taking care of the widows and orphans, etc etc.
  
  People like to take a verse or two and make arguments like this.   But we have to remember that we need the whole Bible and that we also need to read in context.  An example would be that first passage of scripture I posted at the beginning.  It needs to be read together, no verse stands alone.   Look at those yellow highlighted verses and the orange one too.  Are we living in that orange one?  Does everyone around you understand everything about the scritpture?  No, for one I don't understand everything myself! LOL  So we aren't there yet, that is in the future.  We still need God's word... ALL OF IT.
  
   We don't need to take our little scissors out and cut away the things that we don't like or that maybe even seem to disagree with each other.   We need the whole counsel of God for our lives.  After all who is Jesus?  He is called the Word (John 1:1-5 &  John 5:39-40).   They didn't have a New Testament back then when he was given that title.  All they had was what some people like to refer to as the "Old Testament".  So I guess some of you could call Jesus the "Old Testament".  LOL When they were admonished to study scripture it was the "Old Testament" they were studying.     Yes, the believers who had accepted Messiah had a different out look to it now than they had before.   They had been changed on the inside and the "old covenant"  wasn't death to them anymore, it was life!  They had the Holy Spirit to guide them, they had Jesus's teachings (which they thought were important enough to write down for you and I to have them too, Praise the LORD!).   They weren't looking at the "Old Testament"  the same way they used to. 
  
  I know some people like to use the "old" and even the "new"  to hurt people, but that doesn't mean that was what it was intended for.   All the laws, all the teachings, the dos and the dont's come down to TWO THINGS
  
  We can sum up the total of scripture the same way Jesus did:
  Mark 12:28-31
  28 One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; 30  LAND YOU SHALL LOVE THEORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ 31 “The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
  
  The "old testament" isn't bad, it didn't have to be done away with.
  Romans 7:7-12
  7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.” 8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; 10 and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; 11 for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
  
  
   It is God's ways for our lives, the "new testament"  is made up of examples of the right way to observe God's commands, quotes from, explanations of, and even some good ol' bar raising of the "Old Testament".   It is our flesh that was/is bad and it has to be done away with.  When we accept Jesus' atonement for our sins, we are forgiven and have the Spirit to guid us instead of the flesh.  The Spirit is going to be able to live by the "Old Testament"  it's going to agree with God's righteousness.   It's going to want to love our neighbors.  It's going to help you even more than the flesh hurt you! It was our flesh that was mucking things up and now that we have put our faith in Jesus we have no condemnation under the law and we now have the spirit to guide us in living a holy life.(btw holy means set apart)
  
  
  Romans 8:1-8
  1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
  
  Will Christians/Believers struggle with homosexuality?  Yeah, some of them will.   Just like some Christians/Believers struggle with pornography, gluttony, lying, stealing, etc.
  
  Why?  Because we still have our curruptible bodies.   We aren't completely re-newed yet
  Romans 7:14-25
  

  14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
  21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

  
  

  So is sin still sin?  Yes.   If we put our faith in Jesus then we are free from the death it brings.  So should we run around sinning on purpose?
  

  Romans 6:1-4

  1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

  So how are we going to know what sin is so we believers can avoid it?
  By studying the "old and new Testaments".  That's how we get to know what pleases God, what shows love to God and our neighbor. 
  

  
  

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