Dr Adrian Bury's blog
Christian theology, basic teachings, apologeticsThe gospel and God’s covenants
So do we have to keep the Ten Commandments or not?
In the Scriptures, we often come across the fact that God has sought a relationship with man by means of a covenant. This has happened on several occasions and at various times, but there are common features to these, which are the following:
The parties making the covenant
A promise given by God
A condition to be kept
A sign / signs and/or seal, as a symbol of “remembrance.”
One example of these is the covenant God made with Noah, his descendants and the earth after the Flood (Gen 9: 9-17). Here the structure is as follows:
Parties: God and the earth
Promise There will never again be a flood to destroy the earth
Condition No condition this time
Sign Rainbow
Certain scholars have discovered up to seven covenants in the Bible,1 but let us just look at the most important of them.
God also made a covenant with Abraham (Gen 15; 17).
Parties: God and Abraham
Promise: A great nation will come from him
Condition: Abraham will walk with God. Abraham accepted God’s promise in faith
Sign and seal: Circumcision (Romans 4: 11)
Two covenants are given the largest space and the greatest emphasis in Scripture, these being the Mosaic covenant and the New Covenant in the blood of Christ. In a similar way to the previous examples, the structure of the Mosaic covenant is:
Parties: God and the people of Israel
Promise: God will give a great land to the people, and make them into a nation
Condition: They keep the law, which is given through Moses
Sign: They remember the Sabbath day (Exodus 31: 12-17)
Seal: Circumcision
The essence of the Mosaic covenant is to be found in the Ten Commandments. The expression “Ten Commandments” (literally the ten words in Hebrew – ‘ăszeret haddĕvárím), only occurs three times in the Bible, in the following verses:
“Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant – the Ten Words.” (Exodus 34: 28).
“Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Words, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets.” (Deuteronomy 4: 12-13).
“The LORD wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Words he had proclaimed to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me. Then I came back down the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made, as the LORD commanded me, and they are there now.” (Deut. 10: 4-5).
In these three verses, we see that God wrote the covenant, which is the Ten Commandments, on the stone tablets, and Moses placed these in the Ark of the Covenant. The following verses also confirm this fact: “When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water. The LORD gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the LORD proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. At the end of the forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant” (Deut. 9: 9-12).
“So I turned and went down from the mountain while it was ablaze with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my hands.” (Deut. 9: 15).
Perhaps due to the space it occupies in the Bible, many theological systems, even the majority, attribute a kind of permanence to the Mosaic covenant, at the same time often undervaluing the new covenant. For instance, Reformed/replacement/covenantal theology does not see a great difference between the covenants, as every covenant is understood as the unfolding of an original covenant of grace, made before time began (but not to be found in the Bible).2 Dispensationalism, on the other hand, only sees the new covenant as an unforeseen hiatus, inserted between two periods of the Mosaic covenant. 3
From the Scriptures, however, we can see that the Ten Commandment covenant was decidedly temporary, having a specific beginning and an end.
Moses taught the people thus: “The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. It was not with our fathers that the LORD made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today.” (Deut. 5: 2-3). So before the time of Moses, the people were not familiar with this covenant, or with the law which went with it.
The apostle Paul writes in Galatians 3: 19: “What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.” It can be concluded from this verse that the law-covenant had a beginning (at Mount Sinai, in the time of Moses) and also an end (when the Seed came, who was Jesus Christ, see v. 16-18).
Other Bible passages also indicate that that law has come to an end, at least, as a covenant under which we must live, e.g.: “Christ is the end of the law, so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” (Romans 10: 4). “He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Cor 3: 6).
The Ten-Commandment covenant, therefore, must be regarded as temporary, for one thing because the Bible teaches this, and for another, because the content and form of this covenant are thoroughly rooted in the historical situation is which it was given.
If we look at the second listing of the Ten Commandments (Deut 5: 6-21), we see that deliverance from bondage in Egypt is referred to in the 1st and 4th commandments, and the promised land in the 5th. This covenant was only made with the Jews who had been liberated from Egypt. Furthermore, the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th refer to things which belong to this world and the present age, like parents, children, house, wife, property – this cannot be a law with eternal validity.
Of historical interest is that the form this covenant takes resembles the Hittite vassal treaties known from the same period (middle of 2nd millennium BC). If a people was conquered by the Hittite empire, then they would make a treaty with them, as subjects, not to wipe them out if they kept certain conditions. God probably used this form, so that the Jews would have a better understanding of what was involved.6
In a period when Israel was not obeying God, as usual, He promised them a new covenant, which would be different from the old, “The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 31: 31-32).
The Mosaic covenant was an earthly covenant with physical, earthly conditions and promises, as well as earthly curses in consequence of disobedience, (see Deut 28). If they keep the law, God will bless them with a spacious land, earthly prosperity, abundant crops, victory over their enemies, peace and long life. If they do not keep it, however, they will be afflicted with curses in the opposite sense, which is what in fact happened in the course of their history.
If this promised new covenant will not be like the old one, then it can be assumed that it will be established with a different promise, other conditions and different signs. The author of the letter to the Hebrews assures us that this new covenant had already been established in his day, “But the ministry Jesus received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another… (Quotes the Jeremiah prophecy)… By calling this covenant “new”, he has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.” (Hebrews 8: 6-7, 13.). The structure of the new covenant is as follows:
Parties God and those who are in Christ Jesus, both Jews and Gentiles
Promise: Eternal life
Condition: Faith
Sign: They remember the Lord’s death by means of the Lord’s Supper
Sign/Seal: Baptism
Seal: The Holy Spirit
In contrast to the Mosaic covenant, the new covenant is a spiritual, heavenly covenant with eternal promises and spiritual blessings: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Eph 1: 3). The Holy Spirit is the seal of the covenant, and every incident in the Christian life should take place under the guidance of the Spirit. If we are led by the Holy Spirit: 1) we are not under the law (Gal 5: 18), but 2) we do not fulfil the desires of the flesh either (5: 16). This is not automatic, of course, and does not happen without a fight, but the Holy Spirit helps us in this battle (Rom 8: 13-14).
Under the new covenant, then, everything works by the Holy Spirit, and not by keeping the law. So does the law still have a role to play? After all, Paul says that we do not nullify the law, but uphold it (Rom 3: 31). The law has (at least) two important functions. One is to help us understand what sin is in God’s eyes, and to show us that we certainly fail to meet his standards: “I would not have known what sin was except through the law” (Rom 7: 7). The other, is to lead us to Christ: “So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith” (Gal 3: 24).
The law remains, then, but only for the purpose of pointing out sin and leading us to Christ, and not as a covenant under which we must live and act: “Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law” (Gal 3: 25).
With this understanding of the covenants, light is cast on certain other disputed issues. I will just list one or two here, without any deep explanation:
a) All kinds of legalism, either based on the Mosaic law, or something else
As under the new covenant we are led by the Holy Spirit, and God has written his law on our hearts, there is no need to cling to ceremonies and fixed forms of behaviour which were intended for those in whom the Holy Spirit did not yet dwell.
b) Sabbath keeping, either seventh or first day
As the Mosaic covenant is obsolete, there is no need to keep its sign.
c) Confusing the promises and blessings of the covenants
Prosperity theology places great stress on Old Testament promises, e.g. Deut 28. In the Old Testament, wealth counts as a blessing. Jesus, on the other hand, said: “Blessed are the poor” and “woe to you rich” (Luke 6: 20, 24). As spiritual blessings are more important in the new covenant, this is not contradictory.
d) Spiritual gifts have ceased (Cessationalism)
The new covenant in the blood of Christ did not change again when writing of the Bible was finished. The Holy Spirit is still working in the same way.
e) The relationship of Israel and the church
There are at least three theories for this, in various theological systems, each linked with a different eschatological view. The new covenant was, after all, intended first and foremost for Israel (Jer 31: 31), but now other nations may also enter in (see Romans 11: 17-24).
f) The kingdom of God
The dynamic operation of the kingdom of God, as well as its present and future aspects, can better be understood in the light of the new covenant.
Footnotes:
- Conner, Kevin J. and Malmin, Ken, The Covenants, City Bible Publishing, 1983.
- Davis, Gwyn, Iachawdwriaeth Gymaint, Gwasg Efengylaidd Cymru, 1988
- Delashmutt, Gary and McCallum, Dennis, Covenantal vs. dispensational theology, online, http://www.xenos.org/essays/covdisp.htm
- Lucas, E.C., Covenant, Treaty and Prophecy, online, http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/article_covenant_lucas.html; Va’etchanan, Covenant and Conversation, online, http://www.chiefrabbi.org/thoughts/vaetchanan5765.htm
Bibliography:
Martin, J. Mark, The Gospel and the Covenants, audio materials,
