Old Testament vs New Testament- Part 3
OR
Old Covenant vs New Covenant- Part 3

A study by Danny Bunn

         In this paper I want to talk deeper about the relationship regarding the law of the old covenant and grace in the new covenant. Even though I keep talking about law and grace, we have NEVER been saved by the law or works, it has always been by God's grace through faith.
Starting off with...
John 1
10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.
16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
         I want to make some comments dealing with these few verses. The person described here created the world and then later on he became a man. I love the parallels between Gen 1 and John 1 but that is not my subject at this time. Anyway this one who came was God in human flesh but he was rejected by the ones he chose to make his name known to the world. They kept blowing it over and over and over under the old testament laws or old covenant laws so God became a man which was determined before the world began to free mankind from the bondage of sin they would go into. God who foreknew all things had it already planned out how he was going to free mankind and he never thought for a moment that the law was going to do it and he let us know that fact all through his word. He also let us know in the first book of the bible that he had it planned for one to come and die to set mankind free.

Gen 3
9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
         Verse 15 is regarding Jesus coming the first time to die for mankind.

Also in Gen 22
8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
         The typology here was Abraham offering his son to God as a sin offering and his boy asked him where was the lamb? Abraham said here that God will provide himself a lamb but there was a ram in the thickets that Abraham was to use then and the lamb that God provided was himself thousands of years later on the cross for mankind's sins. and Jesus Christ experienced the fiery wrath of God when he hung on the cross and became sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Ck II Cor 5:17-21 below
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
         Paul also said the same thing under the new covenant that if the law could have given life then there would be no need for Jesus to come, It was worded this way.

Gal 3
21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
         And we know he is talking about the old covenant law which was bondage to a lost man or woman since they could not keep it. Paul shows clearly that the law could not give life or righteousness and if it could give righteousness then Jesus Christ would have never came.. Paul is showing here and other places that you can't keep the law unless you do it perfectly all the time to be "righteous".

Looking at
Gal 3
12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
         Here we see that the law is not of faith and Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. The law was a curse to sinful, sick, depraved mankind. The law given by an all holy God cannot be kept by man and God knew that. He knew mankind would continually break his law because of their sin nature that came from Adam. God gave his law to keep mankind in line until the Saviour should come. Mankind always pleased God by faith, it has always been his way. Abraham being the father of the faith pleased God before he did anything and there was no law at abraham's time to keep. So the law is second fiddle to faith, always has been and always will be. Self righteous people like to think they are keeping the law but they aren't because no man can. The law does not just deal with the outer things such as what you eat or even wear but it also deals with your mind and desires. Jesus showed that when he said if you look on a woman to lust after her you committed adultery with her already in your heart. We see in the epistles that if you hate your brother you are a murderer, etc.

Matt 17
1 And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,
2 And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.
3 And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.
4 Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.
5 While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.
6 And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid.
7 And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid.
8 And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.
         Something super important here is we see Moses (the lawgiver) and Jesus Christ (grace of God) talking in the transfiguration. We don't know what they said but we DO KNOW what God said in verse 5, "…This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him."
         He did not say listen to his law giver Moses or to his prophet Elias but listen to his Son Jesus Christ.
         Keep in mind what we read in John 1:17 above.. Jesus Christ is the preeminent one, he overshadows Moses the law giver and the greatest OT prophet, John the Baptist, both take a back seat, so to speak.
         In closing, I want to repeat once again, no one has ever been saved by the law and everyone has broken the law, it came forth from a holy, pure, righteous God who hates sin and that is why he wanted it kept perfectly and no man can do that. He said many different times in different ways to keep the law perfectly and breaking any part of his law denotes breaking all of his law since it is a collective whole. He did not give his law and say, "Keep this part as best you can, really try on this part, etc. NO he demands absolute perfection in his law. He doesn't want anyone cutting corners. The law is hard core and only possible to keep in perfection by a perfect being and Jesus Christ kept the law in the absolute perfect way. He was the creator of the law so he knows all about it and he also knows how to set mankind totally free and that was by his blood, making us new creatures, sinless in our spirits and then telling us to submit to him and resist the devil to walk in victory in the outer man. As we present out bodies a living sacrifice to him and transform our minds with his word then our soulish man will line up with our spirit man which had been born of him.
         I want to share a little more with you. Looking at the first Adam, he was created perfect by God but he sinned later on by disobeying God. Now we his children being born again by his Spirit are made perfect and sinless in our spirit man since we are born of the God, the Lord Jesus in whom there is no sin. We still have the old sinful nature we inherited from the first Adam and we will have it until this body falls over dead but Now we have the new nature we received from the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. We get victories or defeats based on which nature we are submitting to. If we keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith we will be overcomers like he called us to be.

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