The New Covenant

Monday 5 December continued

In Luke 16:16 Jesus said: “The law and the prophets were until John.”

The Commentary says that “the ministry of John the Baptist signalled the great turning point in redemptive history.”  There are those who would base Christianity on the law and say that the keeping of the law, especially the Sabbath, is a requirement for salvation.  But Jesus repudiates this, as does Paul in all his epistles, in which he distinguishes between law and grace.

See Hebrews 8:13 especially in which Pauls says: “In that He says, ‘A new covenant’. He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”

In 70AD when the temple was destroyed the old covenant did, in fact, vanish away. “He takes away the first that He may establish the second.” (Heb. 10:9)

Also, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord; I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.” (v16)