Before we consider worship in the New
Testament I'd like to review the relationship between the Old and the New
Testaments. The examples we've considered so far have all been from
the Old Testament. What role does the OT play in our religious lives
today? It is important to understand the role of the OT in our lives
today before we continue with a study of NT worship.
I'm sure most of you have heard of the
controversy regarding a judge who wishes to have a copy of the Ten
Commandments displayed within his courtroom. On first glance this
seems like a noble gesture. After all, doesn't this reflect the
judge's trust in God, having a copy of these OT commandments displayed for
all to see? I'm sure many of the cases he encounters are a result of
people violating one or more of these instructions. Let's take a
deeper look at the Old Covenant and see if such a display truly reflects
one's trust in God.
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To whom were the Ten Commandments
given? (Exodus
34:27,28) Before we
can establish the validity of a law in a given case we must determine
whether the one being judged was subject to that law. If the law
never applied to the person in question that law cannot judge them.
Paul emphasizes this point in Romans
3:19 when he states, "Now we know that what things soever the law
saith, it saith to them who are under the law:” In Exodus 34 we
discover the group of people to whom the old law was given: The
nation of Israel! God tells Moses on Mount Sinai to, "Write
thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a
covenant with thee and with Israel." What can we conclude from
these few verses? Only the Israelites were ever subject
to the old law, and therefore the Ten Commandments (which were
part of the old law given to Moses by God). If you were (or
are) a Gentile the Ten Commandments never applied to you! So, if the
judge mentioned above is a Gentile, the Ten Commandments displayed in his
courtroom is a law to which he was never subject. I was watching
"televangelist" Ed Young recently. At the end of the
program he advertised a tape he was selling entitled "What you don't
know about the Ten Commandments: Back to Basics." He
began the advertisement with snapshots of newspaper headlines, emphasizing
the point that the headlines reflected a lack of obedience to the Ten
Commandments. Unfortunately, I doubt his tape will truly tell one
what they don't know about the Ten Commandments. As we've seen, the
old law applied only to the Jews, never to the Gentiles.
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Was the old law meant to be in
force forever? Now that we
know to whom the old law was given, are the Jews still subject to it
today? To answer this question we will again turn to the scriptures
and see if they tell us of the fate of the old law. Let's begin by
looking at the promise made to Abraham by God, as recorded in Genesis
22:15-18. In the earlier part of Genesis
22 we see Abraham and his willingness to offer Isaac as a burnt
offering to the Lord. An angel made two appearances to Abraham
during this event: Once to stop Abraham's hand as he held the knife
over Isaac, and a second time to tell Abraham of God's promise to him.
The angel tells him that, "in thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed" in verse 18. But to what nations was the
angel referring and who is the seed through which these nations will be
blessed? To find the answer let's turn to Galatians chapter 3.
First, notice verse
8. Paul records, "And the scripture, foreseeing that God
would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto
Abraham, saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed." So the
"heathen" is included in the nations of people mentioned by the
angel. But who is the "heathen" spoken of here? Move
down a few verses in chapter 3 to verses 14-16.
Here we read, "that the blessing of Abraham might come on the
Gentiles through Jesus Christ" (verse 14), and that the seed spoken
of by the angel was Jesus Christ (verse 16)! So through Jesus Christ
(the seed of Abraham) all nations (Gentiles included) would be blessed.
But didn't the old law exclude the Gentiles from this promise? We
know the old law was given exclusively to the Jews. Well,
let's see. When was the promise made to Abraham? In Genesis
22. When was the old law given to Moses? After the exodus from
Egypt while the people wandered in the wilderness (Moses on Mt. Sinai is
recorded in Exodus 19-32). How much time passed between the promise
given to Abraham and the old law given to Moses? 430 years! (Galatians
3:17) As you recall from our earlier study, God doesn't change.
Since God doesn't change what must we conclude about the old law? At
the time it was written it was destined to eventually cease being a valid
covenant! God's promise to Abraham included the
Gentiles, but His covenant with Moses excluded them. But
doesn't this show a changing nature to God? No! Remember, the way
we worship God has changed throughout history, but God Himself hasn't
changed. God's will from the Garden of Eden was that Jesus would
come and "bruise the head" of Satan (Genesis
3:15). The promise made to Abraham reflected the fulfillment of
that promise. The covenant made with the people of Israel separated
a people unto God through which the promise would be fulfilled.
Please don't continue with this study until you have this thought (that
the old covenant was destined to cease) firmly rooted in your mind.
For clarity I'd like to re-emphasize this point. Abraham was given a
promise that through his seed (Jesus Christ) all nations would be
blessed. 430 years later a covenant was made between God and one
nation: the Jews. In order for the promise made to Abraham
to come to fruition what must occur: the covenant excluding
all nations except the Jews must cease to exist as a valid covenant
between God and the Jews. As long as the old law separated Jew from
Gentile the promise made to Abraham could not be fulfilled.
Paul records in Ephesians
2:13-16 what Jesus Christ did for the Jew and the Gentile, "But
now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the
blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and
hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished
in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in
ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making
peace;” Jesus Christ came to the earth to fulfill the law (Matthew
5:17,18). However, once the law was fulfilled it ceased to
function as a "middle wall of partition" between Jew and
Gentile. Now all are one in Jesus Christ. But the Jews cannot
be one in Christ with the Gentiles as long as they are under the old law.
So today, any person of Jewish heritage who tries to live under the old
law is attempting to revive a covenant that ceased to be valid nearly 2000
years ago!
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What purpose does the old law
serve today? Since we know
the old law was given only to the Jews and was destined to cease as a
valid covenant between man and God, why do we have it recorded and
included as part of God's Word? Please turn to Romans
15:4. Paul tells us, "For whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and
comfort of the scriptures might have hope." We have the Old
Testament recorded for us and included as part of God's Word so that we
might learn from it. Since the law of Moses (the old law) ceased as
a covenant between God and man upon the death of Christ I cannot look to
the old law for religious authority. However, I can look to the old
law and learn of God. Remember, God doesn't change. His nature
before the death of Christ was no different than it is now. The
mistakes the Israelites made should serve as warnings to us so that we
won't make the same mistakes. We see this thought recorded by Paul
in 1
Corinthians 10:1-12. Paul reminds us how God was displeased with
the children of Israel after their passage through the Red Sea. They
served as examples for us, to warn us not to lust after evil things as
they did, to avoid idolatry, fornication, and murmuring against God.
They warn us not to "tempt Christ" as some of them did.
God expects us to be aware of the writings in the Old Testament and to
know how displeased He is with these and many other sins. However,
when it comes to religious authority the Old Testament has ceased being
valid. In Galatians
3:24,25 Paul states, "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to
bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after
that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." So
the Old Testament teaches us about God but we are no longer under its
religious ordinances. We are under the New Testament, which is the
sole source of religious authority today.
Summary
The Old Testament is a valuable resource for us today. From it we
learn much about God and what He expects from man in our worship to Him.
In the Old Testament we learn of the promise God made to Abraham that
through Christ all nations of the earth would be blessed. 430 years
later the law of Moses (including the Ten Commandments) was given to the
Jews and served as their guide for worship to God until Jesus Christ shed
His blood on the cross. When He died he fulfilled the old law,
destroyed the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile, and put into effect
the New Testament. Today the source of religious authority for both
Jew and Gentile is found in the New Testament. Only within its pages
will we find the instructions which, when followed, renders our worship to
God fruitful.
