That is right you heard me I love the Old Covenant.
This might surprise you because you will hear plenty of Christians say that we are New Testament people, some would even say that we do not need the Old Testament anymore that Christians only need to read the New Testament of the Bible.
That is false. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 says:
“All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” (NIV)
Which means that the Old Testament is just as God breathed as the New Testament.
Yes, context is very important when you read and there are some rules in Leviticus that would not be suitable for today, given the fact it was written to a nomadic group of wanderers in the desert for 40 years, but the principles of the Old Covenant are perfect.
God’s laws are perfect because the author is perfect.
Why did Jesus have to die?
So, if the Old Covenant is perfect, why did Jesus have to die? Why is there sin in the world? Doesn’t it say in Romans that we are not justified by keeping the law?
You see it is not the law that is the problem, it is man’s interpretation of the law.
Recently I was sitting at The Hub Training College that we have in Tweed Heads and someone was sharing their experiences about growing up in the Catholic Church.
Now I have great respect for all faith, and if you are Catholic, I write this with 100% respect for what you have been taught and where you come from.
She was sharing about her time in confession how she was taught that if you leave a sin out in confession, it was a mortal sin that God cannot forgive.
So, she was terrified of leaving a sin out, therefore facing the consequences of eternal damnation and despite being only seven years old at the time she thought she better seek forgiveness for “going into the bath with my socks on.”
We might laugh, but there are billions of people that are being deceived.
Perfect relationship with God
While the law is there to make us aware of sin, it was designed so we could have perfect relationship between us and God.
Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 22 that the law hinges on two things ‘Love the Lord your God and Love your Neighbour as yourself’ (verses 37-40).
However, we have taken what was meant to be a perfect covenant between God and man and twisted it for ourselves, making it all about our twisted performance standard.
We use it as a standard of our walk when it was never meant to be about that, it was meant to keep us loving God and loving people.
We have even used it to look down on other people.
Talking about sins that God cannot forgive.
I even heard one person (God rebuke him), “So and so has no right to set foot in a Church.”
Missing the point
The enemy has deceived us and as a result we have used the law to edify ourselves to put ourselves on the throne and not God.
We had missed the point.
When Jesus healed a person on the Sabbath in Mark chapter 3 he was not only rebuked, they even plotted to kill him.
The Sabbath is there for us to rest, recharge and get our strength for him, but any day with Jesus is the Sabbath.
The point of the Sabbath is not to limit us, but to find strength with him.
It’s not there to stop us from healing people, it is there for us to find strength to worship.
Some churches have services on Friday night, is that sinful to worship God on a Friday because it’s not the so called “Sabbath’?
Is God not with me because it is not the Sabbath?
The point is not to have a go at the Sabbath but for you to understand that God’s laws are not there to limit us but to bring us into relationship with him and when our relationship with him is where it should be, you watch as you find yourself in awe of how God can use a simple everyday person to do extraordinary things.
Ben Kruzins is the Campus Pastor of The Hub Baptist Church in Ocean Shores on the North Coast of New South Wales. He is also a Journalism graduate who has written articles in The Canberra Times and The Sydney Morning Herald.