How do we relate to God? What does He want from us and what does He want for us? I believe if we don’t know the answer to these questions, we are going to have trouble with God. Yet, when we understand the new covenant answer concerning what God wants us to do and what God wants to give, we find a greater peace in our walk with the Lord. These are questions I would like us to explore in our next few posts.

And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. John 1:16-17

In the above passage we see the difference between the old and the new covenants. The old covenant was based upon the Law. The new covenant is based upon the grace and truth found in Jesus Christ.

The old covenant was in many respects a performance based relationship with God. There was room for mercy in the old covenant, but by and large Israel’s blessing was based upon Torah keeping. The books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy are in many respects written like legal contracts between God and His people. God said if they would keep all that He commanded them, they would be blessed, and God spelled out the specific blessings in great detail. However, He also said if they did not keep Torah, they would be cursed. He then laid out the specific curses in great detail.

In Jesus’ day many had the perception that God’s people were being cursed, because they did not keep Torah correctly. And they had good reason think this way. They saw what appeared to be God’s curses before their eyes. One of the great curses mentioned in Deuteronomy was the loss of their land and the triumph of Israel’s enemies over God’s people. That was exactly what was happening. The Romans had conquered Israel, and times were hard.

Some, some such as the Pharisees, thought that better Torah keeping would bring God’s blessing. They thought Sabbath keeping was really important to God, so they developed over the years what is called the oral traditions. These interpreted the Law of Moses to make sure they kept it correctly. For instance, they determined that you could only walk 2000 cubits without entering into work on the Sabbath. They held fast to circumcision making a distinction between the circumcised and the uncircumcised, and interpreted and enforced the purity Laws that kept Israel from touching anything unclean. Moreover, they kept the seven feasts of Israel religiously.

Then Jesus came and threw a monkey wrench in the whole thing. He blessed people who were supposed to be cursed such as the tax collectors and prostitutes. He touched people that were considered unclean such as the lepers. He even blessed the most accursed of all, the gentiles. That is not the way it was supposed to work. All Jesus did pointed to the fact that a new way of relating to God was breaking forth. It was a new covenant that was not performance based but grace based. More on this in my next post.