Is the New Covenant really New?

 By James Henderson

An idea that is circulating in some congregations is that the New Covenant is not really new – it is just the Old Covenant updated. In other words, that the Law of the Old Testament is still valid except where Christ reversed it specifically. Is this biblically sound?

If the New Covenant is just a continuation of the Old, the argument continues, then we are obliged to observe the Sabbath and the Holy Days of Leviticus 23 seeing that Jesus did not clearly comment on them.

What is the position of the Worldwide Church of God on such matters? For a number for years the church has published material on these subjects, and our church position has been plain for all to read and inspect.

Let’s review what we teach on these topics.

Days of Assembly

The church does not have an issue with congregations that choose for non-legalistic reasons to meet on the Sabbath or to celebrate Christ on the high days mentioned in Leviticus 23. Similarly it does not have an issue with their choosing to meet for non-legalistic reasons on Sundays and for the more established Christian celebrations of Xmas and Easter. Nor does it have an issue with summer or winter festivals, nor with congregations’ meeting at other optional times.

If one takes history into account, festivals and special days which celebrate the historical saving acts of Jesus Christ, such as his incarnation, death and resurrection, have more direct personal application than the historical deliverance episodes of Old Testament Israel.

Spiritual Israel, an analogy for the church since the New Testament, is saved by Christ and through God’s acting in the crucial events in his life, not by events in the book of Exodus.

Of course, it is true that elements in the Old Testament festivals pointed to Jesus Christ in various ways just as a shadow indicates the presence of someone standing in the light, and as such can be instructive; at the same time let us remember that we do not walk in the shadow but in the light, Jesus Christ himself, who is the Light of the World.

What should a Christian fellowship under the New Covenant permit as days of worship and calendar highlights for the church? The leading perspective is that, biblically speaking, we should encourage our congregations to assemble often, “so much the more as we see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25), and to allow them and their individual members the freedom to meet on whatever days work for them (Romans 14).

Let the meeting days and times be convenient and helpful to the congregational majority in order to facilitate optimum attendance and participation, but do not forget the worship needs of the minorities. It is not a matter of certain choices being spiritually inferior or superior to other choices. The instructional and fellowship values of festivals are important to the believer and the freedom to choose the days and dates of meeting does not diminish those values.

Believers are not bound to the Law of Moses

What is the position of the Old Testament Law, sometimes called the Law of Moses, in the life of the Christian?

Sometimes people try to use Romans 7 to show that the Mosaic Law with all its implications is still a Christian obligation. However, in reality Romans 7 presents the opposite point of view  - the law is dead to the believer and is no longer binding to him or to her who has been freed though union with Christ.

Note especially the reference at the beginning of the chapter to the analogy of the death of a husband. The idea appears to be that the husband (the OT law) has died, and honorable and good and just and informative (in regard to sin) though that husband was, the wife (the church, the Christian) is no longer bound to the ways of the dead husband but is bound to the new, living husband (Jesus Christ).

Thus the Christian is committed to Christ and through the indwelling of the Spirit is to bear his fruit (verse 4). Sin and salvation are now defined not with reference to the ways of the old husband (the Mosaic laws under the Old Covenant), but with reference to the ways of the new husband (Jesus Christ under the New Covenant). Jesus, not Moses, is “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6).

2 Corinthians 3 contains a similar thought – the OT law was glorious, but now a more glorious administration is in effect.

The central idea in both passages is that the law in its entirety as handed down through the office of Moses, which law was a good system yet inadequate for salvation, has passed away and is no longer a requirement for those who believe.

The New Covenant is New, not the “updated” Old Covenant

Although the idea that the New Covenant is more or less a continuation of the Old Covenant may initially sound plausible, it begins to fall apart under the scrutiny of NT passages such as those already quoted and others.

Jesus clearly instituted a “New” Covenant. The New Testament usage of the word “New” does not typically mean “revised” or “updated” or “adjusted” or “corrected”, but implies usually something different, a fresh start.

Hence with the new heavens and the new earths the old ones pass away and are replaced, not updated.

Also, we walk in newness of life – the idea is not that we carry selected parts of the old life with us, good though they have seemed, but all is counted as dross as we walk anew with Jesus.

A “new” covenant would not imply or assume continuity of an old arrangement. Legally, even today, it is only where clearly stated in the new that points of an old agreement can be revalidated. The old becomes outdated or is revoked, and the new put in its place.

What if the New Covenant was just a continuation of the Old?

To say that the OT laws continue save where Christ reversed them has many behavioural implications.

For example, Jesus did not clearly reverse the biblical laws involving menstruation, the laws about fabrics, not lighting fires on the Sabbath, etc..

In our past when we held the position that the OT laws were more or less still binding on Christians, we became selective on the strictness of the Sabbath observances and also on the application of other laws in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

That arbitrary selective approach had no foundation in Scripture.

In fact Paul explained to the Galatians that in following Jewish ritual circumcision one becomes a debtor to the whole law. In the same way, following logically the argument of continuity except for where Christ negates certain points, does one not become a debtor to the whole of the remaining law?

The logical conclusion of this position of continuity is that one must become a debtor to the whole law, and, if so, in order to avoid OT ideas that seem extreme in today’s context, then one sets himself up as a judge of which laws, statutes and precepts should apply to the modern Christian and which should not, but ….only Christ can be such a judge.

Jesus frees us from this crisis by instituting the “New” covenant, and it is only where he clearly carries old points into the new that the old retains validity for the Christian.

Christians are under the Law of Christ

Thus the law that is valid for Christians today is not the old law as handed down to Moses in the OT, but the new “law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). We are “under law toward Christ” (I Corinthians (9:21). Sin is “against Christ” (I Corinthians 8:12).

In Acts 1:2 Luke tells us that Christ gave “commandments to the apostles”. These commandments were written down in the Gospels and Epistles that form the scriptures we call the New Testament.

The words that the Father gave Jesus His Son who passed them on to the apostles have the force of commandments for us, more so than the words that were passed down to the prophet Moses – for Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses (Hebrews 3:3).

Remember that even this law does not save us – we are saved not by any law, “for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

Living up to the stature of Jesus Christ by letting him live in us and by following His commandments and sayings is a voluntary Spirit-led response to grace; it is the working of the Holy Spirit within us to bear His fruits.

By means of his death Christ has become the mediator of the New Testament or Covenant. Because Jesus died this New Covenant with all its ramifications is now in force and the Old Covenant, though it served well for a season, is now legally null and void (Hebrews 9:15).

The New Covenant is really new!

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