Beginning of the End: The New Covenant and Justification by Faith

 The terms of the “old covenant” were, Obey and live: “If a man does, he shall live by them” (Ezekiel 20:11). But “‘cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law’” to do them. (Deuteronomy 27:26). The “new covenant” was established upon “better promises,” the promise of forgiveness and the grace of God to change the heart and bring it into harmony with God’s law. “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts. ... I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jeremiah 31:33, 34).

The same law that was engraved on tablets of stone is written by the Holy Spirit on the heart. We accept the righteousness of Christ. His blood atones for our sins. His obedience is accepted for us. Then through the grace of Christ we will walk even as He walked. Through the prophet He declared concerning Himself, “I delight to do Your will, O My God, and Your law is within My heart” (Psalm 40:8).

Paul clearly presents the relation between faith and the law under the new covenant: “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.” “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh”  —it could not justify the sinner, who in the sinful nature could not keep the law—“God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 5:1; 3:31; 8:3, 4).

Beginning with the first gospel promise and coming down through the patriarchal and Jewish ages to the present time, there has been a steady revealing of God’s intentions in the plan of redemption. The clouds have rolled back, the mists and shadows have disappeared, and Jesus, the world’s Redeemer, stands revealed. He who proclaimed the law from Sinai is the same who spoke the Sermon on the Mount. The great principles of love to God are only saying again what He had spoken through Moses. The Teacher is the same in both Old Testament and New Testament times.