An excerpt from a Bible study…
Hebrews 8:6-13. “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah- “not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. “None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away”.
Our Bible has an Old Testament and a New Testament. The Old Testament was given to the Jews, the New Testament commands were given to all nations.
Also, the New Testament has taken the place of the Old Testament. God’s people today are not under the Old Testament. We are under the New.
18) To what people was the Old Testament law given?________________
God gave all the Bible. But He gave the first Covenant as a temporary law. It stopped being God’s law when Jesus died on the cross. It had served its purpose and therefore had to be abolished.
Galatians 3:21-25 “Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.”
The reason that the Old Testament is no longer God’s law is that it finished its work. In the book of Galatians, Paul, the apostle, tells us that we are justified (saved) by faith in Christ. Then he writes:
“But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed..”–Galatians 3:23
This means that the law (of Moses) was taking care of the Jews in the way a servant takes care of children. The law was keeping them until “the faith” was revealed–that is, until Jesus came and the whole plan of salvation by faith in Christ was given to men.
19) What were the Jews “kept under?”____________________________
20) What was going to be revealed afterwards?_________________
“Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith”. Galatians 3:24.
Here Paul calls the law a tutor or school master
“But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor”.–Galatians 3:25
If we are no longer under a tutor or school master, we are no longer under the law of Moses. That law did its work. It brought the Jews to Christ. Now its work is finished and we are not under it any more.
21) Galatians 3:24 calls the law “our _________________”.
22) Because faith is come, we are no longer under a________________
Colossians 2:13-17: “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.”
In his letter to the church at Colosse, Paul tells the Gentiles (those who are not Jews) that they can now be saved. “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses”. –Colossians 2:13
This verse says that the Gentiles were separated from God by two things–1) their sins and 2) the fact that they were not circumcised.
23) What two things separated the Gentiles from God?
a)____________________________________ b)________________________________
Jesus came to correct both things. He came to forgive their trespasses (sins) and–
having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. –Colossians 2:14
The word requirements means law of Moses The thing which Jesus “wiped out” and “took out of the way” was made up of laws. It was the law of Moses which said that all male Jews had to be circumcised, etc. It was the law which kept Gentiles separate from the Jews.
24) What was the “handwriting of requirements”?______________
25) When was it taken out of the way?_______________
The reason it was taken away when Jesus died on the cross is simple. That was when Jesus fulfilled everything necessary to take it away and bring the New Testament.
Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it –Colossians 2:15.
Satan tried to stop Jesus by killing Him on the cross. But the cross was when sins were forgiven and when the Law of Moses was taken away. Satan and his powers were “disarmed,” that is, their power was taken away.
26) When were Satan and his powers “disarmed”?_______________
So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. –Colossians 2:16-17
The law which said that Jews must not eat pork, and which said they must keep the Passover and the sabbath, was nailed to the cross. We must not let any man judge us by that law any more. It is gone. We have come to Christ. His word is the real thing for which the Old Covenant was preparing the world.
21) Why must no man judge us in meat or the sabbath?__________
28) May a Christian eat pork? (Read also 1 Timothy 4:1-5)________
29) May a Christian work on the Sabbath (Saturday)?___________
30) By what law is a Christian NOT judged?____________
The New Testament
(Hebrews 9:15-17) “And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives”.
A “covenant or testament” is a will. Jesus died to bring His new testament, a will in which there is salvation from sins.
31) What is a testament?___________
“For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.(maker of the will or testament) For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives”.–Hebrews 9:16-17
While Jesus was living, His testament (will) was not yet the law for men. The law of Moses was still God’s law. But when Jesus died, He took the law out of the way and brought His new testament into power. Until He died, His testament had no strength. But when He died, His will became the law for all mankind. Therefore we must keep the New Testament, not the Old.
32) What testament (law) was God’s law for the Jews while Jesus was living?_______________
33) When did Christ’s testament (will) become the law for all mankind?_______________
