Josh Hatcher's Blog
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Of Lifting Veils and Seeing God
In 2 Corinthians, there is some insight about the separation between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.
The Old Covenant.. or the Law given to Moses in the Old Testament, that man was required to keep if they wanted to be right with God....
is called the "Ministry of Death" and the "Ministry of Condemnation"
Paul clearly is referring to that Law that Moses brought that was "letters engraved on stones".
He says that the LETTER KILLS...
And even though that Law was about DEATH... Moses got all shiny when God gave it to him.
And if the Law of death had so much power that it made Moses all shiny, how much more awesome should this new covenant be?
What is this Old Covenant and why does Paul equate it with death?
A covenant is a promise, a contract, a deal.
The Old Covenant was God promising to be with His people if they kept His rules.
His rules, were IMPOSSIBLE to keep, and He knew it... and it carried a death sentence.
God loved His people, so He made a way for them to let someone else pay the price...
an animal would have to die, and its blood would represent their own.
So in other words, if I screwed up royally, and sinned against God (which I would.. because His rules were impossible to keep. No one is perfect, all have sinned) I had to give up one of my sheep to die for me.
In the book of Job and Psalms, this is referred to as a RANSOM... or a payment meant to bring freedom.
That freedom could only come from death.
And how beautiful it was, when sins were forgiven. They did not cry at the death of their prize sheep or bull... they cried out of gratitude for God's forgiveness.
But then comes the New Covenant.
Jesus dies once, as a ransom for all.
And that death pays for our sins when we accept it as our own.
For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory
Paul says, "You think Moses was shiny? Wait till you see how shiny you get when Jesus pays for your sins! You ain't seen nothing yet!"
Then the rest of the passage in 2 Cornithians can be interpreted to say that we no longer have to live by the law, but instead, we get to walk in relationship with Jesus, through the Holy Spirit. We get to have God's presence with us, and we can take off any veils, and look right at Him, as we join Him in His work.
We were once slaves to that law, but now, because God's Spirit is with us, we have FREEDOM.
And now, that we get to hang out with God's Spirit, it's like looking into a mirror, and every day, we see that we're looking more and more like Jesus.
For More Study:
If you want to study God's word some more, and look up the differences between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, you can find a comparison chart here. The website is pretty "old school", but if you print it out, and look up the scriptures, you'll see what a beautiful thing God gave us in this New Covenant.
The Old Covenant.. or the Law given to Moses in the Old Testament, that man was required to keep if they wanted to be right with God....
is called the "Ministry of Death" and the "Ministry of Condemnation"
Paul clearly is referring to that Law that Moses brought that was "letters engraved on stones".
He says that the LETTER KILLS...
And even though that Law was about DEATH... Moses got all shiny when God gave it to him.
And if the Law of death had so much power that it made Moses all shiny, how much more awesome should this new covenant be?
What is this Old Covenant and why does Paul equate it with death?
A covenant is a promise, a contract, a deal.
The Old Covenant was God promising to be with His people if they kept His rules.
His rules, were IMPOSSIBLE to keep, and He knew it... and it carried a death sentence.
God loved His people, so He made a way for them to let someone else pay the price...
an animal would have to die, and its blood would represent their own.
So in other words, if I screwed up royally, and sinned against God (which I would.. because His rules were impossible to keep. No one is perfect, all have sinned) I had to give up one of my sheep to die for me.
In the book of Job and Psalms, this is referred to as a RANSOM... or a payment meant to bring freedom.
That freedom could only come from death.
And how beautiful it was, when sins were forgiven. They did not cry at the death of their prize sheep or bull... they cried out of gratitude for God's forgiveness.
But then comes the New Covenant.
Jesus dies once, as a ransom for all.
And that death pays for our sins when we accept it as our own.
For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory
For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it.
Paul says, "You think Moses was shiny? Wait till you see how shiny you get when Jesus pays for your sins! You ain't seen nothing yet!"
Then the rest of the passage in 2 Cornithians can be interpreted to say that we no longer have to live by the law, but instead, we get to walk in relationship with Jesus, through the Holy Spirit. We get to have God's presence with us, and we can take off any veils, and look right at Him, as we join Him in His work.
We were once slaves to that law, but now, because God's Spirit is with us, we have FREEDOM.
And now, that we get to hang out with God's Spirit, it's like looking into a mirror, and every day, we see that we're looking more and more like Jesus.
For More Study:
If you want to study God's word some more, and look up the differences between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, you can find a comparison chart here. The website is pretty "old school", but if you print it out, and look up the scriptures, you'll see what a beautiful thing God gave us in this New Covenant.
Labels: Corinthians, freedom, Holy Spirit, Jesus, New Covenant, Old Covenant, ransom, veils
:: posted by joshhatcher, 7:01 AM
