Why do people turn back to the Old Covenant, part 2.

Well, part one is what it is. Not much response to it so either it wasn’t response worthy, wasn’t written well enough to make sense, not interesting, or didn’t get enough traction. It is what it is. From the blog-o-sphere-graph-whatsamajigger-thingy I know that the articles usually find some traction and the readership has grown, so, I’ll take whatever that may mean, with “quiet, dignity and grace”. (Kudos to the readers who get the “quiet, dignity and grace” reference!)

Calvin Coolidge is quoted as having said,

“Nothing can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and Determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

And in the spirit of that particular quote, which is always visible at my work desk, I will finish this blog post and dive in to reasons the fourth and fifth regarding that age-old question: Why do people turn back to the Old Covenant?

In the first part, I gave five answers. For the sake of saving time flipping back to the previous post, and just to fill up space here, I present to you, dear reader, the answers I gave to the title question of Parts 1 and 2.

The Answers

1. It’s easy, or, it seems easier to follow.
2. They don’t know any better.
3. It is all that they know.
4. They don’t understand Grace.
5. Modern churches could not function or work without it.

In Part 1, I dove into answers 1, 2 and 3. As you can guess, we are going to hit numbers 4 and 5 today! So lets take a deeper look into answer number four.

#4 – They don’t understand Grace.

Paul had this same problem, time and time again. This is one of the reasons, I believe, we have so many of Paul’s writings compared to the other apostles/disciples. Look no further than the letter written to the Galatians, Paul makes his case very clear here. In it, Paul confesses how he took Peter to task for reverting back to the old ways. Man to man, face to face, and it would seem very publicly Paul confronts Peter on the matter. Not very “honoring” according to the current trends of today’s churches. Paul straightforward and plainly calls him on the carpet. He records a small synopsis of his history with the Gospel in the book of Galatians for the benefit of those in Galatia who were being led back to observing the Law. In God’s wisdom and love, the letter has been preserved for our benefit too, so that we may read and understand that there is a better way!

In the letter, sternly but I think lovingly (like a father dealing with a child who is growing up into adulthood) he takes the Galatians to task and reasons with them. Paul, mind you, is the Pharisee of Pharisees, the disciples if you recall were considered ignorant and unlearned men. So, if Paul is saying there is a better way… shouldn’t we pay attention? Here, read a few excerpts pulled from the NKJV version of Chapter 3 in the letter to the Galatians, emphasis is mine:

Galatians 3:1-3

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth,before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?  This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?   Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?

Galatians 3:10-14

For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”  But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.”  Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.” 

¹³ Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Galatians 3:19-25

¹⁹ What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. ²⁰ Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one.

²¹ 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. ²² But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. ²³ But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. ²⁴ Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵ But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

Now, I know that none of the books in the Bible were originally written with chapters and verses attached to them.  I personally hate seeing them, but understand that they are good for referencing things quickly. The main problem I have seen  with chapters and verses is that they poorly break up things which cause many average believers to not see the continuance in trains of thought, ideas, narratives, etc., this is furthered by many pastors doing a poor job of explaining the scriptures as well. I say this here because the above referenced scriptures just don’t do enough justice to the topic.  You really should go and read the entire letter to not just understand the context in which Paul is talking, but also to savor the way in which Paul deals with this issue.

Paul is in the middle of building his case when he pens these words and he isn’t even done yet!  He continues his train of thought and his case for not going back to the Law by drawing a similarity between the children of Sarah and Hagar and compares them with the Old Covenant and the New Covenant near the end of chapter four, and continuing into the next chapter, he drives his point home with a very startling statement regarding the definition of what falling from grace really is.  After his Sarah/Hagar analogy  (in which by the way, he encourages the Galatians to do away with “Hagar” who represents the Old Covenant in order to embrace the New), Paul starts out encouraging the Galatians to stand fast in the liberty they have in Christ and to not go back to the old ways, which Paul clearly states is bondage.  And then he continues regarding those who attempt to follow the law, emphasis again is mine:

Galatians 5:3-6

And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. ⁴ You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.⁵ For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. ⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.

Verse four should give us all pause enough to consider what is going on here. Paul has made it clear that to go back to the Old Covenant is bondage.  Why?  Because you have to obey everything in it if you do.  Complete slavery.  He pushes it further by saying that if you do so, you fall from grace.

Sin doesn’t cause a fall from the Grace of God.  Trying to follow the Law, to be justified in the Law instead of Christ is what causes the fall from Grace.

The old covenant has been fulfilled, stop trying to observe it and follow the rules in it. Pastor’s stop preaching all the time from the Old Testament and the Old Covenant with seven steps to this or eight ways for that. Yes, yes, yes “All scripture is good for….” blah blah blah. Sorry, but I dislike the usage that scripture gets a lot of the time. Yes, the Old Testament is good for teaching, encouraging, rebuking, etc.,… in its proper context on this side of the Cross!  Use it for what it is meant to be used for. It is history, it is an example and it points forward to Christ!

Preach Christ! 

This leads me to point number five.

# 5 – Modern Churches couldn’t function without it.

Let’s draw some similarities shall we?

Similarity # 1

In the Old Covenant, usually it was one man who spoke to the people on God’s behalf.

Modern Christians flock to church buildings to listen to one man relay what God has to say to them that week.

And the difference is….?

The reality of the New Covenant is that every single one of us has been made priests in the New Covenant. We are called to serve the world and each other. Yes, there are those whose specific calling is to help buildup the body of Christ, but at the same time, that position is not held over the rest. With the Old Covenant mindset churches, there is no room for a group of believers to share and minister to each other because the current system revolves completely around a worship pastor and his worship team “creating an atmosphere” of worship for the people (to be receptive) and for God (because apparently he won’t come unless he is satisfied with worship) and then the lead or associate pastor with a “word from God” for everyone. Forget that whole “each of you has a psalm, or a word, or an exhortation, or a prophecy” bit, it can’t work because the local congregations are just too big! There is no room for people to truly speak into each other’s lives because the modern church demands “faithfulness” in the form of attendance whenever the church doors are open.

Similarity #2

In the Old Covenant, the House of the Lord was the Temple, the place where God’s Presence resided.

Modern Christians refer to their church building as the House of the Lord and claim to feel God’s presence in said House much more than elsewhere.

And the difference is….?

The reality of the New Covenant is so much better! God has chosen to no longer, for ever and ever, to dwell in houses made by men. Instead, he chooses to live in you! We, the believers, the regenerated ones, the church, the ekklesia, both individually and corporately become the Temple in which God now lives and he has no plans on leaving! By observing any worship service in modern evangelical christianity, you would deduce that Christians seem to forget this whole part of the New covenant, much less forgetting about his omnipresence! Wherever you go, God goes. Even David knew this, remember? Doesn’t “where can I go where I can escape your presence” sound a bit familiar? You could be in the deepest pit and God would be right there. Nothing can separate you!

Similarity #3

In the Old Covenant, people brought their tithes and offerings (if they could, there actually were some awesome exceptions to that, but that’s a whole different topic altogether, bear with me) to the Lord’s storehouse (temple) and if they didn’t observe the commandments were under a curse.

Modern Pastors, Church Leaders and church-goers refer to the church building as the “Storehouse” and bring their tithes and offerings there by check, cash, credit and debit card and they even mail it in if they miss church. They believe that those who do not tithe are under a curse and the only way to break that curse, is to tithe. The whole redeemed from the curse thing? Yeah, God didn’t really mean that when he inspired Paul to write those words, right?

And the difference is….?

The reality of the New Covenant is that we are called to give according to who we are in Christ, not grudgingly, not out of pressure, but freely, openly, with no expectation of return. It is a hard pill to swallow, but you aren’t supposed to give out of a motivation to remove a curse (that no longer applies to you anyway). You aren’t supposed to give out of a motivation that others will then give back to you “pressed down, shaken together and running over”. That should be the farthest thing from your mind when giving! Like one of my family’s favorite computer animated movies says, “See a need, fill a need!”

Here is the problem, if you chose to give as you saw fit, wherever your heart and the Spirit of God wanted you to give, I would be willing to bet that it wouldn’t be used to keep the local church building going. Well, sir, you might say, “I’m just being a steward of God’s money, it’s all God’s anyways!” Really? I’m just going to shoot off of my hip here with a few things. Since when has God’s “economy” ever been ran with USD, GBP, Yen or any other form of earthly currency? Last time I checked, heaven was pretty self-sufficient with Christ being all and in all. Since when did God decide to “pay” his children with a constantly and rapidly devaluing currency? Yes, I would agree that God has “a hand” in blessing us with jobs, to what degree, I wouldn’t be so arrogant as to say I know. But even for the dogmatic old-testament Christians, you cannot ignore how hard work, by your own hand, was respected. Now, I would agree that God does “use” these earthly currencies to do His will, it does take money to do many things in this world, however it doesn’t take as much money as most pastors speaking behind their pulpits would have you believe.

Does it cost you $35,000 a month to welcome people into your home, get to know them, share your life with them? No? Then why does it cost that much to do that at most church buildings?

Do you ask for money every time your friends and family come to your home for the “upkeep”? No?

Then…

If there isn’t a “curse” to remove from giving…

If God doesn’t have a need to be entertained through worship for his presence to come because it’s already there…

If reaching the people around you really doesn’t cost that much…

If Pastors would stop teaching “sin management”, “seven steps to God hearing your prayers”, “12 steps to Holiness” and “morality” and just preach Christ and Him crucified and the beautiful realities of the New Covenant…

If God’s people were meeting in smaller, more intimate circles and using their time, money and talents for the good of their families, friends, and the communities around them…

Doesn’t that make the modern-day church building a bit irrelevant and rather unnecessary?

Take it for what it’s worth to you.

Why do people turn back to the Old Covenant?

As you know, I’m just an average guy with no theological training or bible college background. I just write what I observe as plainly as I can, sometimes wandering in verbal circles as I do. This might span into a two or three-parter as we tip over a few sacred cows. Let’s see where this takes us, shall we? As always, if it’s helpful or insightful, great, if not, discard it and move on.

A Story As Old As The Bible

The story goes something like this:  God provides a better way for his kids to live and they insist on going back to the old ways or bringing parts of the old ways back into the new, like they could improve on what God had intended for them.

Take the Exodus as an example:  God brings them out of slavery, out from under the hand of Pharoah and they want to go back! They thought it would have been better to die a slave than die free? Seriously, WTF is that all about?

Travel ahead now through space and time to Jesus.  The Lord comes, fulfills the Law and having fulfilled it, he abolishes it and establishes the New Covenant, a Covenant of Life, Love, Freedom and Grace. A Covenant that He, God Himself, foretold and promised (over and over again) would be coming; nullifying the older Covenant of death, condemnation and never-ending obedience to Laws that they would never be able to fulfill perfectly in the first place.

Yet…

Time and time again, over the last two-thousand plus years, from the first believers to now… people try to “add-on” things of the Old Covenant to the New. Throughout the last two millenia, we encounter people who insist that we must follow and obey the Old Covenant! This is exactly what Jesus was talking about regarding old wine in new wine skins! It’s not supposed to work that way, and eventually something will burst and fail. Paul encountered this problem over and over again and thankfully we have record of it in the New Testament.

Why Does This Happen?

Through conversations that I have had with a number of people who come from different walks of life and schools of thought, and have come to hold a good understanding of Grace and the New Covenant, there seems to be a common thread in the answers given to the question in the title of this blog. So, that’s exactly what we will be talking about!

The Answers

1. It’s easy, or, it seems easier to follow.
2. They don’t know any better.
3. It is all that they know.
4. They don’t understand Grace.
5. Modern churches could not function or work without it.

#1 – It’s Easy.

Now, why would it seem easier to follow the written code of the Old Covenant?

Well, because there are written rules to follow, of course!

The initial heart behind the issue is pure enough:  I want to please God, so what should I do?  Well, let’s consult the Good Book! (another good motive since we have something to refer back to) While we are at it, let’s go back to the commandments! We can start by following the two greatest commandments:  Love God and Love everyone else. Why those? Well, because the Lord said that upon these two hang all the Law AND the prophets.  After that, let’s go back and make sure to observe “The 10” (which we should be anyways if we are following the top two… but still) after all, it is always good to have something to remind us of what we should be doing.  These twelve will help us to gauge our spirituality and walk with Christ by how well we can follow them and then we can move on to other commandments that our pastor deems important to follow, like tithing and not having tattoos. And then we can make sure to look at the New Testament and see the list of the fruits of the Spirit and make sure to produce those. And then it branches out from there. There isn’t any guess-work involved. We can see it in the text, we can frame it and put it on display in our home and churches and on our front lawns for everyone to see!

Okay, maybe the sarcasm was a little too heavy in the previous paragraph. But still, having something to look at, something tangible can give you the impression that the Old Covenant would be easy to follow. Again, it starts off well enough but just goes downhill from there.

We should focus on what Christ says and pay careful attention to how the whole thing is playing out before our eyes in the Gospels and then in the rest of the New Testament. People don’t like to hear this, but there is a clear and cut line between the Old Covenant and the New – it’s called the Cross. The Old Covenant and The Law should be there as a history lesson, as an example of how things go when we try to become justified through our actions or try to “prove” we are “god’s chosen” because we observe these things. The Law should show us that we can’t do it, bring us to the end of our own dead works and point to Christ and his Grace not be our instructions for living in Christ!

It is absolutely impossible to follow the two greatest commands, much less the “Big 10” or the other 600. And when you break it down, nobody, nobody follows and obeys the Old Covenant law, period.

Can you honestly say that you have been able to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, spirit, resources, strength, etc.  With everything?  Can you honestly say that you have been able to love every person you’ve come into contact with just as you love yourself?  Not lip service, not just actions that “pose” as such, but truly love God and everyone else.  Really?

If so, you are a far, far better person than I am. I haven’t been able to live up to that standard, I would like to think I do, but that would just be a delusion. But some might say, “That’s why we have Grace!”, yes and Grace has no place in the Old Covenant, you can’t have it both ways! The Old Covenant brings you to the end of yourself so that Grace may bring you into something better!

As Paul said, the Law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, but when we are in Christ, we have no more need for an external tutor.  If you look at the promises God makes about the New Covenant, and you look at what Jesus says about when His Holy Spirit comes and even look at the writings of Paul and then connect the dots, it’s pretty clear that we aren’t meant to follow after a written code, but something, no, Someone better. You know, that whole leading you into all truth by the Spirit thing that he promised?

One last thing about the “easier” path and I will try to use my experience  to illustrate what I am trying to say here.

I used to get “prayed up”, “read up”, “worshipped up” “churched up” and every other christian-esed “up” that helped me gauge my spiritual level and trajectory. I used to tithe (10% gross PLUS bonuses and tax refunds) and try to observe the “Big 2” to the best of my ability. Then I realized that there does not exist a level where all my doing is enough. I couldn’t pray, read the bible, worship, attend church enough to please God. There was always more to do!  When I came to this understanding, I further realized that all that “stuff” was part of the point and problem. I wasn’t meant to do all that stuff and I didn’t need to anymore, I was relieved of my “duty” and given Grace to live. In Christ you find everything. When I finally left the institutional church, I realized that it is, in fact, much “harder” living in Grace. Why? Because it is hard to gauge my “level” of spirituality without looking at how many church services I attended, how many messages I preached or lessons I taught, how many people I prayed for, how much worship I got in daily and weekly, how much bible chapters I read to tell me how close to God I was, how faithful I was in tithing or dwelling on the commandments, etc. When you can’t use all these external things to gauge your spirituality or relationship with God, it does seem much harder. But that is only because you are using all that unnecessary garbage to gauge your relationship with God instead of relying on what Christ has done for you and in you. If he was interested, at all, in all that stuff adding up for your “righteousness account”, Christ wouldn’t have come because the Law would’ve justified you…but it couldn’t.

Living in Grace requires something more from you than mere actions can prove or supply.

It requires Faith.  It requires Trust.

It requires trusting His promise to teach you and lead you and guide you. 

It requires having faith that He, not you, is the Author and Finisher of your Faith.

It requires you dropping everything you are doing and trust that what He has done is sufficient for your salvation.

It requires trusting that He, not you, will help naturally bring forth the fruits and works that you were trying to bring forth on your own. And when he brings them out of you naturally, they are pure, they are incorruptible.

That’s when I learned to trust and it became easier, the yoke became easier, the burden became lighter.

I still have bouts with condemnation; things that I am not “doing”.  I’m no better than anyone, really, I’m just doing what I can to trust in Him, have Faith and allow His Grace to have way in my life. And if I think back to all the things I used to do in the institution and try to compare… yeah, it is easy for me to feel like I am not “doing” much “for the Kingdom”, it is easy to get wrapped up in condemnation and it is tempting to want to go back to it.

Which brings me to points 2 & 3, since they pretty much go hand in hand.

#2 They Don’t Know Any Better, #3 It’s All That They Know 

With having something tangible to follow, a lot of us don’t know any better than to keep doing what we’ve been doing and follow the Old Covenant. I really don’t have the answers here (gasp!) and I know there are people more qualified than I to talk about all this stuff, however, I can give an “educated guess” that the reason we don’t know any better and the reason that the Old Covenant is all we know is because: it is all that has ever been taught. There isn’t much emphasis on the New Covenant, let alone the New Testament, and so we revert back to #1. Either that is the way we have been instructed ever since coming to Christ, or, it’s the way we have been brought up since we were young. We don’t know any better because it’s all that we know. We focus so much on all that other stuff that all the beauty and freedom of the New Covenant gets glazed over and foggy. We’ve never been told what really falling from Grace is!

I hear time and time again, “Well you know, Jesus said Himself that He didn’t come to break or abolish the Law, but to fulfill it!  So, we see there that if Jesus did it, we are bound to follow in the Master’s steps!” 

Umm… we follow Him on this side of the Cross. What part of “fulfilled” or “It is Finished” don’t you understand? Most of you reading this would be considered Gentiles anyways, which means that the Law really wasn’t yours to obey in the first place. Hard pill to swallow, but true. Regardless of that, the old covenant was fulfilled, now we live in a new covenant, a better one, and it’s not a covenant of laziness as those who are against Grace would have you believe.

There is this insistence that if we do not follow the Law, then Christians (and then the rest of the world) will just fall into sin and all Hell will literally break loose around us. The picture is painted that we’ll be having orgies in our Sunday morning services with men, women, children and beasts because, after all, how would we know what is right without the Law?

Ummmmm… it’s called Christ IN You.  You know, THE Hope of Glory?  It’s, you know, that “little” promise Christ made about His Spirit leading you into all truth. What? You don’t think God is strong enough and faithful enough to fulfill his promise about leading us? Or do you not trust the regenerative work of Christ in us to keep us from having orgies on Sunday morning?

Besides, the world is pretty good “falling” into sin all on their own, with and without biblical instruction, including christians who preach the Law! How many times have we seen “men of God” with high morals and huge ministries fall into the very things they preach against? So, that argument isn’t really the best one to present, now, is it?

Seriously, think about it, which is greater: The Spirit of God or the “power” of sin?  Here, let me lean in close and give you a hint:

God is way more powerful than sin could ever be…why not trust in that?

I find that I am tempted to believe, based on the words, sermons and actions of those who would have you obey the Law and add everything plus the kitchen sink to living in Christ, that those same people possess absolutely NO faith in the Finished Work of the Cross! NO faith in the regenerative power of God’s Holy Spirit and being made a new creation with a new heart. NO faith in Him being the Author and Finisher of our Faith. In so many words, they basically paint a gloomy picture that we are “on our own” in our salvation, we must prove to God our worthiness and do, do, do, do so we can make sure we get our Rapture bus-ticket. Or they will make a formula up which usually goes like this: grace + law = salvation.  I say its absolute Godlessness.

If there is no faith in what God has done for you and in you, what God is doing in you now, and what He has planned for you as one of His finished masterpieces, then, where is your faith placed?

I think I’ll wrap this up here and continue points 4 and 5 in a second post.

Who’s up for a two-parter? Can I get a Stone Cold Steve Austin, “Hell yeah!”?