MARGIE LITTELL AND COLLEEN TINKER
If we cannot accurately define what the gospel of Jesus is, we believe an anti-gospel message. Let’s investigate with some questions: Why would God want us to keep the words of a covenant, a law system, that He gave only to one nation of people? Furthermore, why do we say God gave this covenant—the law—only to one nation of people?
The answers to these questions are found first in the Old Testament:
So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments (Exodus 34:28).
And the king of Israel stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant (2 Kings 23:3).
These two texts may seem unrelated to each other at first, but let’s look more closely. The first text from Exodus 34 describes Moses going back up Mt. Sinai after the Israelites made the golden calf. Having broken the first set of tablets in his anger at the people, Moses received the second, replacement set from God. In verse 28 we learn explicitly that the Ten Commandments were the actual “words of the covenant” God made with Israel.
The rest of the 603 commandments explained how the Ten were to be applied and lived in the lives of the Israelites. This covenant defined by the Ten Commandments is known as the Mosaic covenant, or the old covenant. We also know from other passages within Exodus that it was made between God and Israel, with Israel promising to do all God had commanded, and with God promising Israel blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.
In the second passage above taken from 2 Kings, the context is much later in the nation’s life. Israel had long ago been divided into two kingdoms, the northern kingdom known as Israel, and the southern kingdom known as Judah. Israel had already been taken captive by Assyria, and Judah alone was left functioning as an independent monarchy.
Josiah was the great-grandson of Hezekiah, and after his wicked grandfather Mannaseh and father Amon died, Josiah ascended to the throne at the age of eight. He reigned over Judah for 33 years, and he “did right in the sight of the Lord and walked in all the ways of his father David, nor did he turn aside to the right or to the left” (2 Kings. 22:2).
One of Josiah’s greatest legacies to Judah was his rediscovery, with the help of the Hilkiah the high priest, of the book of the law which had lain forgotten and unread for generations. Josiah assigned Shaphan the scribe to read the book of the law to all the people.
Josiah began a program of reforms, cleansing the temple and the nation of the objects of worship from the pagan gods which had crept into Jerusalem’s worship system. In 2 Kings 23:3 we read that Josiah stood by a pillar in the temple and covenanted with God that he would carry out all the words of the covenant God had made all those years ago with His people Israel.
In other words, Josiah rediscovered God’s covenant with Israel and pledged to lead the nation of Judah in the ways of God according to the covenant He had made with His people. He rightly embraced the Mosaic covenant as the rightful king in the line of David reigning over God’s chosen nation, and he pledged to lead them according to God’s terms for the nation.
David confirms that God gave the Ten Commandments—and indeed, the Mosaic covenant—to His people Israel. In Psalm 147:19, 20 David writes,
He has revealed His word to Jacob, His laws and decrees to Israel. He has done this for no other nation; they do not know his laws.
Again in Psalm 78:5 David says,
For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children…
In other words, King David understood that God had given the Mosaic covenant with its Ten Commandment—the very words of the covenant—to the Israelites. In fact, God had not given His laws and decrees to any other nation; furthermore, the other nations did not know God’s laws!
The Mosaic law system was for only ONE group of people: the people of Israel descended from Jacob. Even after the ten northern tribes had disappeared into exile, the remaining two southern tribes continued to be ruled by the Mosaic covenant. Until the Messiah came—the One who was foreshadowed by the Mosaic covenant—the old covenant was God’s current rule of faith and practice for His people Israel.
After Messiah Came
How do we know that the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Mosaic law does not apply to people after the Messiah came?
The apostle Paul—God’s chosen apostle sent to bring the message of Jesus to the gentiles as well as to explain to everyone the way the new covenant works (Ephesians 3:9)—explains how we know we are no longer under the old covenant. In fact, Paul not only tells us we are not under the old covenant, but he explains that we are under a new covenant—the covenant of the Spirit.
Paul even calls the law system which Israel was under “the ministry of death written on tables of stone which blind us to the greater glory of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 3:7).
Let’s read Paul’s words to us:
Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.
Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:7–18).
Because Jesus came and died for our sins according to Scripture, because He was buried, and because He was raised on the third day according to Scripture (2 Cor. 15:3,4), the old covenant has been fulfilled and is now obsolete (Hebrews 8:13). Now we live, not under the law which was temporary until Jesus came (Gal. 3:17–21), but under the covenant in Jesus’ blood.
When we believe and trust in Jesus’ finished work of atonement, we pass from death to life (Jn. 5:24) and do not come into judgment! We are literally sealed with the indwelling Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13,14), and we no longer live with faces veiled by the law. We are being transformed into the same image as Christ!
Why would we would we want and desire to join a nation of people who, as a whole and in very large numbers, even to this day, reject Jesus and His New Covenant with His new commandments? Why would we go back to the law, as Paul said in Galatians 4:8–11, and be enslaved to “weak and worthless elemental things”? Why would we blind ourselves to the gospel of Jesus? Why would we embrace the shadow of the law (Heb. 10:1) and lose sight of Jesus and His gift of life available to us through His shed blood and resurrection?
Turning away from Jesus and picking up the law will also cause one more result: we will covet just one of the holy Sabbaths God gave the nation of Israel. We will live in persistent restlessness as we keep seeking our rest every week—while ignoring our true spiritual REST in Jesus when we trust in Him alone.
Jesus Himself told us how to find the reality of the rest foreshadowed by the Sabbath:
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).
Jesus asks us to turn away from the law and to embrace Him. We are to trust that He has completed all that is necessary for our salvation, and when we cast our sin and guilt at His feet, we find that He takes our sin and gives us His life. The law was given to one nation—Israel—and the Lord Jesus has given us a brand new covenant in His blood.
If we do not understand what the gospel of Jesus is, we will, by default, live under an anti-gospel. The gospel of the new covenant is Jesus’ finished work of death for our sins, burial, and resurrection on the third day—all according to Scripture. Any backwards glances at and clinging to the law is anti-gospel.
Believe in Jesus today, and leave behind the blinders of the Law. Jesus is enough! †
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