Vulnerability

Vulnerable: Uncovering and Covering

1 Samuel 17:1-18:4

“Goliath” comes from the word meaning to uncover, to make naked, to disclose, and to reveal. This theme of covering and uncovering runs throughout this passage. In 1 Samuel 16:14 we read that “the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the LORD troubled him.” Goliath came as a test to reveal, uncover, and expose Saul as the king-who-was-no-longer-king. God had already anointed David as the king-who-was-not-yet-king in 1 Samuel 16:13, where we read that “the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward.” 

Saul covered David in his own armor, and David uncovered himself because the armor had not been tested. David made himself vulnerable. He came to battle with no armor and no weapon but a shepherd’s sling with 5 smooth stones. The LORD then clothed David in His own name: 1 Samuel 17:45, “Then David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with a sword, a spear, and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts…”
In 1 Samuel 18:3-4, Jonathan, the son of the king, unclothed himself of his robe and his armor and then gave it to David: “Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his armor, even to his sword and his bow and his belt.” Jonathan made himself vulnerable. He was next in line for the throne, and David could have killed him. Jonathan was a type of Christ to David, even as David was a type of Christ to Jonathan. Jesus “made Himself nothing” to become flesh and dwell among us. Jesus made Himself vulnerable. He was stripped naked at the cross and covered with our robe of sin and shame so that He could free us to take off our armor of self-righteousness and cover our nakedness with the robe of His righteousness forever. Jesus frees us to make ourselves vulnerable to love other people and point them to Him.

Where is God?

Psalm 123 is another Psalm of Ascent. These were waiting Psalms. They were sung by the Israelites as they traveled back to Jerusalem several times a year to gather for the feasts which God commanded. The temple was central to this gathering. As I read this Psalm this morning, I learned something new, and it has to do with the question, “Where is God?” For some, this question comes from a sense of abandonment. For others, it comes from mere academic, theological curiosity. For still others, it’s like stopping for directions: How do I find God? Where do I find God? How can I get to Him? I want to be with Him! The answer to this question is multi-layered.

What struck me from Psalm 123, especially in light of the context of a journey to the temple, is this:

Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens. (Psalm 123:1 NKJV)

I imagine someone hearing this for the first time saying, “Wait…what?! Everyone knows God dwells in the temple! Why else would He tell us to travel all the way to Jerusalem several times a year to have a feast with Him if He didn’t dwell there? Doesn’t His word call the temple the house of the LORD?” In various places the Bible talks about praying toward the temple in Jerusalem, while at the same time it acknowledges that God is in the heavens. What do we make of this? Why might the psalmist emphasize God’s heavenly dwelling while he’s on the way to visit Him in His earthly dwelling? I believe  this Psalm is an encouragement to use the temple to look beyond the temple. It was the best way for a believer who was under the Old Covenant to treat the temple, and it’s the best way for believers this side of the cross to think about it as well. Of course, God was in the temple. There was a thick curtain hung from floor to ceiling to protect the people from the special presence of God in His holy glory. Most priests could never get behind the curtain. Only the high priest, and only once a year at that, could ever go behind the veil into the holy of holies, where the ark of the covenant rested and God sat enthroned between the golden cherubim. What’s amazing is that this priestly system in the temple actually pointed beyond the temple, to the heavenly temple not built with human hands, and then to a time when a new temple would be built, a temple also not built with hands but made up of people born anew of the Holy Spirit. We find this taught clearly and carefully in the letter to the Hebrews:

Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary. For a tabernacle was prepared: the first part, in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary; and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All, which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services. But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance; the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience—concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation. But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 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. (Hebrews 9:1-15 NKJV)

 
The temple in Jerusalem would be rebuilt after the Babylonians destroyed it. Jesus would then come as the true temple to be destroyed in our place rebuilt at His resurrection to make us into a new temple. He would come as the cornerstone of this new temple, chosen by God but rejected by the builders, the religious leaders in Jerusalem. At His crucifixion God ripped the veil in the temple from top to bottom, as a foretaste of its coming destruction at the hands of the Romans because it was no longer needed. Jesus had made atonement in the heavenly temple. His people are His new earthly temple, and at His return He will make the new earth His temple, the New Jerusalem, and in another sense, there will be no temple because God IS the temple:

But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it,[fn] for the gloryof God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. (Revelation 21:22-23 NKJV)

Longing for the Peace of Jerusalem

When I was in college, I spent the summer of 1998 in New York City. I was staying in Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn, but at night I’d venture into Manhattan and enjoy conversations and people-watching. There was an exclusive spot called Lot 61 in Chelsea. I knew someone who worked there who would usually let me in. To give you an idea, this was where Bruce Willis’ bodyguard nudged me out of the way to walk him right in. I believe there was even a Damien Hirst painting on the wall.  Each night there was a line out front, people waiting (some merely hoping) to get in.

Today I read Psalm 122, which is one of the Psalms of Ascent. These songs were sung by God’s people on the way of pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem to celebrate one of the feasts in which God’s people were commanded to gather together. The feasts in Jerusalem were like God’s regular family reunions with His children. In Psalm 122, the psalmist is like one of those people waiting in line outside Lot 61, longing to get in…and he got in! He says, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the LORD.’ Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.” (Psalm 122:1-2 NKJV) His excitement about what it’s like to be inside the temple is meant to lead to perseverance in pilgrimage like patience in line on a Summer New York night. He’s saying that the wait is worth it because of how wonderful it is to be together with God and one another in this special way. The worth of the wait both encourages patience and increases the longing, as it does for an engaged couple anticipating their wedding night.

The longing of God’s people to be with Him together in worship is still alive today in the hearts of His people. As I’ve spoken to people from our church over the phone, especially in these last couple of weeks, I hear this longing. What is it about “going to church” that’s most important? As thankful as the people of God were for the beauty of the temple building, and as thankful as I am for the simple beauty of our Pinewoods Church building, our church building is not “the house of the LORD” as if it were a new temple. Our situation as God’s children this side of the cross is far better than that. Today I saw a new connection in the Bible that I’ve never noticed before. It’s between Psalm 122 and John 20:21-29.  Later in Psalm 122, the psalmist goes on to say:

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:

“May they prosper who love you.

Peace be within your walls,

Prosperity within your palaces.”

For the sake of my brethren and companions,

I will now say, “Peace be within you.” (122:6-8 NKJV)

Now see what the Apostle John recounts in his Gospel:

Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled,[fn] for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:19-29 NKJV)

I believe that what the disciples would see later on is that Jesus is the LORD of Psalm 122 pronouncing peace on the New Jerusalem, His people, His church. In Ephesians we learn that there is a new temple:

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22 NKJV)

 

This temple is a living temple made up of everyone who trusts in Jesus. I see bumper stickers sometimes that say, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” I think that some people think that God’s Kingdom is still centered around the geographical city of Jerusalem in Israel today. While I believe Romans 11 is clear that God has great plans to use the salvation of non-Jews to lead a great number of Jewish people to faith in Jesus, I don’t believe that Psalm 122 is meant to focus Christians on the earthly city of Jerusalem. It’s better than that.

In Galatians 4:21-28, Paul contrasts earthly Jerusalem with the New Jerusalem:

Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar–for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children—but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear! Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor! For the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband.” Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. (Galatians 4:21-28 NKJV)

The excitement I had about getting into Lot 61 pales in comparison to the psalmist’s excitement about getting into the temple. Why? The building? No, the LORD and His people. Our excitement to be reunited with our church in worship is for the same reason, but it’s better for us. We don’t have to wait for those few times a year that Israel had to wait for in order to gather together in this special way. We will get to do this every week. And, we aren’t waiting just to “get back into the building” but to gather AS the BUILDING, the true temple. The new place of God is His people individually, but also in a special way when gathered together to enjoy Him together through words of prayer and preaching, songs of praise, and physical seals and signs of His washing us and eating with us at His table. Some Christians have a building they will gather in when the COVID-19 situation changes. Other Christians will have to gather in fields. Either way, our longing is for something better than the psalmist or the partygoers got to have. We will gather not into the temple or into the party but as the temple and as the party, the Jerusalem, the city of peace through the cross, resurrection, and Spirit of Christ Jesus, having been adopted by the same Dad in Heaven. What is the peace of Jerusalem? It’s God’s love received and reflected by all who trust in Jesus. We get to do this as we gather in worship together, in relationship with one another, and in loving service to the world. As we wait for Jesus to come back and make a new heaven and new earth which will become the eternal New Jerusalem, we get to live in gathered worship of God, loving relationships with one another, meaningful work, and joyful rest and play as God’s adopted children through faith in Jesus, experiencing the peace of Jerusalem.

Kid N Play Imaging God

Most of you have heard of a dance called The Charleston, which was popular during the first half of the twentieth century. Many of you may have heard of the Kid N Play Kickstep, a new interactive hip hop version of The Charleston invented by the rap group Kid N Play toward the end of the twentieth century. (It even took our dances at suburban Lakeside Junior High by storm.) If you want to see it for the first time or you just want a boost of 1990’s nostalgia, check out this link: https://youtu.be/eXbupeaHAmE
This Sunday at Grace Church for All Nations, we’ll be listening to Jesus from John 5:19-23, and the sermon will be called…wait for it…”Kid N Play”. Jesus is going to tell us that everything He did was what He saw the Father doing. The Father is invisible, but it’s as if He and Jesus were doing the Kid N Play Kickstep. What does this mean for us? Come find out at 11AM. If you would like to come early to pray for our church and for the worship service, we meet at 10AM for prayer in the Graden Building.
We have our Loving Minds community group Bible study on Mondays at 7pm in the Community Room at Station R Apartments–144 Moreland Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30307. Please RSVP to Chris Gottilla–(678)-674-9555, CGOTTIL@g.clemson.edu.
We also have our Women’s Prayer Group on Wednesdays at 7:30pm at the church.
The elders will be studying and praying about discipleship over the coming months. Please pray for our church in this regard.
For more information about Grace Church for All Nations, check out our website at http://www.gcan-pca.org and our Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/gracechurchforallnations/

Two Multi-Racial Churches Unite in Atlanta

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-1218304

Magical Realism and the New Normal

I’m learning about a genre of literature called magical realism, in which the supernatural is included as part of normal life. This concept can be a healthy reminder to the church. In Acts 5:17-21, Luke’s account of an angel getting the apostles out of jail struck me as somewhat similar to magical realism. After telling us that the apostles were put in prison, Luke says, “But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said,’Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.’ And when they heard that, they entered the temple early in the morning and taught.” (Acts 5:19-21 NKJV) What strikes me is Luke’s brevity. “And-the-stars” kind of brevity.  Luke is not treating the event with the angel as unremarkable, otherwise he wouldn’t have included it in his narrative. But he does include the supernatural with confidence, without defense or explanation. Luke writes as a “Quirinius was governing Syria” historian who bears witness to the “angel of the Lord” supernatural. Though many of the events in Acts are unique, they should challenge us to a greater awareness of the supernatural presence and work of God and of angels in our ordinary lives as His people. I realize that angels don’t bust people out of jail on a regular basis, but, because of what Jesus did at the cross, we have the breaking in of the supernatural as the new normal.

Jesus and the Bully

The bully raged in the lunchroom, defiant as Goliath, beating down even his more obvious fellow mockers with devastating, skillfully-wired words set to detonate in self-hatred and God-hatred. But one student, fellow-yet-foreign, walked in and headed straight for him.

1 Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

2 being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.
3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”
4 But Jesus answered him, saying,”It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ ”
5 Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
6 And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.
7 “Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”
8 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”
9 Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here.
10 “For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you,’
11 “and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”
12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’ ”
13 Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.
14 Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.

Jesus wasn’t a victim in the lunchroom hiding under a table. The Holy Spirit filled Him and led Him straight at Satan to beat him by enduring and resisting temptation in our place. I can’t help but think that even as Jesus quoted verses about living by God’s provision, not testing God, and worshipping God only, He was reminding the devil that the one he was tempting to worship him was Himself the only one worthy of worship. This passage is good news, not because it teaches us how to quote Scripture in order resist temptation (which we fail at), but because it proclaims to us that the Jesus we trust in resisted temptation in our place. He took out the bully FOR us, and we resist the devil through faith in what Jesus did in our place in the wilderness and at the cross.

John the Baptist and Pentecost

Last night I noticed some similarities in Luke’s accounts of the ministry of John the Baptist and the preaching of Peter at Pentecost.

John  “And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” Luke 3:3

Peter  “Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'” Acts 2:38

John  “And with many other exhortations he preached to the people.” Luke 3:18

Peter  “And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, ‘Be saved from this perverse generation.'” Acts 2:40

John  “So the people asked him, saying, ‘What shall we do then?’ He answered and said to them, ‘He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.'” Luke 3:10-11

Peter  “Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.” Acts 3:44-46

John self-consciously contrasted his Old Covenant ministry with the New Covenant ministry of Jesus, when he said, “I indeed baptize with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Luke 3:16

As the truth John proclaimed provoked the leaders of Israel to throw him into prison, so too did the ministry of Peter and the other apostles, with the same resulting imprisonment.

These connections serve to highlight the danger that Israel was in of missing the Messiah completely as they clung to the system He had come to fulfill. But they also serve to highlight the glory and power of the New Covenant through the Holy Spirit who is freely offered to ALL who believe in King Jesus.

The Covenant of Grace in Abraham’s Life

What do we learn about God’s covenant of grace through His interactions with Abraham? In Genesis 15:1-26, God makes a covenant with Abraham in which only God, in two distinct images–the furnace and the torch, passes through the aisle of animal parts laid out on the ground. Yet, later there appears to be conditional language in Genesis 17 and Genesis 22.

Is the covenant of grace an unconditional or a conditional covenant?

1. The promise is to be fulfilled apart from our works (Romans 4:13-16). So on the one hand, it wasn’t dependent on any conditions for us to keep directly.
2. There is conditionality implied in the very covenant ceremony (two parties to the covenant), and there is conditional language in the unfolding of God’s promises later, even in Abraham’s own life. So, on the other hand, there is a conditionality pointing to the covenant of works, which Christ would fulfill in our place.

God’s promises are unconditional to us because they were conditional for Jesus, who kept the conditions in our place. The content of the covenant of grace is that Jesus would fulfill the covenant of works in our place, keeping it’s conditions, and enduring it’s punishments.

God would be both parties of the covenant. He would keep the covenant for both sides. He would keep His promise and our conditions. He would obey in our place and suffer for our disobedience. God was, in a sense, saying, “If I fail to keep my promise, may this happen to me.  And when you don’t keep the covenant, this will happen to me in your place.” Any seemingly direct conditionality for Abraham is typical conditionality, pointing to Christ, the only covenant-keeper.

The Newness of the New Covenant

The New Covenant brings believers into a different relationship to the Law of Moses, with its ceremonial, judicial, and moral aspects, than believers had to it under the Old Covenant. We are no longer under the law as a covenant of works. But neither are we under the law in the way that even believers were under the law in the Old Covenant. In Acts 15:10, Peter describes the Law of Moses as, “a yoke…that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear.” The yoke to which Peter refers is the Law of Moses as a whole, in all its aspects, unfulfilled before Christ came. The traditional categories of ceremonial law, judicial (or civil) law, and moral law certainly do overlap, but I use these three categories here, not because I believe them to be perfect distinctions, but to prove that the work of Jesus fulfilled the entire Law of Moses, in all its aspects, however we label them. Again, we need to understand that Peter treats the Law of Moses as a whole, in all its aspects, as a yoke, never again to be placed on the necks of believers. Jesus Christ has removed this yoke by bearing it fully in our place, giving us greater freedom and peace than could be found for believers under the Old Covenant.
Ceremonial Aspects
As the writer to the Hebrews proves that Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial laws, rendering them abrogated, he teaches that believers under the New Covenant have a different experience from those under the Old. In fact, the writer’s argument for the abrogation of ceremonial sacrifices is inseparable from his view that the sacrifice of Christ at the cross brought believers into a different relationship to the judicial and moral laws as well, compared to that of believers under the Old Covenant. Referring to the sacrifices from the Old Covenant in contrast to the perfect sacrifice of Christ, Hebrews 10:2 says, “Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin?” Later, Hebrews 10:17-18 says, “then he adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’ Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.” Though believers under the Old Covenant were justified and forgiven, looking ahead in faith to Christ, Hebrews teaches clearly that there is a difference between their experience and the experience of believers brought into the New Covenant. There is a new atmosphere this side of the cross. Otherwise, the argument in Hebrews makes no sense at all. The atmosphere before the cross involved a “consciousness of sin,”
that required continual, repeated offerings for sin. But we who live in faith on this side of the cross, Hebrews 10:10 says, “have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:11-14 says, “And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for
all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be make a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” The writer is contrasting the situation of believers before the cross and of those after the cross. Both were saved, but believers this side of the cross experience the forgiveness of sins in such a way that there is no longer the same ”consciousness of sin.” Surely this consciousness of sin was in relation to God’s Law as a whole, in all its aspects, including it’s purely moral demands. Therefore, though we as believers under the New Covenant continue to break God’s moral law and confess that to our Father in Heaven, we have the right to be free of the “consciousness of sins” experienced by believers under the Old Covenant, otherwise Christ’s perfect sacrifice would not have been perfect. Though believers under the Old Covenant were forgiven, after the cross, there is a unique sense in which “there is forgiveness of these (sins),” and thus, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Judicial Aspects
The judicial aspects were part of this yoke as well. I refer to this in my sermon from Galatians 4:1-11 entitled A Delightful Difference:
Yes the ceremonial laws were fulfilled and done away with, but I think it’s more than just that. There’s something else that Peter was getting at when he says, “neither we nor our fathers were able to bear.” I don’t think he was just talking about the ceremonial laws and whatapainitwastocarryyourlambtothe temple.Ithinkhewastalkingaboutakindof harshness. You know Jesus said, “Because of the hardness of your hearts God allowed for divorce.” That’s not the original intent, and that was kind of a harsh law. You know, if your wife didn’t please you, chuck her out. Was it sin on God’s part to make that law? No, but why did He give the law that way? Because of the hardness of their hearts. And that
kind of atmosphere has been done away with with (by) the cross of Jesus Christ. There is a different atmosphere that we live in and we experience this side of the cross than in the Old Covenant.”
(Preached in chapel at Greenville Seminary, April 26th, 2011)
Those who believe that the Judicial Laws of the Old Covenant will and should be brought back into force in a reconstructed Christian society have a dilemma. Jesus said about at least one of these laws that it was given because of the hardness of men’s hearts. In Matthew 19:7-9 we read:
They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorceshiswife,exceptforsexualimmorality,and marriesanother,commitsadultery.”
Jesus clearly contrasts his statement with the law of divorce given by Moses. Deuteronomy 24:1 says, “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he
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has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house…” The law given by Moses in Deuteronomy 24:1 seems to allow for divorce at the whim of the husband, in cases not involving any sexual immorality on his wife’s part. Otherwise it would be no different from what Jesus commanded after He had just described the law of Moses as an accommodation to the hardness of men’s hearts. Another similar law is in Deuteronomy 20:10-14:
When you go out to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife, and you bring her home to your house, she shall shave her head and pare her nails. And she shall take off the clothes in which she was captured and shall remain in your house and lament her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. But if you no longer delight in her, you shall let her go where she wants. But you shall not sell her for money, nor shall you treat her as a slave, since you have humiliated her.
Jesus said that God’s intention for any marriage is that what God has joined together should never be put asunder. It’s reasonable to assume that this intention remains whether someone was a captive of war or not. In the law of Moses a man could (we may assume) force a captive woman to marry him, have sex with her after she mourned her family, and then divorce her if he got tired of her. I believe Jesus’ assessment of the divorce law of Deuteronomy 24 may be safely applied to the law for divorce of a captive mentioned in Deuteronomy 20. Another example is Deuteronomy 22:28-29: “If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.” What if the Pharisees had picked this law to use in order to test Jesus? Would his response have been any different from the assessment He gave of Deuteronomy 24 in Matthew 19? Would he have said, “That’s fine. As long as you’re single, please feel free to find a virgin who’s not engaged and rape her. Then you can marry her whether she wants to be your wife or not. Just make sure you have fifty shekels to give to her dad.”? No. These judicial laws did not fit with God’s intention for marriage, and they were part of the harshness of the Old Covenant. They were part of the yoke of the Law of Moses.
Moral Aspects
The newness of the New Covenant involves more than mere deliverance from the ceremonial law or the judicial applications of it. We are in a new relationship to God’s moral law as well. Though God still calls us to obey it, we interact with it as having already been fulfilled in time and space in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We live with its call on our lives with greater peace of conscience notwithstanding daily failings because of Jesus our ascended Great High Priest. He remains a witness in the Father’s presence of His having fully satisfied its just demands in time and space for us. John Calvin, in his sermons from Galatians (Banner of
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Truth, pg. 359), says, “Even Abraham was not raised to the height that we have reached under the gospel! For Abraham was under the yoke of the law, because our Lord Jesus Christ had not yet appeared.” What yoke of the law was Abraham under? He lived before the ceremonial and judicial laws were given, and before the ten commandments were given in the form and presentation of Sinai. So what, again was the yoke to which Calvin was referring? It was the moral-law-as-unfulfilled. It wasn’t the content of the moral law, but the timing of the law that made it a burdensome yoke. Jesus had not yet come to fulfill it in our place. Abraham was justified by faith, but God’s moral-law-as-unfulfilled was a yoke to him, a yoke from which Jesus has freed us. Calvin goes on to say in the same sermon (Banner of Truth, pg. 361), “Well, we are no longer in strict subjection to the law, as our forefathers were. Nowadays, we have recourse to the Lord Jesus Christ when we sin.” The difference to which Calvin points as he contrasts our experience with that of our forefathers is not the presence of faith but the timing of faith, that is, whether a believer lived before or after Jesus died at the cross and rose again, having fulfilled the law for us.
Though it communicated the Covenant of Grace, the Law of Moses, with it’s ceremonial, judicial, and moral aspects was, as Peter says in Acts 15:10, “a yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear.” In my sermon from Galatians 4:1-11 entitled A Delightful Difference, I comment on Paul’s contrast of the Old and New Covenants in 2 Corinthians 3:4-11:
He describes the whole Old Covenant administration that way. [It’s as if he were saying,]“WhyareyoutryingtobringbacktheOldCovenantadministration[and] have people live under that?” And he acknowledges the harshness of it, comparatively. It was gracious. Salvation was given through it. But compared to the freedom and the glory and the life experience in the New Covenant, it was bondage, “that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear.[sic.]” Do you acknowledge that God’s Word speaks of the Old Covenant administration that way?
(Preached in chapel at Greenville Seminary, April 26th, 2011)
Jesus set us free from this yoke by coming to fulfill it entirely, with all its aspects, in our place. Hebrews 1:3 says, “After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Jesus is our seated High Priest, and this makes a great difference. It has changed the atmosphere and experience for believers ever after.