A very good friend of mine has people always asking him about the "Old" covenant and the "New" one and so I thought I would share his explanation because I believe he says it so well and I believe the same thing.
"My explaination has to do with the "Old" and "New" Covenants. Since the Torah has definitely NOT passed away, and the heart of both of those covenants have not passed away, I believe both covenants are still in effect. Both are accomplising excactly what Elohim intended from their inception.
The only differnce between the old and new covenants is that the old covenant is Torah written on tables of stone, and the new covenant is Torah written on the "fleshy tables of our hearts".
So what can these covenants do or not do? First, what the old covenant cannot do is make us righteous. The problem is that the old covenant being written on tables of stone and not in our hearts cannot teach us to love YHVH with all our hearts or teach us to love our neighbor as ourselves, because it is external to us.
What the old covenant can do is provide a measure of our righteousness that we can see and understand so that we know we are NOT righteous, and are under the judgement of Elohim for our transgressions.
That is not a bad thing; it is a good thing. As Paul said, "I had not know lust unless Torah had said, 'Thou shalt not covet'". "By the Torah is the knowledge of sin. Unless the Ruach causes me to understand by the Torah that I am a transgressor I will never know that I need the Messiah.
Ps 19.7, "The Torah of YHVH is perfect; converting the soul".
Once I know that I am a sinner through the Torah of the old covenant I learn throught that same Torah that YHVH is sending a redeemer. That causes me to cry out in teshuvah (repentance) for the redeemer to save me.
At that point I am forgiven by faith in Messiah of my sins and his Torah is written on my heart. Since Torah is now in my heart the Ruach enables me to keep it, which is what is pleasing in YHVH's site.
The angel said, "You shall call his name Yeshua for he shall save his people from their sins. If sin is trangression of Torah, and I continue to violate Torah then what has Yeshua saved me from?
In I John it says, "Be not deceived; he that DOETH righteousness is righteous". It is not those who SAY they have "received Christ" that are truly saved, but those who have actually received Messiah by the Ruach, have had YHVH's Torah written on their hearts, and are walking in the righteousness of Torah that are saved.
We are saved by faith in Yeshua alone, but Yeshua's salvation is salvation from sin.
A good tree CANNOT bring forth evil fruit."
The law has been a contentious issue among believers for hundreds of years. How we, as New Covenant believers, relate to the Law and how the Law relates to us is very important. There is a balance that we need to achieve between legalism (that is, seeking to be justified by the Law) and lawlessness (that is, not having any law or a false idea of liberty that leads to transgression of the Law).
And I must add, it is true that we are no longer "under" the law. Instead, that same law has been written in our hearts. Jeremiah 31:31-33
loved it!!
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