[Shinchonji-LeeManHee] Moses' covenant and Jesus' new covenant

http://scjnews.net

http://www.scjbible.tv

The correct understanding of the Bible and of Shinchonji 

– The New Heaven and New Earth

This site and all of its content has been written according to the Bible. Our purpose is to instruct all Christians in a deeper knowledge of God’s word and to lead them to a deeper faith.

Moses' covenant and Jesus' new covenant

The covenants in the Bible were made between God and his people – between spirit and flesh (Ex 19:3-6). A covenant or promise can only be kept flawlessly when both parties to the covenant uphold their responsibilities. God made a covenant with Adam and Eve in Gen 2 commanding them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God created them and made a covenant with them, but Adam and Eve were cursed for breaking their covenant. Noah's world was put to an end in the time of Joshua because Ham and Canaan failed to keep their covenant with God. God then made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants (Gen 15; Gen 17:9) that would later be fulfilled through Moses and Joshua (Ex 12; Jos 1).

God made a covenant with Moses and his people (Ex 19:5-6), and later he made another covenant with Joshua in Shechem (Jos 24). All of Israel, however, broke their covenants with God by worshipping gentile idols during the reign of King Solomon. Because they were unfaithful, the Israelites were cursed and they became a possession of the gentiles (1Ki 11). In response to these constant failures on the part of his people, God promised something new –a new work. He promised to sow two kinds of seeds and make a new covenant (Jer 31). God fulfilled these prophecies when he sent his son Jesus into the world (Matt 1; Matt 13; Lk 22).

Prophecies announce future events far in advance, and the physical fulfillment of a prophecy is that prophecy becoming a reality. The Bible is made up of the Old and New Testaments; the Old Testament includes the old covenant and the New Testament includes the new covenant. God fulfilled his covenant with Abraham through Moses (Gen 15; Ex 12), and he fulfilled the promises he made with the Old Testament prophets through Jesus (Matt 3:16; Jn 1:32; Jn 19:30). The new covenant, which includes all the promises God made through Jesus, will be fulfilled by God and Jesus when they return to us (Rev 21:6).

Moses' covenant was centered around the law; Jesus' new covenant, on the other hand, is centered around faith (Jn 1:17; Rom 3:22-25; Gal 2:16). Moses' law (i.e. the old covenant) required physical obedience, but the new covenant of faith requires people to believe in the promises and their fulfillment. Those who were under Old Testament law refused to believe in the physical fulfillment of the Old Testament when it appeared. If those who claim to believe in the New Testament refuse to believe in its physical fulfillment, they simply reveal the futility of their faith. It is only by believing in the fulfillment that people can be acknowledged as having kept the covenant, whether it be the time of Moses (Ex 19:5-6) or the time of Jesus' second coming (Rev 1:3).

The old and new covenants are prophecies, which gave advance warning of future events. At the appointed time, the physical fulfillment of the prophecies appears, and the prophecies themselves act as evidence that confirm‍s their physical fulfillment. Thus, the prophecies were given so that we might believe in the physical fulfillment when it appears (Jn 14:29). The faith of those who claim to believe in the prophecies and refuse to believe their physical fulfillment is ultimately futile.

The New Testament records the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven in figurative language. This was done to prevent God’s enemies from knowing the mysteries of heaven (Mk 4:10-13). Just as the prophecies of the Old Testament became a sealed scroll to the pastors of that time (Isa 29:9-13), the figurative language in the New Testament becomes a sealed scroll to today’s pastors. God wrote the Old Testament law (Moses' law) on stone tablets (Ex 31:18) so that people could read them and obey. The objective of Jesus' new covenant, however, is different from that of Moses' law. By writing the new law of liberty on our hearts and putting it in our minds, we can become new a creation. The laws are no longer inscribed on physical stone tablets; they are inscribed on the tablets of our hearts. God has promised to become the God of those who keep his new covenant (Heb 8).

Thus, the new covenant we must keep includes the prophecies of the New Testament. Let us know their contents and keep them so that we can become the people of God's kingdom.