The Old Covenant: Obsolete but not Abolished
This morning, I was reading Hebrews 8. I was struck by verse 13 (NIV):
By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.
The Old Covenant is obsolete. This made me pause and reflect. Earlier in the year, I spent a bit of time thinking about Matthew 5:17 where Jesus says:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.”
Jesus tells us that he didn’t come to abolished the Law and the Prophets, which testify to the Old Covenant.
So what’s the deal? Is the Old Covenant obsolete? Or should we still keep it?
The answer to both questions: yes.
The Old Covenant is Obsolete
The Old Covenant really is obsolete. By obsolete, we mean that it has been superseded by something better. In Hebrews 8:6, we read that the covenant of which Jesus “is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises.”
By obsolete, we also mean that several of the practical aspects of the Old Covenant, particularly the ceremonial and sacrificial system, are no longer in effect. In Hebrews 10:1-4, we read:
1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
The old covenant (or law) was a shadow of the new covenant to come. That’s why things like the sacrifices had to be offered year after year. They were like placeholders until the new covenant and the new sacrifice were in place.
Hebrews 10:9–10 tells us that when Jesus comes,
9 He sets aside the first [covenant] to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
He sets aside the first covenant, and makes us holy for through his sacrifice once and for all. Annual sacrifices are no longer needed. They are obsolete. For, “by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb 10:14).
The Old Covenant is Not Abolished
At the same time, Jesus hasn’t come to “abolish” the old covenant. He says as much in Matthew 5:17. Jesus has come to fulfil it. How does he fulfil it? He doesn’t explicitly say “this is how I fulfil it”, but it’s not difficult to see how he fulfils it.
First, there’s the moral part of the law. The law calls God’s people to be holy as he is holy (cf. Leviticus 11:44, 11:45, 19:2, 20:7, 20:26). The prophets do too (cf. Isaiah 1:16-17, Micah 6:8). Jesus is as holy as they come (cf. Mark 1:24, Luke 1:35, Luke 4:34, John 6:69). In the rest of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7), Jesus teases out the ethical standards of those who are part of God’s kingdom, and, for the rest of his earthly life, he lives out these high standards. In other words, Jesus fulfils the moral part of the law and the prophets.
Second, there’s the prophetic aspect of the law. As we saw in Hebrews 10:1–4, the law was only a shadow pointing to a greater reality. That reality was the coming of Jesus, by whose sacrifice we have now been made holy. The prophets speak of one who will be “pierced for our transgressions” and “crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5) in order to “justify many” (Isaiah 53:11). Jesus fulfils the prophetic aspects of the law and the prophets.
So, Jesus has come to fulfil the law and the prophets in at least these two ways. Therefore, he has not come to abolish the old covenant. In fact, this is so much so that in Matthew 5:18 and 19 he even goes on to say:
18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
The commands and teachings of the Old Testament law are still relevant today. They are not to be set aside. Anyone who says otherwise will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
This raises some fairly obvious questions.
Bacon: The Culinary Blessing of the New Covenant?
In the past I’ve referred to bacon as the culinary blessing of the New Covenant. On reflection, that title probably goes to the Lord’s Supper. But bacon gets second place.
Do I have to keep the laws about not eating bacon (cf. Leviticus 11:7–8)?
According to Jesus, the answer is “yes”. We don’t set aside any of God’s commands. But how the answer is “yes” now is different to how the answer was “yes” then.
Before Jesus came, obeying the bacon law meant literally not eating bacon.
When Jesus came, he “declared all foods clean” (Mark 7:19, and he reiterated this to Peter in a vision in Acts 10:15). So, it’s ok to eat bacon. But if it’s ok to eat bacon, how do I obey the command in Leviticus 11:7–8 today?
To obey an Old Testament law, we have to understand its purpose. What is the purpose of the bacon law? There are at least two I can think of.
First, laws like the bacon laws are given to lead God’s people toward God’s holiness.
This is obvious because, moments later in Leviticus 11:44–45, God says:
44 I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground. 45 I am the LORD, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.
The bacon law is given to make the Israelites holy like the LORD who is holy. We obey the bacon law when we seek to live holy lives.
Second, laws like the bacon laws are given to lead God’s people toward God’s Holy One.
In the New Testament, Jesus is the one who makes us holy. Laws like the bacon law were there as reminders that we need to be made holy. They were there to point us to Jesus, and our need for him, the Holy One of God. He has come to fulfil the law, and therefore the laws within the law.
We obey the bacon law by obeying the one to whom the bacon law pointed. Now that Jesus has come, we listen to him. Jesus says not to call bacon unclean. So we don’t. Now, it’s a matter of personal freedom whether or not we eat bacon.
The important thing in all of this: we must not set aside the least of God’s commands. Though there is a sense in which the old covenant really is obsolete, we still must take it seriously. This means we take the seemingly random laws seriously too. Even these are to be “kept”, according to Jesus. But how we keep them today may be different to how God’s people kept them in the past.
