Grace Was Always There
It’s common among both Protestant and Catholic believers to belittle and disregard the precepts found within the Old Testament as obsolete or of no consequence, considering the truth of the gospel message. After all, Christ taught the best way to interpret the Law of God, and His words supersede anything else because He is the Word of God in the flesh.
But this is a dangerous line of thinking, because what God wrote beforehand is for righteous instruction and correction, a plumb line by which to measure our walk with the Almighty Father.
Romans 15:4 states: “For whatever was written in the past was all written for our instruction, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Saint Paul gives us the answer to the eternal riddle that has plagued theologians for the past two thousand years. What is the relationship between believers and the works found within the Mosaic Covenant?
While Jesus made the New Covenant with those who call Christ the Blessed Savior, the context of the New Covenant makes it clear the offer stood for Israel and the church, or we might say that Israel is the church.
Jeremiah 31:31 tells us: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah…”
What subgroup of people is missing from this declaration of the New Covenant?
The body of Christ!
The people of Israel would receive this New Covenant, but the mystery of the church was revealed during the First Advent of the Savior. It makes sense that the church is Israel. A spiritual Israel born from the spiritual seed of Abraham.
This New Covenant has nothing to do with bloodline, but about spiritual children in the manner of Abraham, the great patriarch of our faith.
Is The New Covenant Really New?
The spiritual covenant made with Israel upon Mt. Sinai was a marriage covenant at heart.
Since Jesus is in the business of marrying those who follow Him, and since He is Yahweh the Father as the Son, the New Covenant is an extension of marriage vows to the Creator for all peoples of the Earth based on better promises. A grand notion appears in the theology of this offer because this means the Gentiles of all nations, kindreds, and tongues, are privy to taste the goodness of Christ our groom. A notable example of this idea is in Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 29:14-15 “I am making this covenant and this oath not only with you but also with those who are standing here with us today in the LORD's presence, as well as with those who are not here today.”
Who are these that are not standing with the children of Israel during the covenant beginning? The Gentiles! All peoples of the earth, because Yahweh promised grace and love to those who would call themselves His.
How Does This Affect the New Testament Church?
The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed, showing the heart of the Father’s commandments to those aligning themselves with our Blessed Christ.
Messiah is the key to the entire idea of grace, always being there for His people to blot out failings.
The common notion of a wrathful Yahweh who killed all who opposed Him is the opposite of the Father’s heart.
Noah was a man who, while not perfect, found grace in the eyes of the Great God. Yet, we are to believe that Yahweh was only vindictive and hard in the Old Covenant? No, because Jesus is the very image of the Father in flesh. Full of grace and truth. If Jesus is full of grace, then Yahweh must also be full of grace. There is no dichotomy between the theology of the Father and the Son. They are one in nature, spirit, and purpose.
A church without understanding perishes for lack of knowledge, much like Hosea warned in his discourse to unfaithful Israel (Hosea 4:6). In context, Hosea showed lack of knowledge paralleled forgetting the Law of God. Are we to make the same mistake as faithless Israel when we forget the Law of God offered grace for obedience?
Even Jesus Himself said that men must repent. Repentance is a work, a work of grace on the Father’s part with human participation. Faith and works go hand in hand, there is no separating the two.
To the ancient Hebrew mind, faith and works were one thing. Not separated into a belief and actions. Belief was the actions of the faithful individual. The New Testament church must wake up to the Law of God, not keeping it for salvation, but keeping it in high regard and loving the Father by honoring it. In view of Messiah, this means observing Jesus’ higher Torah.
Grace in the New, Found in the Old
Since Jesus is our perfect teacher of all things Torah, all things Prophets, He is the example we are to follow in our understanding. Bountiful buckets of blessings were Israel’s inheritance under God’s grace in the days before Jesus had incarnated within Mary’s womb.
Yahweh had always wanted to shower His people with His divine favor, but it had to be done within the framework of His own rules.
Jesus taught the same thing.
If a man sins, how dangerous are those sins! If a man doesn’t cut off his hand (metaphorically, of course), then he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. There is that relationship with faith and works again. To repent is to shun sin and follow God’s instructions.
While Jesus offers a gift of salvation to all who will call upon the Savior, it requires a work of repentance to receive His grace. This grace has never been new, nor will it ever be new.
Malachi 3:6 “I am Yahweh, I change not.” If God never changes, that means His nature stays static. Jesus, being the perfect reflection of the Father, is also static. He never changes.
Walking in Grace Is Obedience
A believer in Christ is a new creation according to Saint Paul, meaning his or her life is now blood bought by the Savior.
Like a spouse in a spiritual sense, we taste the grace of the Messiah when we walk according to His purposes. Many denominations of Christianity portray faith and works as separate, but they are equal. To walk in the commandments of Jesus is to walk in His grace, because if a believer does not follow His commands, He tells them to depart (Matthew 7:23).
A husband has a set of standards which he expects his wife to follow, and a wife has a set of standards she expects from her husband. To break the covenant by willful disobedience is a dangerous situation.
Jesus cannot tell a person to leave His presence if they can’t lose their status in the kingdom by poor works.
Is this not like Yahweh in the Old Covenant?
How is Jesus any different from His Father? The answer is He isn’t. The stakes have always been the same: life and death based upon humanity’s obedience. Sin is a killer, a relationship crusher between the Father and His Bride, the Church.
Key Takeaways
The New Testament Church would do well by the Father to honor the Law of God in their dealings with Him. Jesus and the Father never change, meaning the concept of grace as separate from works is flawed in theological models that have God changing His nature. God cannot change, and by extension, this means Jesus can never change.
Grace has always been God’s desire for His people, and the covenant made with believers at Horeb is as valid a demonstration as the New Covenant in the Savior’s blood, though the covenant itself has changed.
Grace has always been there.
