Does Covenant Matter?
When I was young and had only recently come to know Christ, I was driving a 1969 Plymouth Road Runner. It was red/orange. It looked fast, and it was fast. But I had come to know Jesus and had begun to drive the speed limit.
I was on my way home one night, and the stretch of road I was on had just had a change of speed posted on it. It went from 45 to 55. I was doing 55 when a policeman pulled me over. He suggested I was speeding, and I respectfully disagreed. I told him it was a 55 MPH zone. It took some convincing to get him to believe me, and he went back to check the sign to confirm it. But since I was driving at the right speed limit, he had to let me go.
I had left behind the 45-mile-per-hour zone and entered the 55-mile-per-hour zone. Even though he was a policeman with authority, his authority could not override the posted speed limit sign. The sign established what he could or could not enforce.
That experience is what it is like to move from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. I cannot be punished for a violation of the Old Covenant because I am not under it. I am now accountable to the New Covenant.
When driving on an interstate, a person can be ticketed for driving too slowly. If they are in a 70 MPH zone driving 40 MPH, they can be ticketed. They are in the wrong place to be driving that slow. That speed may work in a different time and place, but it will not work on the interstate. In fact, it is dangerous for those who drive slowly and all those who use the same highway.
Hebrews 8:13 In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
Trying to live by the principles of the Old Covenant is a wrong application for the context we are now in after coming to Christ. Things have changed.
The law was merely a tutor for a set time.
Galatians 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
I wonder if you caught the same thing I did. After faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
The Law was a tutor, not a savior. Had the Law been a savior, there would have been no need for Jesus to come.
Galatians 2:21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
What was the tutor? The law. What are we no longer under? The law. That was Old Covenant terms. We are in a New Covenant. Trying to function under an Old Covenant mindset is like driving 20MPH on an interstate with a 70MPH limit. The enemy does not have to respond to any attempt on the part of a believer who is trying to deal with him based on Old Covenant outlines. He knows which Covenant is in effect now and who it involves, and he knows he has to yield to the authority of that Covenant.
He can’t come and accuse me on the basis of that Old Covenant and seek to hinder or restrain me based on any violation of it. I can say to him, you would be correct if I were under the Covenant you’re trying to use against me. However, your accusation is based on the wrong Covenant, and therefore, it is false and has no authority. I belong to Jesus, who shed His blood for me, and I testify that I am under His Covenant.
You see, Covenant matters! Understanding which covenant you are in and what that covenant offers is very important. How can someone really take a stand in His authority if they don’t know a thing about His covenant? Covenant matters.
