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Grace of Christ and the New Covenant
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Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant
Some people claim that Christ came to do away with the Old
Testament. They present the religion of the Hebrews as nothing but
forms and ceremonies. But this is a mistake. Through all the ages
after the Fall, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself”
(
2 Corinthians 5:19
). Christ was the foundation and center of the
sacrificial system. Since the sin of our first parents, the Father has
given the world into the hands of Christ, that through His work as
mediator He may redeem lost humanity and confirm the authority of
God’s law. All communication between heaven and fallen human
beings has been through Christ. It was the Son of God who gave
our first parents the promise of redemption. Adam, Noah, Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, and Moses understood the gospel. These holy men
from long ago had fellowship with the Savior who was to come to
our world in human flesh.
Christ was the leader of the Hebrews in the wilderness, the Angel
who went before them, veiled in the cloudy pillar. It was He who
gave the law to Israel. (See Appendix, Note 6.) Amid the glory of
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Sinai Christ declared the Ten Commandments of His Father’s law.
He gave the law to Moses, engraved on tablets of stone.
Christ spoke to His people through the prophets. The apostle
Peter says that the prophets “prophesied of the grace that would come
to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ
who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the
sufferings of Christ and the glory that would follow” (
1 Peter 1:10,
11
). It is the voice of Christ that speaks through the Old Testament.
“The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (
Revelation 19:10
).
While personally on earth, Jesus directed the minds of the people
to the Old Testament. “You search the Scriptures, for in them you
think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me”
(
John 5:39
). At that time the books of the Old Testament were the
only part of the Bible in existence.
The ceremonial law was given by Christ. Even after it was
no longer to be followed, the great apostle Paul pronounced this
law glorious, worthy of its divine Originator. The cloud of incense
ascending with the prayers of Israel represents His righteousness,
the only thing that can make the sinner’s prayer acceptable to God.