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Grace of Christ and the New Covenant
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on their hearts. ... I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will
remember no more” (
Jeremiah 31:33, 34
).
The same law that was engraved on tablets of stone is written by
the Holy Spirit on the heart. We accept the righteousness of Christ.
His blood atones for our sins. His obedience is accepted for us.
Then through the grace of Christ we will walk even as He walked.
Through the prophet He declared concerning Himself, “I delight to
do Your will, O My God, and Your law is within My heart” (
Psalm
40:8
).
Paul clearly presents the relation between faith and the law under
the new covenant: “Having been justified by faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” “Do we then make void
the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish
the law.” “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through
the flesh” —it could not justify the sinner, who in the sinful nature
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could not keep the law—“God did by sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the
flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled
in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the
Spirit” (
Romans 5:1
;
3:31
;
8:3, 4
).
Beginning with the first gospel promise and coming down
through the patriarchal and Jewish ages to the present time, there
has been a steady revealing of God’s intentions in the plan of re-
demption. The clouds have rolled back, the mists and shadows have
disappeared, and Jesus, the world’s Redeemer, stands revealed. He
who proclaimed the law from Sinai is the same who spoke the Ser-
mon on the Mount. The great principles of love to God are only
saying again what He had spoken through Moses. The Teacher is
the same in both Old Testament and New Testament times.
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