Oct. 19 | Pentecost 19, Year C
Jer. 31:27-34 or Gen. 32:22-31
Ps. 119:97-104 or Ps. 121
2 Tim. 3:14-4:5
Luke 18:1-8
Our Bibles are divided into Old and New Testaments, the stories of the people of God in Israel and the people of God in the Church. The division of the Bible is based on the testimonies of the people of God to the two covenants through which God revealed his will over time. The dividing line between them is Jesus Christ.
Given that God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, it is odd that we often regard them as radically different. Perhaps the effects of the two covenants are more radical than the covenants. We worship on different days of the week. Our liturgies are quite different. The religious holidays do not regularly align on the calendar or by content. Historically, we have even turned to persecution. But that all has nothing to say about the covenants.
The covenants are the expression of God’s will for us. Since both are based on his will, there is no doctrinal difference between the covenants. Specifically, they explain the relationship we are to have with God. In the Old Testament, we are given the revelation of who God is and how we are to live as his people. God’s will is conveyed to his people through the external law.
In the New Testament, God’s will becomes available to us as an internal principle of life. The Old Testament presents us with a standard by which we are measured. Because it is a matter of command and requirement, it is a test that, like a carpenter’s plumbline, measures us on a pass/fail basis. By contrast, the New Testament is based on grace and giving. It is not by our effort that we live up to God’s will, but rather our success is a gift from God. Before Christ, human beings were responsible for making the precepts of the law the property of their hearts. With Christ and the sending of the Holy Spirit, God places the law directly in believers’ hearts.
We need two covenants because of our existential problem. We do not know how to obtain the promises of God as sinners without having a relationship with him. God addresses our problem by grace through an instrument of relationship. The covenants provide the building blocks necessary to restore our sin-broken relationship with him. The Old Covenant, in the form of the Law given through Moses, revealed the nature of God and delivered the human requirements for reconciliation. It demonstrated that the requirements necessary to be in relationship with a perfect and holy God amounted to an impossible standard for sinners.
The New Covenant acknowledges God’s nature and the impossibility of our reconciling ourselves to him. It provides the remedy, however, in Jesus Christ. He lived a sinless life, became the perfect sacrifice for human sin, and gave us access to God through the forgiveness of sin. On the cross he died to fulfill the curse for our sins, and thereby fulfilled the Law’s role in salvation. In addition, he provided help through the booster shots of repentance and the Eucharist, as well as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Unlike the people of Jeremiah’s time, we have seen God’s plan unfold in history. We do not need to be taught about God’s plan of salvation by prophets and priests because it has already been played out. We know about Divine grace based on the inward experience of the heart—the assurance of the Holy Spirit.
Look It Up: Psalm 119:102-104
Think About It: God offers himself as our Mentor and Master in the art of living.
The Rev. Dr. Chuck Alley, former rector of St. Matthew’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, teaches anatomy at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical School.
