Amazing how the subject of the "two covenants" has become a hot button for many denominations in recent years! As with all other theological discussions, presuppositions determine one’s opinions. The most frequent argument arises when the purpose of the gospel is misunderstood. Limited gospels focus on presumptive security—either Christ’s gift of pardon, emphasizing grace as unconditional acceptance, or on the human record of obedience to God’s laws The complete gospel unites the gift of pardon with the gift of power with grace as God’s initiative in restoring his image in men and women.

Limited gospels focus on the covenants as time related. The complete gospel embraces the covenants as heart-experience related.

The old covenant, as Paul points out in Galatians, does not describe a time period, from Sinai to the Cross, but an attitude that reflects reliance on external obedience to law without grace transforming the heart-producing "the fruits of the Spirit."1

Thus, the experiences of the new and the old covenants are like parallel tracks running from Abel and Cain to the Second Advent; that is, they are heart experience related, not time related. The difference between an honest person within the "yoke of bondage" of the old covenant and an honest person within the joy of the new covenant is the experience of faith. Paul was sincere while burdened with the bondage of external commandment-keeping—the old covenant experience. Paul was also sincere but relieved and at peace with the joy of knowing that God freely forgives and empowers his honest commitment to doing his will—the new covenant experience.

What makes the difference between the two covenants? Genuine faith makes the difference. Only a correct understanding of faith can bring real peace and real victory in a Christian’s life (Rom. 5:1, 2).

Why is this so? This leads us into Paul’s purposes in writing against "the works of the law." He could see that both Jews and some early Christians were misunderstanding the difference between the old and new covenants. However, Paul does not finish his Galatian letter containing this startling concept that "keeping" the Ten Commandments should be included in his condemnation of the "works of the law" without explaining just what he meant. He certainly was not an antinomian (one who believes that grace and faith substitutes for obedience)!

Clearly, Paul was not downgrading the authority of the Ten Commandments. Hardly! Not Paul who would write: "The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good" (Rom. 7:12); or, "Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God" (1 Cor. 15:34); or, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad" (2 Cor. 5:10).

Paul, in Romans and Galatians, was clarifying the role of the law, even the Ten Commandments, which he said "gives birth to bondage" (Gal. 4:24). To the Romans, he wrote that one of the purposes of the law is to provide "the knowledge of sin" (3:20).

As the result, law, even the Ten Commandment law, can only provide the honest worshipper "wretchedness" and the sense of living with "the body of death" (Rom. 7:24). Paul knew by experience that "keeping the law" provided the security of "righteousness which is from the law" (Phil. 3:9). But when he heard the gospel and called Jesus his Lord, all the good works of the law he "counted loss for Christ…and count them as rubbish" (Phil. 3:7, 8).

That new experience of finding grace, grace in freely given pardon and power, lifted Paul from the burden of works-righteousness to the joy of "the righteousness which is from God by faith" (Phil. 3:9). No longer did sin have to reign. Paul could sing to the Romans: "For you are not under law (the yoke that reveals sin) but under grace (the grace of pardon and power)" (6:14).2

Then Paul uses an interesting metaphor: Before the gospel, they were sinners and could do nothing about it—they were slaves to their desires. After the gospel when they were "obey[ing] from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness for holiness.…But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life" (Rom. 6:17–22).3

The old covenant still lives today in those who either find their presumptive assurance in the gift of forgiveness because of what either Jesus did on the cross or because of their own record of "keeping the law." The new covenant makes the heart sing with genuine assurance because of what Jesus did on the cross and what he is now doing as our High Priest—cleansing our heart from anything that is in contradiction to the will of God.

Notes and References

1. Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, 372.
2. "’The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.’ In this scripture, the Holy Spirit through the apostle is speaking especially of the moral law. The law reveals sin to us, and causes us to feel our need of Christ, and to flee unto Him for pardon and peace by exercising repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.…"The law of ten commandments is not to be looked upon as much from the prohibitory side as from the mercy side.…To the obedient it is a wall of protection. We behold in it the goodness of God, who by revealing to men the immutable principles of righteousness seeks to shield them from the evils that result from transgression." Ellen G. White, mss. 23a, 1896, cited in The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, 6:1110.
3. "Obedience to God is liberty from the thralldom of sin, deliverance from human passion and impulse. Man may stand conqueror of himself, conqueror of his own inclinations, conqueror of principalities and powers, and of ’the rulers of the darkness of this world,’ and of ’spiritual wickedness in high places.’ Ephesians 6:12.’" Ellen G. White, Ministry of Healing, 131.

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