Before getting into the new covenant I would like to let you know what I believe scripture teaches about God’s Law. That is, what makes up the law. The law that I am concerned with has been in existance as long as God has existed. The law is a part of God. It represents God’s morals. The law can never change or be changed. God can not change. God’s morals can not change.
Theft or stealing is forbidden in the ten commandments. If God had made theft lawful at the death of Christ, for instance, then we would have to conclude that God’s morals had changed. We would find scriptures in the new testament explaining that it would now be just fine to sneak over to your neighbors house and steal something of his. Or perhaps the scriptures would have explained that it would be ok to steal something as long as the one you were stealing from was not your neighbor.
This would represent to me a God whose laws were arbitrary. One could suggest that any particular law could be changed at any time for no particular reason. We would find that some people who had stolen had been perhaps denied an eternal reward while others received a reward having also stolen.
There are some today who do not see any problem with this sort of behaviour on the part of God. After all there have been people who spent years in jail for something that might now only require a fine. Others might be in jail now for something that was never considered illegal in the past. People have been used to laws changing at the whim or desire of people.
After being used to that people might say that God is God and can do whatever he wants. I would say that those people do not understand God’s nature. He did not just make up the law. He is the law. The law is a representation of God himself Read the first chapter of John for more on God’s relationship with his law (word).
God’s law is unchangable just as he is unchangable. There are no arbitrary laws. What was sin the day that Adam became a living soul is still sin today. What was righteous on that same day is still righteous today. God does not change.
What I am suggesting should raise a few questions. One question might be if incest was wrong at the time of Seth just like it is today then who did Seth marry? The solution is reasonably simple, but not necessarily apparent. Next up though lets look at the terms of the new covenant.
Tim