The Law is Obsolete

(Hebrews 8:12-13 – The Law is Obsolete)

There is a prevailing idea within the church that Christians live under both the Old and the New Covenants. I have even heard it said that the New Covenant is basically just an extension of the Old Covenant. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This scripture today shows us the truth of this matter. By establishing the New Covenant, the Old Covenant of the law is obsolete. These are the words of God as described in this scripture. The New Covenant does away with the Old Covenant making it obsolete. And when you consider the differences between the two covenants, such a statement makes perfect sense. To believe otherwise brings in a degree of confusion, and the scripture tells us that God is not a God of confusion (Read 1 Corinthians 14:33).

So, we need to consider and understand these words and what God was doing with the two covenants. They are quite different in many ways and although they compliment each other, they are not designed for people to live under both at the same time. You need to be under one or the other, but not both together. And we will see this as we continue.

The Law is good, but the Law is obsolete

Before going further, let it be understood that the law is good. The scripture tells us this in many places. David wrote many times in the Psalms how he loved God’s law and meditated on it often. Paul also had this to say:

So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. (Romans 7:12)

The law defines good and bad. It defines sin because as the apostle John wrote:

Every one who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. (1 John 3:4)

The law provides the minimum standard by which we understand the righteousness of God. To keep God’s law is to learn to do what is right in His eyes. There is great training to be had when we learn what the law teaches.

But the law can never make any person righteous. It cannot make them perfect, because in the law there is the constant reminder of sin. If sin is lawlessness, that is, the breaking of the law, then whenever a person reads the law they are reminded that to do the opposite is to sin.

To be perfect is to always do what is right and to have no consciousness of sin. The very idea of sin is so foreign to God and those who are perfect as He is, is to not even consider the existence or possibility of sin. But being under the law is to always be reminded of sin. And the law also has the effect of inflaming human passions to do what is opposed to the law.

Think of a child. As soon as they are told not to do something, they seem to want to do it. It’s human nature and it leads people to sinful ways. And when the law comes in telling people they should not do certain things, if they are weak in some way, then they will do it and commit sin. It creates an internal conflict that man struggles to overcome, as Paul wrote in these words.

7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, wrought in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died; 10 the very commandment which promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me. (Romans 7:7-11)

And;

15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17 So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, 23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Romans 7:15-24)

So, even though Paul makes the observations that the law is holy, just, and good, and he delights in the laws of God as David also did, he also shows the challenges that the aw threw up for him. The law is very good, but it is plagued with issues for humans because we are unable to keep it. And the law makes no-one perfect.

The Need for Perfection

Here is a challenge for every Christian. Most Christians complain of being sinners and their lack of perfection. But the scripture is quite definite about the need to be perfect.

You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

No ifs or buts about that statement. If you are going to live with God, you MUST be perfect as He is perfect. To be perfect you have to be righteous, holy, sanctified, and walking in love as God is love. And to get to that state of perfection you cannot be a sinner.

Sin is the antithesis of perfection. Sin is what makes us imperfect in God’s eyes. So to be perfect, sin had to be done away with.

Now, most Christians realise that Jesus came to take away sins. In case you missed it, here are a couple of scriptures that say exactly that.

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)

And;

4 Every one who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. (1 John 3:4-6)

The reason Jesus came was to take away the sins of the world, as these scriptures tell us. That means He has taken away all of YOUR sins too. They are gone and have been removed completely from you when you were born anew as a new creation in Him, which is achieved by being baptised into His death and resurrection and having faith to believe these things.

So, here is an interesting question. If God, through Jesus, has taken away all of your sins, (not just forgiven them), then why do you call yourself a sinner?

A sinner is not perfect in God’s sight. They can never be perfect in the sight of God while they believe they are still a sinner, especially after God has agreed to remove all of your sins and gone to the extreme measure of sacrificing His only begotten son as the perfect sacrifice and expiation for your sins.

Why the Law is Obsolete

Now, you will note in that last quotation of scripture, it says “sin is lawlessness. That is, sin is breaking God’s law.

So, in the law there is always the reminder of sin because sin is breaking God’s law. But because it is God’s law, He can change the law and determine who is under the law or removed from the law, as this verse shows:

11 Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levit’ical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest [Jesus] to arise after the order of Melchiz’edek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? 12 For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. (Hebrews 7:11-12)

The priesthood of the Old Covenant was under the line of Aaron and the descendants of Levi. But Jesus was not born as a descendant from the tribe of Levi. He was born under the tribe of the kings, that is, Judah, and as a descendant of David the king. And as you read through Hebrews you find that Jesus became a priest and the high priest of the New Covenant under the priestly line of Melchizedek.

Now, the key to this is that under the New Covenant and under this new priesthood, the law has changed. As the scripture quoted above, when the priesthood changes, so too does the law.

God has changed the law for all who believe and are baptised into the death of Jesus Christ. They die and are raised as new creations in Jesus Christ. But they also die to the Old Covenant that condemns them as sinners under the law, and they are raised as new creations under the New Covenant that promises freedom from sin, freedom from the law and life. Their sin is removed since they have died with Him, and now they are under the priesthood of Melchizedek rather than the priesthood of Aaron and Levi. Therefore, they are no longer under the laws of the Old Covenant, but are under the teachings of the New Covenant that releases them from the law.

For those who come to Christ in this way, the law is obsolete. It no longer applies to them because they have been removed from the Old Covenant priesthood of Aaron (Levi), to the New Covenant priesthood of Jesus Christ (Melchizedek). The Old Covenant laws therefore no longer apply, and so they become obsolete for those in the New Covenant.

And you cannot live under both covenants at the same time.

The Law is Obsolete in Christ Jesus

All of this is encapsulated in the few words of these verses in Hebrews 8 that I am looking at today.

12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” 13 In speaking of a new covenant he treats the first as obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. (Hebrews 8:12-13)

Under the New Covenant, God is merciful to us in removing our iniquities and sins. This is the thrust of the New Covenant. We see in these words that His mercy is such that He no longer remembers our sins, and in His mercy He does not condemn us for the sins we may have committed.

Those sins were committed when we were bound under the law of the Old Covenant But now that we are set free from the Old Covenant and serve God in Jesus Christ under the New Covenant, we stand before God without sin. This was God’s decree for us when we believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus, which we take for our own death and resurrection by entering into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in baptism.

The upshot of this change then, as the scripture above tells us clearly, the law is obsolete as the Old Covenant is ready to vanish away. I would add that it is only vanishing away for those who come to God in faith and in Jesus Christ. For the rest of the world the Old Covenant is not fading away or vanishing at all. It is just as powerful and strong as ever it was. But for Christians, we have been given the way to escape the law, have our sins taken away, and come to perfection in the sight of God.

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