“All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us. As Christ lived the law in humanity, so we may do if we will take hold of the Strong for strength. … If we come to Him in faith, He will speak His mysteries to us personally.” (Desire of Ages 668)
The glory of Christ is revealed in the law, which is a transcript of His character. The Gospel: His transforming efficacy is felt upon the soul until men become changed to His likeness. They are made partakers of the divine nature, and grow more and more like their Savior advancing step by step in conformity to the will of God until they reach perfection. The Law and the Gospel are in perfect harmony; each upholds the other.
The Law in all its majesty confronts the conscience, causing the sinner to feel his need of Christ as the propitiation for sin. The Gospel recognizes the power and immutability of the law. The Law: The sense of sin is urged home by the law drives the sinner to the Savior. The Gospel: In his need man may present the mighty arguments furnished by the cross of Calvary. He may claim the righteousness of Christ, for it is imparted to every repentant sinner. (Review and Herald 4/22/1902)
Exodus 24:7
Deuteronomy 29: 21
Deuteronomy 31:26
2 Kings 23:2-3
2 Kings 23:21
2 Chronicles 34:30-31
The Lord promises to write His covenant,– laws,– upon our heart and in our mind. Christ’s death redeemed man from the condemnation of the law, which enabled Christ to impart divine power so man could obey the law. “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Ro 8:4 “If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law” Gal. 5:18. Would the Holy Spirit lead the child of God to disobey this law? We know the answer is “No.” What does this mean? If you speed while driving an automobile and you get a ticket you are under the law – you disobeyed it. But if the Highway Patrol forgives your breach of the law and lets you go free, you are under grace. Surely the last thing you’d do in such a case is to get in your car and drive off so quickly as to break the speed limit again! The Lord’s Everlasting Covenant promise was that He would write His law (covenant) on our heart and in our mind. When we have God’s law in our mind, we have no desire to violate it. Just as a reasonable man or woman would have no desire to speed off in an automobile after having just been forgiven a speed limit violation [by an understanding officer].
Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:29)
Isaiah and Daniel both said man changed the laws – or tried to! Isaiah said: “The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.” Isaiah 24:5. Daniel said: “Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces… And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws.” Daniel 7:23, 25.
The law is a transcript of Christ’s character. How could Christ’s character end at the cross? If it ended at the cross then Christ died in vain. He died because His character could not be changed. “I am the Lord I change not.” How then can the law change if it is a transcript of His character? Jesus Himself said in Matthew 5:17-18 “Think not that I am come to destroy [change] the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy[change], but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”
In Malachi 3:6 are quoted the words of our Creator. “I am the Lord I change not.” How then can the law change if it is a transcript of His character? Paul showed all that the Everlasting Covenant and the laws that governed it have not been changed by God when He quoted Jeremiah 31:33 in Hebrews 8:10 and 10:16 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel [those who are Christ’s] after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people” Hebrews 8:10: The word “law” in Jeremiah 31:33 is “Torah.” Therefore, since Paul quoted Jeremiah, he is saying that Torah would be written on His people’s heart and in their minds. However in Greek the word used is Nomos (NT# 3551). It is defined as: “laws specifically of Moses,” which is Torah.
It was an Everlasting Covenant. The Hebrew word for everlasting is OT# 5769 olam, everlasting without end— “unto a thousand generations” “Be ye mindful always of his covenant; the word which he commanded to a thousand generations; Even the covenant which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac; And hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel [those who are Christ’s] for an everlasting [# 5769 olam, without end] covenant” 1 Ch. 16:15-17. “Know therefore that the Lord thy God He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.” Deut. 7:9 David also wrote about this in Psalm 105 verses 7 through 10.
Moses repeated the words of the Lord in Deut. 26:17-19. “This day the LORD thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments; thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. Thou has avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in His ways, and to keep His statutes, and His judgments, and to hearken unto His voice: And the LORD hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as He hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all His commandments; and to make thee high above all nations which He hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the LORD thy God, as He hath spoken.
An agreement between the Creator and His people to keep the Creator’s laws, statutes and judgments—the Creator said, “I will be your God and you will be my people” Gen.17:7; 26:5.
The “Israelites” – they are the seed of Abraham. But Paul said, “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Gal. 3:29). Praise the Lord!!
To make a holy people unto Himself – “For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.” Romans 11:27. “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever, Amen.” Heb. 13:20-21: (See also Heb 10:10,16,19; Heb 9:13-14). Ye are the children of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Acts 3:25. To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant.”
It is the same as the Old in the sense that it is also the Everlasting Covenant but it is called “second” or “new” because it was ratified by the blood of Jesus. Hebrews Chapter 9:12,15. Paul makes it clear in Gal. 3:15 that there is no change. “Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.” There is one covenant called the “Everlasting Covenant,” which was kept in the “Ark of the Covenant” in the Most Holy Place of the sanctuary (Heb. 9:4).
It is the Everlasting Covenant that was ratified by the blood of animal sacrifices. Exodus 24:7-8; Hebrews Chapter 9. The sacrifices pointed forward to the ratification of the Everlasting Covenant by the blood of Jesus.