Rightly Dividing The Word Of Truth

by Joel Hendon⁽¹⁷⁹⁾ Red Star

Sometime about 40 years ago, I had a recurring dialogue with a young lady regarding the two laws, or two testaments, and tried over and over to explain the differences in them and what they were for, plus why there are two to begin with. But really, she never did get it.

Her final remark in each session was something like, "Well, I just prefer to go by the whole Bible". I referred her to Genesis 6: 14, "Make thee an ark of gopher wood...", and asked her if she thought we should make us an ark? Well, accurately she said that was absurd. Then I tried my best to show where the Law of Moses, including the ten commandments, was only meant for the Jews, but I believe she would have built an ark before she would have accepted that.

I even tried to show her that if you try to go by both testaments, you go by neither. I showed her Hebrews 1: 1-2, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son..." but it still did not register. Many people limit their study of the Bible to reading a few verses here and there and the entire story laid out in the Holy Scriptures is not recognized by them.

Most of the book of Hebrews and numerous other passages in the New Testament put forth explanations that the Old Testament was fulfilled and taken out of the way by the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Many of the things depicted in the Old Testament were a shadow of things to come in the Christian dispensation. (Hebrews 9:9)

The Animal sacrifices, which could not remove one’s sins, were a shadow of the offering of Jesus being sacrificed for all people who would accept Him and His word. The tabernacle and later the temple, were material figures of Jesus Christ’s spiritual body, his kingdom or church. The Old Testament law was heavily laden with minute details of laws. If you read it through, you will find an enormous number of such rules which people were required to follow, including all manner of restrictions of the foods they could eat, the type of clothing they were to wear, numerous and rigid rules of social and civil activities.

The worship of God in that time consisted primarily of offering sacrifices and incense, and David introduced instrumental music as a form of worship. Whereas the worship under the law of Jesus Christ consists primarily of offering up our prayers, study and preaching of His word and singing with our voices from our hearts. The prophet Jeremiah foretells of the coming change of the testaments in Jeremiah 31:31-34:

"Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

This makes an entirely different ball game. Under the Old Law, one was required to do all of those extremely minute rules and at the same time, have the faith in God that would inspire him to follow these routines closely. It was actually more than most (all with the exception of Jesus) could not bare up under it. And for this reason, God, in His infinite wisdom, overlooked many of their trespasses. (Read Acts14:8-18) (Acts 17:30) and (Matthew 19:8-9)

Under the perfect law of liberty instituted by Jesus, those minute details laid out in much of the Old Testament are no longer required. These have been replaced by things pertaining to the heart (intellect) and can be summed up in a few scriptures.

“...Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. (Luke 10:27)

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God” (Mt 6:33).

“All things whatever you would that men do unto you, even so do you also unto them” (Matthew 7:12).

“Take thought for things honorable in the sight of all men” (Rom. 12:17).

“Abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:22).

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27)

“And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: (2 Peter 1:5-10

These things will cover just about anything you might do. Not that they are passive in any sense. They all require our best efforts and must come from the heart. This means we must study diligently and attempt to do everything that is required of us, then if we fail, God’s grace will hold us up. But that too, must not be used as a crutch, it is ours only where we cannot meet the requirements ourselves,

Article submitted Saturday, August 29, 2009 & read 176 times.

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