New Covenant

Hebrews 8-10

If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it. [...] When God speaks of a “new” covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.

What is so difficult about this passage that so many Christians want to go back to the first covenant? I could understand if a Jew who did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah thought that the Ten Commandments were a binding law on our lives (not to mention all of the other Levitical laws), but why should there be any need for a discussion of whether the Ten Commandments still apply for a Christian? They easily throw away the requirements for animal sacrifice that the Old Testament clearly show as a lasting ordinance for all generations, but want to selectively keep the Ten, as if there were magic in those laws. Try as they might, Israel was never successful in keeping the law... even though they saw God miraculously split open the Red Sea and witnessed the awesome might of God in the pillar of fire by night.

Jesus brought a new law... a new covenant... a relationship in which God tattooed his laws into our hearts so that we can't miss them... so that we can't miss him. And yet, like the Israelites at the foot of Mt Sinai, we want God to push God away for a substitute. But this time, God will not allow Moses or the Ten Commandments, or anything else stand in for us... he paid too high a price. We either accept the relationship that he has created us for... or we reject him and walk away. There's no other choice.