Renewing in God’s Covenant – The Law of God: Questions and Answers

Renewing in God’s Covenant

The Law of God: Questions and Answers

The ceremonial laws remind us of the discipline required for renewal in God’s Covenant.

What’s the purpose of the religious laws in the Old Testament?

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 6:1

One lesson about spiritual renewal which we can glean from the Old Testament ceremonial laws is that discipline was required in order to gain the benefit of what is prescribed and promised there. It was easy to break covenant with the Lord, but it took discipline and sacrifice—of time and resources—in order to achieve renewal in that covenant. Sacrifices and offerings, Sabbaths, feasts and ceremonies, everyday teaching and reminders—all these were built into the warp and woof of Israelite life, and they suggest the need for daily discipline in our own approach to God through Jesus Christ in the New Covenant.

Jesus affirms that need for discipline. Prayer, fasting, searching the Scriptures, meeting with other believers for prayer and worship, keeping the Sabbath (Lord’s Day), observing relevant feasts—all these are part of the disciplined life which the New Testament prescribes. For it is still easy for God’s people to fall into sinful practices and ways, so strong is the Law of sin yet at work within us (Rom. 7). But by daily application to the disciplines of grace we may enter into the Lord’s presence through Jesus Christ. There we may expect to meet Him in glory, to become engaged with His Spirit, to see the face of Jesus Christ, and to be renewed and transformed into that very image (2 Cor. 3:12-18; 4:6).

We get the impression, reading the Old Covenant ceremonial laws, that God intended His people to be continually oriented to Him and His glory, faithful in seeking Him at the Tabernacle/Temple, and diligent in all the duties of offering, sacrifice, instruction, worship, and rededication which He required of them. Many of those same means of covenant renewal are available to believers today—prayer, fasting, tithing, hearing the Word, solitude, and the like. But now we are called to even greater discipline in seeking the Lord, for it is no longer necessary for us to troop to some central location to meet with Him. But we come to Him day by day, throughout the day, seeking the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And as we do, we find an even greater renewal in glory than Moses and the people of his day ever imagined.

For a fuller study of the pattern of worship revealed in Scripture, order the book, The Highest Thing, by T. M. Moore, from our online store. These studies and brief essays will help you to see how the pattern of sound worship, which began in the Law of God, comes to complete expression in the rest of Scripture. Subscribe to Crosfigell, the devotional newsletter of The Fellowship of Ailbe.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.