THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #65 | THE LIFE OF MOSES #47
Pastor Christopher Choo
Lesson 3748
THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #65
THE LIFE OF MOSES #47
THE MOSAIC COVENANT #9
We conclude this series on the Mosiac Covenant by answering two remaining questions:
1. Why was there a Mosaic Covenant?
2. Why is the Mosaic Covenant important for Christians?
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1. Why was there a Mosaic Covenant?
If you ask most people where they will go when they die, the majority would probably say “heaven.”
If you asked them “why?” they’d probably answer “because I’m a good person.”
Most people believe God grades on a curve, so they usually compare their goodness to the worst human beings who’ve ever lived.
But the Bible does not say that is God's standard.
The Mosaic Covenant reminds us that the standard to meet God’s holiness is perfection.
Leviticus 18:5 summarizes the Mosaic covenant: “Keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live.”
When the rich young ruler asked Jesus what to do for eternal life (Luke 18), Jesus told him to keep the Ten Commandments (Mosaic covenant).
The disciples correctly understood the impossibility of salvation by works.
It led them to ask “who can be saved?” Jesus told them, “What is impossible with a man (covenant of works) is possible with God (covenant of grace).”
The primary use of the Law of God is to break us of our imagined self-righteousness and to drive us to seek our righteousness from Christ.
Paul taught us that by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight (Romans 3:20).
If Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” why was the Mosaic Law even put in place?
Paul answers that it was added because of transgressions until the offspring (Jesus)
should come to whom the promise had been made (Galatians 3:21).
Does this mean the Mosaic covenant is contrary to the covenant of grace?
Paul answers "Certainly not!". For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. The Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe (Galatians 3:21-22).
Just to be clear, the Mosaic Covenant was not a restoration of the covenant of works.
Paul makes it clear that no one can keep the covenant of works and receive eternal life.
The chief purpose of the Mosaic law was not to save Israel—it was not salvific. Its purpose was to be a tutor and drive people to Christ (Galatians 3:24).
2. Why is the Mosaic Covenant important for Christians?
Believers in Israel during the Mosaic time period were never saved by law-keeping. It was impossible for Israel to earn eternal life by keeping the law.
Believing Israelites were saved through faith alone in the mediator ( Messiah ) just as Christians are today but they just didn’t know the name of Jesus.
When Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” he was partaking of the substance of the covenant of grace — Christ.
Jesus completed both active and passive obedience on our behalf to the law of God.
Jesus’ active obedience refers to Him fulfilling the covenant of works in our place.
His passive obedience refers to Jesus’ substitutionary atonement for us by dying on the cross.
The Mosaic covenant provided the perfect landscape for both of these to take place.
This helps us to see the Mosaic Covenant gave Jesus the perfect situation for Him to fulfill the covenant of works on our behalf.
This is why Paul could say, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor 15:22).
So, this is how the Mosaic covenant still helps us: it helps us remember in whom we are alive.
It reminds Christians of our daily need for the gospel by driving us out of our self-righteousness and causing us to rest in the righteousness of Christ!
