In John 15:10 we clearly see a separation line, the limit of words (commandments) told by God the Father (the Old Covenant) and God the Son (the New Covenant commandments). Jesus fulfilled the Father’s commandments told by Him in the Old Covenant. And He called us to follow the commandments already told by Jesus in the New Covenant. As you understood, we shall speak about the priority of the New Covenant.
Once I asked my former pastor a question. What do you think, according to your theology: for example, if we take the Gospel from Mark, or the Book of Prophet Isaiah — do they have the equal importance for the one, who believes in Jesus Christ? Do you know what his answer was? He answered the same way, as you are being taught! He told they have the equal importance for a christian. The theology of protestant confession is the same everywhere (including baptists and pentecostal believers). Let’s regard a situation in John 8:12-32. As usual, Jesus is fighting with believers of those times — with pharisees. They are reproaching Him with threats, but He insists on His words without fear. Now let’s look deep into this episode. After Jesus’ words, a part of people believed in Him (John 8:30). And the Lord who sees it, tells those who believed the most important words, in His sight — verse 31. And He directs them to stay in something new (His teaching). They already stayed in psalms and the prophets for more than hundreds of years. And if we go on in chapter 8, we see the verse frequently repeated by all protestant believers, John 8:32: «And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free». But I am sorry, for more than 400 years these people knew the law, psalms and the prophets much better than we, modern believers know them. And they didn’t become free because of it, according to Jesus’ opinion. Try to think: are the prophets, the law and psalms not the truth? But when a person stays in Jesus’ words (the Gospel), it makes him free. Do you catch the thought, what is the truth today? I give you a hint: not the prophets or psalms, or the law, because they, the jews, stayed in it all for 400 years already. We find the confirmation in verse 37 of chapter 8. Jesus rebukes (as today also) the believers, who find the rest for their souls in psalms, telling they must stay in proverbs of the Gospel, but not in «fairy-tale» stories of the prophets, which will never set you free, because they are not the truth already. The truth moved on into Jesus’ words in Eph.4:21, but the believers, just like in the old times, can’t perceive Jesus’ words and oppose the Gospel John 8:37. As God Himself explains (the direct speech), «you have no room for My word»! I’ve mistakenly put here an exclamation point and decided to leave it! Because I’m already totally fed up with carnal legalists and the Old Covenant fans! Jesus was also fed up with them to the extent that He even identified them as followers of their «father» (John 8:43,44). In regret Jesus calls out (verse 43): «Why you, those who love and have faith in the words of Moses, just like modern believers, don’t understand (I give you a hint: because of the lack of devotion and love to Jesus) My words!» And next Jesus explains to the believers, who love the Old Covenant: «because you are unable to hear (it makes you mad) what I say (my Gospel)». Well, this is the truth, the words told in Hebrews 13:8 — Christ is the same, demon is the same and the believers are the same! In verse 45 of chapter 8 Jesus says again, that He is telling the truth (the Gospel), but those who believe in the law, in psalms and prophets don’t believe Him! Oh, it’s a great pity they couldn’t oppose Him that time by these words: «all Scriptures are inspired by God» (2 Tim.3:16). Oh it’s really a great pity!
In John 17 Jesus says that the words You (Father) gave Me… It means, the Father spoke something to us exclusively through Christ.. He passed them to us. But there are no secret manuscripts. It means, the speech is about the four Gospels, where Jesus is speaking to us. The talk is not about the Old Covenant, where Father was speaking to us, not Jesus.
On the mountain of Transfiguration there were three persons: Moses, Elijah (prophets) and Jesus. God underlined the priority of the Gospel.. Listen to Him, Jesus!..
In Gospel from Mark chapter 1 it says about the new TEACHING from Heavens (Gospel). In verse 22 of this chapter it says that His teaching was surprising for those who knew the law, psalms and prophets by heart, and already in verse 27 (Mark 1:27) they were terrified by the new teaching. And a question arises — why was it so? Didn’t jews know the Word of God or did they hear it for the first time? Yes, this is exactly so! It was for the first time. But the most important thing, why were they surprised? Because the Gospel is quite different from the Old Covenant. And in the Old Covenant there is no such power of His as in the new Gospel!
John 18:37 says: «everyone on the side of the truth listens to me». Jesus underlines, that only His voice, the voice of the Gospel is the truth.
That’s why I have to say: those who don’t have the word of Jesus in their hearts (which is the promise of the New Covenant), are looking for it in the stone table of Moses (in the Old Covenant), but it’s only a waste of time! The life and the Spirit is only in the words of Jesus (John 6:63)! That’s why those who wish to do His will, must follow the Gospel! Amen!
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