THE TEMPORARY COVENANT OF LAW

Ex 19:5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:

Ex 19:6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

Ex 20:2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Ex 23:32 Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. [also Deu 7:2]

Gal 3:17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.

Gal 3:18 For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

Gal 3:19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

Gal 3:25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

1.                 The Old Covenant Law was always inferior to the Abrahamic Covenant and could not displace it (Gal 3:17018).

2.                 The Law, or Old Covenant, was temporarily added alongside the Abrahamic Covenant (Gal 3:19).

3.                 The Law had a beginning and ending time (Gal 3:19, 26).

4.                 The Law was given to national Israel as a child-tutor to keep it in obedience until Christ should arrive (Gal 3:25).

5.                 The Law as the Old Covenant was only given to national Israel in order to exalt it above all other nations (Ex 19:5-6).

6.                 Old Covenant national Israel was commanded by God NOT to share its Law (covenant) with other nations (Gentiles) (Ex 23:32; Deu 7:2).

7.                 The Law was never a means of salvation by faith as it followed the justification at Passover and the baptism at the Red Sea (Gen 15:6; Rom 4:2; Gal 2:16; Titus 2:11).

8.                 While Gentiles were not under THE literal Old Covenant Law, they were judged according to their faith response to nature and conscience which reflect the eternal moral law of God’s character (Rom 1:18-21; 2:14-16).

9.                 Again, the conditional Old Covenant Law cannot and has not replaced the unconditional Abrahamic Covenant (Gal 3:17-18).

JOSHUA 23:14: THE COVENANT FULFILLED

Josh 23:14 [Joshua said] … ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof.

Josh 23:15 Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all good things are come upon you, which the LORD your God promised you; so shall the LORD bring upon you all evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.

Since the Abrahamic Covenant and its promise of the land continue to be repeated scores of times after Joshua’s declaration, it must be concluded that God is still obligated to continue fulfilling his unconditional covenant. It is absurd for some to quote this text as the final fulfillment of the covenant and conclude that God is no longer obligated. Disobedience has delayed the timing of the final fulfillment but cannot annul the unconditional covenant itself.