Covenants - Promises And Benefits

[Ethnikos]

Let me know if what I am saying is wrong, but according to the New covenant if we believe in Jesus as God has commanded us to and obey his commandment to love one another, is that hard to comprehend or as God said, is Jesus is a stumbling block?

Firstfruits

It is hard to comprehend.(I mean the requirements of the Law) I mentioned Cain and Able and that could be a good example of someone not loving their brother. People became very evil and God caused the flood. Abraham had a standard of living but it included being a good ally to his friends, in war. Moses had to spell it out, as in how to love your neighbor by not coveting his wife. Jesus took it a step further by telling us that just thinking about it is not right. Because of Jesus and his work on our behalf as our Christ, we have available to us the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The indwelling of the Spirit lends to us a right understanding of the Law. So, Jesus is only a stumbling block to non-believers. The people who want to be able to fulfill the letter of the Law on their own will resent Jesus because he made the Law even more impossible to keep without a struggle within us and the facility of the works of the Spirit.

[Firstfruits]

It is hard to comprehend.(I mean the requirements of the Law) I mentioned Cain and Able and that could be a good example someone not loving their brother. People became very evil and God caused the flood. Abraham had a standard of living but it included being a good ally to his friends, in war. Moses had to spell it out, as in how to love your neighbor by not coveting his wife. Jesus took it a step further by telling us that just thinking about it is not right. Because of Jesus and his work on our behalf as our Christ, we have available to us the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The indwelling of the Spirit lends to us a right understanding of the Law. So, Jesus is only a stumbling block to non-believers. The people who want to be able to fulfill the letter of the Law on their own will resent Jesus because he made the Law even more impossible to keep without a struggle within us and the facility of the works of the Spirit.

Thank you Ethnikos,

This is what we are told it means to love one another;

Rom 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore Love is the fulfilling of the law.

Can we not apply that to our lives?

Does that help to understand Christs commandment and law?

Firstfruits

[Ethnikos]

Thank you Ethnikos,
This is what we are told it means to love one another;
Rom 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore Love is the fulfilling of the law.
Can we not apply that to our lives?
Does that help to understand Christs commandment and law?
Firstfruits

Jesus would say something like, "You have read that..." or, "You have heard it said..." when he was trying to explain something. If those things had never been written, he would have had a hard time explaining things.
I think the same principle applies to us, that we start with what is written. I was taught in my church that God speaks to us through his word. So, I believe in things like reading the Bible to better understand God and what He wants from us. Paul did not just say, "Have Love, and have a nice day!". He had to talk to people hour after hour and week after week and then write letters and send preachers, if all that failed. Why would he go to all that trouble if all he really needed to do was say, "Have love and see you later"? Things need to be written down and brought out and read and spoken of and repeated. Paul never said, "Here is this old Law that says thou shalt not covet you neighbor's wife. Well, we do not need that anymore. We have a better law that simplifies things to just have love." Of course not.
Paul was in the midst of all sorts of errors and fought from the middle. On one side he was addressing those who were getting people to go into the old system and on the other side he had people who thought they could do anything they wanted. He had to strike somewhere in the middle to point into the right direction. So he could not sit there and extol the virtues of the old Law and he could not sit there and extol the virtues of total freedom. A compromise position would be to talk about Christian standards of behavior but these are actually based on the old Law, but for the purpose he needed, it was not necessary to point that out.

[Firstfruits]

Jesus would say something like, "You have read that..." or, "You have heard it said..." when he was trying to explain something. If those things had never been written, he would have had a hard time explaining things.
I think the same principle applies to us, that we start with what is written. I was taught in my church that God speaks to us through his word. So, I believe in things like reading the Bible to better understand God and what He wants from us. Paul did not just say, "Have Love, and have a nice day!". He had to talk to people hour after hour and week after week and then write letters and send preachers, if all that failed. Why would he go to all that trouble if all he really needed to do was say, "Have love and see you later"? Things need to be written down and brought out and read and spoken of and repeated. Paul never said, "Here is this old Law that says thou shalt not covet you neighbor's wife. Well, we do not need that anymore. We have a better law that simplifies things to just have love." Of course not.
Paul was in the midst of all sorts of errors and fought from the middle. On one side he was addressing those who were getting people to go into the old system and on the other side he had people who thought they could do anything they wanted. He had to strike somewhere in the middle to point into the right direction. So he could not sit there and extol the virtues of the old Law and he could not sit there and extol the virtues of total freedom. A compromise position would be to talk about Christian standards of behavior but these are actually based on the old Law, but for the purpose he needed, it was not necessary to point that out.

So with the understanding that Paul wrote the following, if it is repeated/taught often enough, would it help us to understand?

Rom 13:8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

Rom 13:9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Rom 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore Love is the fulfilling of the law.

Firstfruits

[BroRog]

[/b]That's a really good point. Wasn't keeping the Law the entire point of the Old Covenant??

Keeping the law was not the point of the Old Covenant. The sole point of the Old Covenant was God's wish to separate out a people for himself from among all the other people groups of the world. In this covenant, He would be their God and they would be his people. Keeping of the law became the terms of the covenant, the means to remain holy, and the condition for peace and prosperity in the land.

[Firstfruits]

Keeping the law was not the point of the Old Covenant. The sole point of the Old Covenant was God's wish to separate out a people for himself from among all the other people groups of the world. In this covenant, He would be their God and they would be his people. Keeping of the law became the terms of the covenant, the means to remain holy, and the condition for peace and prosperity in the land.

According to the benefits of keeping the law, all things temporal.

Firstfruits

[Firstfruits]

What are the benifits of the Mosaic covenant?

What are the benefits of the New covenant?

Thanks

Firstfruits

[Firstfruits]

King James Version Deuteronomy 28

1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:

2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, andblessed shalt thou be in the field.

4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.

6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

7 The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.

8 The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

9 The LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways.

10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee.

11 And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers to give thee.

12 The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.

13 And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:

14 And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Firstfruits

[Firstfruits]

Jer 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jer 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Jer 33:8 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me.

Heb 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
Heb 8:11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
Heb 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb 8:13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

Rom 11:27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

Firstfruits

[Firstfruits]

How do we obtain the benefits of the covenants according to Gods promises?

Firstfruits