Welcome To The Arena Of Indubitable Truth! Topic: Elucidating The Testaments (G)

Welcome To The Arena Of Indubitable Truth!

Topic:  Elucidating The Testaments (G) by Chukwuemeka C. Asiegbu

Continued from the last episode…

Text Of Interest: 

“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.”

                                                                                                          Jn 16:12-13

“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” 

1Cor 2:13

Case Study Text:

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” 

2Tim 3:16-17 (KJV)

The Old and New Testaments are just Testaments purporting the purpose and plan of God for man at a given period of time. The discrepancies are found in the areas of certain profound subjects or issues contained in them such as righteousness, sin, holiness, law and grace etc.  The meaning and standard set for these subjects differs in the Testaments. So, for instance, what it takes to become righteous in the Old Testament is no longer what it takes in the New Testament. And this is applicable to sin, law and grace, and in each of the dispensation their meaning and their making differs. That means what is qualified as righteousness or sinfulness in the Old Testament might not be fitting to be called righteous or sinful in the New Testament (Matt 5:27 - 28). This implies that under the old order, one is free to look at a woman with a lustful desire inasmuch as the act was not carried out; he is free from sin of fornication or adultery whereas in the New Testament the reverse is the case.

Let’s take the word righteousness and examine it under the two Testaments and find out its standing in both Testaments. Righteousness in the Old Testament is regarded as the righteousness of the Law, which implies that it is righteousness obtainable by observing or keeping the law. So one is declared righteous based on his ability to keep the entire laws and as the system stipulates one is required to keep all and a failure to keep one means a failure to keep all (Jas 2:10, 4:17). In that case, the righteousness of the law is regarded as “the doing righteousness” (Roms 10:5) and as a matter of fact no one under the face of this sun was able to keep those laws at the same time until Jesus Christ came and became the end to the law (Roms 10:4). He became the end to the law in that He came and fulfill the requirements of the law for us and in us (Mt 5:17 – 18, Jn 19:30, Rom 8:4). Obviously, this kind of righteousness is placing a demand on people who do not have the ability to fulfill the laws hence the massive flaws in the system (Exo 19:5). Instead of a blessing it became a heavy load on the side of the people (Acts 15:7 – 10), what was meant to produce right standing in the life of the people became a means for hypocrisy. One time, a certain fellow came to Jesus and asked rhetorically “Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus listed out to him the things contained in the laws and he was proud to claim his mastery ability in observing them.

Then Jesus said to him “Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.” This shows that those who practice the laws always lack one thing and in the case of this young man, his response to this statement shows that he does not love his neighbours though he claimed to love them. No one under the conduct of the laws was able to keep them and as a result of that, people were kept far away from God. The stiffness of the demands of the law made the people to become debtors before God (Rom 4:4). Because they depended on their effort to accomplish the requirements of the law, but the more they try harder in their effort, the more they find out that they are bankrupt and in fact needed help, because of the weakness in their flesh.

So the system produced a set of people who are hypocrites right from the top ranking officers (the Pharisees, Sadducee and the Scribes) to the lowest ranking among them. They were all pretenders parading themselves as righteous people whereas they are dirty in their inside. No wonder Jesus called them beautiful sepulchers (Matt 23:25 – 28). Because the system makes them to worship or relate with God in a way people could see the cleanness of the outside but the rottenness in the inside isn’t known. Under this weak system, a man can commit a heinous crime and still standing before the people as a righteous man inasmuch as he was not caught in the act, this shows the level of weakness in the system (Rom 8:3).

And of course a system of this nature does not in any way epitomize the wisdom of God!

To be continued….

Till I come your way again, keep on basking in the Arena of Indubitable Truth!

Chukwuemeka C. Asiegbu