In many ways, the Law is to the New Covenant as a ring(engagement/wedding band) is to a bride. An outward symbol of an inward reality. Ultimately the groom does not hope to attain your ring finger; he intends to take hold of your heart. Although one is an outward expression of the other.
Law existed first, as an engagement ring does. It is a symbol of a reality that Jesus later would fulfill when He consummates our hearts with the Spirit. It is good that Israel would wear it and conform to the expectations the ring(the Law) sets. Expectations which God had to re-state over and over again because they were never fully perceived. This is perhaps part of why it took so long to get to the time of Christ to fulfill(as marriage fulfills the engagement ring) the Law(the ring) because mankind failed to understand what that ring(the Law) truly was: a symbol pointed to what is to come. They had within their midst the Covenant of God and yet failed to realize what that meant about Gods intentions for their heart. They waited for a warrior messiah because they still thought this ring represented(was a symbolic reference to promised future events regarding) the house and the car and the nice things their coming groom would give to them; when really it represented Gods intent to captures their hearts(not just their deeds) for eternity.
Mankind has limited himself, limited his receptors of love and fullness of living(the design for man), by eating of the tree which replaced life with the knowledge of good and evil. God spoke to Israel through abundantly creative avenues trying to communicate a central message of truth regarding who He is and who we are. The rub is, we have unplugged from our life outlet/input. As evidenced is Genesis when man eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of the tree of life which were both in the midst of the garden[Gen 2:9]. How then does one transmit power and life through a data cable? Well, watch the old testament and you’ll see how God is prepping them for the change to come. Warning them over and over that their way of living, that this feed of information, of knowledge, is not their primary function. It is not their highest form of living. That the intellect is not the supreme standard for human beings; but in fact is merely a shadow of our design.
He tells them what it looks like and instructs them in all its intricacies, facets, and details.
Then Jesus comes and asks:
Are you ready to plug back in?
It’s going to be a roller-coaster. You’re NOT going to understand it completely. It WILL NOT feel natural. You’ve been unplugged for so long. You’ve been born into sin[Rom 2:23]. Believe Me, this is what I foretold was coming.
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