A current perspective on Covenant and Law (Feb. 21, 2004)

The Covenant God made with Abraham looks like the covenants made between Kings and subjects at this historical time. These types of covenants are called Suzerain covenants. They follow a certain form. There is always in a covenant of this type a part that establishes the identity of the two parties, the responsibility of the two, and the blessings and cursing if the covenant is alternately fulfilled or broken. Then follows a procedurals manual that lays out more specifically how the obligations entered into under the covenant are to be fulfilled. The procedural manual is not the covenant but it is closely related. The covenanting King always had a right to change the procedures.
In Jesus Christ God makes a move of grace and love, moving beyond what is ever seen in a Suzerain covenant. In this case the King decides that he will fulfill the procedures that he required himself. In doing so he does not negate the rightness of the procedures he gave, nor does he change the manner in which his subjects have fellowship with him. He makes the fellowship possible by fulfilling the procedures himself. “… so that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled…” The law itself is not unrighteous nor does it teach unrighteousness. Instead it is useful for correction and instruction in righteousness. It is as the Psalmist declares, sweeter than honey and more precious than gold. There is no new covenant. That is a misnomer. The same covenant that was established with Abraham is still in effect.
When Jesus teaches he is instructing the covenanted community of God the new procedural manual. The beatitudes, etc. are all instructions for the community who will be part of the Kingdom of God. The focus of the teaching is on identifying yourself with the work of Christ so that your fellowship with God exists. In fact it is in that fellowship that the law is fulfilled for you. It cannot be fulfilled for you except through that fellowship with Jesus the one who fulfilled the procedures. The disciples have a “better righteousness” (Matt. 5: 17-20) than the Pharisees because of the grace by which they can identify with Jesus’ righteousness. This fellowship exists concomitantly with following the righteous one. Their righteousness
is always a gift which they received when they were called to follow him. In fact their righteousness consists precisely in their following him, and in the beatitudes, the reward of the kingdom of heaven has been promised. It is a righteousness under the cross, it belongs only to the poor, the tempted, the hungry, the meek, the peacemakers, the persecuted – who endure their lot for the sake of Jesus; it is the visible righteousness of those who for the sake of Jesus are the light of the world. This is where the righteousness of the disciple exceeds that of the Pharisees; it is grounded solely upon the call to fellowship with him who alone fulfils the law. Their righteousness is righteousness indeed, for from henceforth they do the will of God and fulfill the law themselves. Again, it is not enough to teach the law of Christ, it must be done, otherwise it is no better than the old law. (For, while the Pharisees strove to keep the law in all its particulars, they were not able to succeed.) In what follows (Matt. 6) the disciples are told how to practice this righteousness of Christ. In a word, it means following him. It is the real and active faith in the righteousness of Christ. It is the new law, the law of Christ. (Quoted from Bonhoffer, The Cost of Discipleship)
Matt 5 and 6, the law of Christ, is how you have fellowship with him, and through him, you have identification with his righteousness. It is in his fellowship that the law is fulfilled for you. This is why we have a new law, new regulations for the community, a new delineation of how we are to use the freedom to which we are “condemned.” It is a new law to bring us to perfection (maturity) “so that we may be complete lacking nothing.” The new law teaches what it means to have fellowship with Christ, to be a disciple. That completion is the fruition of the identification/fellowship with Christ established by his fulfilling the law. It is because of his fulfillment of the law for us that we also have fellowship with the Father.
So there is nothing wrong with the original precepts of the law, accept that God’s people continually failed to keep them, separating them from God. So God stepped in and established a new precept or procedure, discipleship of and fellowship with Jesus the Christ, which allows for the fulfillment of the whole law. A person could continue to observe the procedures of the law so long as he recognized that he was not earning a righteousness by it that he didn’t have in Christ. The psalmists are still right when they say that the law revives the soul and it is wise instruction by which you will live long on the earth. This is where personal conviction seems best to apply. This is where I can see Paul’s talk of acting in accordance with your own conviction seems to be appropriately applied. I see the character in Chariots of Fire in a similar manner. He was a man who sincerely was convinced that for him to race in a competition on the Sabbath was not fulfilling the commandment to keep it holy and set apart for the LORD. For him to have ran on that day would have been to compromise the principles by which he lived obedience and honor to the LORD.