Is the Torah for Today - Part 9

I would like now to follow up on what I was saying in Part 7. One of the major differences between the Sinai Covenant and the New Covenant has to do with our standing before God. Under the New Covenant our relationship to God begins with our sins forgiven. We start off with an acceptance that is not dependant on our actions, but upon God's accomplishments through the Messiah. On the other hand the Sinai Covenant demonstrated that while we were called to a right relationship with God, our sins were an obstacle to that relationship.

The Sinai Covenant gives us an understanding of the holiness of God. God's holiness is a way to describe his otherliness – his God-ness, so to speak. We needed to learn how great the chasm was between humankind and our Creator. The idols of the nations were images created in the image of man and beast. Our tendency through time has been to fashion our concepts of God after our own finite and earthly imaginations. Through the giving of the Torah to Israel, God painstakingly provided us with the only accurate picture of himself. It was necessary for us to understand and accept how far we were from the kind of relationship with him that we needed. The purpose of the Sinai Covenant, therefore, was to prepare us for God's salvation in Yeshua.

While much of the intent of these two convents are similar in that they show us how to live godly lives through stated norms of behavior, the approach to God's directives are completely different. The standards set by Sinai demonstrate our separation from God, while those of the New Covenant are the fruit of our being accepted by him. The Torah as revealed through the Sinai commandments was a set of principles to strive after, while the Torah of the New Covenant is the fitting expression of the hearts of those who have been made right with God.