Many times I have heard Christians tell me that Yeshua came to the earth in order to institute the New Covenant.
This is because that is what they have been taught, but it is wrong.
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I think the first thing we need to do is establish what the new covenant really is, and to do that we have to leave the gospels and all those letters behind, and go back to the Book of the Prophets, specifically Jeremiah 31:31-33, which is where we are told what the new covenant is.
And this is the new covenant God promises (CJB):
It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took them by their hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt; because they, for their part, violated my covenant, even though I, for my part, was a husband to them,” says Adonai. ) “For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Isra’el after those days,” says Adonai: “I will put my Torah within them and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will any of them teach his fellow community member or his brother, ‘Know Adonai’; for all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest; because I will forgive their wickednesses and remember their sins no more.”
So, to all who have been taught that Yeshua has instituted the new covenant, let me ask you this:
Has the Torah been written on your heart and does everyone know the Lord God?
If you can’t answer that in the affirmative, then guess what? The new covenant ain’t here yet.
And also notice how God’s new covenant isn’t about rejecting or ignoring the Torah, but by writing the Torah on our hearts!
There is only one Torah, that’s the first five books of the Bible, and that is the one that every person under the new covenant will have written on their hearts- not some set of tenets and doctrines created by men.
Now, despite the fact that Christianity has either totally ignored or (worse than that) misinterpreted what Yeshua himself said, let’s see what he tells us is the reason he came to the earth.
Let us begin with Matthew 5:17-19 (CJB):
Don’t think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete. Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a yud or a stroke will pass from the Torah — not until everything that must happen has happened. So whoever disobeys the least of these mitzvot and teaches others to do so will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever obeys them and so teaches will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Notice how he says nothing in the Torah will change until all things have come to pass- meaning, of course, the Apocalypse and the events foretold in Revelation have all been completed. Again, I ask you this:
Have the seven shofars been blown and have the seven bowls of God’s righteous anger been poured out over the earth?
No? Well, then, the new covenant can’t be here and nothing in the Torah has changed for anyone and everyone who says they accept Yeshua as their Messiah.
What a bummer, right? What you have been told is an easy-peasy religion to follow is not the thing that Yeshua said he requires.
So what does Yeshua require of those who want to follow him? He tells us in Matthew 16:24-25 (CJB):
Then Yeshua told his talmidim, “If anyone wants to come after me, let him say ‘No’ to himself, take up his execution-stake, and keep following me. For whoever wants to save his own life will destroy it, but whoever destroys his life for my sake will find it.
What this means is that if your religion is easy to follow, not too many demands, and pretty much says heaven is a Come-As-You-Are party, then you are most likely on the wrong path to true salvation.
So now I will tell you what I believe, based on what he said, is the reason Yeshua came to the earth in his first coming:
He came to provide the means for us to receive forgiveness of sins before the temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed, which rendered the sacrificial system impossible to obey.
And he said so, himself, here in Matthew 20:28 (CJB), as well as in Mark and Luke:
For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve — and to give his life as a ransom for many.
So there you have it- forget what your religion has told you, forget about the references to the new covenant we read in the gospels during the Pesach Seder (which were never meant to be immediate, but prophetic) and stick with the factual statements made by the Messiah, himself, as to why he came.
He came to provide the means for us to be forgiven of sin after the temple would be destroyed. The things he taught and the miracles he performed were just to demonstrate that he is the Messiah, but not the reason he came.
And the real new covenant is still way off in the future, although the way the world is today, it seems to be getting a lot closer. But it won’t happen until we receive a new heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26), which will be ready for God to write his Torah on it, and all that we read about in Revelation will be over and done with.
Until then, consider what Yeshua said about those who disobey the least of God’s mitzvot (commandments) and teach others to do so.
Thank you for being here and please comment and share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.
That’s it for this week, so L’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!