Why I Am Glad Not to Live in Old Testament Times (And Why It Has Almost Nothing to Do with Mold)

Very often, I have heard Christians say: "Boy am I glad that I don't live in Old Testament times."  Often, this declaration of fondness for our New Testament times comes after reading Leviticus or some other particularly dense an foreign section of Old Testament Law.  How happy we are that we don't have to slaughter a goat to worship God.  How happy we are that we don't have to have the priest inspect the mold on our shower wall.  How happy we are that we can wear clothes made from more than one type of fabric. Our joy at being New Testament Christians rather than Old Testament saints usually stems from freedom from regulation.  In regard to covenants, we are all conservatives, desirous of less regulation rather than more.

I agree with Christians who say "Boy am I glad that I don't live in Old Testament times."  I feel the same way.  But it is not just because the regulations are less.  It is also because the benefits are more. In Jeremiah 31, we get a summary of the difference between the Old and New Testaments.  Here, Jeremiah has a prophetic vision of what New Testament life under Christ will be like.  Jeremiah 31:31-34 says:

"'The time is coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, ' declares the LORD. 33 'This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,' declares the LORD. 'I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,' declares the LORD. 'For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more'" (NIV).   

Jeremiah tells us at least three ways that the New Covenant under which we live is unique from the old:

1. Our law is not external but internal.  The Lord says: "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts."  Under the New Covenant, we have the Holy Spirit to change our hearts and our minds and our personality.  The Old Covenant came with no power to obey.  Through Christ's work, the New Covenant grants us the Holy Spirit.  He slowly changes our sinful nature so that we can respond to the law properly and have the power to obey. 

2. We know God in a personal way.  "No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me from the last of them to the greatest."  In the Old Testament, the message was keep away from God.  Only one person (the high priest) on one day of the year (Yom Kippur) could enter into God's presence.  Now, the presence of God is with all His people every day, and we as a community and as individuals are called temples of His Holy Spirit.

3. We are forgiven.  "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."  Our righteousness is not rendered by obedience to the Law (which is good for us because we can't obey it).  Our righteousness is granted by God, in His grace, through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus.

I'm very happy that as a pastor I don't have to inspect the mold in people's showers.  But the joy of the New Testament isn't merely freedom from regulation.  It is instead the positive blessing of God's power, God's presence, and God's pardon as ministered through Jesus and the Holy Spirit.