TESTAMENTS: CHECK YOUR READING GLASSES- BY PASTOR GREG ELKAN

_In that He says, “A new covenant”, He has made the first old._ – Heb 8:13.

The principle of the “New Testament” runs all through scripture, starting from Genesis. The “Old Testament” saints, just like us, gained their righteousness through faith in God, not by works. This is the point of the Law of Moses. 

Nevertheless, the fact that this same Law of Moses was the single stumbling block to the Jews accepting the Gospel is spectacular proof of religious Man’s ability to pull darkness even out of heavenly light. 

Paul describes the Law in Rom 7:12, 14 as _“holy, and just, and good... and Spiritual.”_ But that was because he viewed it from a perspective of faith. For faithless people, however, the Law serves as ample platform to indulge their sinful inclination to righteousness by works. 

Sadly, as Moses himself acknowledged, the original recipients of the Law were a _“very froward generation, children in whom is *no faith.”*_ (Dt 32:20). Thus, leaving aside God’s righteousness by faith as Moses prescribed, they went on to establish  _“their own righteousness.”_ (Rom 10:3). 

Your view of salvation will influence what you see in scripture. If your trust for salvation is in God and God alone, you will see the “Old Testament” in a whole new light and observe a God of grace and longsuffering trying to draw a rebellious and stiff-necked people to Himself. 

But those who believe salvation is something that must be earned by works will manage to find rules, regulations, judgments and threatening, even in the direct, grace-filled books of the “New Testament.” 

But we, beloved, are _“able ministers of the New Testament”_ (2Co 3:6). We do not read the New Testament using “Old Testament” glasses; rather we read the Old Testament from the perspective of the New Testament: and discover gems that would only be visible to a people of faith. 

AMEN.

PASTOR GREG ELKAN

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

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