Old and New: Devotions From Time of Grace MinistrySample

The covenant was temporary then

Back in the days of the Wild West, vast federal lands were loosely organized into “territories.” Townspeople, farmers, and ranchers dreamed of the day when they could attain the privileges of statehood. They all assumed that the territorial government was only a stepping-stone to full participation in American government and life.

God’s massive layers of rules in the Old Covenant were not just divine hazing. Embedded in all the regulations were important truths about how sinful people could be reconciled with their holy Creator. “These [i.e., provisions of the ceremonial religious laws] are a shadow of the things that were to come” (Colossians 2:17).

Shadows show the rough outline of the illuminated object. Shadows give advance notice of something coming. Shadows aren’t the reality, but their dark forms show that something substantial is behind them.

These covenant shadows were designed to be temporary. “‘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’” (Jeremiah 31:31). That time came. It is your privilege to live in the time of this New Covenant.