A Tale of Two Covenants, Part Four

Last updated on: November 10, 2018 at 12:45 am by Mark Shea

A Tale of Two Covenants, Part Four 2018-10-29T23:46:14-07:00 Mark Shea

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Why have we been talking for three weeks about the relationship of the Mosaic Law and the gospel? Well, in addition to the fact that it’s good to know what the Church teaches about our relationship with our Jewish older brothers, it’s also important if we want to have the foggiest clue of what large portions of the New Testament are about. For starters, everything from Matthew to John to Romans to Galatians to Hebrews was written under the lash of the urgent pastoral necessity to get the relationship between the Old and New Covenants right.

“Yes,” reply many Catholics, “and that’s just why Bible study is so dry and dull: because the authors of Scripture seem to be concerned about things that are remote from anything that concerns my life in the modern world.”

Here’s the deal: New Testament teaching on this matter is, in fact, not remote from “real life”. To understand why, consider the words of G.K. Chesterton:

It was no flock of sheep the Christian shepherd was leading, but a herd of bulls and tigers, of terrible ideals and devouring doctrines, each one of them strong enough to turn to a false religion and lay waste the world. Remember that the Church went in specifically for dangerous ideas; she was a lion tamer. The idea of birth through a Holy Spirit, of the death of a divine being, of the forgiveness of sins, or the fulfilment of prophecies, are ideas which, any one can see, need but a touch to turn them into something blasphemous or ferocious. The smallest link was let drop by the artificers of the Mediterranean, and the lion of ancestral pessimism burst his chain in the forgotten forests of the north. Of these theological equalisations I have to speak afterwards. Here it is enough to notice that if some small mistake were made in doctrine, huge blunders might be made in human happiness. A sentence phrased wrong about the nature of symbolism would have broken all the best statues in Europe. A slip in the definitions might stop all the dances; might wither all the Christmas trees or break all the Easter eggs. Doctrines had to be defined within strict limits, even in order that man might enjoy general human liberties. The Church had to be careful, if only that the world might be careless.

Likewise, to get wrong the relationship between the Old and New Covenants means everything from banishing the Old Testament from the Bible to embracing freakish licentiousness as “Christian liberty” to pursuing the futile project of trying to earn the love of God to binding the Church with the pitiless rule “That which is not forbidden is compulsory”. Instead of these or a dozen other confusions, the Church, led by the Spirit, held fast to the common sense of being both one and catholic, of calling us to live the Law by the Spirit, not abolish it.

That is what animates Paul’s thinking. Contrary to many Reactionary Dissenters, the Apostle to the Gentiles did not tell Jewish Christians they could not practice the customs of Moses. Indeed, Paul himself had one of his Gentile co-workers circumcised so as not to give scandal to Jews he hoped to evangelize (Acts 16:3). Yet he paradoxically insisted that Jewish Christians could not impose their customs on Gentile believers with any claim that they were salvific. His rule of thumb was that he and his co-workers must be willing to bear any burden for the sake of those with a weak conscience, but he adamantly defied anyone who tried to make human works of the Law a condition of God’s justifying love. This humane balance is why he could thunder against the circumcision party in Galatians (who sought to earn their salvation instead of receiving it by grace) and yet could write gently to the mixed community at Rome (where some Jewish Christians had scruples about Jewish holidays and diet and Gentile believers did not):

One man esteems one day as better than another, while another man esteems all days alike. Let every one be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. He also who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; while he who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. (Romans 14:5-6)

That wisdom, encoded into the Church’s DNA since the first century, is why the Catholic communion can play host to a huge array of indigenous expressions of faith in Christ to this very day. From this early controversy springs the sane and human rule “In essential things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity.”

Uncategorized

Jewish Issues

Previous Post

November 9, 2018

A Tale of Two Covenants, Part Three

Next Post

November 12, 2018 At the Altar, the Priest Presides

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 September 2006 June 2006 July 2005 April 2005 May 2002 April 2002 0000

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz