Deut. 29:4; Ezek. 36:26-28; 1 Pt. 1:10-12, the New Covenant

Peter was a Galilean fisherman.  In his day that was pretty much two strikes against him for ever being considered a man of letters, an intellectual.  Those are not my words; it’s in the Bible (Jn. 1:46; Acts 4:13).  Nevertheless there is no more precious line in thinking about the salvation we have in Christ that was promised by the prophets of the Old Testament than Peter’s line in 1 Pt. 1:12: things which angels desire to look into.  The Holy Spirit sent from heaven after Jesus’ ascension, on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) empowered Peter to preach things the angels longed to see.  Do you understand the importance of the “New Covenant” message connected with the Holy Spirit sent from heaven?

Moses said something incredibly significant in Deut. 29:4.  It was in the process of telling the people of Israel that, as they were about to enter the land, they needed to be sure and obey the laws God had given.  Yet the LORD has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day.  On the day Moses said keep the words of this covenant (29:9) he also says you have a distinct advantage. 

When I read those words I see why Paul was able to come to the understanding that the Law given through Moses was not able to produce holiness in the people of Israel, or in any of us (Rom. 3:28; 5:20; 6:14; 7:4-6 and so on).  Don’t be fooled.  Those people of Israel in Moses’ day could still be saved.  They could be saved because keeping the Law of Moses was never the path to salvation.  It was always by faith, something they could know from Gen. 15:6 (Abraham) and from all the other patriarchs from Adam to Moses.  But the thing they needed to know was that they still did not have the spiritual ability to keep the law.  They needed something more.

Thus we come to the OT Prophets.  Jeremiah spoke of a new covenant whereby those who failed to keep the old covenant would actually have God’s law in their minds and written on their hearts (Jer. 31:31-34).  Ezekiel also spoke of this time when he said God would give them a new heart and put a new spirit within you.  When that happened, he says, then God will cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them, the very thing they could not do in Deuteronomy or at any other time in their history before Christ.

Now let us remember what Jesus said at the table with His disciples on the night He was betrayed.  This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins (Mt. 26:28).  People in Moses’ day, if they put their trust in God, longed for what Jesus said would happen on the cross.  Sins would be forgiven so that the Holy Spirit of God could dwell in them, forever.  Their bodies would become the temple of the Holy Spirit giving the effect of God’s law being written on their hearts.

We are not writing for the people of Moses’ day.  We live now, generations after Jesus’ blood was shed for the New Covenant.  Do you understand this?  Do we realize that what the prophets prophesied was for us?  If you do then you realize why Peter continued on in 1:13-16 to tell us, Be holy, for I am holy.  We can walk in the Spirit, something not available to Moses.  Are we?  Are you? Am I?