THOMAS: I think one answer to that would be to take what John says in
his prologue that "The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
Now, what does John mean? Does he mean there was no grace in the Old Testament? Does he mean
there is no law in the New Testament? Obviously not; he is making a relative contrast. I think
this is John Murray. He is making a relative contrast in absolute terms. that there was so
much law under the Old Testament that it appears as though the Old Testament, the old covenant
added laws relative to the state of Israel as an infant and a teenager.
I remember, I remember when I first allowed our children to be home alone. It was an emergency.
My wife was at a Bible study somewhere. I was at home with the children. They were in their
sort of early teens, and an emergency happened. I had to go to the hospital. I told my children
four hundred things they were not allowed to do until mother comes home, but the number one thing
was, "Do not answer the door," right? "If somebody knocks on the ..., do not open the door." Now,
my children are in their forties. I don't give them any laws at all, but I do expect them to
live in relative obedience to some standards. But that's a way of saying that the old covenant
was an administration for teenagers and the new covenant is an administration for adults.
PARSONS:
I'm just going to add one thing that is very important that took me years to understand,
that the Old Testament in one sense does not equal the old covenant, that the old covenant, properly
speaking, technically speaking, is the Mosaic covenant, that it is the law, as Derek was saying,
as John makes clear in that prologue and that's the distinction. We did an issue at Tabletalk.
I don't know when it was. I get the years sort of…they all flow together, but a few years ago,
I think it was called, "What's So New About the New Covenant?"
to really try to help people understand what is new about the new covenant,
what is unique, and also the continuity between the old and new Covenants. So,
just a helpful point of clarification, but it's important, an important one.
GODFREY: Well, and it's important to remember that our theologians have used the word "covenant" to
describe a lot of different relationships. So, there is not only the old covenant and the new
covenant, but there is the broader framework in Scripture of the covenant of works
that was given to Adam where he was to maintain his relationship to God with perfect obedience,
and then the covenant of grace, and both, what we call the old covenant and the new covenant,
are administrations of the covenant of grace. So, the Mosaic economy as an administration of the
covenant of grace has a particularly legal cast and part of the function of that, as Paul says
over and over again, is to teach the reality of sin. It's difficult to keep all the Law of Moses,
and so it impinges on the people of God to know their sinfulness and to know their need of mercy.
THOMAS: And it's the reason why Paul in 2 Corinthians 4 and 5 speaks of the Old Covenant
as an administration of death and the New Covenant as an administration of glory. And again, it's a
relative contrast in absolute terms, but clearly, one of the aspects of the old covenant was to
reinforce our natural inherited depravity. So, by maximizing the laws, it showed up sin.