Post by ResLight on Feb 11, 2013 0:15:55 GMT -5
One has claimed that when Jesus stated "this generation will not pass away, until all these things are accomplished", that Jesus was referring the generation that heard him, and, based on this, it is further claimed the old law covenant ended in the days of those people who heard him speak these words. Usually, the claim is that these heavens and earth passed away in AD 70, when it is assumed that the law covenant ended.
Matthew 24:33 Even so you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Matthew 24:34 Most assuredly I tell you, this generation will not pass away, until all these things are accomplished.
Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Matthew 24:36 But no one knows of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Matthew 24:37 As the days of Noah, so will be the coming [parousia] of the Son of Man.
Matthew 24:38 For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,
Matthew 24:39 and they didn't know until the flood came, and took them all away, so will be the coming [parousia] of the Son of Man.
By the words recorded in Matthew 24, Jesus did not say that "this generation" that was to pass away was limited to the people at the time who heard Jesus in the first century. The passing away of "this generation" that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24 is indeed linked to the passing away of the heavens and the earth and to Jesus' parousia.
Jesus recognized that the Law and the Prophets were until John the Baptist. (Luke 16:16) As best as I can determine from the scriptures, the new covenant is the basis upon which one is consecrated (sanctified) through the blood of Jesus which is the blood of the new covenant. (Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; 1 Corinthians 11:25; Hebrews 10:10,29; 12:24) That new covenant, although applied for the sanctification of believers in this age, actually belongs to the age to come. (Hebrews 6:5) Thus, the believer as a new creature is reckoned (counted) as living in the age to come, when "The old things have passed away. Behold, they have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17; Revelation 20:1-5) Paul was not saying that the old creation, the old heavens and earth, had passed away, but that for the new creature, it is reckoned as so, both for the Jewish believer as well as the Gentile believer. The regenerated son of God is reckoned as already living in the age to come, in the time of the new heavens and new earth.
Nevertheless, the Gentile believer does not need to be reckoned dead to the Law, since he was never under the Law Covenant. The Jewish believer, on the other hand, does need to be reckoned as dead to the Law (Romans 7:1-4), thus, for the Jewish believer to have the new age to be reckoned to him would also mean that he is no longer under the old Law Covenant.
Hebrews 8:13
In that he says, "A new covenant," he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away.
No Jew born under the Law and who is still alive can become free from that Law except that they become dead to the Law through Jesus, or through natural death. There are still many Jews still being born under the Law to this day. Thus, the law stills condemns those under the law to this day, and thus, it still has not vanished toward those "under the law". The only way that one under the law can be freed from its condemnation is through physical death, or by being reckoned as dead to the law through the blood of Jesus. (Romans 7:1-7) As long as there remains alive any of the children of Israel who have not been justified by the blood of Jesus, the law covenant and its condemnation has not yet passed away for them. Once all of Israel comes under the blood of the new covenant, then the old law covenant will have fully vanished away.
Some related studies
Christ Made a Curse for Israel
The Passing Away of the Law - A Brief Summary
The Generation That Passes Away
Who Becomes Dead to the Law?
