Bible Study Course Lesson 1 – 5
The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
As Jesus plainly said in Matthew 5, laws like “thou shalt not kill” were not abolished, they were just
moved – they now apply internally. Before, we had to not kill in the flesh – now we also have to not
kill in our spirit!
Under the terms of the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:10-13), God is writing those same laws on our
hearts, not just on the stones Moses brought down from Sinai (2 Corinthians 3:3). They are now laws
which apply to our spirits, not just to our flesh. But you’ll be shocked to learn this happened to all of
the Old Covenant laws – even ones you may feel certain were abolished!
For example, what was circumcision? Genesis 17:11-13. It was a symbol of entering into the Old
Covenant, a permanent reminder of a contract you signed – like a wedding ring. Was that symbol
abolished – or merely changed? Colossians 2:11-13.
Baptism was the “circumcision made without hands”! So was circumcision done away with? Or was it
simply redundant and meaningless, now that we had a better symbol? 1 Corinthians 7:18-19. Are we
circumcised – indeed, better than circumcised? Philippians 3:3.
Paul said that the New Covenant Gentile Christians were, in a sense, circumcised! How? Romans
2:28-29. So circumcision wasn’t abolished – it was MOVED! From the flesh, to the heart! You’re
doing the exact same thing as before, but doing it internally instead of externally!
Like all New Covenant things, the principles are now written on your heart, not in your flesh!
THE TEMPLE
Was the temple abolished? Or did it just move? 1 Corinthians 3:16-17. What was the function of the
temple in the Old Testament? 1 Kings 8:10-13. Were the people the house of God? Numbers 35:34.
The temple was God’s house, so He dwelt among them, but not IN them! (John 14:17).
Where is God’s house now? 2 Corinthians 6:16. So the temple wasn’t abolished – it was replaced
when God moved! And when the better temple (a true Christian) exists, there is no reason for a lesser
temple anymore!
Now think about this; when you walk down the street, you are affected by the neighborhood you walk
through. Are the houses nice? The yards well kept? Children playing in the streets? These things make
you like a neighborhood. But does it matter AT ALL how these houses are maintained inside?
Of course not! You see only the OUTSIDE of these houses, they could be a facade in front of a row of
cardboard boxes and you would not know any better! But the interior of the house you LIVE IN matters
to you! The houses you are invited into, THEM you care about!
If a person is under the Old Covenant, God does not live IN them. He lives NEAR them, in another
building. So what a person is like on the inside does not matter, for the terms of that covenant! But
when God lives IN someone, He expects them to be as beautiful inside as they pretend to be on the
outside! Doesn’t that make perfect sense?
Part of the reason the temple existed was to help us understand this sort of thing. The temple was a
symbol of our bodies, and we have replaced the temple; therefore, by merging and harmonizing what
was said about the temple, we can learn a lot about ourselves – for everything said of the temple is also
true of us since WE are the temple of God now!
SACRIFICES
Everyone knows the Old Covenant was full of sacrifices. And many people resent God for a bloody
system that required the deaths of thousands of animals. But did God like sacrifices to begin with?
Hebrews 10:5-8. What did God prefer to sacrifices even under the Old Covenant? Hosea 6:6. Should
sacrifice – even under that covenant – have been their first thought? Ecclesiastes 5:1.
Did David – one of God’s favorite people – think God liked sacrifices? Psalms 51:16. What did God
want instead? Verse 17. Did Saul – one of God’s least favorite people – think God liked sacrifices
more than obedience? 1 Samuel 15:17-23.
What should you do instead of sacrificing? Proverbs 21:3. How should you come before God – laden
with sacrifices? Micah 6:6-8. Here again sacrifices and burnt offerings are compared with the
obedience God expects of us – “to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God”.
You may notice that God often mentions two things “sacrifice AND burnt offering”. God never
mentions two things for no reason – these were different things, which had different meanings.
Compare Leviticus 4:3 and Exodus 29:18. Sin offerings were payments for sin – hence the name.
Burnt offerings – often the fat of rams – were offered “for a sweet savor” to God. We enjoy the smell
of grilling meat, and in the same way the smell of burning fat is pleasant to God. So a sin offering is a
payment, to cover a debt to the broken law; a burnt offering is a gift, to go BEYOND that debt!
After we sin, we are in trouble with the law. When we repent, Christ’s death pays for our sins – but
that’s not enough to give us life! Read Romans 5:10. Our sins were paid by Jesus’ death, which
forgives our sins… but it is Jesus’ LIFE that saves us and gives us life! So Jesus’ death was our
sin-offering and His life was our burnt offering (Ephesians 5:2).
God hates sin[citation needed]. God loves righteousness (Psalms 11:7). So if you do good, God is pleased
and blesses you. If you sin, God is angry and curses you. If you do neither, God does neither.
If you are cursed for your sins, you can provide a sacrifice; what are the wages of sin? Romans 6:23.
Thus, you can substitute the death of an animal (OC) or the death of Jesus (NC) for your own death,
and escape the punishment of the law. But it’s far better to simply obey in the first place – thus,
obedience is better than sacrifice.
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But a sacrifice just lifts the death penalty. It doesn’t give you a medal. It merely makes you neutral
again; if you don’t do good – if you neither kill nor make alive, neither lie nor tell the truth – God is
neither angry, nor happy. He has no reason to kill you, but if you die He has no reason to resurrect you
either!
If you are neutral because you didn’t keep the positive side of the laws, you can help make it up to
Him by offering Him something else He likes instead – a sweet-smelling burnt offering. Which can be
either an animal (OC), or in symbol as Jesus’ life (NC)!
God much prefers you to do good instead of offering a burnt offering, but if you WON’T do good, it’s
better than nothing. Does this mean you don’t even need to try to keep the positive side of the law?
Amos 5:21-24. Until you treat your neighbor as you’d want him to treat you, you’re wasting your time
offering burnt offerings and singing praise music! (Matthew 9:13). Did even the Pharisees know this?
Mark 12:33.
This is why obedience is better than sacrifice, and doing good is better than burnt offerings! Because if
you obey (keep the negative law), you don’t attract God’s attention in a bad way; and if you do good
(keep the positive law) you attract God’s attention in a good way.
Thus God never wanted sacrifices or burnt offerings; they were a crutch to help a rebellious people, a
crutch which would be thrown away in the New Covenant and replaced with spiritual sacrifices and
offerings…
NEW COVENANT SACRIFICES
As Christians, we don’t offer sacrifices today – or do we? Hebrews 13:15-16. Is God bloodthirsty?
Psalms 50:7-13. What should you do instead? Verses 14-15. Are our sacrifices physical? 1 Peter 2:5.
So in light of all this, were animal sacrifices abolished… or were they REPLACED? Romans 12:1.
Israel’s covenant was very clearly external. They could not break the covenant internally, for they had
made no agreement to follow God’s laws in their hearts. You can’t break a contract you haven’t signed!
So when they agreed to join the OC, Moses sprinkled blood on them to wash their bodies – not their
souls (Hebrews 9:19-22).
By the very nature of that covenant, it could only clean them externally (Hebrews 9:13). You can wash
the outside of your car forever, and never get the stain off the seat! But along with an internal covenant
comes the promise of INTERNAL cleansing – a washing of the SPIRIT, not just a washing of the
flesh!
Must we wash our bodies in blood to be clean? Revelation 1:5. But the blood of a goat sacrifice
couldn’t wash where it couldn’t go – inside the body. So we needed a NEW sacrifice, one that could
wash us inside and out! Baptism is a symbol of this external washing, but that still leaves us needing to
be washed inside with another sacrifice!
What was this sacrifice? 1 Corinthians 5:7. How is the New Covenant Passover to be eaten?
Matthew 26:26-28. What was done with the blood of the Old Covenant Passover? Exodus 12:5-8.
Why was the blood shed? Verses 9-14.
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This was a symbol of God executing judgment for sin. Remember, we are God’s HOUSE! And those
whose houses were washed with blood on the outside were allowed to live – because this was the
Passover for the external covenant! They were not given eternal life, they were given physical life!
But with the New Covenant came a change to the Passover, because you cannot wash sins off your
soul by washing your hands! And along with that came a change to the promise, because the new
Passover makes you fit to receive everlasting life! John 6:51-56.
The old lamb’s blood was put externally, and was absolutely never to be drunk – so it could not be
expected to clean them internally because it never went inside the Israelites or their houses! But the
new Lamb’s blood is symbolized by wine and is taken internally! And because the blood goes inside, it
can symbolically wash our spirits, just as the old lamb’s blood washed their bodies! Hebrews 9:13-14.
2 Corinthians 7:1 (NKJV) Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from
all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
To perfect holiness, you must cleanse yourself from filthiness of the flesh AND of the spirit. And that
cannot be done with an external covenant! The majority of ancient Israel had no desire to cleanse
themselves of filthiness of the spirit; they rarely even cleansed the filthiness of the flesh!
But our righteousness is expected to exceed theirs, and we are commanded to cleanse ourselves inside
and out – using new covenant sacrifices! Once again, the sacrifices were not abolished, they simply
moved inside!
OUR OWN SACRIFICE
That was Jesus’ sacrifice for us. But what does the word “sacrifice” really mean? It means to give up
something important to you. Giving money to a friend who needs it is a sacrifice. Helping a stranger
on the side of the road is also a sacrifice. Feeding your enemies is an even better sacrifice. These are
small things, but they are sacrifices that WE can make – not sacrifices Jesus made for us.
But the great sacrifice we must make is bigger than all of that. We all have a selfish nature in us that
desires to please itself (Jeremiah 17:9). What must we do with that “fleshy nature”? Romans 8:13,
Colossians 3:5. Literally, we “put to death” the works of the body – our carnal nature. What have
those who belong to Christ done with their selfish nature? Galatians 5:24.
How did David characterize his nature? Psalms 73:22. Did Paul crucify his selfish nature daily?
1 Corinthians 15:31. How must you rule that beast? 1 Corinthians 9:27. How great an
accomplishment is that? Proverbs 16:32.
Do you see? When you rule over your “beast” nature, you must constantly put its works to death! And
if you’re doing it right, a little piece of that beast dies daily! So you are, in a very real sense,
sacrificing a beast inside your body every day! Crucifying it, as Jesus was crucified, that you may be
purified as He was! (Romans 6:4-6).
If you can do this, the death of a literal animal is meaningless – you merely repent and change your
ways to be forgiven (Luke 17:3-4, Matthew 6:12-15). THIS is the sacrifice of a meek and contrite
spirit – the killing of your carnal nature and the keeping of the WHOLE laws of God!
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That NC sacrifice, the death of your internal beast is worth more than the death of all your external
beasts put together! If you really understand that, Jesus said you are not far from the Kingdom of God:
Mark 12:28-34.
PRIESTHOOD
But surely the priesthood was abolished with the temple! …Or, like the temple, was it simply moved
internally? Hebrews 4:14-15. So once again, the priesthood wasn’t abolished; it was just… changed!
What is the reward of the faithful? Revelation 20:6. What is the job of true Christians? 1 Peter 2:9.
The original high priest under Moses was Levi. What was the name of this new priesthood? Hebrews
5:6, 10. Was Melchisedec a higher high priest than Levi? Hebrews 7:1-10. Paul reasons that if Levi
was Abraham’s great-grandson, and he paid tithes to Melchisedec, Melchisedec must have been greater
than Levi! So was Levi’s priesthood abolished? Verses 11-12.
And with the changing of that priesthood, the covenant and all the laws that went with it were also
changed! Verses 17-19. And why not? The job of the priests was to keep the temple and the people
around it clean (Leviticus 16:30, 2 Chronicles 29:16); so when God moved to the human body, His
priesthood had to focus on keeping the inside of their temple clean, not the outside!
A priesthood that could only make the FLESH clean was useless; God needed a priesthood that could
work on keeping the HEART clean as well! Physical men who could not see the heart were not
qualified to lead this priesthood, so a spiritual high priest, one who could “look on the heart” was
required! (1 Samuel 16:7).
So the priesthood changed – but it wasn’t abolished, for the new temple must be kept clean just as the
old was! (Hebrews 2:14-18). Like everything else in the OC, it simply moved inside! Because if
anyone can show you a way that you’re hurting your neighbor, and help you to overcome that sin, then
they’re helping you to crucify your carnal nature!
If I can help you to kill a small piece of your beast, then, like an ancient priest, I’m helping you offer a
sacrifice for your sins. A sacrifice of your own fleshly nature, helping you to cleanse your heart before
God and receive forgiveness! How is that any different from what the OC priesthood did – except
that they treated the external symptom, and my job is to treat the internal cause?
WHY EVEN HAVE AN OLD COVENANT?
If God didn’t want sacrifices, why set up the system in the first place? Jeremiah 7:22-23. It wasn’t
part of the deal when they left Egypt; it was added later. Why? Galatians 3:19. God told them simply
“obey my voice”. But when they refused to do that, God added the sacrifices and offerings later.
They had shown that they were selfish, and thought only of their flesh. So God set up a system where
sin was expensive, as a deterrent. When a major sin costs a bull (enough meat to feed a family for
months), and a minor sin costs a lamb (enough to feed a family for a week), people are forced to think
twice about sinning.
Imagine that a minor sin cost you your cell phone, and a major sin cost you your car – suddenly sin
becomes important to you, whether you love your neighbor or not! Because God loves men, He set
up a covenant that would minimize the damage selfish people would do to each other!
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At Sinai, who gave Israel the Ten Commandments? Moses? Exodus 20:1-17. Notice that Moses did
not give these laws to Israel! God gave them personally, directly to the people without a mediator!
What is God? John 4:24. So you could say that they received these laws directly from God’s spirit!
What was wrong with this covenant? Hebrews 8:6-10. Notice that the fault was found “with them” –
with the people. What was wrong with the people? Psalms 53:2-4. How did Israel respond to God’s
offer? Exodus 20:18-21. Israel REJECTED direct contact with God, which God had just offered them!
Instead, they requested Moses as a go-between, someone physical to carry God’s words to them,
someone who was not a spirit!
And so in Exodus 21-23 God gave Moses a list of examples, many of which we’ve already referenced,
that explained how these laws were meant to be divided and applied to various situations. This was not
an exhaustive list – you cannot make a comprehensive list of sins. It was just a list of sample
applications of the law to get them started.
Then, since Israel had accepted God’s offer but with a condition (Moses as a mediator), God added a
condition of His own in Exodus 24:2 – if the people didn’t want God speaking to them, God didn’t
want them speaking to Him! (Which is only fair, when you think about it.)
After these negotiations were done, Moses wrote the covenant down and read it to the people, who
agreed to these new terms (Exodus 24:3-8). Only THEN did God give Moses the two tablets of stone!
(Exodus 24:12). Notice that, under these new conditions Israel had demanded, God made it the job of
MOSES to teach the people, God would no longer do it directly!
Now let’s merge a few scriptures: Ezekiel 36:26-27, Hebrews 8:10, and 2 Corinthians 3:3. What
does that tell us? That Israel’s hearts were like stone; stubborn and inflexible. God had to write the
laws on the stones, because they refused to let Him write them on their hearts with the spirit! So the
tablets represented their stony hearts!
The “new heart” and “new spirit” God promised in the Old Testament was a promise of the New
Covenant, to be offered to those with hearts that were soft and not hard as stone! Those who were
humble enough to allow God’s law to change their hearts!
THE VEILED LAWS
Read 2 Corinthians 3:6-8. The old law was about the letter; the exterior; the flesh. And that law
always killed in the end, because a physical covenant cannot give more than physical life – and
physical beings cannot inherit the Kingdom of God! (1 Corinthians 15:50).
The new law was about the meaning, the interior, the spirit. This law makes alive in the end,
because it changes the spirit which can receive eternal life! Was even the old law glorious and
beautiful – if kept? Psalms 19:7-11. Then how much more glorious is the new law of the spirit?
2 Corinthians 3:9-11.
If it was such a glorious law, why couldn’t Israel see it? Verses 12-14. That veil over Moses’s face
prevented Israel from looking beyond the words he wrote and seeing the glorious spirit beyond! Paul
said this veil is STILL there when people read the Old Testament to this day! (Verses 15-16).
The Christian world today sees it as a confusing mess of laws by a cranky, cruel, and capricious God
who loves smiting things. Because they see it through a veil, as Israel did! Christ came to rip away
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that veil (Mark 15:38) and show the glory inside the temple of God where lay the Ark within which
the Ten Commandments were placed!
Israel saw the letter of the commandments, but that’s all – they couldn’t see beyond them and
understand they should not hate their brother, that they should be meek, that they should give to those
who have need, that they should forgive others, that they not have idols in their heart!
This veil prevented them from seeing beyond the letter to the other sides of the law you can now see!
To have that veil taken away, you must turn to the Lord and ask Him “what is the New Covenant?”
And His answer is in Hebrews 8:10-13 and explained in Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28, and again in Luke
10:25-28. These scriptures all say the same basic thing!
YOUR WHOLE HEART
This Bible study course is unique in all the world, because I believe that the Bible is ALL true, and I
merge and harmonize it not just with itself, but with the real world. God designed the human heart.
And we know His plan is to write the law on our hearts. We know those tablets of stone represented
the hearts of Israel. We also know the law has four sides – positive, negative, internal, and external.
How many sides did the tablets have? Exodus 32:15. So these four sides each had writing on them.
And each of those Ten Commandments has four sides! Do, don’t, feel, don’t feel! But now the really
cool part: the human heart – which these tablets plainly represent in symbol – has four chambers!
But it goes deeper than that! Remember that God breathing into Adam gave Adam life, “and he
became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). Remember that Jesus told Nicodemus that the spirit was like
wind, or air (John 3:8). And remember that the life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11).
The right atrium receives oxygen-poor blood from the body; this blood lacks spirit (oxygen/air) and is
therefore fleshly or carnal blood. It is sent to the right ventricle, which pumps the oxygen-poor blood
to the lungs. There the blood is “revived” with a fresh dose of spirit. This oxygen/spirit-rich blood then
returns to the heart, to the left atrium, where it is sent to the left ventricle and from there, out to the
whole body; this “spiritual” blood is then able to give life to every cell in the body!
As with any pump system, the pressure at the outgoing side is highest, and when the contents return to
the pump, at the inlet side, the pressure is much lower. The same is true with the heart. The left and
right atriums both receive blood at low pressure and transfer it to the ventricles, where it is sent out at
high pressure to the lungs or body. So there is a negative pressure on the incoming sides and a positive
pressure on the outgoing sides.
The oxygen-poor (spirit-poor) blood represents the spirit-poor law, the external law – in negative and
positive pressures! The oxygen-rich (spirit-rich) blood represents the spirit-rich or spiritual, internal
law – in negative and positive! Thus the human heart itself is a picture of the external and internal
covenants, with both the positive and negative sides!
Isn’t this amazing?! These laws are literally written there, in the very pattern God followed when He
designed your heart! And He expected us to learn from that pattern (Job 12:7-9, Romans 1:20). Now
you see why it is necessary to serve God with ALL YOUR HEART!
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SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
So again I ask you… was circumcision abolished, or moved inside? Did God quit living in a house
forever… or simply MOVE into a new one? Was the priesthood abolished, or did their responsibility
simply change from the outside to the inside of the “temple”? Most importantly of all, were the
sacrifices abolished… or merely MOVED?
All the laws, the priests, the temple, even the sacrifices survived the change in the covenants! Granted,
in a changed form – we don’t kill animals today, or need to visit a building to find God. But every
concept survived, and not one was abolished!
And why shouldn’t they survive? ALL these things are derived from the Great Commandment – Jesus
plainly said so! It is love for God to clean your house before He comes to live in you – so how can the
temple and its rituals be abolished?
It is love for your fellow man to crucify the selfish deeds of your flesh every day, offering yourself as a
living sacrifice so that you do not harm your neighbor! And if you see someone else harming their
neighbor, what should you do? Leviticus 19:17. If you love your neighbor, you should help him offer
up the sacrifice of his beast! (Hebrews 10:24).
So how can the priesthood or the sacrifices be abolished? They’re both part of the great law! If you
can abolish any one of these things, then you can abolish every good thing in the universe! What
did Jesus say to those who thought He came to abolish the law? Matthew 5:17-18.
Yet SOMETHING was very clearly nailed to the cross – and you’ll learn what that is in the next
lesson.