Robert J. Wieland
Was it the Lord’s intention that His people should embrace the Old Covenant?
Paul says that the old covenant “genders to bondage” (Gal. 4:24). Question: does the Lord ever bring His trusting people into bondage to evil?
The answer of course is “No!” The Old Covenant was the invention of the people at Mt. Sinai: when they declared, “all that the Lord hath spoken, we will do” (Ex. 19:8). That promise of the people was vain for in only a few days they were bowing down to worship a golden calf (32:2-8).
The Old Covenant has always been the promise of the people; the New Covenant has always been the promise of God.
We have a really beautiful hymn that we often sing in worship services, that is thoroughly Old Covenant in its meaning. Written by a Church of England pastor celebrating his teenage daughters being confirmed in the church, it breathes the Old Covenant idea:
“O Jesus, I have promised, to serve Thee to the end; be Thou forever near me, my Master and my Friend ...”
In total innocence, he led his teenage daughters to make a vain promise to the Lord; some may say, that’s good—maybe their making the promise helped them to remember to keep it. The hymn goes on, “I see the sights that dazzle, the tempting sounds I hear ... ”
But human strength is helpless in the face of worldly temptation. The clergyman meant well; but persuading his daughters to make vain promises to God is not good enough.
Fortunately, we can “convert” this Old Covenant hymn into a beautiful and powerful New Covenant hymn by changing only one word throughout: “O Jesus, I have chosen ... ” “The power of choice God has given to men; it is theirs to exercise ... ” says a wise writer in the book Steps to Christ, p. 47.
Oh, how the Holy Spirit will bless as you lead your children into the New Covenant!
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