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The religious leaders of the Jews in the time of Jesus knew only the old covenant and its laws, but Jesus came to introduce the law of the new covenant, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Ro.8:2). After this law took over when Jesus had died, shed His blood and ratified the new covenant, the old covenant laws became obsolete (He.8:13). Till this happened, the Jews thought, for example, that the law on tithing was important and the Pharisees tried to tithe even the garden plants (Mt.23:23). But Jesus proclaimed that there were higher laws and values they were neglecting in the process, such as justice, mercy and faithfulness.

One thing that constantly provoked the Jews was the habit that Jesus seemed to have to do miracles on the Sabbath days. From this they even assumed that Jesus could not be from God since He did not keep the Sabbath (Jn.9:16). They could not understand that the laws such as tithing and Sabbath were temporary and only for the Jews meant to teach them to give priority to God in their lives and not meant to be obeyed everywhere and at all times. When we move into the new covenant as children of God and walk under the leading of the Holy Spirit, the law of the Spirit of life takes over, helping us to live on a higher plane than following mere external practices.

We see Jesus getting exasperated and angry when leaders in a synagogue preferred to keep a man under bondage to a withered hand rather than break what they thought to be a law preventing them from doing any work on a Sabbath day (Mk.3:1-5). Jesus went on to demonstrate a higher law of goodness and kindness by healing that man (Mt.12:12).

The Pharisees thought that Jesus was breaking the law of the Sabbath and teaching people to ignore that law, and they started planning to kill Jesus. But what was Jesus actually trying to do?

Jesus had come to fulfil every tiny aspect of the Law (Mt.5:17,18). But not in the way the people of those days expected. Jesus did it by fulfilling the real intention behind every law. In the case of tithing, He taught that all that God had given belonged to God and not just ten percent (Mk.10:21). In the case of the Sabbath law, Jesus demonstrated that we ought to be good and kind always, irrespective of the day of the week.

Can we check ourselves to see how much we have entered into the new covenant? Are we living in such a way that our concern is about keeping many external practices and making rules like the Pharisees about what can and cannot be done and how something needs to be done, etc.? Or are we now concerned about the state of our heart that God looks at, and seeking to become kinder, more patient, more quick to forgive, thinking about helping others rather than seeking things for ourselves, etc.?

"For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons and daughters of God" (Ro.8:14). The more we are being changed to walk in this way, the more mature we are growing to be.

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