The book of Matthew chapter 5:17 records Jesus as saying the following, Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fufill them. Often, when the subject of freedom from the Law arises, people who have an affinity for legalism quote this verse of scripture. They then proceed to quote from the book of Leviticus that we are not to have tattoos; I guess to heap a bunch of condemnation and guilt upon those us who have ink.

Their point is that the Mosaic Covenant is still in tack, because heaven and earth have not passed away, they HAVE, but I don't have time to deal with that right now. Google Dr. Jonathan Welton, he does a masterful job of explaining all of that. The word that the NIV translates as abolish is the Greek word Kat-al-oo'-o. It means to demolish, dissolve, overthrow, throw down. Jesus indeed did not come to overthrow the law, however He did come to fufill it. The word fufill in Greek is Play-ro'-o, it means to make replete, to complete, to end expire. Jesus completed the law, it was nailed to the cross, it has ended! Now I'm no theologian, just your friendly neighborhood local pastor, but I do know if something has ended then it's over.

Romans 13:10 says that Love is the fulfillment of the law. Jesus fulfilled the law, not by obsessive rule keeping, but by exhibiting perfect love. He then gives us the one law of The New Covenant, to love one another as He has loved us. The book of Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 13 in the NIV says this, By calling this covenant "new" he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear. This begs the question, if something is obsolete how can it still be AGING, and SOON to disappear? In his latest book Understanding The Whole Bible, Dr. Jonathan Welton shares that at the time of the writings of the New Testament epistles the old and new covenants coexisted, there was a transition. This cleared up many questions I've always had about certain scriptures.

The Holy Spirit gave me this analogy to help me understand this. The Greek word that the NIV translates as obsolete in Heb 8:13, is the word pal-ah-yo'-o; it means to make (passively, become) worn out, or declare obsolete--decay, make (wax) old. There was a time when VHS tapes and VCRs were all the rage! It gave birth to video stores where you could rent all kinds of movies, and watch them at home. It was the beginning of Home Entertainment. Years later a NEW technology was introduced; DVDs. When you went to the video store, all the VHS tapes didn't suddenly disappear from the shelves, but they would SOON disappear, because they were obsolete. Eventually, the number of DVDs increased on the shelves, while the VHS tapes decreased until they were gone. No more VCRs only DVD players. This type of transition always takes place in the world of technology.

When the New covenant arrived, the Old was already made obsolete, but it took a few decades to disappear from " the shelves". I have an IPhone 6, as soon as it came out the IPhone 5 became obsolete, they're still around but they will soon disappear. In 70 a.d. The Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, the old has passed away, now there is only the New! Many of our churches are preaching a VHS message in a Blue ray disc world. There is only one covenant in The Kingdom of God children, The New Covenant, and we should all thank God for it!