The Incarnation of the Abstract: New Covenant Theology and the Enfleshment of the Law

This week's Think Tank presentation is a work in progress....

At the center of what we hold to be true about the glory of the New Covenant as it is found in and revealed by Jesus Christ is the Incarnation. Without the Incarnation, Christ's death and resurrection and exaltation have no discernible and lasting impact on humanity. It is the Incarnation that makes Christ's death effective for His People. And it is inseparable from those great questions for which New Covenant Theology has been providing answers. The New Testament's interpretation of the Old, the Obsolescence of the Mosaic Covenant and its Law, the priority of Jesus in our orthodoxy and orthopraxy, the rhythm of promise and fulfillment in redemptive history, the temporarity and eternality of the great covenants of the Scriptures -- all those things that distinguish New Covenant theology -- are grounded in what we believe to be true about the Second Person of the Godhead robing himself in human flesh. The fountainhead of New Covenant Theology springs from an eschatological Christology which asserts the priority of the Promised Messiah who is God become Man. The question that arises from this seminal thought of NCT's is this: what does the Priority of Jesus have to do with New Covenant ethics?

5 implications:

1.      That the Law is a Person means the Law of the New Covenant is not encoded in external imperatives or principles.

2.      The Law Incarnate has placed a Person, the Holy Spirit, within the believer as the law written on the heart. That’s the upshot of 2 Corinthians 3’s understanding of Jeremiah 31. The law written on the heart should not be identified in its typical form, but its Antitypical… a Person, living and breathing life into and through the New Covenant member. The entire law “category”, as it moves from Old Testament to New, lands on a person. The trajectory of the fulfillment of the law does not land on a new set of rules or principles, or even a summarized list of the law of Christ. The Law as a type has its end in Christ. The law as a type fades away into oblivion because all types do… it has become a person

3.      Abrogation of the law and a denial of third use is a given. The law, like any other type of the Old Testament, has fulfilled its prophetic and revelatory role and is gone and done now that the AntiType has filled up its intended meaning to the fullest.

4.      Imperatives have a role to play in the New Covenant, but they cannot eclipse the Indicative, a Person, from whence they come. It’s not a matter of balance, as some have suggested. The New Testament doesn’t not speak of, explicitly or implicitly, a so-called balance between the Indicative and imperative. In fact, seeing the New Testament as having a heavy emphasis on the imperatives says more about the presuppositions of the interpreter than it does about proper hermeneutics.

5.      An Incarnate Law does not mean that commands in the New Covenant are not important. It does not mean that obedience is not important. It simply means the grounds for the discussion have changed. Obedience to commands is the manifestation of the inward obedience-causing law written on the heart.

Taken from "The Incarnation of the Abstract: New Covenant Theology and the Enfleshment of the Law"