Doesn’t the Bible say the law is faulty?

Imagine that you ask a neighborhood boy to cut your entire lawn while you are on vacation. He agrees and you say, “I’ll pay you when I return.” Later, when you drive up to your home, you notice the front lawn looks nicely mowed. But when you step into the backyard, it looks like an overgrown hayfield! When the boy comes over to be paid, you point out the backyard. His guilty look tells you he knew better, but you pay him half the agreed amount and send him away.

Now picture that you are going on vacation a year later. You call up this same boy to mow your lawn. When he comes over, you make another agreement, emphasizing that he is to cut the whole lawn. He agrees, and this time does the complete job. Looking at these two scenarios, would you conclude that the first agreement was faulty? No. The boy didn’t carry out his end of the bargain. The problem wasn’t with your agreement, but with the boy.

God’s original covenant with Israel was good. Even though the word “new” is used regarding a second covenant, it doesn’t mean the first one had a problem. The issue was not with God’s covenant or law; the problem was with the people. They eventually turned to idols and forsook the Lord.

Hebrews says that the people were faulty, not the covenant. Paul explains this when he writes, “What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3, 4). The law is perfect. The problem is with faulty people who choose to walk in the flesh instead of in the Spirit.

Key Bible Texts

For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: (Hebrews 8:8 KJV)