A New Law for a New People
BOOK REVIEW

By Stanley O. Williford
Director of Publications

Christians are New Covenant people who are not under Old Covenant Law, Apostle Frederick K.C. Price reminds us in this barely known gem of a book, first published in 1993.

Apparently, the reality of who Christians really are has been lost on some ministries that are trying to fulfill aspects of the Law in the same way Israel was required to do under the Old Covenant.

The way Apostle Price sees it, that’s akin to trying to force a round peg into a square hole. It won’t work.

 “If we have a New Covenant, then that ought to tell us that the Old Covenant must have been superseded by the New Covenant,” Apostle Price reasons. “If you have a New Covenant, that means the Old Covenant is not in operation, and if the Old Covenant is not in operation, neither is the Law of the Old Covenant; so that puts the Ten Commandments out of business!”

Apostle Price points to Jesus’ words in John 13:34-35:

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another

“Love is the law of the New Covenant,” he writes. “Jesus did not say, ‘a new suggestion I give unto you.’”

Further, he points out that when Jesus was dying on the cross and cried, “It is finished.” Whatever was finished certainly could not have been salvation.

“Jesus had not even died yet.  When He made that statement, He was still alive. Men were still in bondage; they were still in sin. No, He was not talking about salvation being finished.  In fact, salvation had not even started yet because it would not start until Jesus went into hell, and it would not be over until He rose from the dead.”

When Jesus cried “It is finished,” says Apostle Price, he was referring to the Abrahamic, or the Old Covenant.  The Law was fulfilled with His death. 

“There is no more veil to keep man from God, and Jesus Christ is the High Priest who is ministering to God on our behalf. We can go directly into the throne-room of God.”

What Jesus had accomplished by His death brought man under the law of love.

All that has been mentioned so far is taken from the Prologue of A New Law for a New People, preparing the reader to flow into Chapter 1, which is entitled, The Church and the Ten Commandments.

Apostle Price continues:

“There are certain denominations which have doctrines based on the Old Testament and on keeping the Law. There are certain Pentecostal and holiness groups that say you have to keep the Ten Commandments.  In fact, they say you’re not saved if you don’t.” 

“In my estimation, the denominational church world has never made a clear distinction between the Abrahamic Covenant and the New Covenant established in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the New Covenant was ushered in, there was a new law of the covenant; there was a new people and there was a new priesthood.

“The Levitical priesthood was over. Jesus Christ is the high priest of the new priesthood.”

In First Peter 2:1-5, the Bible refers to Christians as a “holy priesthood.”

Apostle Price points out that God no longer required “physical or outward forms of sacrifice” as was required under the Old Covenant. But Christians are to make spiritual sacrifices. God wants the holy priesthood to offer up the sacrifice of praise.

In fact, Christians have a two-fold priesthood, he says.

“First of all, we are a holy priesthood. The holy priesthood offers up spiritual sacrifices and praises.  In other words, we extol and tell about the goodness of God. We praise His name and give Him honor and glory in verbal ways. Now the royal priesthood, on the other hand, deals with the things concerning God by His Word.

“The holy priesthood function is our personal, private extolling and exalting of the Lord. We can also do that publicly, but it is primarily for our personal and private worship.”

As concerning the church’s relationship to the Old Covenant, Apostle Price stuns the reader by maintaining that the church “has no relationship -- none at all! No gentile was ever under the Old Covenant, nor could he get under it except in very rare situations.”  Beyond that, he says: “In fact, no Jew or Israelite can get into the Old Covenant today. And yet periodically we see the Jew attempting to follow the dictates of the Law. It is a waste of time!”

As in his three volumes of Race, Religion & Racism, Apostle Price never pulls his punches or shrinks from controversy. He bases his teachings biblically – take them or leave them. In a like manner, A New Law for a New People wipes away old assumptions that Christians harbor that they must keep the Law of the Sabbath by going to church on Saturday or keeping the Ten Commandments.

This book works as an excellent asset for Bible students, future ministers and those confused over what to hang on to biblically and what to let go. Chapter 2 is entitled the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man? Chapter 3 is titled The Work of the Holy Spirit, and Chapter 4 is called The New Creation.

This is a book for the child of God who wants to ascend higher in the things of God. You’ll be hard to find any book that is clearer – and more direct. At $7.00, this book is a steal.

https://store.crenshawchristiancenter.net/p-2313-a-new-law-for-a-new-people.aspx


     
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