Online Lecture by Dr. Richard Averbeck 

Topic:  Old Testament Law for New Covenant

Life in Christ

(从旧约律法到在基督里的新约生命 )

Date: January 23, 2026 (Friday).

Time: 5-7 pm. (PST)

Platform: Zoom

Speaker: Dr. Richard Averbeck

• Emeritus Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages,
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

• Dr. Richard Averbeck (PhD, Annenberg Research Institute, Dropsie College

• Dr. Aberbeck taught in the Old Testament and Ministry departments at Dallas

Theological Seminary and Grace Theological Seminary for 14 years.

• He has served at Trinity since 1994, and served as the Director of the Doctoral

Program in the Department of Theology for 10 years,

• Areas of expertise include the Pentateuch, Ancient Near Eastern History and Languages, Old

Testament Criticism and Hebrew, and Biblical Counseling.

• His most recent book: Richard E. Averbeck, The Old Testament Law for the Life of the Church:

Reading the Torah in the Light of Christ (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2022).

Abstract:

The subject of how the OT law comes into the NT and the church was the subject of the first church council in Acts 15, and has continued to be a troubling topic up to the present day. This lecture will focus on three major theses that help to clarify the discussion: (1) The Goodness of the Law. The Law was good in the OT, it was still good in the NT (Rom 7:12, 14), and continues to be good for us in the church today. (2) The Weakness of the Law. The Law has always been weak in that no law, not even God’s law, can change a human heart (Rom 7:14; 8:3). This requires the work of the Holy Spirit in the human spirit (Rom 8:2-16). (3) The Law is a Unified Whole. Neither the OT nor the NT divides the law into categories like the moral, civil and ceremonial law, and neither should we. All different parts of the law come into the NT for the Christian life in the sense that they are “written on the heart” (Jer 31:33). Although there are particular regulations that do not apply to us because we live under the New Covenant, not the Old Covenant, the question is not so much whether this or that law applies to the Christian, but how it applies in the transformation of a person’s life into Christlikeness.

Email: donald.cac@errchina.com for zoom link and lecture handout.