diff --git a/lib/ansible/module_utils/junos.py b/lib/ansible/module_utils/junos.py
index 9cf36da4ce..94f2647de4 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/module_utils/junos.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/module_utils/junos.py
@@ -171,11 +171,17 @@ class Netconf(object):
             return ele
 
     def load_config(self, config, commit=False, replace=False, confirm=None,
-                    comment=None, config_format='text'):
+                    comment=None, config_format='text', overwrite=False):
+
+        if all([replace, overwrite]):
+            self.raise_exc('setting both replace and overwrite to True is invalid')
 
         if replace:
             merge = False
-            overwrite = True
+            overwrite = False
+        elif overwrite:
+            merge = True
+            overwrite = False
         else:
             merge = True
             overwrite = False