5-24-16
“But now has He (Jesus) obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises, for if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, He said, behold the days come, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them on their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. In that He said, a new covenant, He has made the first old. Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away.” Hebrews 8:6-13
Every covenant God has made with man was founded on commandment. The Adamic covenant was founded on the commandment not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen.2:16-17). As long as Adam “kept covenant” with God he lived in the paradise of God. When the commandment was no longer kept, Adam lost the privilege of living in the Garden of Eden (Gen.3:17,23). Abraham had a commandment to go out into the desert to seek a city built by God (Heb.11:8-10). Abraham’s covenant contained a promise to live in that city. Abraham did not find the city in his lifetime but faithfully kept the commandment and today lives in that city. The old covenant, or Jewish covenant, made with the children of Israel (Duet.), was founded on the Ten Commandments and addendums. The promise to the children of Israel if they kept the commandments of their covenant was to have God care for them as children (Duet.28). God promised to feed, cloth, and care for His children. He would be the friend of those who were friendly toward His children and the enemy of those who treated His children badly. He would prosper His children and keep them safe.
The new covenant is no different than every other covenant God has made with mankind. It contains commandments and promises. It is founded on its commandments and those who keep the commandments enjoy the promises. Since the new covenant began at Jesus’ resurrection (Luke 22:20,Heb.8:6), its commandments are to be found after the resurrection. It is easy, starting with this knowledge, to then identify the commandments of the new covenant. In Acts 1:4, Jesus stands before His disciples, having received all power in heaven and earth (Matt.28:19), and commands them, using the strongest verbiage available to Him in the Greek language, to not depart Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father, “For not many days hence you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” The first commandment of the new covenant is to wait for the baptism with the Spirit. The second commandment is found in Acts 1:8. Jesus explains that they will receive power to witness of Him after the Holy Spirit comes upon them and they are to take the power to witness of Jesus to all the world and disciple the converts. The second commandment is to take the power to witness into the world and disciple the converts. On these two commandments hang all of the new covenant (Matt.22:40).
Now, doubtless someone will say: “These commandments bear no resemblance to the commandments of the old covenant at all.” To which I would say, “Exactly the point!” It should be clear that the commandments of each previous covenant have been unique to that covenant. What is not understood by most Christians is that we must leave the old covenant behind us in order to move into the new covenant. The word, “new,” means, “not having existed before.” That the new covenant has new commandments and a new focus should not seem strange to us. It is the very nature of new.
When Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments,” He was differentiating His commandments from all those commandments given before. He was delineating commandments that would be unique to Him. Jesus knew ahead of time the confusion mankind would have with the old covenant commandments and was trying to point out that His commandments would be different.
Based on these truths, it should be obvious that we find ourselves in a unique situation. It is clear the apostles struggled with the concept of the new covenant. They were raised in the culture of the Jewish old covenant and found themselves in opposition with the leaders of their culture, and had peer pressure brought against them to conform to Jewish history. When Peter was asked to go to Cornelius house he was still following the law (Acts10:10-15) and Paul rebuked him openly when he came to Galatia because of hypocrisy (Gal.2:11-14). As time progressed the outcry against living by the old covenant law became louder with each book of the New Testament but the movement back toward the law picked up pace also until the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church, the two organized bodies of Christianity, was founded on the old covenant law and ignored the new covenant altogether. The whole of the New Testament was interpreted to reflect this shift in thinking and this situation has continued to this day.
To those paying attention it might be clear that the Holy Spirit has tried repeatedly to bring the Church back to its original foundation but each time the Church has settled back to its familiar foundation. The last 500 years has seen multiple new denominations founded on new revelations and revivals the Holy Spirit has started. Ask yourself this question, “Why would the Holy Spirit start a new denomination over and over again if He were not trying to change some foundational error?
The scripture has been interpreted in the light of the death of Jesus being the fulfillment of the old covenant. That which was not perfect was made to be perfect by adding His death. Thus the Church is founded on the Ten Commandments and the blood of Jesus while the New Testament plainly states we must leave the old covenant behind in order to enter into the new covenant and the blood of Jesus ratified the new covenant. The four gospels have been scoured for any commandments that could even remotely be Jesus’ commandments, all the while the blatantly obvious commandments are ignored and here we are two thousand years past the founding of the new covenant and very few have actually entered it. One might wonder if the new covenant has been mothballed for lack of use. Who keeps the commandments of the new covenant? What denominational or independent church teaches obedience to the new covenant?
I say it is time to pull the sheets off of the new covenant, dust it off, and put it back in service. I am betting that there are a few Christians who have realized there is a discrepancy between what the churches teach and reality; they have realized they aren’t living the promises of the new covenant and are beginning to wonder why? If Jesus took our infirmities and bore away our diseases, why do most Christians suffer with some form of both? If the Bible is truth, it must be truth in reality. If we, Christians, aren’t receiving the promises of the scripture then there is a problem with what we are believing.
Moreover, Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against His Church (Matt.16:18) but we have experienced the gates of hell running rough shod over the Church. ISIS is beheading Christians across the Middle East and the Church overall is in decline. There is no power to witness of the resurrection of Christ and the Church of today is not experiencing the Lord’s protection. There is only one plausible answer; what we call “the Church” is not the true Church at all. If who we call “Christians” were truly Christians, they would be living under the protection of the Lord, in the health and well being of the Lord. Martyrs are Christians living outside the covenants of God.
Consider the Nation of Israel for a minute. As long as they kept the old covenant they prospered, enjoyed health and well being, and protection from their enemies. However, as they quit keeping covenant, the benefits of the covenant waned until they were removed altogether and the children of Israel found themselves living outside the covenant. This living outside the covenant manifested itself with poverty, lack, and being overrun by enemies. The remedy was simple and fast; get back into covenant with God!
Today and for the last two thousand years the path back for the Church has been obscured by interpretation of God’s Word. It is time to change that. In Habbakuk 2:2, the Lord instructed His servant to “Write the vision down and make it plain that he may run that reads it.” This is my purpose, to write out the new covenant as simply as possible so that anyone who wants to can keep it and live in its blessings. The world is in desperate need of some who can illustrate the new covenant. Just consider its purpose.
The story of God’s dealings with mankind has been long but from the beginning it is clear that God’s number one purpose is to show forth His kindness. From the story of Adam in the Garden of Eden to the birth of the Christ Child the theme has been the same. God’s wants the world of mankind to know and appreciate His love for them (Heb.8:10-12). In the charter of the old covenant was a provision for Gentiles to become Jews. The old covenant itself was made only with the Jewish Nation but the covenant was set up to make the nations of the world jealous of the Jews in the hopes that the entire world would join the Jewish nation and come under God’s covenant. The scriptures record God’s laments over the straying of the nation of Israel from their covenant with God and Jesus says, “How often I would have gathered you under my wings as a hen gathers her chicks but you would not” (Matt.23:37). The new covenant is God’s latest effort to save the world of mankind.
Jesus came to earth with three main purposes. He came to reveal God’s love and kindness, He came to fulfill the old covenant, and He came to establish a new covenant. He revealed God’s kindness by His compassion for everyday folks. Then, through His honoring and respecting of His Father’s commandments, He perfectly kept the law as a Jew and as a man, then died under its penalties, thus, fulfilling the old covenant law for all mankind. Since the old covenant law was fulfilled, the Father God rolled it up and put it away (Heb.8:13). Its authority was ended by Jesus’ death. After Jesus’ death He descended into hell and preached the new covenant to those who were held in a section called “Abraham’s Bosom.” This is where those who kept the old covenant law were kept after death because the old covenant held no provision of eternal life (Eph.4:8). The new covenant was actually drafted before the old covenant.
In Hebrews 8:5 it is recorded that Moses was commanded to construct the old covenant tabernacle according to “the pattern showed to you in the mount.” The tabernacle is a visual expression of the covenant. So in the mind and heart of God the new covenant was God’s best and greatest hope but He couldn’t get there in one step. He had to have a stepped approach to His goal. This is because of God’s righteousness. God honors His creation. God could just take all of humanity to heaven with Him but to do so would be to dishonor the free will God gave mankind in the beginning. Thus God is left with finding a way to illustrate His love and kindness to mankind so that they then can make an intelligent decision about Him (Heb.8:11). This is the purpose of the new covenant.
After the old covenant has been stripped of its authority it becomes an empty shell of commandments and promises. Jesus used this structure as a jumping off point for the new covenant. The promise of the new covenant is the life of God. Consider John 10:10, “I have come that they might have life and life more abundantly.” The word life is the word, “zoe,” in the Greek language and Jesus went on to use the same word concerning the life the Father has within Him. In other words, Jesus came that we might experience the God quality of life but before that could happen, sin had to be dealt with permanently. This is accomplished by the old covenant.
The fact that Jesus perfectly kept the law as a Jew but then died under its penalties for sinning against those same laws as a man is what canceled out the authority of the old covenant. It is our faith that makes us accepted into the covenant made with the Jews but then delivered from its authority to define sin in our lives. By accepting the old covenant’s definition of sin as our own then accepting Jesus’ death for sin as payment in full of our sin, we are clothed with the righteousness Jesus earned by His perfect keeping of the law. We are made perfect in God’s sight (Heb.8:12). Sin, or, wrong doing, is forever washed away. Sin becomes a non-issue to God. Now, that is not to say that we will not still commit unrighteous acts but it is to say that because of the superiority of the life of God poured out at Calvary, unrighteous acts do not measure at all on the scale. This is the first faith. According to Romans 10:10, we must believe in our heart unto righteousness before we can be saved.
Jesus uses the remaining structure of the old covenant to impart His righteousness to mankind in preparation for the new covenant. Since Jesus died as a man, after having perfectly kept the old covenant law, all of mankind can be saved from their sins through faith in the man Christ Jesus. There is never a day however, that this faith is not exercised. Faith is forever present tense; there is no past tense faith. If you repent of wrongdoing defined by the old covenant law then you awaken its authority and the old covenant becomes your master, holding you accountable to all of its laws and penalties. We must keep our faith in Jesus’ death under the authority of the law as payment for whatever indiscretions we perceive we commit. We should never repent and seek forgiveness of indiscretions of old covenant law. We should hold to the truth that Jesus has paid for our sins by His death on the cross (Rom.6:11). Now, this is just the first part of the path to salvation and to try to live in this part alone is lunacy and not possible as we will see later on.
After Jesus has accomplished this part, He is now free to institute the new covenant but His disciples, the founding members of His Church, the men He has chosen to take the good news of the new covenant to the world, are still wondering around in shock and disbelief. They are in no frame of mind to grab a hold of a totally new truth and set of instructions to carry forward to the masses. Jesus spends thirty nine days convincing them that He is the same man whose death they witnessed on the cross. The vision of His horribly disfigured body and agony of death is still very much etched into their minds and hearts. On the last day, the day of His ascension, He explains the new covenant to them.
Now, as we have previously stated, the New Testament has been interpreted based upon Jesus’ death on the cross being the end of all things and it was the end of the old covenant but it was also the beginning of the new covenant. In an effort to make the whole of the New Testament fit within the template of Jesus’ death being the completion of God’s work on earth, certain words had to be changed, emphasis had to be changed, and passages had to be interpreted to mean something different entirely. In order to grasp the new covenant you are going to have to forget everything you think you know about the New Testament and start with fresh eyes.
To begin; the laws governing the covenant of each previous covenant were enumerated at the beginning of the covenant. Adam woke up in the Garden of Eden and was handed the commandment. Abraham also received His commandment at the beginning of the covenant and the Jews received the commandments of the law at the beginning. In that Jesus could not ratify the new covenant until after His blood was shed indicates the commandments which make up the foundation of the new covenant occur after Jesus’ resurrection. As stated before, the disciples were in shock and were in no condition to receive anything from Jesus let alone a dramatic shift in direction. Jesus had to wait till the last possible moment to convey the new covenant to His disciples. On the last day, the day of His ascension, He stood before them and instructed them that all power in heaven and earth had been granted to Him. Paul confirms this in Philippians 2:9. He then issues the commandment to wait in Jerusalem for the baptism with the Spirit. The disciples ask Him a question, which He answers; then continues with the commandment to carry the power to witness into all the world, starting where you are, and to disciple the converts.
Let us explore these two commandments. The baptism with the Spirit has been interpreted until there is no similarity between what God’s Word says and what the Church teaches. First of all, in most churches that embrace the idea of a separate baptism the word “with” has been changed to the word “in.” There is no such experience as a baptism in the Spirit. We are baptized with the Spirit. The best illustration is a piece of clothing. The word, “baptize,” means, “to saturate.” Clothes are baptized in the course of washing because they are wet through; they are saturated. However, a piece of clothing left out on a clothes line to dry is also saturated in a rain shower or storm.
In the case of Christians, the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts to dwell when we accept Jesus’ death on the cross for sin in anticipation of our yielding to the Holy Spirit in baptism. This is called the new birth or being born again according to John 3:1-21 and John 4:5-24. In John 4:10, Jesus offers the woman “Living Water,” then in verse 14 promises to be a well of water springing up to everlasting life. Everlasting life was not offered by the old covenant so Jesus is leaving out the new covenant in His explanation but it is faith in Jesus’ perfect keeping of the law that gives us this new birth. We cannot obtain the blessings of the new covenant until we are born again.
In Acts 2:4, the baptism with the Spirit is described thusly: “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” So the Holy Spirit, who was in them because of the acceptance of Jesus’ death on the cross as payment for their sin, rose up within them and flowed out of them over their tongue, thus, they were baptized, or saturated, with the Holy Spirit. As in the illustration of the piece of clothing on a clothes line, the apostles were saturated with the Holy Spirit when they were thoroughly wet inside and outside. This takes time, thus the commandment is to wait for the baptism with the Spirit. The word, “wait,” Jesus used indicates extreme behavior. It is not a matter of simply hanging out till you are saturated; it is a matter of acting as if your eternal salvation is dependent on your waiting.
Now, Jesus’ admonition to those who love Him is to keep His commandments (Jn.14:15). The word, “keep,” means, “to hold onto.” Thus a clock which keeps time holds onto the correct time each minute of the day. Paul said, “Pray without ceasing,” 1Thess.5:17. To keep covenant with God means to obey the commandments daily. Paul instructed the Philippians to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil.2:12) because each man has to decide when He has kept the commandment for himself. Jesus’ words recorded in John 7:37-39 fit perfectly within the definition of the baptism with the Spirit. “If any man thirst, let Him come unto me and drink. He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of His belly will flow rivers of Living Water.” (But this spoke He of the Spirit which was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.)” So the Living Water of John 4:10 is the Holy Spirit, serving in His capacity of being the representation of Jesus (Jn.16:13-14). The old covenant had no provision of the Holy Spirit so the well of water that springs up given at the new birth is in anticipation of the new covenant being entered. Remember, Jesus’ death on the cross fulfilled the old covenant. One does not enter the new covenant until they keep its commandments. The foundation of the new covenant is the commandments of the Lord, not the commandments of the Saviour.
There is significance to the words of the scripture. In John 7:38, Jesus says, “He that believes on me,” not, “in me.” The significance in the words is lost on most people. In John 3:16, the word is in, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Also, later translations have translated the word “on,” “in” even though the two words have different meanings. The truth is many of the promises of the book of John refer to the belief on Jesus as opposed to belief in Jesus. In John 6:29, Jesus informs us the work of God is to believe on the Son. When Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but he that does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt.7:21), what do you reckon the will of the Father is? Could it be to believe on Jesus? And in John14, after identifying the miracles and healings he had been performing as the work of God, Jesus says, "Verily, verily I say to you, He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father" (Jn.14:12). Are you beginning to see a pattern?
The word, “in,” means, “to be enclosed by.” When we believe in Jesus’ death, we are baptized into Jesus’ death and are then raised with Him in newness of life (Rom.6:3). The old covenant is now behind us and we are clothed with Jesus’ righteousness; however, the new covenant is before us. The word, “on,” means, “a place arrived.” To believe on Jesus is to believe on His Lordship, the place arrived by belief in the Saviour (Rom.10:10). You see, it was after Jesus’ death on the cross that the Father God highly exalted Jesus, giving Him a name that is above every other name, Phil. 2:6-9. You cannot believe on the Lord until you have believed in the Saviour, but having believed in the Saviour it is imperative you believe on the Lord for salvation (Rom.10:10). Here is where the commandments of Jesus become the key to salvation. If Jesus is truly Lord, keeping His commandments is imperative to enforce His Lordship; if Jesus is not Lord, then the commandments are superfluous.
To live in the new covenant is to keep the commandments issued by the Lord of the new covenant. Since Jesus did not become Lord until His resurrection, as this is when He was highly exalted, the Lord’s commandment are to be found after the resurrection. The only commandments issued by the Lord are found in Acts 1:4 and Acts 1:8. Thus, these are the commandments of the new covenant and explain why there are very few miracles today. No one is keeping the new covenant. Since no one has kept it for about 1,900 years, it is questionable whether or not it is even operational to be kept. Perhaps God shut it down sometime in the past when it became apparent the Church was determined not to keep it. I am determined however, to avail myself of the new covenant if it is at all possible it can be reactivated by one who places their faith, hope, and trust in its ability to save. I am hoping to convince others to follow in my footsteps. I am placing my hope in the Lord’s righteousness.
Jesus told us all we need to know about the new covenant in Acts 1:4 and Acts 1:8. In Acts 1:8 we are told we will receive power to witness of Jesus when the Holy Spirit comes upon us. The Holy Spirit comes upon us when we release Him out of our bellies. We saturate ourselves with the Holy Spirit by an act of our will submitting to the will of the Father (Rom.6:13), who gave us the baptism with the Spirit (Acts1:4). We are told the Holy Spirit is Living Water and that He is on the earth to represent Jesus (Jn.16:13-14), who has now become the most powerful being in the universe. If the Holy Spirit is going to take of the things of the greatest being of all time and show them unto us, will that not make us powerful beings as well. If Living Water is flowing out of our bellies consistently on a daily basis, is that not going to make us vessels of God’s life? If we are saturated with Jesus, through the person of the Holy Spirit, are we not going to duplicate the works of Jesus and do greater works because of Jesus’ exaltation? To witness of Jesus, the exalted Lord of the heavens, are we not going to need the power of God resident within us? Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life and life more abundantly, (Jn.10:10). It is apparent Jesus came to establish the new covenant. He came that the world might witness the kindness of God for themselves. It is regrettable that the new covenant was shunned by the Church.
Paul tells us plainly in Galatians 4:4-6, “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons, and because you are sons, God has sent His Spirit into your hearts crying, Abba, Father.” Now, I must be careful to point out that according to this verse, we cannot become a son of God until after we have been redeemed from the law. Again, we must realize that because Jesus was both a Jew and a man, His death under penalty of the laws demands could be applied to all men, not just the Jews. Likewise, it is because of Jesus’ manhood that all men can place themselves under the jurisdiction of the law and repent of sin defined by the law but we cannot be bought back from the law until we have inserted ourselves in the law. (The word, “redeem,” means, “to buy back.”) As long as you are trying to keep some facsimile of the old covenant you cannot become a son. The point is; we become sons of God by the new covenant and that “S” should be capitalized. This is not a symbolic gesture; it is not a hollow adoption, we actually become Sons of God.
You see, when Jesus died on that cross He died twice. His body was that of a man and His body died when the blood drained out. We are redeemed from the law by the death of the man Christ Jesus and inherit His righteousness from His estate, but Jesus was also God. The blood that ran through His veins was the blood of God. Mary, a human woman, was His Mother but God was His Father. The human being that was Jesus was the Son of God; blood comes from the father. When Jesus’ blood ran out of the many wounds inflicted on Him, Jesus, the Son of God, died on that cross. Why do you think the earth shook and the sun refused to shine? That was not just the death of another human being on the cross even though Jesus had laid aside His Godhood according to Philippians 2:6-8; that was the death of God and because God died on the cross as our substitution, the estate of the Son of God is available to be inherited by those who keep the commandments set up by the Son of God for the inheriting of His estate.
We must understand that although Jesus died as the Son of God, He was not raised from the dead as the Son of God. So the estate of the Son of God is available to be inherited. As I stated before, the new covenant tabernacle was set up long before the old covenant tabernacle was built. Moses was shown the new covenant tabernacle as a pattern for the building of the old covenant tabernacle (Heb.8:5). Since the tabernacle is a picture of the covenant, Jesus had His will in place long before He died on the cross but His will could not go into effect until His death. At His death, His will came into force, but in order to inherit from His estate, we have to line up with the covenants of His will. He expressed those covenants soon after His death. Again, Jesus used His blood, the blood of God, to sign the will (Heb.9:12-24). “Jesus was made the surety of a better testament” (will), Heb,7:22. “But now has He obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.” Hebrews 8:6-7.
Ephesians 1:11 states: “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the council of His own will.” Consider Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places.” We, new covenant keepers, inherit the estate of the Son of God. Those who keep the old covenant or some facsimile of it, do not. It should be obvious that Paul preached the new covenant but because of the interpretation of the scriptures, it is not. Paul’s salute to the Philippians in 4:19, “But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus,” is new covenant promise. Likewise with Ephesians 3:20, “Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” The riches of His glory is the estate of Christ; the power that works in us is the saturation of the Holy Spirit, the Living Water pouring out of our bellies like rivers daily. If there is no daily baptism there is no power working in us and He is not able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond anything we think or ask.
Jesus is in the unique position of mediating His own will but I might point out that Jesus is not mediating the promises of the old covenant. Therefore, because of the suffering Jesus endured to enact this will, those who receive of His inheritance will be those who are strict upon themselves in the keeping of the covenants of the will. In other words, Paul states that we cannot become sons of God until after we are redeemed from the law. The word, “redeemed,” means, “to buy back.” If there are any vestiges of the old covenant law in our beliefs, any reliance on the law at all, any part of it, we cannot become sons. Likewise, if our keeping of the new covenant commandments are half hearted; if we have a nonchalant, laid back attitude, we will not receive of our inheritance. It is Jesus who is mediating His will, the same Jesus who hung upon that cross and died for us; the same Jesus who has been exalted to Lord of All, which is why Paul said, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil.2:12). As I stated before, words have meanings and the meaning of the word, “wait,” found in Jesus’ commandment to wait to be saturated with the Holy Spirit means, “with extreme passion.” It is also important to remember there are two commandments.
The second commandment of Jesus assures that the knowledge of the new covenant is passed on. We must disciple those converted under the preaching of the new covenant and we must start where we are. This means the first convert must be taught the importance of performing the actions of the new covenant. This has been the major failing of the New Testament Christians. The gift of tongues was designed to be a stumbling block to the flesh and soul of man (Rom.9:33). If the new covenant is not taught, along the way someone will be offended by the gift of tongues and will thrust it aside but continue in the blessings of the new covenant for a while. Once we are thoroughly saturated by the Holy Spirit, that saturation does not go away overnight; it wanes over time. Without proper teaching, the relationship between keeping the covenant and living in its blessings is not readably visible. Thus, some have entered into the covenant by their dogged determination but failed to realize the connection between their actions and the blessings they received, and in their enjoyment of the blessings let their behavior slide and lost the blessings. Once the new covenant has been lost, in ignorance, the next choice is to return to the old covenant, which is what happened in the first to second century.
We do well also to remember what the purpose of the new covenant is. “That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus,” Ephesians 2:7. The purpose of the new covenant is to show forth the kindness of God. It is why Jesus has made His entire estate available to those who love Him. It is the Lord’s good pleasure to bless us, exceedingly, abundantly, beyond anything we can ask or think. When Jesus said, “He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father (Jn.14:12), this is what He was talking about. He is talking about power to witness of His resurrection, the power to witness of the goodness of God (Acts 1:8). If Jesus has been raised from the dead and made to be the greatest being in the universe and is kind and compassionate, why do we not see more of His acts of kindness and compassion? Because it is up to us to keep the commandments and walk in the blessings.
Now, earlier I promised to explain why Christians cannot access the promised blessings of the old covenant. At the very end of Jesus’ life He instituted the most sacred of sacraments the Church observes; the Lord’s Supper. To my knowledge, every single body of believers observes this ritual. The problem is; the Lord’s Supper is the commemoration of the new covenant. To observe the Lord’s Supper while dishonoring the new covenant through the disobedience of its commandments is to drink damnation to yourself as Paul pointed out in 1Corinthians 11:27-32. When Jesus said, “This cup is the new testament in my blood,” the word “testament” can also be understood “will.” Each new will supersedes the old. Because Jesus was fully man and carefully kept the old covenant law, which was the old will of God, then died under the penalties of disobedience of the old will of God, He canceled out the old will of God. Gentiles who accept the law as God’s will, then accept Jesus’ payment for transgressions under that will, are delivered from the old will of God completely. The old will of God no longer has any authority to define sin in their lives. However, Jesus did not only perfectly fulfill the old will of God through His body; He also drafted a new will of God, signing it with His own blood. This new will of God defines righteousness for those who accept Jesus’ payment for sin under the old covenant. We must keep the commandments of the new will of God in order to obtain the blessings prescribed by the new will. We cannot honor the new will of God while ignoring it. Moreover, to sin against the new covenant carries a greater penalty than to sin against the old covenant. To sin against the old covenant was to sin against the blood of innocent animals but to sin against the new covenant is to sin against the blood of God.
We are delivered from the old will of God through Jesus’ broken body; broken for our deliverance from the old will of God and the penalties of its disobedience but, by so doing we now stand before the new will of God and our choice is to honor it or dishonor it. We are healed by the broken body of Jesus because we are delivered from the penalties of disobedience of the old will of God, but it is by obedience to the new will of God that we walk in divine health.
The commandment to love one another, issued by Jesus, the Saviour, in John 13:34 was an interim commandment. Old covenant saints had to be commanded to love one another. It was not in their nature to do so. However, those who have been transformed into sons of God do not need a commandment to love one another. It is their nature to love. The new covenant has no commandment to love because God does not need a commandment and this adoption of son is not a hollow adoption. Jesus’ blood was the blood of God; His body was the body of man. This is why He does not mention the new covenant in conjunction with His broken body. The Son of God died on the cross but the Son of God was not raised from the dead, which leaves the estate of the Son of God to be inherited.
You might consider this is not the supper of the Saviour or the supper of the Christ. It is the Supper of the Lord; it is the observance of the death of Jesus, both his manhood and His divinity. We are not worthy to observe the Lord’s Supper when we are disobeying the Lord’s commandments. Again, Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” We are not under any obligation to keep Jesus’ commandments. We have and are free to exercise free will but if we choose to partake we should examine ourselves to see if we are honoring the new covenant. The new covenant was established by the body and blood of the Saviour but the Saviour was not raised from the dead; the Lord was. If you are not keeping the new covenant, please do not drink damnation to yourself. Still, to disobey a commandment is sin. If we accept Jesus’ death for sin, are clothed with His righteousness, but go on to disobey the commandments of the Lord, we sin against the new covenant and the blessing of the well of Living Water springing up in our hearts becomes a curse to us.
Now, God never gives up on us. He just keeps on loving us and trying every way He can to bless us in the hope that we might see the error of our ways and repent before we pass on from this life. All of this sickness and disease in the body of Christ is not God’s will. It is a result of Christians dishonoring the Lord.
Does God ever get sick? Experience lack or want? The promises of the new covenant far out strip the promises of the old covenant. Old covenant saints were promised healing but new covenant saints walk in the life of God. Sickness and disease are not even on the horizon. The new covenant is the covenant that should be in force in this current age but the Church has chosen the old covenant to live by. Jesus gave the authority over heaven to man. In Matthew 16:18-19, Jesus said, I will give the keys to the kingdom of heaven to my Church and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. So it is the Church that has bound the new covenant in heaven by their disobedience on earth but I am part of that Church and am trying with everything within me to loose the new covenant on earth by my obedience and if I had some help: one can put a thousand to flight, two can put ten thousand to flight, Duet.32:30.
In order to live in the new covenant blessings; be baptized into the body of Christ, we must keep the commandments of the new covenant. This means we must attempt to saturate ourselves with the Holy Spirit daily and we must preach the good news of the kingdom to all who will listen. It is not enough to saturate yourself with the Living Water; it is imperative that you preach the good news and disciple the converts that the whole world can know the kindness of God, generation to generation.
Sin, in the age of the new covenant, is defined by the new covenant commandments. Old covenant commandments no longer have authority to define sin because of the blood of Jesus in the new covenant tabernacle. God cannot have two covenants in force simultaneously which are contradictory. Moreover, the new covenant was always the greater covenant and preceded the old covenant.
The New Testament is founded on the new covenant. To interpret the New Testament based upon old covenant theology is wrong interpretation. You should start with the truth that new covenant believers are commanded by the Lord Christ Jesus to allow the Living Water to pour out of their bellies daily. This brings the New Testament into proper focus.