Fanning the Flames

Covenant Contrasts Part 13

In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God came and went.  And His coming and going was also only directed at certain individuals.  His primary role was to anoint various prophets with a message for God’s people.  The historical books of the Old Testament record many instances of God’s Spirit coming and going.

Compare this to the movement of God’s Spirit in the new covenant.  In the upper room, just prior to His death, Jesus said, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper [Gk. Paracletos, one called alongside to help], that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be IN you.” (John 14:16-17).

Look at all the promise packed into these two verses.  First, the Holy Spirit will be sent to us by the Father in answer to Jesus’ prayer.  Second, the Spirit will be “another” [Gr. allos, another of the same sort; not heteros, different] meaning that He will be a “Helper” in the same way that Jesus has been to the disciples.  Third, He will be with us forever.  Fourth, He will be known as the Spirit of truth.  Jesus referred to Himself as “the truth” (John 14:6).  The Spirit, as Jesus’ equal, will also be known as true.  Fifth, the world will not be able to receive God’s Spirit, because the world does not know or recognize Him.  Sixth, the Spirit abides with the disciples at that time through the physical presence of Jesus.

Last, and I think the most radical idea of them all, the “Spirit will be IN you.”  Will be IN you.  Will be IN us.  Will be IN you and me.  At the time of Jesus’ words, God’s Spirit dwelt with the disciples through the presence of Jesus, the God-man.  But a future time is coming, after Jesus has physically departed, when the Spirit will literally live IN the disciples.  And by our faith in Christ and His work on the cross to bring us into His family, the Spirit will live IN us as well.

And how long will the “IN YOU” last?  Forever.  That is the contrast that I want to emphasize here.  Under the old covenant, God’s Spirit came and went and anointed various people as various times.  Under the new covenant, God’s Spirit will indwell EVERY believer FOREVER!

Covenant Contrasts Part 12

In the Old Testament, God dwelled in “holy” places.  And these holy places were very specific geographic locations.  God appeared to Moses in a burning bush where He told Moses, “You are standing on holy ground” (Exodus 3:5).  During the exodus from Egypt, God instructed the Israelites to “construct a sanctuary [tabernacle] for Me, that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8).

Later, after Israel possessed the promised land, King Solomon built a temple dedicated to the Lord.  Here God dwelled in the Holy of Holies inside the Holy Temple in the Holy City of Jerusalem in what became known as the Holy Land.  Do you see the pattern?  God dwelled AMONG His people in holy places.

Under the new covenant, God still dwells in holy places.  And that holy place today is in you and me!  “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (John 14:20).  God lives in you!

How do we qualify as a holy place?  God Himself has qualified us through the death of Jesus.  “Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints … having reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach” (Colossians 1:12, 22).

Or said another way, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves” (2 Corinthians 4:7).  We have this treasure, Jesus, living inside our earth-suit.  We are not deity.  But we contain the Deity!  There is no arrogance in that understanding, only gratitude.

In contrast to the old covenant, God no longer dwells just AMONG His people.  He now lives IN His people!

Covenant Contrasts Part 11

The apostle Paul described the old covenant as “the ministry of condemnation” (II Corinthians 3:9).  Why would he say that?  He might be writing from his own experience with the Law.

In Romans 7:14-25, Paul shares the weight of condemnation that plagued him in his pre-conversion attempt to obey the Law.  He famously laid out the contradiction of wanting to obey the Law but not having the power to do you.  The mind was willing.  The flesh was powerless.  He closes the passage with this desperate question, “Who can set me free from this contradiction churning inside?” (Romans 7:24 paraphrase).

Paul is quick to jump right to the new covenant answer.  “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! [because prior to my conversion and living under the old covenant] on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.  [But under the new covenant] there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 7:25-8:1).

Under the new covenant, under the new arrangement with God, there is NO condemnation for those who believe the gospel.  The “ministry of condemnation” is over because the old covenant is over.

So what is our focus now as “ministers of a new covenant”? (II Corinthians 3:6).  We are engaged in a “ministry of reconciliation.”  “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:18-20).

How many times is some variation of the word “reconcile” used in just these three verses?  The message we preach is, “Come home to Jesus.  Be reconciled to God.  Be at peace with God through the blood of Jesus (Romans 5:1).

Condemnation was the ministry of the obsolete old covenant.  Reconciliation is the ministry of the new!

Covenant Contrasts Part 10

Jesus did not come to make bad people good.  He came to make dead people alive.  Jesus came to bring us life, life eternal and abundant.  Life is believing the gospel message of Jesus Christ.  Life is knowing God.  Death is not knowing Jesus.  Death is separation.  Death is the state we were born in to.  And it is the state of the lost; both now and in the future.  Death was also the hallmark of the old covenant.  Paul called the old covenant “a ministry of death” (II Corinthians 3:7).  The new covenant is a ministry of life.

The image and experience of death is all over the old covenant.  From Korah’s rebellion against Moses when the ground opened up and swallowed up the bad guys and all their household (Numbers 16:32) to the discovery by Moses of the golden calf and he ordered 3000 idolators among the Israelites to be killed (Exodus 32:28) to stonings for breaking the Old Testament Law (Numbers 15:36) to priests whose service came to an end due to death (Hebrews 7:23) to the sacrifice of thousands of animals year after year.  And these illustrations just scratch the surface of the death experience in the Old Testament.  One of the hallmarks of the old covenant was the stench of death.

The new covenant, on the other hand, is saturated with the promise of life.  Jesus made this comparison between the covenants in John chapter 5.  “You search the Scriptures [Old Testament] because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life” (John 5:39-40).  The Pharisees searched the Old Testament scriptures looking for life.  But all they found was death.  True life would only be found in Jesus.

Jesus is the life of the new covenant.  Jesus is the great giver of life to all who believe.  In the gospel of John, for example, the life imparted by Jesus Christ – life eternal and abundant – is a constant theme.  As in …

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men” (John 1:1,4).  Jesus and the life He imparts was there from the beginning.

“He who believes in the Son has eternal life” (John 3:36).  A straightforward promise of eternal life.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24).  Believe, and we literally cross over from death to life!

“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst’ ” (John 6:35).  This is a beautiful never hungry, never thirsty life promise.

“For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:40).  It is not God’s wish, it is not God’s hope that those who believe in Jesus attain eternal life.  No, it is God’s will, God’s determined plan that eternal life is the promise for those who believe in Jesus.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life” (John 6:47).  Another straightforward promise of eternal life.

“I am the bread of life” (John 6:48).  Jesus is the provision of this life eternal and abundant.

“Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life‘ ” (John 6:68).  Peter acknowledged that Jesus’ words are the very words of eternal life.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).  Jesus’ promise of abundant life stands in contrast to Satan’s plans to steal, kill, and destroy.

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies’ ” (John 11:25).  Jesus’ own resurrection will be a picture of the resurrection life for us.

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me’ ” (John 14:6).  Jesus is the only way (a theme repeated over 20 times in John’s gospel).  Jesus says this because it is true.  And if we believe this truth about Jesus, we will have life.

“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).  Believing that Jesus is the Christ and that God sent Him is at the heart of the promise of eternal life.

And finally, “These have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31).  Here John reveals his purpose in writing this gospel; that we would recognize Jesus as the Christ, believe that He is the Son of God, and by believing experience life in the name of Jesus.

When Jesus is talking about life; its description, its promise, its abundance, He is talking new covenant.  Life is the promise and the outcome of the new covenant.  It is the promise and outcome of God’s gift of grace to all who believe.

Covenant Contrasts Part 9

Continuing our thoughts about the gift-based system of the new covenant, how is this for a beautiful gift?

“But THE FREE GIFT is not like the transgression.  For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and THE GIFT by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.  THE GIFT is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand THE FREE GIFT arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.  For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of THE GIFT of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:15-17).

• THE GIFT is Jesus.
• THE GIFT is grace.
• THE GIFT is our salvation.
• THE GIFT is eternal life.
• THE GIFT is the Holy Spirit in us.
• THE GIFT is all of the “new” in the new covenant.
• THE GIFT is the fruit of the Spirit blooming in us.
• THE GIFT is the love of God flowing through us.

And THE GIFT goes on and on and on!