Fanning the Flames

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!

Covenant Contrasts Part 8

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).  We think of Romans 6:23 as a salvation verse and it is.  The wages of sin, if never taken care of through faith in Jesus, will be spiritual death.  And the gift of life; eternal life, abundant life, resurrection life comes to us by faith in Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf.  Yes, this verse addresses our salvation choice; life or death.

But this wage-based vs gift-based way to look at things also applies to our covenant contrasts.  “For the wages of sin is death …”  The old covenant was a wage-based system.  A person was “paid” based on what they did.  This is the “DO and RECEIVE” model of the old covenant.  And in the Old Testament, the “wage” was often death.  Sin led to death, sometimes in the immediate timeframe.  We will expand on this thought in a future post.  For now, let’s move on to the second part of Romans 6:23.

“… But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  The new covenant is all about the “gift” not the “wages.”  It is gift-based.  Everything we receive, all of the promise of the new covenant is brought to us purely by the grace of God.  No striving, no earning, no working for your “wage.”  We have received our new identity, our new purity, our new heart, our new Spirit, our new nature, our new self, our new power, and our new freedom all as gifts from the Father above.  “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow” (James 1:17).

We have been empowered to walk righteously as a gift of God’s grace as well.  “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:11-12).

To summarize, the old covenant was wage-based and the new covenant is gift-based.  And it is sad to see that there is still a vestige of preaching that puts believers under a “wage-based” system.  Don’t follow that path.  You are forgiven, clean, and close to the Father by one means only; by the GIFT of His grace.  Pure gift, pure grace.  We will explore what that gift looks like next time.

Covenant Contrasts Part 7

(The old covenant verses that you will read in this series are true.  They are God-breathed Scripture.  But their time is over.  They have no bearing on our new covenant lives with Jesus.  Yet they are taught Sunday after Sunday as words to live by.  They fill our Christian books, devotionals, and sermons.  This mixed covenant message leads to confusion, frustration, angst, and a huge lack of confidence in our life with Jesus.  And this way of teaching must come to an end.  May you grow in the knowledge and grace of the new covenant as we study these covenant contrasts together.)

“But my faithful love will never leave him [David] as it did when I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you” (2 Samuel 7:15).  Did you catch this little nugget?  God removed His faithful love from Saul.  Will God ever remove His faithful love from you?

Have you ever been taught that too many screw-ups, too many sins, and God will abandon you, turn His face from you, walk out on you, leave you to your own death-wish?  Similar to our last post where we learned that God will never leave us, today we learn that we can never lose His love.  His love is endless, relentless, and unconditional.

How do we know the love of God is unconditional?  Because when we were God’s enemies, He demonstrated His love for us by Jesus dying in our place “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.  For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Romans 5:8-10).

You cannot get any farther from God than literally being His enemy.  But even there, His love came through.  He loved you in your lost condition and provided a way through Jesus for you to come home to Him.

Under the new covenant, God will never remove His love from you like He did Saul in the Old Testament.  “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

God’s love for you is ever-present.  Nothing, not even your sin, can separate you from the love of God.  “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are!” (1 John 3:1).  God’s faithful love is always around, among, and IN you, His beloved child!

Covenant Contrasts Part 6

(The old covenant verses that you will read in this series are true.  They are God-breathed Scripture.  But their time is over.  They have no bearing on our new covenant lives with Jesus.  Yet they are taught Sunday after Sunday as words to live by.  They fill our Christian books, devotionals, and sermons.  This mixed covenant message leads to confusion, frustration, angst, and a huge lack of confidence in our life with Jesus.  And this way of teaching must come to an end.  May you grow in the knowledge and grace of the new covenant as we study these covenant contrasts together.)

“Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).

This verse and several Old Testament verses like it were an ever-present reality of the old covenant.  God’s presence came and went in the lives of His people and their community.  The children of Israel often faced separation from the Father because of their sin.

As new covenant believers, we face no such barrier in our all-of-the-time union with the Father.  Our behavior has absolutely no bearing on God’s nearness to us.  Why?  Because, if we have believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ, He is ALWAYS with us.  God cannot get any closer to us, and we cannot get any closer to Him, than the ever-present reality that He lives in us!  Wherever we go, He goes!

“In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I IN you” (John 14:20)  “He Himself has said ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you’ ” (Hebrews 13:5).  “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).  “The Father will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you FOREVER … you know Him because He abides with you and will be IN you” (John 14:16-17).  How long will the Spirit of Christ live in you?  FOREVER; every day 24/7/365.

A dangerous mixed covenant message that we are taught week after week is that we grow closer to Jesus when we are doing well and fall further away from Jesus when we are doing poorly.  But I cannot find this message anywhere in the new covenant.  Yet many teachers bring this outdated old covenant message of our sin distancing us from the Father into our present-day Christian experience.  And it is just not true.

Your union with God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is unbreakable, unshakable, secure, and rock-solid.  You are one with Jesus.  He will NEVER hide His face from you!