Fanning the Flames

Covenant Contrasts Part 5

(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.)

“God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin” (Exodus 20:20).

The entire motivation for obedience under the Old Testament Law was fear.  God set it up that way.  When Moses delivered the Law to the children of Israel in Exodus chapters 19 and 20, its arrival was accompanied by “thunder, lightning, fire, and smoke” in order that “the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin” (Exodus 20:20).

Contrast this with the new covenant.  Under our new arrangement secured by Jesus, the fear factor as it relates to obedience is completely gone.  We now obey empowered by grace, not scared into obedience by fear of punishment.  We obey from a place of freedom.  We obey in alignment with our new identity as one who is loved, approved, accepted, forgiven, and complete in Christ.

“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, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:11-14).  Grace instructs us in righteous living.  God’s grace, working in us, literally makes us “zealous for good deeds.”

We obey out of our love for Jesus.  And this mutual love from God to us and us to God comes without any fear attached.  “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.  We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:18-19).

The love that God has so generously poured into our hearts (Romans 5:5) is fear-free.  It is an unlimited reservoir from which to draw as we express God’s love to those around us.  You are free to love, free to serve, free to obey, and free to worship without fear.  You are free!

Covenant Contrasts Part 4

(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.)

Another highlight of God’s old covenant arrangement is the phrase “OBEY and LIVE.”  In the book of Deuteronomy, for example, when the Israelites were poised to enter the promised land, God restated His old covenant promise.  “I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it” (Deuteronomy 30:16).

God make clear the responsibility of the people under the old covenant arrangement.  And it can be summarized in one word, “Obey!”  “If you obey …” appears in one form or another four times in Deuteronomy chapter 30 alone (vs 3, 8, 10, 16).  And the promise of God is very straightforward.  Obey and choose life (Deuteronomy 30:19).  Obey and live.  These are the terms of the old covenant.

Compare this to the new covenant with its whole new arrangement.  “Obey” is no longer in the equation.  Under the new covenant, the promise to us is, “BELIEVE and LIVE.”  “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).  We passed from death to life when we BELIEVED the gospel message of Jesus Christ.  We passed from death to life BEFORE any obedient living on our part.

We received eternal life (John 5:24).  We received resurrection life (John 11:25).  We received abundant life (John 10:10).  Is “OBEY” important for new covenant saints?  Yes!  But it comes AFTER the “BELIEVE and LIVE.”  It comes AFTER Christ has imparted His eternal resurrection abundant life into us.  We OBEY as we learn and grow and mature into living according to our new identity as a beloved child of God.

The word “obedience” can be a trigger for those raised in a law-keeping system.  Years ago, my wife was mentoring a young woman who was newly discovering grace and leaving behind a legalistic mindset and lifestyle.  One of her first requests of Rhonda was, “Don’t talk to me about obedience!”  Her rule-keeping background had turned obedience into a chain.

So if the word “obedience” carries a negative connotation from your past, let me offer you this.  I like to use the word “alignment” for expressing my new walk with Christ as my life.  Empowered by the Spirit living inside us, we are free to align our thoughts and actions with our new creation identity.  It is not a chain.  It is actually an expression of our freedom in Christ.

Covenant Contrasts Part 3

As we covered last time, the “DO and RECEIVE” of the old covenant is over.  So what process best describes our new covenant life with Jesus?  The new path for you and me is “BELIEVE, RECEIVE, and DO.”  First, BELIEVE the gospel message of Jesus Christ.  Then, when we BELIEVE, we immediately RECEIVE His complete forgiveness, a secure union with the Father, the gift of eternal life, and a new identity that comes with all kinds of “new”; a new purity, a new heart, a new indwelling Spirit, a new nature, a new self, a new power over sin, a new freedom, and so much more.

Notice this new order.  No more “DO and RECEIVE.”  Now our DO comes AFTER our RECEIVE.  We can only DO, we only have the power to DO, after we RECEIVE the life of Christ in us.  His life in us is the only way to pull off this Christian life.  We live from the inside out.  We live out of the righteousness that Christ has put in us.  Our DO is still important.  It just fully depends on and is energized and empowered by the new life that we have RECEIVED.  “BELIEVE, RECEIVE, and DO.”

Jesus introduced this new order to us this way, “Therefore they said to Him, ‘What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?’  Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you BELIEVE in Him whom He has sent.’ ” (John 6:28-29).  Under the new covenant, our “work” is to BELIEVE.  Under the old covenant, the “work” was to obey, to DO.

This distinction is so important to understand.  You are not working, like God’s people of the old covenant, to earn God’s approval, acceptance, and blessing.  You are under a new arrangement.  And it is an arrangement that is so FREEING.  The pressure is off.  The death of Jesus worked; it accomplished the Father’s plan to restore you into a right relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  It is a relationship based purely on God’s gift of grace.

The pressure to live up to something is off.  Rather than “live up,” you are now free to “live out” of the righteousness of Christ placed in you at your new birth.  It’s in there!  Allow it to shine forth as you “BELIEVE, RECEIVE, and DO.”

Covenant Contrasts Part 2

(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.)

Another word for covenant is arrangement.  The Old Testament, for the most part, describes life under the old covenant; life under God’s old arrangement with the children of Israel.  In the New Testament, Jesus announced the coming of a new covenant.  This new covenant is our new arrangement with God ushered in by the death and resurrection of Jesus.  The old covenant, in effect prior to the coming of Jesus, is over, dead, gone, expired, and obsolete (Hebrews 8:13, II Corinthians 3:11).  The new covenant has come.

The foundation for life under the old covenant is best described as “DO and RECEIVE.”  Your RECEIVE depended on your DO.  Verses like Joshua 1:8 are prototypical of this arrangement.  “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success” (Joshua 1:8).

Do you see the pattern?  Be careful to DO according to all that is written in the Law in order to RECEIVE prosperity and success.  If you do X. God will do Y.  If you obey the Law, God will bless you.  If you keep His commandments, God will reward you.  Likewise, as we learn from other Old Testament passages, if you fall short, a curse will follow.

Even though all of these old covenant conditional promises of God are OVER, we have them preached to us in devotionals, books, and sermons.  My friend, if you have believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ, you are no longer under the “DO and RECEIVE” of the old covenant.  What we have now is so much better, because Jesus is the author of a better covenant (Hebrews 13:6).  I will describe our beautiful new arrangement of life with Jesus next time.

Introduction

Many years ago, I was reading in the gospel of Luke when I came across this verse, “And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood’ “ (Luke 22:20).

As a naturally curious person, I had two thoughts.  First, this new covenant must be pretty important.  It literally came to us through the blood of Jesus.  It must have gone into effect through the blood of Jesus.  It must have something to do with His death on the cross.

My second thought was, “What makes this new covenant ‘new?’  Is there an old covenant?  Does ‘new’ mean brand new, or some restating of an ‘old’ covenant.  If there is an old and new covenant, how do they relate to the Old and New Testaments?”

I soon learned that a “covenant” is an “arrangement.”  The new covenant is the new arrangement that we have with God by virtue of Jesus dying on the cross in our place and us accepting by faith that His death was sufficient to take away our sin and make us right with God.  I also learned that there is an old covenant.  It was God’s arrangement with the children of Israel as described in the Old Testament.

Alongside this understanding regarding the two arrangements or covenants, I came across this verse in the Message Bible paraphrase of the New Testament.  “By coming up with a new plan, a new covenant between God and His people, God put the old plan on the shelf.  And there it stays, gathering dust” (Hebrews 8:13).

Wait a minute.  The old covenant is over, expired, ended, obsolete, sitting on the shelf gathering dust?  Why then am I hearing so many old covenant principles being taught as instrumental in how to live the Christian life?

If you have followed my writing, you know what my lifetime of study has produced.  The old covenant is NOT for us, as New Testament saints in Jesus.  The blessings, the curses, the commands, the laments, the longings, the promise of prosperity, the weight of the Law, the stench of death, the punishments, and the condemnation are OVER.  We are no longer under the obligations or the conditions of the old covenant.

So with the old covenant being taken out of the way, why do I return now to write about it?  Because the principles of the old covenant are taught in many circles as formational in living the Christian life, and I feel compelled to return to the topic of the covenant contrasts as I see them in Scripture and elevate the superiority of life under the new covenant.

When we lay aside the outdated old covenant and embrace the new, we find joy, peace, forgiveness, acceptance, union, rest, freedom, power, and grace for the Christian journey through this life.  Join us in this series about the covenant contrasts and I believe that you will be blessed by all that the new covenant has to offer you, beloved child of God.