In this series, we have explored the old and new covenant and the need to start living in the new and not go back to the old(
Click here to read part 10). In practical terms, there is a large number of Christians who have woken up to the fact that we are no longer to follow the old covenant literally, and would consider they live under the new covenant. The reality is that they still live under the paradigm of the old, merely replacing the old covenant with a new variant of it. Here we explore this phenomenon.
[I]. Majority of Christians see salvation as God forgiving their sins up to the point of conversion and then giving them the Holy spirit to help them lead a better life. This mindset leads to an unending campaign of self-improvement, which is fraught with a succession of highs and lows. Linking our performance to God's response is old covenant thinking that will stifle our enjoyment of God's unconditional love and acceptance as extended to us in the new covenant. This problem stems from the fact that Christians are not grounded in the firm understanding that salvation is a finished work in Christ and that the new covenant is about Christ living His life in us, having replaced the life we had with His. As long as we are in the flesh, we can never deliver perfect performance, this was why Christ had to do it on our behalf, therefore in our spirit, which is Christ, we are already perfect. We need to settle it once and for all, our performance may affect us but they do not change God one iota, He is already pleased with the Christ in us.
1. The series Salvation Unraveled goes into great detail, explaining what salvation is. Please click here to read a summary of the series (
Salvation Unraveled part 18)
2. "What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily." (Galatians 2:19-21 MSG)
3. "There is no condemnation now for those who live in union with Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit, which brings us life in union with Christ Jesus, has set me free from the law of sin and death. What the Law could not do, because human nature was weak, God did. He condemned sin in human nature by sending his own Son, who came with a nature like our sinful nature, to do away with sin. God did this so that the righteous demands of the Law might be fully satisfied in us who live according to the Spirit, and not according to human nature." (Romans 8:1-4 GNB)
4. "But when the time was right, God sent his Son, and a woman gave birth to him. His Son obeyed the Law, so he could set us free from the Law, and we could become God's children. Now that we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. And his Spirit tells us that God is our Father. You are no longer slaves. You are God's children, and you will be given what he has promised." (Galatians 4:4-7 CEV)
4. "No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us! For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below---there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:37-39 GNB)
5. "Beware lest anyone rob you through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the traditio6 of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him, who is the Head of all principality and power," (Colossians 2:8-10 MKJV)
7. "A voice from heaven said, "You are my own dear Son, and I am pleased with you." (Mark 1:11 CEV)
[II]. Apparently unwilling to take Jesus literarily when he declared "it is finished" on the cross, we send up endless prayers asking God to give us, bless us etc, living in the hope that our latest performance would clinch the deal. We organise prayer marathons to convince God to that He needs to be doing more, when He has done it all and put it in Christ, expending all our energies banging on an open door. This gives rise to Christians that are never sure what to expect, depending on what mood God is in. We can only appropriate that which Christ has made provision for, which is everything. Here is a good test, when you approach God, do you do so as yourself or Christ, do you present your credential as the reason you should receive or what Christ has done? We ought to begin the urgent business of renewing our minds to the truth of scripture, so that we can rest in confidence that when Christ uttered the words "it is finished", he really did mean it. We can then pray in faith laying hold of what is already ours and start living out of its reality.
2. "after he took the wine, Jesus said, "It's done . . . complete." Bowing his head, he offered up his spirit." (John 19:30 MSG)
3. "From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I'll do it. That's how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it." (John 14:13 MSG)
4. "The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need." (Matthew 6:7-8 MSG)
5. "May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For in our union with Christ he has blessed us by giving us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world. Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before him. Because of his love" (Ephesians 1:2-4 GNB)
6. "May grace and peace be yours in full measure through your knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. God's divine power has given us everything we need to live a truly religious life through our knowledge of the one who called us to share in his own glory and goodness. In this way he has given us the very great and precious gifts he promised, so that by means of these gifts you may escape from the destructive lust that is in the world, and may come to share the divine nature." (2 Peter 1:2-4 GNB)
[III]. Christians begging God for forgiveness is an all too common occurrence and the source of a lot of emotional toil and anxiety as we wonder if we have done enough to be forgiven. Under the old covenant, forgiveness was sought repeatedly by the offering of sacrificial animals, however, when Christ arrived, John declared "...Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29 CEV). And take it away forever He did, all sins, for all persons, for all time, well in advance of us committing them. There is no plan "B", Christ will not be coming again to shed His blood for sin, it is all over. We do no longer confess to be forgiven, but because we are forgiven. No more penance required or wallowing in the consciousness of sin, receive and thank Him for it. Invariably dwelling on sin for what ever purpose actually draws us closer to it, this is why Christ came not only to take away sin but also the consciousness of it as well.
2. “He also bypassed the sacrifices consisting of goat and calf blood, instead using his own blood as the price to set us free once and for all. If that animal blood and the other rituals of purification were effective in cleaning up certain matters of our religion and behavior, think how much more the blood of Christ cleans up our whole lives, inside and out.” (Hebrews 9:12-14 MSG)
3. "By this will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And indeed every priest stands daily ministering and offering often the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right of God, from then on expecting until His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified." (Hebrews 10:10-14 MKJV)
[IV]. Significant amounts of time are spent in church services, ushering in God's presence, asking Him to come and visit. We pray for a touch from Him. In essence we relate to God under the old covenant model of God showing up on "as needs" basis. Under the new covenant, through union with Christ, when we are present, He is present, whether we feel like it or not, He has promised never to leave us nor forsake us. How can He? We are in inseparable union with Him. We no longer need to seek His presence, we carry that presence with us, and through the certainty of the knowledge we manifest an always-on relationship. We don't need a touch, we need to manifest what we have, rivers of living water flowing out from the Christ in us.
2. "But he being joined to the Lord is one spirit." (1 Corinthians 6:17 MKJV)
3. "and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20 GNB)
4. "And in the last day of the great feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes on Me, as the Scripture has said, "Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." (But He spoke this about the Spirit, which they who believed on Him should receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.)" (John 7:37-39 MKJV)
[V]. Christians live in fear of loosing the salvation they were incapable of obtaining based on their performance. Many hold the belief that if you commit sin, it disqualifies you from salvation. Presenting salvation as if it were a cold that you catch and loose at will. Under the new covenant, the process of union with Christ is irreversible; the old nature is dead and gone forever. Salvation is receiving His life, if you are able to loose salvation, what happens to the eternal, incorruptible life of God in you? You do not have anything else to go back to. Salvation is a gift, not wages. It is yours to keep. Living in that assurance and by love serve others.
2. "You don't have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26 MSG)
3. "If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we're given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story. What we read in Scripture is, "Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own." If you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don't call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust him to do it--you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked--well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift." (Romans 4:2-5 MSG)
4. "It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows." (Galatians 5:13 MSG)
5. Romans 6:3-11 GNB {word in bracket are mine}
(3) For surely you know that when we were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, we were baptized into union with his death.
(4) By our baptism, then, we were buried with him and shared his death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life.
(5) For since we have become one with him in dying as he did, in the same way we shall be one with him by being raised to life as he was. {we now have the same new life He has}
(6) And we know that our old being has been put to death with Christ on his cross, in order that the power of the sinful self might be destroyed, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin. {the old being(life) has been destroyed forever}
(7) For when we die, we are set free from the power of sin.
(8) Since we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. {if we have died but yet we live, we must be living His life now}
(9) For we know that Christ has been raised from death and will never die again---death will no longer rule over him. {if Christ will never die again neither will we, as we share the same life}
(10) And so, because he died, sin has no power over him; and now he lives his life in fellowship with God.
(11) In the same way you are to think of yourselves as dead, so far as sin is concerned, but living in fellowship with God through Christ Jesus. {We are now living through the life of Christ, a life that will never die, which is why it is called eternal life}
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Feeling good, well done
Never thought I could
But nonetheless, I did
Much better than before
A new season has come
He must be pleased
Now my prayers will be answered
With my best performance yet
---
Feeling low, not done so well
Thought I finally had it “sussed”
Upward ever, I expected it to go
What happened to all that good work?
Back down to earth with a bump
I wonder what He thinks of me now?
How can I receive His blessings?
Turning in a performance like this?
---
Your fall from dizzy heights
A blessing in disguise
A gift of a lesson
To show to you
The limitations of self
With it's many ups and down
Don't keep hitting up against the wall
You in yourself, will never be good enough
Give up self for dead
Give in to the Christ life
---
Rest in Him
Living His life through you
A life tried and tested
Ever triumphant
Tempted without sin
Accepted in the beloved
Righteous as ever can be
Blessed with every blessing
Life evermore
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Selah
(To be continued..)
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