AMAZING-REALITY-OF-The-New-Covenant.pdf

THE AMAZING REALITY OF THE NEW COVENANT

As believers become familiar with the
scriptures, its message can lose its impact on their lives. We can easily fail to allow its astonishing truths to confront us and have their ongoing transformative effect on our lives.

We can become so accustomed to phrases such as “New Covenant”, “New Creation”, “Born Again” that we forget the full impact these words can have on our lives.

As the Passover and Resurrection season approach we decided it might be helpful to take a fresh look at the “New Covenant” and what we call “Born Again.”

The reality of the New Covenant is the greatest revolution in man’s relationship with God.
• It undoes the fall of Adam and its consequences for his descendants – the human race.
• It destroys alienation and brings reconciliation.
• It destroys the curse and brings the blessing.
• It removes shame and releases acceptance.
• It removes the corrupt Adamic life and replaces it with the Jesus life.
• It give us power by the name and victory of Jesus over the wiles of Satan.

The old order was based on “Thou Shalt” and “Thou shalt not.” It was based on God’s demands on us. It brought shame, guilt and inferiority because we were incapable of living by such standards. It caused us to back away from God rather than draw near to Him.

The New Order is based on God Himself saying “I will.”
• “I will remember their sins no more”
• “I will extract their hard hearts from within them.”
• “I will implant My Spirit within” them and
• “I will cause them to walk in my ways.”

“I will make a NEW COVENANT with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…. I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jer. 31.31-35)

“I will take out the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh and put my spirit within them.” (Ezekiel 36.26)

He can remember our sin no more because He has placed the guilt and shame of the sin of the world on Jesus. “For this I was born for this I came into the world,” (John 18.37) It is final. It is “once for all.” “It is finished.” It only needs to be CELEBRATED with THANKSGIVING and RECEIVED by faith.
“In Him we HAVE redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence.” (Ephesians 1.7-8)
No longer do we approach God through the veil of our failure and shame. Because of the New Covenant we can now approach Him at the reverse side of guilt, because we KNOW & BELIEVE that He has successfully placed all our sin and guilt on Jesus and has promised to “remember our sins no more”.

Entering In More Completely
Even in Christianity (which is built around the New Covenant) there is often fear of entering into this awesome realm of God’s boundless grace and love. We can fail to lay hold of the full privileges of this great covenant. It takes FAITH and BOLDNESS. This is a faith and boldness based on the solid facts of Gods work for us and His invitation to come near. It is daring to believe and daring to come home to all God has prepared for us. It is underserved, unmerited, unearned. It is all of grace. It is a pure gift.

“Therefore, brethren, having BOLDNESS to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way … let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of FAITH having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience … let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful." (Heb. 10.19-23)

What It Means to Implant His Spirit In Us
There was forgiveness in the Old Covenant but with The New Covenant there is PERMANENT forgiveness because there is now permanent Atonement. Yet God goes even further than permanent forgiveness - He gives us a brand New Life. To do this He first extracts the sin principle from within us.
What is this sin principle? It is the ego centered, self-centered adamic nature which we all inherited, when Adam brought sin into the world. At that time his (and all mankind’s) nature became corrupted with spiritual decay and moral corruption which we call “sin.” Adam passed this condition on to his descendant’s - to you and to me. Every human being is born with this. However, through the death and burial of Jesus God took care of this corrupt element of our nature. Jesus took it to the Cross along with our guilt and shame. He put an end to it. “It is finished” - and from the realm of His resurrection He offers us His Spirit as a replacement of the corrupt side of our nature. We have risen with and in Him!
• If we invite Him to remove it - He will.
• If we invite Him to replace it - He will.

Receiving the Holy Spirit - the Spirit of God Himself - as our life principle is the essential element of the New Covenant. It is not an option.

The New Testament is far more than remission of sin - it is the REMOVAL OF OUR OLD ADAM LIFE AND the REPLACING OF IT WITH GOD'S OWN LIFE. As Peter says "he has made us become partakers of the divine nature."

Even Christianity, (which claims to be based on the New Covenant) has for the most part failed to enter into and live in its fulness. Many Christians stagger between Old Testament guilt and New Testament freedom, because they do not lay down the Adam life before receiving this new life. We often afraid to proclaim the fulness of the Grace of God and too timid to live in it.

Settled Before We Were Born – It Cannot Be Undone & Does Not Need To Be Redone
This amazing new arrangement between God and Man (The New Covenant) was made without our consent or dissent. God did not consult with us. He acted by His own initiative. It was settled between God the Father and Jesus before anyone alive today was born. It is a new beginning for all who will believe it, receive it and lay down the old adamic way.

It is not a new religious method - it is a new arrangement between God and man. The invitation goes out from God Himself to “Come.” “Come and be forgiven!” “Come and be reconciled!” “Come and be transformed!” It is His resurrection gift to all - the gift of His resurrection life to REPLACE our old life.