| E-MAIL SERVICE | Sign me up to receive the daily Word of Righteousness free via my E-mail address! ( ONLY AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH ) | |
| ARCHIVES | I want to check out the daily Words of Righteousness for any of the last fourteen days or from previous weeks. ( ENGLISH ONLY ) | |
| FEEDBACK | I have a question or comment about today's Word of Righteousness. ( ENGLISH AND SPANISH ONLY ) | |
| BOOK LIST | I would like to see the complete book list of the Words of Righteousness author Robert B. Thompson. (SOME SPANISH TITLES AVAILABLE ) |
The Daily Word of Righteousness
Why Have We Changed the New Covenant?
For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. (Hebrews 8:7—NIV)
The New Testament mentions two covenants. There is the old covenant of Moses, and then the new covenant of Jesus Christ. God gave us the new covenant because the behavior of many people under the old covenant was not in keeping with God's standards of righteous, holiness, and obedience.
But we have changed the new covenant until it does not accomplish God's purpose in giving it.
The "first covenant" (above) refers to the Law of Moses, particularly the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were a covenant between God and His people. If they would do what God said, then God would bless them and be with them.
But there was something wrong with the first covenant. The new covenant, the Christian covenant, was brought into existence because of what was wrong with the first covenant.
But God found fault with the people and said "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah." (Hebrews 8:8—NIV)
The problem with the first covenant was not with the covenant itself but with the people. God found fault with the people.
Because God found fault with the people He has made a new covenant.
The new covenant is made only with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. The new covenant, the Christian covenant, is never made with a Gentile as such. In order to enter the new covenant we have to become part of the one Seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ.
There is only one Olive Tree. The root is Abraham. He is the father of all who believe. The Olive Tree is the anointed priesthood, the Israel of God. No individual, Jewish or Gentile, can be part of that Tree except through the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile. There is only the one new Man—Christ and His Body.
The new covenant is a covenant between God and the Body of Christ.
Because we have added to the new covenant the unscriptural idea that the goal of the covenant is to bring us to Heaven, it is almost impossible for us to understand the covenant and its relationship to the Kingdom of God. The goal of the new covenant is to perfect a people who are qualified to install the Kingdom of God on the earth.
The Kingdom of God consists first of Jesus Christ; then of His Body, the Church, the Israel of God; and then of the saved people whom God will draw from the nations of the earth.
All that need concern us in the present essay is the true nature of the new covenant, the covenant between God and His called-out people, the Christian Church; for we have changed the new covenant into a scheme to admit people into Heaven after they die—and this apart from the moral transformation which is the essence of the new covenant.
To be continued.