| 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
The New Covenant
For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 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. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." (Hebrews 8:7-12—NIV)
The Law of Moses is the old covenant. The salvation that is in Christ is the new covenant. It appears that what we are calling salvation today is different in some respects from what the Bible terms the "new covenant."
As we think about the description of the new covenant, namely the Christian salvation as described in the Book of Hebrews, the first thing we notice is that the new covenant was given to us by the Lord because He was displeased with the results of the old covenant, the Law of Moses. Because God was displeased with the results of the Law of Moses He issued what to Him is a better covenant established on better promises.
Now, in order to judge whether one covenant is better than another we must decide what the goal of the covenant is. What is the covenant intended to accomplish?
In order to determine what the goal of any Divine covenant is we have to go back to Genesis and ascertain what God's will is concerning man. Why did God create man? What does God expect from man?
The Divine goal for man has four aspects:
That man be in the image of God.
That man be male and female.
That man be fruitful.
That man rule all the works of God's hands.
Every covenant of God has as its purpose to accomplish these four aspects of what man is to be and do. The first two aspects, image and union, are what man is to be. The second two aspects, fruitfulness and dominion, are what man has been created to do.
Before we can understand the four aspects we must realize that their fulfillment in Adam and Eve is not their true, eternal form.
The true man is the Lord Jesus Christ. Adam and Eve were a temporary arrangement.
The true helper is the Church, the Bride of the Lamb.
The true fruitfulness consists of people in the image of Christ.
The true rulership is authority and power over all things in the heavens and on the earth.
To be continued.