For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, (Romans 8:13—NIV)

The first covenant defines sin and provides a means of forgiveness but not of deliverance.

The new covenant defines sin and provides the means both of forgiveness and of deliverance. The first covenant could not remove sin. The new covenant can remove, through the power of Jesus Christ, the compulsions of sin. The Christian salvation is preached today as being God's means of forgiving sin. It is this, but primarily it is God's means of removing sin. This is the main difference between the covenants.

The Ten Commandments told the Apostle Paul he was covetous but could not deliver him. So Paul died spiritually, so to speak.

The new covenant condemns covetousness, but provides the Holy Spirit, the born-again experience, and the body and blood of Jesus Christ so we can be delivered from covetousness. It never is God's will that a Christian walk in known sin. We owe our flesh nothing that we should yield to its lusts and passions. Through the Spirit of God we can overcome our carnal nature each day.

If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! (II Corinthians 3:9—NIV)

The goal of the new covenant is to create righteous behavior in people.

The new-covenant ministry brings righteousness to us, first imputed and then wrought out in our behavior until we become a new creation in Christ. It is the new creation that is the Kingdom of God.

We initially are given imputed righteousness so we can embark on the program of moral transformation. Imputed righteousness is not the Kingdom of God. Neither is it God's plan or desire that His creatures continue in sin while He judges them to be righteous by imputation.

If we are not on the path of moral transformation, then the work of salvation has been aborted and we no longer are judged to be righteous by imputation. Here is one of the tremendous errors in Christian thinking, an error that has destroyed the moral character of the members of the churches.

The new-covenant ministry brings righteousness—actual righteousness of thought, speech, and behavior. Thus it is infinitely superior to the old covenant, which merely emphasized sin and then provided an endless sacrificing of animals so the believer could continue to have fellowship with God.

The new covenant takes away sin. The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world. The Son of God has been revealed in order to destroy the works of the devil, not just forgive them.

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (II Corinthians 3:18—NIV)

The above verse is one of the clearest expressions of the manner in which the new covenant operates. We can see at a glance how superior it is to the Mosaic covenant.

We have no veil on our faces as did Moses. We reflect the Lord's glory openly as we live, move, and have our being in the Lord Jesus Christ.

To be continued.