The essence of the new covenant is change, a transformation of our character, our mind, our words, our actions, our motivations.

There is a new creation. We were forgiven by an act of God. We shall be transformed by the workings of God. But to be transformed we have to do all that the New Testament commands.

We are never transformed by forgiveness. Forgiveness is one matter. Transformation is another. We are transformed as we walk each day in the light of God's Presence.

Perhaps you have been at a track meet and have seen the runners jump the hurdles.

This is the way it is in the Christian life, except that you do not run toward the hurdles. You remain in your place before the Lord. The hurdles come to you. Most are small hurdles. A few are gigantic. As you look constantly to the Lord He assists you over the small hurdles and over the gigantic. You can do nothing in your own strength. But you indeed have to serve the Lord with all your might at all times. If you do not you will stumble when the hurdles come. You will not live in victory.

There are no desirable promises held out to the losers, only to the winners. Crowns are held out to the winners, but the losers are facing the outer darkness. The losers never, never, never receive the crowns of life and righteousness by grace. The crowns go only to those who live in victory by following Jesus Christ every day with utmost attention and diligence.

Imputed Righteousness and Heaven

Let us review for a moment the Christian belief that the purpose of salvation is to bring us to Heaven. This is not a scriptural concept. Neither is it a restoration of that which was promised by the Hebrew Prophets.

However, the idea of Heaven is well suited to the concept of imputed righteousness (grace) as being the main aspect of the Divine salvation. The belief is that God cannot change man, but since God wants man in Heaven God has decided to ascribe to man, on the basis of his confession of faith, the righteousness of the Law of Moses. It is just as though we had kept the Law of Moses perfectly. Now man is free to go to Heaven, all his sins being forgiven.

This is why we preach going to Heaven even though this expression is not found in the Old or New Testaments.

You see, we know intuitively that the Kingdom of God is not a legal state of imputed righteousness. So we do not preach actual change into the image of the Lord, or the Kingdom of God, but going to Heaven by grace.

But this is not at all the message of the New Testament. Perhaps the grace-Heaven message has served God's purposes to the present hour; but now the Spirit of God is ready to move us forward into actual change into Christ's image—that to which each member of the Body of Christ has been predestined, according to the Bible.

To be continued.