And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (John 2:2)

But isn't it true that anyone, not only a member of God's elect royal priesthood, can repent of his sins, put his trust in Jesus, be baptized in water, and thereby be saved into the Kingdom of God when it appears? This is true and it is a covenant of salvation that God has made with mankind. But when we are referring to the Church, the royal priesthood, God's elect whether Jewish or Gentile by race, then the covenant, as Jeremiah prophesied, is made with Israel and Judah.

The writings of the Apostles are addressed primarily to the Church, to God's elect, to His Israel whether Jewish or Gentile by birth. The salvation begins by saving us from Divine wrath and finishes by creating us in the image of the Lord Jesus and bringing us into untroubled rest in the Father through Jesus.

So we see there is a basic covenant of salvation from wrath that is made with all flesh—God is not willing that any perish but that all be saved from wrath. But during the Church Age the emphasis is on the bringing of the Body of Christ, God's Israel, to the perfection that will make it possible for the Body to assume the many roles and responsibilities designated for the sons of God and brothers of the Lord Jesus.

The prophecy of Jeremiah is repeated in the New Testament.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 8:7-12)

The Book of Hebrews is one long exhortation to Christians to not stop at basic salvation but to press forward to perfection, to the rest of God. The rest of God is that position in which we have ceased living our own life and are totally committed to the Presence and will of God in all that we do. It is the eternal Sabbath, the land of promise, an acknowledgment by us that God has finished the creation and is resting and our sole responsibility and task in life is to press into that rest.

To be continued.