God can wink at our past sins because of the blood atonement. This forgiveness is not to be regarded as complete salvation. It is rather the authorization to begin the program of salvation. If our salvation consisted primarily of forgiveness, the Kingdom of God would be a set of beliefs held in the mind. There would be no strength in it. This would be Gnosticism, not the Christian salvation.

The purpose of forgiveness is to make it possible for us to approach God with a clear conscience so that we, through the virtue Christ supplies and the assistance of the Holy Spirit, can begin to be saved.

What do we mean, "begin to be saved?" We mean that salvation is the changing of us from the likeness of the old fallen nature to the likeness of the righteous Christ. Meanwhile, the blood of God's Lamb keeps on covering and forgiving us so we may remain without condemnation.

The error of our day is that of mistaking our forgiveness through the blood of Jesus as being the primary (in some cases the only) aspect of the new covenant. The blood of Jesus is presented continually throughout the world as the Divine alternative to righteous behavior.

It is easy to understand how such an error would completely thwart the Divine purpose in giving a new covenant.

Contemporary thinking is that the new covenant is better, not because it enables people to keep the righteous laws of God, but because it no longer demands righteous behavior of us and receives us without the "wedding garment." The Kingdom of God has been turned into a "come as you are" party.

We are in a time of grave apostasy. But there is hope. The Lord Jesus is inviting us to repentance based on a true understanding of the new covenant.

We will set forth in four aspects the way the new covenant operates. We will start with the goal and work backward, just as is true of the above passage from the Book of Hebrews.

First is the goal. The goal of the new covenant is to change us into the moral image of Christ (and finally into the outer, physical image with a glorified body) and also to bring us into total, untroubled union with the Father through Jesus. The writing of the Law of God in our mind and heart is the same as Christ being formed in us. Christ is the Word of God, the Law of God, made flesh.

When we are in the complete image of Christ and in union with the Person and will of the Father we shall behave righteously by nature and shall be eligible and competent for all the relationships, privileges, and responsibilities God has planned for us from the beginning of the world.

To be continued.