One of the most grievous of the theological errors of Christian teaching is the concept that the moral law of God has been done away. The truth is, only the writing of the Law of Moses on stone and parchment has been done away. Under the new covenant the eternal moral law of God, of which the Law of Moses was an abridged, earthly form, is to be placed in the mind and written on the heart of the believer.

The eternal moral law of God never is to be done away. It is to be written in the believer. The grace of Jesus Christ does not abolish the moral law, it establishes the intent of the moral law in our personality. We are not speaking of the letter of the Law of Moses but of the Spirit of the Law, which is Christ.

The moral law never can be done away. The moral law reveals the moral Nature of God. How, then, can the law be done away? God never changes. Therefore we are not destroyed. If God were to change, all we trust in and hope for would be removed.

The moral law is Christ and Christ is the moral law. The Word of God, the law of God, is Christ. As Christ is formed in us the Word, the law, is formed in us. This is the new covenant. This is the Kingdom of God.

The common teaching is that the central purpose of the Lord's salvation is to forgive us. This is not true. The central purpose of the new covenant is not forgiveness. The central purpose of the new covenant is the placing of the law in our mind and the writing of the law on our heart. The new covenant includes forgiveness, but only for those who respond to the writing of the Word of God in the personality.

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening [life-giving] spirit. (I Corinthians 15:45)

The verse above reveals the essence of the new covenant. The new covenant is not a saving of what we are. The new covenant is a conversion from one type of creature (a living soul) to another type of creature (a life-giving spirit).

It is only as we understand the total transformation required by the new covenant that we become willing to endure the crucifying of our first, adamic personality.

Now we see that the inner man, as well as the outward man, exists in two phases: phase A of the inner man is the living soul; phase B of the inner man is the life-giving spirit. "Man," as God envisions him, must be created in two stages. The first stage is the animal stage. The second stage is the resurrecting of the crucified animal stage by filling it with Christ. It becomes a glorified humanity. Then the glorified inner man is clothed in a resurrected and glorified outer man. This is man in the image and likeness of God.

Phase A of the inner man (the living soul) cannot enter the Kingdom of God just as phase A of the outward man (the flesh and blood body) cannot enter the Kingdom.

To be continued.