The error today is that of viewing the forgiveness of our sins as being God's central purpose, and we have added the idea that the result of such forgiveness is permission to enter Heaven. This is not the new covenant. The new covenant is the writing of the eternal moral law of God, of which the Law of Moses was an abridged form, in our mind and heart. And the result of this rewriting of our personality is that we might have fellowship with God wherever we are, particularly in the earth, for it is the earth that is the proper dwelling place of the human race—even the glorified human race.

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (I John 1:5-7—NIV)

If you will examine the above passage you will see that our goal is fellowship with God, not residence in Heaven. We are walking in the light of God's perfect will and this is the basis for our fellowship with God. Meanwhile the blood of Jesus, His Son, keeps us from being under the condemnation that would be the case because of the sin and self-will in our personality that have not been dealt with as yet.

Now, let us see where we are. We have said God's intention toward us under the new covenant is that we might be transformed morally until we are in the image of Jesus Christ. We have stated further that Divine grace is the means of our being transformed.

The problem with the Law of Moses was that there was no Divine grace accompanying the Law that was given, leaving the worshiper to keep the holy commandments in his or her own adamic nature. But grace and truth have come by Jesus Christ that we might successfully enter into the new covenant.

If grace is the means by which we enter the new covenant, then included in the grace must be the wisdom and power necessary for our entering successfully into the covenant.

"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. "I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."  (Hebrews 8:10-12—NIV)

To be continued.