Romans 10:4 often is quoted as meaning that Christ is the termination of the Mosaic Law. Christ is not the termination of the Law but the Goal or end result of the Law. The Mosaic Law brings us to Christ when the Law is responded to in faith.

God's Law never shall be done away. Under the old covenant the Law of God was written on stone. Under the new covenant the eternal moral law of God is written on the heart of the believer.

Not only are the Ten Commandments written on the heart under the new covenant but the source of the Ten Commandments, which is the eternal moral law of God, is interpreted in a manner not possible apart from the Presence of Christ in the heart. The intent of the Mosaic Law is practiced and communicated in the heart of the saint in whom Christ is dwelling.

Apart from transformation into the image of Christ there is no new covenant.

The blood of the Lamb is not a substitute for nor an alternative to our change from the lawless first Adam to the holy and righteous second Adam. It is being taught today that Jesus came to forgive our sins so God will bring us to Paradise whether or not we choose to live a godly life, whether or not we keep the commandments of Christ. This is the contemporary definition of "grace."

The goal of salvation is not to bring us to Heaven, for our going to Heaven does not accomplish God's goal, which is to bring His Kingdom into the earth. Sin and rebellion began in Heaven with the angels of God. Neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament speaks of residence in Heaven as being the goal of the new covenant.

The goal of the Christian salvation is that man be made pleasing to God. We are preserved from destruction in the Day of Wrath with the understanding and intent that we will be converted from the image of the fallen Adam into the image of Christ.

The purpose of the new covenant is not to enable us to evade the consequences of sinful behavior and rebellion against God. The purpose of the new covenant is to change us so our behavior brings the blessing of God upon us.

God forgives us so we may enter the new covenant of transformation. The new covenant of transformation results in the Kingdom of God—the doing of God's will in the earth as it is in Heaven.

The central work of the new covenant is the writing of the Divine law in the hearts and minds of human beings.

Few people would resist entrance into Paradise. This is why those who are anxious to gain the approval of men have changed the new covenant from a covenant of transformation into a plan to gain residence in Paradise. People do not resist Paradise. But they do resist the entering of God into them to change them from what they are in character into what God would have them to be.

To be continued.