Paul did not claim he was saved by grace and God was obligated to forgive him no matter how he behaved. Paul showed that his sinful nature had been nailed to the cross and the Life of Christ was being formed in him. This is a far different teaching from the current doctrine that God has forgiven us whether or not our old nature has been crucified with Christ, whether or not the Life of Christ is being formed in us.

In fact, Paul warned against the consequences of sin as fervently as did the other writers of the New Testament.

Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:21)

Paul proclaimed that the Kingdom of God is Christ in us. It is the Word of God being born in us and bringing forth a new man in God's image. Day after day we grow in the ability to discern what is good and what is evil, and in the strength to always choose the good and resist the evil.

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (II Corinthians 3:18)

The new creation in us does not sin because it is born of God. Each day the Holy Spirit helps us die to our old nature. As we do, Christ grows in us. While this process is taking place, the blood of the new covenant, the blood of Christ, covers our sins in the sight of God. This is the true nature of the new covenant. It is the Christian redemption. It is eternal life.

There is a difference between the blood making a perpetual atonement for the believer in whom Christ is being formed, who is abiding in Christ; and the blood forgiving the believer who is living his life as a nominal Christian while he is waiting to be caught up to Heaven in a "rapture."

The one is of the Scriptures. The other is a false gospel that has entered Christian thinking.

The Kingdom of God, the new covenant, the Christian salvation, is Christ in us—the hope of glory.

The fruit of the current definition of the new covenant has been spiritually immature believers whose main hope is that soon God will "rapture" them into Paradise so they no longer will be required to fight the good fight of faith.

The "rapture" of the believers into Heaven to avoid suffering, along with the other current misunderstandings, is symptomatic of one central error—the view that the new covenant is an unconditional amnesty that has as its goal the transplanting of mankind to the spiritual Heaven.

Let us consider for a moment the problem with the current definition of the Christian salvation.

The text of the New Testament is one long exhortation and stern warning concerning the consequences of continuing in sin and spiritual indifference, particularly after we accept Christ. The writings of Christ's Apostles do not support the teaching that the new covenant is a perpetual forgiveness of the believer whether or not he serves God with a sincere, pure heart.

To be continued.