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The Daily Word of Righteousness
A Better Covenant
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: (Hebrews 8:10)
The Law of Moses could not produce people who always exhibit righteousness and praise in the sight of the nations of the earth. Yet the bringing forth of righteousness and the worship of God are God's purposes in calling out Israel from among the nations of the earth (Isaiah 61:11).
Because the old covenant did not and could not bring about the type of royal priest God desires, God has given us a new covenant. The new covenant, while it includes the forgiveness of our sins, is not primarily a covenant of forgiveness. The new covenant is the putting of the law of God in our minds and the writing of the law in our hearts.
The new covenant includes the eternal forgiveness of our sins. The forgiving of our sins is meant to serve as a foundation on which the Lord can proceed with the work of conforming us to the moral image of Christ. We are to be transformed into new creations of righteousness and holiness.
The forgiving of our sins under the new covenant never was intended to be a means of escaping God's insistence that we be in His image. Grace is never an alternative to godly behavior, only to the statutes of the Law of Moses—circumcision, the feast days and so forth.
The new covenant is being preached today as the Divinely ordained means of escaping the Kingdom principle of sowing and reaping. It is taught that grace is an unconditional pardon, and as long as we believe in Christ Jesus we can sow sin and reap the fruits of righteousness. We have aborted the intentions of God.
We are saying to the Christian who works wickedness that he will not reap what he is sowing. We are claiming that if he accepts Christ Jesus he then can proceed to fumble ineffectively at the task of following the Lord and never be condemned for his lack of diligence.
If this were true the new covenant would be virtually worthless for the Kingdom purposes of God. The new covenant would be the lesser covenant, for the old covenant at least demanded righteous behavior, bringing a blessing on those who obeyed the Word of the Lord and a curse on those who disobeyed the Word of the Lord.
Notice what the unchanging Christ spoke through Isaiah:
Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him. (Isaiah 3:10,11)
These words were addressed to Jerusalem and Judah, to God's elect.
If such were the case under the old covenant, how much more is it true under the new covenant where we have every grace of God to help us turn away from wickedness and live righteously?
For us this is a new day. The winds of God are blowing away the dead leaves of dispensational thinking. The righteous Lord has come to bring true, actual, living righteousness to His saints.
How about you? Are you ready to move into actual righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit? The Kingdom of God is at hand. Rejoice wildly with us! Wave the banners! Sound the trumpets! Sing the songs of war and victory!
Welcome the King as He comes! (from The Continuity of the Covenants)