3 November 2013
Dear Phyllis,
You will have to forgive me for harping on one note too long, or riding one pony to death, but the subject of the New Covenant is something that I can't get away from. It is like the man who bought a chainsaw and never knew you were supposed to put gasoline in it. He didn't know that the chain saw would do the work and you didn't have to push it back and forth. There are so many different angles to look at that I am at a loss to know which one to pick up.
Perhaps the most basic difference can be expressed with the two words – EXTERNAL and INTERNAL. Fundamentally the issue is where the the law was written. In the Old Covenant the law was written on stones, and in the New Covenant the law is written on the heart. The Covenant is the same; the law is the same; but in one it was written externally on stone and in the other it is written internally in the heart. This may look simple but it is profound beyond our understanding. This influences everything in our relationship with God and our conduct as men on the earth. This is also connected to the difference between the soul and the spirit.
The soul consists of he intellect emotions and the will. It is also by our souls that we live in the this world. Our connection with the material world is exclusively through our five senses – touch, taste, sound, sight, smell. It is by our five senses that we are related to the material world. But God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must do so through totally different means – by spirit and truth (Jn. 4:24). There is only one way to know God; it must be through the Spirit. The soul is involved in the external but the spirit is essentially internal.
It is not surprising that the world has such a deep revulsion against the Ten Commandments. They are fundamentally in opposition to human nature. Since the Fall man has been been at odds with God and, of necessity, man has created his own god. There are untold millions of gods, but the one thing they all have in common is that they are man made. In many cases this maybe what the devil has devised, but he uses mans imagination to create the myriads of gods. Unregenerate man would like to live in a world where there simply were NO restraints. He would like to be free of parental supervision, he would like to kill those he dislikes, he would like to have no restriction on his sexual conduct, he would like to steal anything he wants, he hates being held responsible for anything and would like to lie , and he is covetous of the things of others.
Obviously this won't work. The chaos of this would be an impossible society. Like it or not, God has written His law on the hearts of all men and man has learned that in order to have any sort of a sane society there must be some semblance of law. Humanity has learned that there must be some respect to parental guidance, you can't have lawless murder, there must be some limitation on sexual conduct – a man can't rape any woman he wants- there must be some respect for the property of others, there must be some acknowledgement of truth and lies, and there must be little self-discipline or everything would come untangled. To keep society from coming unglued, all countries have policemen to enforced laws. Without them you would have a total breakdown.
There is nothing wrong with God's law – the Ten Commandments. But even Christians speak against the law. They do so, by confusing the Levitical and the Moral Law. The Moral Law has never changed. The Levitical law was given to teach spiritual truth. Everyone knows that the law not to muzzle an ox means that a worker should be paid for his labor. They know that not eating dead, torn, or creepy things refers to what you feed on in your heart. They know that plowing with an ox and an ass refers to compromise of conservatives working with liberals. And spiritual people know that the Levitical sacrifices are to teaches about what Christ has done for us. They know that Jesus was the Passover Lamb. All those OT restrictions and obligations are external ordinances to teach internal spiritual truth. All Christians are grateful that we are no longer under the law and we can eat what we want.
But they have a struggle with the Moral Law also. Even after they are saved they are disappointed and frustrated that their carnal nature hasn't changed, and now they find themselves locked into a system of trying to be good by avoiding bad habits. By doing so they are attempting to regulate their outward conduct by prayer and self-discipline. They think that he 1st promise of the New Covenant, of the law being written on the heart, means that now they have memorized the Ten Commandment or by going to church they hear from the pulpit what is right and wrong But knowledge of right and wrong is all in thew realm of the soul and is still in the realm of the external.
Reading Andrew Murray has been a real eye-opener when he has explained the 1st promise of the NT by the promise of the law written on the heart as being the new nature. This is nothing less that Jesus living in our hearts by His Spirit. This is an internal transformation that is not included in the OT. One of the best illustrations of this was the experience of a friend of mine. He said the preacher was very sneaky when he led him to Christ. Les asked him if it was necessary to give up smoking to get saved The preacher told him, no, that had nothing to do with salvation. Then Les added, “But what he didn't tell me was that after I got saved I wouldn't want to smoke any more”. Quiting smoking is something external but to be free from the habit is internal. That is the Holy Spirit. This is the internal written on the heart. This is Jesus. This is how He has saved me from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2).
I wonder if there is anything more encompassing than the 2nd provision of the New Covenant – “I will be their God ad they shall be My people”. Oh my goodness that is loaded! There are so many ways of illustrating that and benefits of it, it is difficult to know what to say. As I have said so many times before, this is the same as the marriage relationship. The problem today is that the marriage covenant has been so horribly distorted that it doesn't register with the same power. But being married means you belong to the other person. In that, there are two aspects – possession and provision. It is safe to say that a god is the most dominant thing in a persons life. We say a person has made a god out of their job. Or a person has made a god out of football. Their god is the most dominant thing in their life. It is the thing that possesses them. How can we say that Jesus is our God when we keep Him on a dusty shelf and take Him out only when it is convenient or there something we want? If Jesus is our God then let Him possess us like our passion for football or some lesser attraction.
On the provision side we might suggest two women with radically different husbands. One is an abusive, unfaithful, drunk. He is a monster to live with. The other woman is married to the finest, most considerate husband, that helps her in every way possible, and provides for her like a queen. You couldn't blame the poor abused woman being envious of the blessed lady. Who wouldn't want a husband like that? I will never forget the night I was standing in a dark parking lot at the hospital in Syracuse, NY sharing Christ with the husband of Rosemary's hospital room mate. I thought nothing of the stories I was telling him of what the Lord had done for me. Then with the deepest look of envy and desire in his eyes he said to me, “If I had a God like that I wouldn't have a worry in the world.” Amen! He was right. In a new way like I had never thought of before it struck me how fortunate I was the Jesus was my God.
And the fact that I was His, put new emphasis on His concern and care for His own property. Jesus told us about the 100th sheep to tell us how much the shepherd thinks of one sheep. I don't know which is more important; that I belong to Him or that He belongs to me. Whichever way it is, this is the crowning blessing of the New Covenant.
The 3rd blessing of the New Covenant is that “all will know Me” We have knowledge of God in the most intimate way. We are family members. You can't get closer than that. Paul and Marisa just adopted a new son. He is 2 years old. His mother is a prostitute who works at the bus station. His father was one of the many men with whom she had had sex. A neighbor told Paul and Marisa about this little boy being raised at the bus station by a mother who didn't want him. Would they take him? Man howdy! Marisa said she was surprised when they went to the government office to finalize the papers for adoption. Marisa though the mother would be sad at giving up her son. On the contrary, she was delighted. You can imagine what it must be like inside little Joseph now that he has a mom and dad who love him. Paul says every time he comes home Joseph starts to chime, “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” Paul said two or three time is nice but he won't turn it off. He has a dad that he personally knows. The poor neglected lad knew hundreds of people milling through the bus station, but now he belongs to a family and has a mom and dad that he has an intimate relationship with. The Lord has done this for us by sending the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15). Romans 8 talks extensively about that.
As I have written before the 4th point of the New Covenant is forgiveness of sin (Heb. 8:10-12). This is what I was talking about last week. This is virtually the only selling point we discuss in soul winning and the hope of 95% of all Christians. Basically all this is, is acquittal. They are flat guilty, but because Jesus has paid the fine they walk free. For most Christians their hope of deliverance from sin is the grave. We preach a religion that is a promise to get people into heaven, but the whole purpose of the New Covenant is to get heaven into us right now! The main purpose of the New Covenant is not to exempt people from obeying the law but to enable them to live a righteous, clean, life right now. Thank God He will forgive our sin, but, please, God, open my eyes to see how You have provided for me to live like a child born of Your Spirit today.
This morning I was thinking that there are three external Jesus floating around today. I am not sure there are only three, but this is what I came up with. There is the historical Jesus. He was the man who was here 2,000 years ago. He was a good man and left a lot of good things with us. He inaccurately got tagged with starting a new religion. He was pacifistic and told us that God loved us.
The second Jesus is the literary Jesus. He is the Jesus of the Bible. We know about Him by reading and studying the Bible. This is the dispensation Jesus. He did a lot of miracles and allowed His disciple to do miracles for several decades. But after He gave us the complete cannon of the Scripture we have the Bible now and that is all we need. We learn about the literary Jesus from the Bible, books, and messages. He tell us how we should live and promises us eternal life – mostly after we die.
The third Jesus is the happy Jesus. He is the good guy in heaven tossing down endless blessings. He want us to be happy and prosperous. He want us to have a good time and be exempt from problems. With a great God like that who would desire more?
But the real Jesus is the internal One who lives in our heart giving us a desire to know God and fulfilling it as He has begotten us as Sons of His Father in heaven. We are in the family of God and heaven has come to live in us right now.
Oh praise God!
bill
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