Question, if the only difference between the old covenant and the new covenant is the blood of Jesus, why have a new covenant at all? I listened to a minister teaching on 1Peter this week who said the only reason old covenant saints could not go to heaven when they died was because the blood of animals could not wash sins away; it could only cover them. So if this is the only difference why was a new covenant needed? The fulfillment of all aspects of the old covenant should provide eternal life if this is the case.
However, when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper with His disciples, He said, “This cup is the new testament in my blood,” Luke 22:30. Mark states it this way, “This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.” The word translated testament and the word covenant is the exact same Greek word. Even though Jesus’ death fulfilled the old covenant law, according to the book of Hebrews, Jesus signed the new covenant, putting it into force, with His blood. When Jesus said, “This cup is the new testament in my blood,” He was saying this is the ratifying power of the new covenant.
So what is a covenant? A covenant is a legal contract drawn up between two entities for the mutual benefit of each party. Each contract has clauses stating the responsibilities of each party. An example might be the contract you sign with your television provider. The provider agrees to provide you with television service if you pay them a monthly fee. The contract might also specify how the contract might be broken and what the repercussions might be in such a case.
The old covenant was drawn up between the Jews, a group of people God had separated out unto Himself, starting with one man and then choosing His seed after Him until He had built a whole nation and race, and God. The old covenant, also called the law because it was this covenant that governed how the Jews interacted with God, provided righteousness and the benefits of living in a righteous manner before God. You see, God wants to bless mankind because He loves us; He created us and is proud of His creation, but mankind sinned against God in the beginning and God cannot bless this behavior. His desire to bless mankind was so great however, that He sought ways around this dilemma. The old covenant was one way God found to bless some of mankind while mankind still sinned against Him.
God instituted a covenant with Jews that enumerated God’s requirements for righteousness, or right behavior. This covenant also provided a covering for unrighteousness, or wrong behavior. Thus, the Jews could strive for God’s definition of right behavior but also had a mechanism for covering wrong behavior. Jesus was born a Jew of Jewish parents; Jesus was born under the authority of old covenant law. Jesus lived up to God’s standard for righteousness under old covenant law perfectly, then died according to one who was guilty of breaking each commandment of that law and by so doing, fulfilled the contract God had made with the Jews. A contract that has been fulfilled, or filled up, is no longer valid.
If you were to have a lawyer draw up a contract between yourself and a builder to build a house, once the house was built and all the covenants satisfied, the contract would be fulfilled, it would no longer be valid. You can scream and holler and fight and fuss all you want to but you will not get the builder to do anything more for you once the contract has been fulfilled. The same is true for the person for whom the house was built. There is nothing further required once the contract has been fulfilled.
Jesus died under the authority of the old covenant, His blood was shed under the authority of the old covenant but Jesus said, “This cup is the new testament in my blood,” and, “This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.” Remember, the word testament is the same word covenant with the same meaning. Now, this sets up a conundrum. If Jesus’ blood fulfilled the old covenant law, the demand of the law for righteousness, how does it also pertain to the new covenant? The book of Hebrews answers this question. Jesus died on the cross, just as dead as any man that lived before Him but Jesus was raised from the dead, gathered up His blood, and went to heaven to sign a new covenant with His blood.
The blood of Jesus accomplished two things. It completed the old covenant and rolled it up like a scroll but it also established a new covenant; a new covenant with a new standard for righteousness and new blessings to be bestowed. The blood of Jesus did not just fulfill the old covenant’s requirement for righteousness and promised blessings; it established an entirely new standard and even greater blessings. The reason old covenant saints did not go to heaven was because the old covenant did not promise eternal life. Can I say that again for emphasis? The old covenant had no provision of life everlasting. So even with Jesus’ blood the old covenant cannot deliver something it did not promise.
Since the blood of Jesus is tied to both the old and new covenants, modern Gentile believers can access Jesus’ perfect keeping of the old covenants standard for righteousness. If they reckon themselves dead in Christ, since Christ is raised from the dead, the believer is also raised; just as Jesus was raised in the new covenant; the believer is also raised in the new covenant and is now responsible for keeping the law of life in Christ Jesus.
Every covenant has a law that governs the relationship between God and man. Adam was in covenant with God. The Adamic covenant had one commandment that governed Adam’s relationship with God. As long as Adam kept that commandment, he was in covenant with God and enjoyed the fellowship of God and His blessings. New covenant believers aren’t responsible for keeping old covenant commandments, Jesus already did that, but most Christians aren’t new covenant believers.
The man I heard teaching 1Peter this week was not a new covenant believer. He believed Jesus’ blood washes away sins; he did not believe Jesus authored a new covenant and signed it with His blood. He believed eternal life was promised by the old covenant and the only reason old covenant saints could not access it was because the blood of animals was not sufficient to wash sins away. What I find is that most Christians believe they must keep the Ten Commandments, commandments of the old covenant law, commandments Jesus kept perfectly, and transgressions against those commandments must be repented of and washed by Jesus’ blood but that is old covenant theology.
New covenant theology states that Jesus arose from the dead, collected His blood, and took it to heaven where He sprinkled it over the furniture of the heavenly tabernacle, Hebrews 9. Jesus’ perfect keeping of the old covenant law is imputed to all who accept His death as payment for their sin. According to 1John2:2, Jesus died for the sins of the entire world. In other words, “Jesus took our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness,” 1Peter2:24. Those who reckon themselves, “dead in Christ” are no longer answerable to the old covenant’s definition of unrighteousness. They are “free from sin,” Romans 6:18. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all, Hebrews 10:10.
Jesus does not have to die over and over again to provide blood to wash believers of their sins, according to new covenant theology. All who accept His payment for sin on the cross are forever sanctified. “For by one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified,” Hebrews 10:14. Now, perhaps we need to get around to answering the question, “What is sin?” Sin is the transgression of God’s law, God’s commandments, but God’s commandments change with each covenant. If you subscribe to new covenant theology; “Jesus took your sin in His own body on the tree and you, being dead to sin, live now unto righteousness.” By fulfilling God’s definition of righteousness (the old covenant law) Jesus forever delivered believers in His death from keeping old covenant commandments.
Old covenant theology states there must be a sacrifice for each sin. Old covenant theologians would say there is a deep pool of Jesus’ blood somewhere, an unlimited supply, to cover each transgression against old covenant law and each transgression must be repented of, forgiven, and washed clean. They will tell you, you cannot run out of blood to cover your sin.
Now, let us consider Romans 5:13. Romans 5:13 states: “Sin is not imputed where there is no law.” What Paul is saying is what I just stated in the previous paragraph. Sin, by definition is the transgression of a law (commandment) of God. If there is no commandment there is no transgression against it and no sin as a result. Paul confirms this in Romans 4:15: “Where no law is, there is no transgression.” That’s not to say that mankind is guiltless without law for when Adam sinned, sin entered into the world. The thing is; there are two types of sin. There is the sin that is generic like all mankind was born into sin and there is the sin that is specific like the sin that is imputed against you for transgressing a specific commandment. John also states, “Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law.”
Now remember, we are comparing old and new covenant theology. The Church was established by Jews who were familiar with the old covenant. All of the New Testament writers struggled to get believers to understand the difference between the old and new covenants. John, in 1John is trying to point out the difference between the two covenants. Thus when he states, “Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law,” he is warning of old covenant theology. If Jesus fulfilled the law, there is no law to transgress but if believers define sin by old covenant law they will transgress the law and commit sin. The new covenant believer does not commit sin because he reckons himself dead to the law and alive to God.
One problem we have in convincing believers of new covenant theology is the conscious of man. God placed in each of us a conscious but our conscious is not a reliable source of information. Walk into any prison and 99% of the inhabitants will swear they are innocent. It’s not that they didn’t do the crime, but they had a good reason for doing it. They were justified in their actions due to circumstances beyond their control. Most every Christian has a different definition of righteousness, depending on what their conscious says is right. Every denomination defines righteousness differently. If we allow our own conscious to dictate our behavior we will never measure up to God’s standard of righteousness. It is the sin of Adam. Adam did what was right in his own eyes and so does every Christian on earth today. Paul, and John, and Peter, all warned against following your own brand of righteousness.
Now, every covenant has a different definition of righteousness. Consider it from the world’s point of view. The contract with your television provider defines right behavior differently than the contract you have with your builder and God’s covenants have been no different. They all required obedience but the commandments have been different. Adam was required not to eat of one particular tree; Abraham was required to seek a city built by God in the land of Canaan, and the Jews had many commandments. The new covenant made with all mankind is no different. It has commandments that must be kept in order to stay in right standing with the God of the new covenant.
I guess we might say the first commandment is that you must reckon yourself dead to the old covenant though it is not stated as such. One cannot fully be a member of the new covenant until they have left the old covenant behind. Paul and James and Peter and John, all said so. However, the principal commandments were issued by Jesus after He had been highly exalted by His Father and before He ascended into heaven. The first commandment was to saturate yourself daily with the Spirit of God. The commandment to wait for the baptism with the Spirit is a commandment to saturate yourself with the Spirit. The baptism happens when the gift of tongues flows out of your heart. You see, each person who accepts Jesus as Saviour is given the Holy Spirit as a well of Living Water deep in their heart. The point then is to let the Living Water flow out in response to Jesus’ first commandment. It is by saturating yourself with the Holy Spirit each day that you achieve immortality.
The second commandment Jesus left His Church was to preach this gospel, the gospel of the new covenant, to everyone. Each and every new covenant Christian must keep this commandment. Whether you preach to one or thousands is immaterial. You see, the old covenant first believers in the new covenant were confused about which commandments had to be kept in order to stay in right standing with God. They were confused as to which covenant was valid and where the dividing line between the two was. The apostles tried their best to show the people the truth but their authority was undermined by others who wanted control over the Church for their own sensibilities. The gift of tongues is clearly the focal point of new covenant Christianity, just consider 1Corinthians 14. With all the excess the Church at Corinth was experiencing, Paul seemed to encourage their excess more than he encouraged order in their services.
However, order is more important than obedience to most of mankind and without proper understanding into the role of the gift of tongues in new covenant salvation, believers mixed old covenant theology and new covenant theology together and this is the gospel preached today in most churches. The difference between Jesus the Saviour and Jesus the Lord is three days, a blink of the eye in eternity, yet most churches preach the gospel of the Saviour; they preach old covenant theology and add Jesus’ blood to cover sins instead of the blood of animals. Otherwise everything is the same. The third commandment of Jesus, the Lord, is to disciple. The word disciple means, to teach. In order to teach new covenant theology, one must first understand new covenant theology.
There are two phrases that pretty much sums up old and new covenant theology. 1Peter 2:24 states, “Jesus took our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness.” Ephesians 2:1 states, “And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sin.” The two phrases are “dead in sin” and “dead to sin.” What most Christians don’t realize is that to be dead in sin is to define sin by old covenant law. If you define sin by old covenant law you will forever be a sinner and forever need a Saviour to die for your sin, keeping Jesus on that cross perpetually to shed more and more blood to cover your sin. If, however, we are buried with Christ, the definitions of old covenant law do not apply to us. You cannot trespass a law that doesn’t exist. Jesus kept the old covenant law perfectly, then died under the penalties for disobedience. By faith in the substitutionary death of Jesus, new covenant believers are clothed with Jesus’ perfect keeping of old covenant law; they are clothed with God’s definition of righteousness. No one can be any more righteous than they are by faith in Jesus’ death.
Since they are now transferred from the old covenant into the new covenant, the old covenant law falls away behind them and the new covenant law comes into focus before them. In each of the verses that speak of Christians being dead to sin, the phrase is followed by, alive to God, or live unto righteousness. To live unto righteousness or be alive unto God is to keep Jesus’ commandments; the first commandment being the critical or most important one. Those who saturate themselves with God every day have less inclination to commit acts that would be considered sin.
I’m sure some of you are now wondering about 1John 1:9. Let me ask you a question, “What if John were writing this book to a church that subscribed to old covenant theology?” If this were true, in verse six he would be asking them how they could think they could be in fellowship with Jesus while denying the commandments He issued the Church. Light has no fellowship with darkness (v.5). Again, if we walk in darkness by denying the commandments of the Lord and “say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (v.8). However, if we confess we are walking in darkness and turn to the light, “He is faithful and just to forgive us our transgression, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” To sin against the new covenant law is unrighteousness. “If we say we have not sinned” (in ignoring Jesus’ commandments), “we make Him a liar” because we are saying that He did not command us, “and His Word is not in us” (v.10). Old covenant theology states that Christians are not responsible for keeping Jesus’ first commandment. If we say Jesus did not command us, we make Him a liar and the truth is not in us. The blood of Jesus is the ratifying power of the new covenant and it is the keeping of the new covenant that washes us from our sin of denying the commandments of the new covenant.
If we are no longer responsible for the keeping of old covenant law we are on a completely new playing field. It would be like trying to play basketball on a tennis court or baseball on a basketball court. If Jesus actually “took our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness,” then we no longer must confess sins against the old covenant laws; we no longer need the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from our sins; all we need to do is to keep the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ and live unto righteousness. This was the teaching of John and Charles Wesley; the founders of the modern Methodist Church.
The problem with this teaching is mankind has a conscious. And when our conscious begins to convict us of some wrongdoing, either real or imaginary, we give credence to our conscious instead of God who says all our sins were placed on Jesus. We begin to seek forgiveness and seek to be washed of our sin even though God says we are on a completely new field of play. Our sins, both real and imaginary, were placed on Jesus before we were born. He paid for transgressions against old covenant law, wiping the old covenant definitions away. But we can’t let it go and would prefer to be in bondage to sin we can be forgiven of than to be free of sin in Christ Jesus.
The only problem is; there is no endless pool of Jesus’ blood to wash away sin. The Jews had to kill thousands of animals to get enough blood to cover their sins under the old covenant definition. The only thing new covenant Christians need is the new covenant. It is by keeping the covenant that we are proclaimed righteous in God’s eyes. If we sin in not keeping the Lord’s commandments one day, the remedy is not being washed by Jesus’ blood; the remedy is to obey. As soon as you realize you have failed to saturate yourself with His Spirit, just start speaking in tongues. You are immediately righteous in God’s eyes and isn’t it His eyes that count?
Look, in Acts 1:4, Jesus commanded the founding members of the Church to wait for the baptism with the Spirit. The word Jesus used to issue this commandment is the strongest word meaning to command in the Greek language. Moreover, Jesus has just been given all power in heaven and in earth to issue this commandment. So, does it really seem prudent to ignore it exists? This is the captain of your salvation issuing this commandment. Do you really think you are going to make it to heaven while ignoring the Lord’s commandment? While ignoring the authority of Jesus to issue it? How can Jesus be Lord if you ignore His authority to command His Church? Since when can one man’s obedience fill up obedience for all men? Since Jesus commanded the Church, all members of the Church are responsible for obedience.
When the baptism with the Spirit happened to those first believers they spoke in tongues and you will to. That’s how you know you’ve been saturated (baptized) with His Spirit. A bucket that has water in it is not saturated. The water has to be inside the bucket and outside the bucket for saturation to occur. Likewise, Christians must allow the Holy Spirit to flow out of the hearts before they become saturated and when the Holy Spirit flows out of your heart, He will manifest His presence as tongues; a language you never learned. This saturation must occur daily. Jesus said, “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me and he that loves me will be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest myself to him,” John 14:21. Are you seeking the manifestation of Jesus? You must keep His commandments.