COVENANT'S OLD VERSUS NEW
13/04/18 10:29
covenant |ˈkəvənənt|
noun
an agreement.
• Law a contract drawn up by deed.
• Law a clause in a contract.
I hear it all the time, “That does not apply, it’s Old Testament, we are under a New Covenant”. More times than not, the statement is being made by an individual who refuses to believe, or does not want to do, a task commanded in Holy Scripture.
A covenant is a contract or agreement. All contracts have conditions set for both parties; works to be done by both parties and the reacting results based on the completion of the agreed task. Yet, those who use the “we are in a New Covenant” phrase, actually refuse to believe there is anything to do on our part; other than believing Christ is real. James says,
“You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead”
(James 2:19-20).
He continues to say,
“You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only”
(James 2:24).
What James is essentially saying is, if you only sign the Covenant, but don’t perform the conditions of your side of the Covenant, what you have done is useless. It’s useless because the other party does not have to keep His side when we are breaching the Covenant on our side.
Yes, there is a passage which reads we are not saved by our works (Eph 2:8). In the way taught, this causes a contradiction in Scripture; yet, what Scripture is saying as a whole is that none of us are deserving of salvation, because we’ve all sinned, salvation is a gift of God, a gift that teaches us to live godly and righteously, doing good works for God because we understand the gravity of this gift (Titus 2:11-14).
By some mistranslations of words, the attempt to add words to the Hebrew language, and a misteaching of Scripture due to a lack of true study; people are believing a lie. Yet, this is not hard to discover if one would enter into an unadulterated study of Holy Scripture.
The point of Old Covenant versus New, Salvation, and a Christian walk is vastly mistaught. This is not a purposeful deception in most cases, it’s actually due to the laziness to the things of God. As our lives are filled with new time wasters, the things of God are typically the first things that must go. A person has to work, this is required or one will not eat, then there's the children’s ball games, dinner out, the movies, boats, television series, sports games, motorcycles, Jeeps, and the many other distractions. My wife was listening to a Christian radio station called the FISH, when a caller called and said he had playoff tickets but had already committed himself to a revival type service at church. He wanted to cancel the church but did not know how right it would be. Surprisingly, the host of FISH told him “God would understand”
1 John 2:15-17
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever”
The actions and condition of the church, and professing Christians today, is that which is warned about in 2 Timothy chapter 3, “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God... ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim 3:4, 7).
I’ve done a series on Salvation already, in this series, we are going to look at the Covenant’s - Old and New.
Part 2 - Defining Law
noun
an agreement.
• Law a contract drawn up by deed.
• Law a clause in a contract.
I hear it all the time, “That does not apply, it’s Old Testament, we are under a New Covenant”. More times than not, the statement is being made by an individual who refuses to believe, or does not want to do, a task commanded in Holy Scripture.
A covenant is a contract or agreement. All contracts have conditions set for both parties; works to be done by both parties and the reacting results based on the completion of the agreed task. Yet, those who use the “we are in a New Covenant” phrase, actually refuse to believe there is anything to do on our part; other than believing Christ is real. James says,
“You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead”
(James 2:19-20).
He continues to say,
“You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only”
(James 2:24).
What James is essentially saying is, if you only sign the Covenant, but don’t perform the conditions of your side of the Covenant, what you have done is useless. It’s useless because the other party does not have to keep His side when we are breaching the Covenant on our side.
Yes, there is a passage which reads we are not saved by our works (Eph 2:8). In the way taught, this causes a contradiction in Scripture; yet, what Scripture is saying as a whole is that none of us are deserving of salvation, because we’ve all sinned, salvation is a gift of God, a gift that teaches us to live godly and righteously, doing good works for God because we understand the gravity of this gift (Titus 2:11-14).
By some mistranslations of words, the attempt to add words to the Hebrew language, and a misteaching of Scripture due to a lack of true study; people are believing a lie. Yet, this is not hard to discover if one would enter into an unadulterated study of Holy Scripture.
The point of Old Covenant versus New, Salvation, and a Christian walk is vastly mistaught. This is not a purposeful deception in most cases, it’s actually due to the laziness to the things of God. As our lives are filled with new time wasters, the things of God are typically the first things that must go. A person has to work, this is required or one will not eat, then there's the children’s ball games, dinner out, the movies, boats, television series, sports games, motorcycles, Jeeps, and the many other distractions. My wife was listening to a Christian radio station called the FISH, when a caller called and said he had playoff tickets but had already committed himself to a revival type service at church. He wanted to cancel the church but did not know how right it would be. Surprisingly, the host of FISH told him “God would understand”
1 John 2:15-17
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever”
The actions and condition of the church, and professing Christians today, is that which is warned about in 2 Timothy chapter 3, “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God... ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim 3:4, 7).
I’ve done a series on Salvation already, in this series, we are going to look at the Covenant’s - Old and New.
Part 2 - Defining Law