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Throne of Grace
The Book of Hebrews is unique among the
New Testament epistles.
It really is more of a theological treatise than it is a letter. Some have assumed it was written by Paul, but if so, it certainly bears an entirely different form than Paul’s other epistles. The book begins with this powerful declaration:
God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the
fathers by the prophets,
has in these last days
spoken to us by His Son…
(Hebrews 1:1, 2).
The writer (whoever he was) goes on to declare, through many different ways and using
many
different arguments,
the superiority of Jesus Christ
and
His New Covenant
over Moses and the Old Covenant. He seems concerned that some Jewish believers are being drawn back into a dependence on their Judaism and
forsaking their exclusive dependence upon Jesus Christ.
He gives some of the most severe warnings found in the New Testament, aimed at those
who have professed Jesus
and then drawn back from a
total confidence in Him.
In one such warning he declares:
Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end (Hebrews 3:12-14).
In saying that we partake of Christ if we hold fast our confidence to the end, he strongly implies that if we do not hold that confidence to the end, we are notpartakers of Jesus. Theologians may argue whether this means one loses their salvation or whether it simply proves they were never saved in the first place, but one way or the other, if you stop trusting in and depending on Christ, you are in big trouble. The book was written primarily for Jews, but the Holy Spirit clearly intended that these truths be made clear to all who profess the Savior. After all, the tendency to draw away from Christ after eagerly embracing Him is not merely a Jewish problem; it is a human problem. In generations past it used to be called backsliding. You don’t hear the term much anymore, but we surely see the concept lived out in the lives of many who slowly evolved from red-hot to lukewarm to ice-cold in the things relating to Jesus Christ.
A New, Superior Covenant
The writer is not only eager to impress Jesus upon his readers; he also makes much about the covenant which He establishes with those who believe on Him. In the midst of his marvelous essay he shares a wonderful description of the nature of that covenant. He is comparing this covenant to the Mosaic covenant, so his target audience is the Jews, but his description of the New Covenant applies to every believer, Jew or Gentile.
His concise and beautiful portrayal of the New Covenant is found in the eighth chapter. He begins by announcing that there was a problem with that first covenant which made it necessary for God to establish a New Covenant:
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah (Hebrews 8:7, 8).
That Old Covenant should have and would have worked beautifully – if it were not for the flawed, selfish nature of those with whom it was made. And of course, those Old Testament Jews were a symbol for every one of us. The problem was us: sinful, lustful, greedy, selfish, independent, rebellious humanity. We simply didn’t have it in us to follow God’s laws and ways and earn His favor. Whether God had chosen Jews or Americans or Russians, or Nigerians, the result of that first covenant would have been exactly the same. We all would have failed and ended up bringing a curse upon ourselves rather than a blessing.
Here’s a news flash: God wasn’t the least bit surprised when the Jews failed to live up to their end of the covenant. He knew this would be the case! He never intended that this covenant be a means of establishing a holy people for Himself. It was simply a cosmic demonstration of the failure of human willpower, human initiative, and human goodness to fulfill the laws of God. God gave the Jewish “students” in this laboratory a big fat F for failure. And though we Gentiles do not have the law as our test, we, too receive an F for failing to follow the laws of conscience, the laws of decency and goodness and kindness. We all fail miserably.
And this failure brought about the necessity of the New Covenant, which is infinitely superior and enables us, with all our flaws and failures, to receive not just a passing grade, but an A+, given as a benefit of the cross and righteousness of Jesus Christ. We are told that: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Let’s take a closer look at this New Covenant.
Components of the New Covenant
Component # 1: God’s Laws in Our Hearts In the eighth chapter of Hebrews the writer gives us three main components of the New Covenant which make it work and succeed where the Old Testament failed. The first has to do with the placement of God’s laws and ways:
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts (Hebrews 8:10).
Where was God’s law to be found under the Old Covenant? It started out on stone tablets, written by the hand of God. Later those original ten commandments plus many other commandments given to Moses were copied onto scrolls and carefully copied and recopied onto other scrolls by men who made it their life work to copy every single word and letter precisely as they were in the original. These men were called scribes and were considered very holy and very privileged men to be able to have such constant access to the laws and words of God. The average Jew would have had almost no contact with the Scriptures, save that which he or she was taught by the priests.
Somehow having God’s holy laws written on stone and scrolls had never really worked. The problem was that the hearts of men and women were not changed. They could hear the laws and perhaps even appreciate them and declare them righteous. They just couldn’t consistently follow them. Although it was not expressed in such terms, their problem was an indwelling sin nature that dominated them. Much later on, Paul would describe this nature as “the flesh.” It rules to such a degree that good intentions and noble aspirations become impotent and futile.
In Romans, Paul writes:
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin… For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find (Romans 7: 14, 18).
That was the old way. But now in Hebrews we find that the law of God is written not merely on stone or paper, but on our hearts. This is referring to the indwelling Holy Spirit who is given to every child of God. And when He comes in, He comes complete with all the ways, desires, laws, and passions of God – for He is God. The ways and laws of God are no longer something we read about; they are imprinted on our hearts, living and pulsing within us day and night. And they bring far more than just a mental knowledge of what God wants for us. They bring the power and presence of God which make it possible for us to actually do what He wants. We receive both the knowledge of God’s ways and the motivation to keep those ways. The Scriptures tell us: “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
The Old Covenant motivation was the whip and the carrot: “Obey Me and I will bless you like crazy; disobey Me and I will curse everything you touch.” One would think that this might work, but in fact it was a dismal failure. The New Covenant which would replace it was foreseen by the prophet Ezekiel, who wrote:
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them (Ezekiel 36:26, 27).
Notice: “You will keep My judgments…” Not “You might keep them,” or “You’d better keep them,” but “You will keep them.” God’s indwelling Spirit, given exclusively to New Covenant believers in Jesus, makes this a reality.
Component # 2: All Shall Know Me Under the Old Covenant there were always a select few who experienced God in an intimate way: Moses, David, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, and other prophets and people (usually men) especially anointed for specific tasks. But the average Israelite had almost no personal knowledge of God. A very few really knew Him; most did not. Even in the matter of offering sacrifices the common people required a priest to “make atonement for them.” But under the New Covenant it is different. In Hebrews we read:
And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them (Hebrews 8:10, 11).
God declares that through the New Covenant based on the blood of His Son, every last believer shall have a personal relationship with Him. We need no special priest or holy man to go to God on our behalf. We can all enjoy fellowship with God, we can all be filled with the Holy Spirit, we can all hear the voice of God. Jesus declared, “My sheep hear my voice,” not “my pastors hear my voice,” or “My bishops hear my voice” or “My holy, praying, fasting, super-saints hear My voice.” Just “My sheep” – common everyday people: plumbers and department store clerks, mechanics and computer experts, doctors and dentists, and all the rest that make up the great big, disparate body of Christ. It is our heritage through the everlasting covenant of Jesus Christ to hear God’s voice, to experience His Holy Spirit touching our hearts, and to sense that quiet witness within us, telling us that we are the children of God.
Component # 3: Forgiveness of Sins In the third component the writer is reminding us of the one prerequisite which makes all the benefits of the New Covenant possible, the forgiveness of our sins. He writes:
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more (Hebrews 8:12).
In the act of the new birth, three great events are intermingling to such a degree that it is impossible to say where one begins and the other ends. Those three events are: repentance, faith, and forgiveness. Like a three-legged stool, remove any one of them and the others cannot stand. But where genuine repentance and faith in Jesus are present, the forgiveness of sins is certain to be found. And this forgiveness, resulting in a permanent state called justification, is at the heart of this New Covenant which is so infinitely superior to the Old one. Guilt, condemnation, a lawless past, a history of shame, a reputation of wickedness… all are wiped away in a moment through the power of the cross, the blood, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Heart of It All
These three components make up the essence of what Jesus came to this earth to accomplish in the lives of men and women. God’s great desire for every human on our planet is that we might know Him, be indwelt by Him, and live in a state of forgiveness and justification. It is a glorious inheritance, courtesy of our Savior. May we never shrink back, but keep on believing, keep on trusting, keep on depending on Jesus until that Day when we see Him face to face!
Covenant is a mutual agreement between two parties.
The two parties in the spiritual covenant are God and man.
Every covenant has terms and conditions. The party that makes the covenant has conditions laid down and promises a reward to the second party. God is the first party that makes the covenant and God’s people are the second party that has to obey the terms of the covenant, and receives a reward at the end.
Paradise lost
In the beginning God made a beautiful earth filled with life and beauty and presented the same to the head of the human race. He made Adam the ruler and king of this lovely planet untainted with the miasma of sin. Adam and Eve were God’s representatives on earth and His reflection as well.
Man was to populate this earth and live forever. God would be our God forever and we would be His people forever. Peace and joy and happiness would reign in the hearts of every person and the entire creation would sing for joy and glorify the Maker.
As God is a God of love, He doesn’t force even good things upon us. The representative of the human race(Adam) had to decide whether he wanted these wonderful gifts from God, or whether he wanted to reject it and return to the dust again. He had to show his acceptance or rejection of God’s bountiful gifts in action. Unfortunately our first parents were tricked by the devil and severed their connection from God and life itself. The words of judgment fell upon their trembling souls,
Genesis 3:19, “For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
Nevertheless God did not forsake them to their doom. He gave them and the human race another chance, a second chance. The first promise of the coming Messiah was narrated in the Garden.
“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15).
God would restore humanity again through Christ. They were given “coats of skins” (Genesis 3:21) as a token of the new covenant relationship that comes to us through the shed blood and the ministry of Christ, for fallen humanity.
The covenant promise
Two thousand years after Adam, God found a special friend in Abraham. James 2:23 says, “he was called the Friend of God.”
God picks him up for a special purpose in His great plan. The seed of the covenant relationship of how God saves, that was told to Adam and Eve, God elaborates it to Abraham. He restores humanity in the same way.
Genesis 17:7, 8, “And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”
God promised a few things in those two verses.
The land of Canaan was a symbol of something very big. It was a figure of a bigger picture. Paul understood by inspiration the true meaning of what that phrase “all the land of Canaan” meant. All the land of Canaan meant the whole world. Paul wrote,
“For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world” (Romans 4:13).
The promise fulfilled
In the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis, the promise was recorded. In the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, the fulfillment of the promise is beautifully penned down.
Revelation 21:1-4, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
Yes, in the covenant, God promised that Abraham and his seed would possess the earth forever; in Revelation we see it’s the new earth they posses forever. God promised Abraham that He would be their God and they would be His people; the exact statement is recorded in the fulfillment in Revelation as well. God promised Abraham that every one in the covenant would possess the land for ever, which means they would live forever; in the fulfillment, in the book of Revelation, we see there is not going to be death at all!
The terms of the covenant
Every covenant, even what humans make with each other, has not just promise at the end but conditions to be fulfilled first. When an employee signs a contract with his employer, it is the employer that lays down the terms and conditions and promises a reward to the employee for fulfilling those terms. And once it is legally agreed upon the contract begins.
God is the employer in this business of salvation. Therefore He is the one to lay down the terms and conditions to man. The same covenant that God promised our first parents in the Garden, and expounded it to Abraham two thousand years later, God made it a legal issue with the chosen nation, the seed of Abraham, five hundred years after Abraham.
God came down upon Mount Sinai, with tens of thousands of angelic witnesses to ratify the covenant with His people.
Deuteronomy 33:2, “And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.”
How do we know the “ten thousands of saints” are angels? The Hebrew word for saints is also translated as “holy ones”. The New Testament interprets to us that they were angels. Stephen said of the very scene at Mount Sinai,
“Who have received the law by the disposition of angels”(Acts 7:53)
The angels of glory came to witness this legal document that God would write, speak and handover to His people. What a scene it was at the mountain of God!
The word of God has recorded the scene prior to the giving of the Decalogue.
Exodus 19:18, 19, “And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder.”
After God spoke the law in the hearing of the entire nation, Moses ascended the mountain and received various other instructions from God. Finally Moses comes down with the written copy of the Ten Commandments, written with the finer of God. This law, the Ten Commandments, is called the “words of the covenant”.
Exodus 34:28, “And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.”
God promised to take this nation to the land of promise but it was not without conditions. It is terrible to see how they could take a complete u-turn and wanted to return to Egypt!
Numbers 14:4, “And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.”
This is rebellion against God and rejection of the very first commandment that talks about God delivering them out of Egypt!
Exodus 20:1 “And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
They also rebelled against the second commandment when they made a golden calf. They rebelled against the third commandment when the murmuring all the time in the wilderness against the name of the Lord. They rebelled against the fourth commandment when they went to collect manna when God said there would be no manna on the Sabbath day. The broke all the Ten Commandments literally. But the fact of the matter is,
“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” (James 2:10)
Since they did not fulfill the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments”—God did not fulfill his promise to them to bring them to the land of milk and honey.
Psalm 95:10, 11, “Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.”
Only the ones who did not rebel, Joshua and Caleb from the men, and the little ones, God brought them to the Promised Land.
The entering into the heavenly Canaan
Joshua led the children of Israel into the earthly Promised Land. Again, it’s Joshua, but another Joshua, who will lead us into the heavenly Promised Land. The name “Jesus” is “Joshua” in the original language! That is why the translators of the Bible were not in the book of Hebrews. Instead of translating it as Joshua, they translated Hebrews 4:8 as Jesus.
“For if Jesus had given them rest…” (Hebrews 4:8)
We know Jesus gives us rest indeed!
Look at the language of God when He comes to take His people to heaven. He is not going to take all, but He is going to take only the covenant keeping people, just like He did in the exodus journey.
Psalm 50:3-5, “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
The people who are gathered are called “saints’ because they have “made a covenant” with God. They are in a covenant relationship with Him. Since they have met the requirements of the covenant God fulfills His promise to take them to the Promised Land.
In the book of Revelation this scene is again portrayed. These saints are mentioned there as well. And you will see the same truth penned down.
Revelation 14:12, 14, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus…And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.”
Just as in Psalm 50, the Lord is portrayed coming as judge in Revelation 14. In both the chapters the ones gathered are called “saints”; and in both the chapters they are shown to be the ones who “keep the commandments of God” (Revelation 14:12) and have “made a covenant with me” (Psalm 50:5). Exodus 34:28 declares the “words of the covenant, the ten commandments”.
The last chapter of Revelation confirms the same truth that covenant or commandment keepers will enter the heavenly Canaan, just as it was the case of the earthly Canaan.
Revelation 22:12, 14, “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”
The Two Covenants
The scripture mentions two covenants—the old covenant and the new covenant.
Jeremiah 31:31-33, “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
Some assume that the old covenant was made with the children of Israel in the Old Testament and the new covenant is made with the Christians in the New Testament. That is not true. Both the covenants are made with the “house of Israel and with the house of Judah” and that represents God’s people in both the Old and the New Testament.
Why did God have to make a new covenant? The apostle Paul tells us that the first covenant was faulty. And where was the fault? Was it with God who made the covenant, or was it with the words of the covenant—the law of God, or was the fault with the people who agreed to be in a covenant relationship with God? Obliviously the fault cannot be with God who is perfect, and it cannot be with His law which is also called perfect, in both the Old and the New Testament.
Psalm 19:7, “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul”
James 1:25, “But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty”.
Let us read what Paul wrote, and see where the fault lied.
Hebrews 8:7-9, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.”
Paul wrote, “Finding fault with them”. Who is that “them”? It’s the people. What was their fault? “Because they continued not in my covenant”! Didn’t they promise to obey God’s law and keep the covenant when God declared it?
Exodus 24:7, “…and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.” And right at the base of Mount Sinai, after God spoke His law and before they received it in writing on stones, they broke the covenant by making a golden calf and worshiping it. Their promise was so short lived! Moved with Godly zeal Moses breaks the two tables of stone which symbolized that sin is the breaking of the law
Exodus 32: 19, “And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.”
The law was the spiritual marriage contract between God and His people. The Marriage took place at Sinai, and God threatened immediate divorce for unfaithfulness—for spiritual adultery. Jeremiah records the pain of the divine husband.
“Which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 31:32).
God and Moses got together in an intimate dialogue and for Moses’ sake God changes His mind. God then re-writes the law again.
Deuteronomy 10:2, “And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark.”
It was the same Ten Commandments, and the same God and the same people. But the promise, this time, God makes, and not man! Paul writes,
“Better covenant, which was established upon better promises.” (Hebrews 8:6)
The only difference between the old covenant and the new covenant is the “promise”.
Even though the intent is there and the intent is right, man cannot fulfill the high and holy demands of the holy law of God. Divine strength and grace is required to obey. As God’s finger wrote the holy law on earthly stones, God’s Holy Spirit would write the holy law on the willing human hearts as well.
Hebrews 10:15,16, “Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them”
The Allegory
Just like the father of the human race, Adam, failed the test, the father of faith, Abraham, failed a test as well. As there were two trees in Adam’s Eden house—the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, there were two women in Abraham’s house—Sarah and Hagar. As the tree of knowledge of good and evil was not Adam’s property, Hagar was not Abraham’s property as well. As Eve gave Adam the forbidden fruit, Sarah gave Abraham the forbidden woman to bear fruit.
The apostle Paul compared Sarah and Isaac on one hand with Hagar and Ishmael on the other hand to the two covenants. Abraham was in the center of both.
Galatians 4:22-24, “For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants.”
One child of Abraham was by flesh; the fruit his own labor. The other child of Abraham was by promise; it was the fruit of God’s work. The apostle wrote,
“Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar… But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.” (Galatians 4:24, 26).
Like the children of Israel promised to fulfill the law of God on their own, at Mount Sinai, but miserably failed, their father Abraham, attempted to fulfill the promise of God on His own and miserably failed. Why couldn’t both fulfill the promises?
Sarah’s womb was dead already. Paul writes about “The deadness of Sarah's womb” in Romans 4:19. All human efforts of Abraham to bear seed through Sarah would only fail as her womb was dead. The children of Israel too, and all humanity for that matter, cannot bear divine fruit, because our case is no better than Sarah’s dead womb. We are all declared, “Dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). That was a dead womb; we are in a dead tomb!
Only an act of God, in resurrecting our dead condition can fulfill the promise. To obey the law of God, in the fallen human nature, is beyond human efforts because we are spiritually dead.
When Abraham finally realized that he indeed cannot fulfill the word of God, he attempted to fulfill it outside the prescribed method of God. And his fruit, called Ishmael, was rejected because he was the unlawful fruit of Abraham, as far as God was concerned.
The same way, we who have accepted to be in a covenant relationship with God, who want to fulfill the law, realize that we have no human power to do so, and finally, in an attempt to make it to the Promised Land, we produce a righteousness that is only external, that is superficial, while the spiritual life within is indeed rotting.
The Pharisees belonged to such a class, who were keeping the law externally, but never could internally. But that is notenough as far as God and salvation are concerned. Jesus told us,
“For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20).
Paul calls Ishmael as the one born after the flesh, (the human effort alone to fulfill God’s requirement) and Isaac as one born after the Spirit (the divine help given to fulfill God’s requirement). Paul wrote Galatians 4:29, “But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit.”
The apostle Paul in the very next chapter, after writing about Abraham’s fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit, writes about the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit in a believer’s life.
Galatians 5:18-23, “But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 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. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
Are we like Abraham trying to fulfill the requirements of the law by our own strength? Then we, in our best effort and intent, can only produce the works of the flesh like Abraham produced Ishmael, and we shall never inherit the kingdom of God, the Promised Land. But if we depend on the Spirit to fulfill the requirements of the law in us, then we are in the new covenant relationship with God and we shall indeed produce the fruit of the Spirit, and fulfill the righteousness of the law, and will finally inherit the kingdom of God, and the land of promise! Listen to the apostle who wrote about the two covenants, wrote about Christ’s followers keeping the law.
“That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Romans 8:4)
Divine help is promised
The condition of salvation has never changed from the beginning. Adam fell through disobedience. Fallen humanity through the blood of Jesus and the power of he Holy Spirit, finally renders full obedience to the divine precepts. God covenanted to save humanity, people in the Old Testament and people in the New Testament through a covenantrelationship. And the covenant relationship has the words of the covenant and the blood of the covenant. The words of the everlasting covenant are the Ten Commandments, and the blood of the everlasting covenant is the blood of Jesus who died for our sins. Jesus said of His blood, Matthew 26:28, “For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” (NKJV)
The new covenant way doesn’t attempt on its own to deal with the sins of the past neither the challenges nor tests of the future. The soul realizes its deadness, and pleads for divine mercy for the sins past and divine help for obedience to the law in the future.
When Jesus bids us to keep His holy commandments He provides the Holy Spirit so that it can be obeyed in the New Covenant way—the only kind of obedience that God accepts. The Lord said, John 14:15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”
The nation Israel, in the old covenant relationship, said, “All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient”(Exodus 24:7). No doubt their intensions were good. They meant it. The same way when Peter said he will not deny Jesus, even though Jesus told him he would do it three times before dawn, Peter meant what he said. But just as nation Israel failed to keep their word, Peter failed miserably as well. Why did both fail? Both were attempting on their own strength to live spiritually. Peter refused divine help when God was offering it.
Matthew 26:40, 41, “And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Instead of praying and depending on God for divine strength Peter, (and the rest), was fast asleep. His sufficiency was in himself and not in God. The Spirit was willing to help, only if he prayed.
As God put the law in Adam’s heart and mind, which he broke when he sinned, through the ministry of the “last Adam”, Jesus Christ, and through His Spirit, God wants to re-write it again in our minds and hearts.
In the most holy place of the Sanctuary was the re-written law of God. It is the symbol of the new covenant way of God wanting to re-write it in humanity once again. The promise is sure for all to claim.
Revelation 14:12, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”