The New Deal (Poles Apart)

by Jim Minker

'Behold, days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,' declares the Lord. 'But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,' declares the Lord, 'I will put My Law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord, 'for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.' (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

Long before Jesus spoke of 'a new commandment' He was the very Word which moved Jeremiah. He was not the ink on the page, but He was the Word which went forth out of the mouth of God performing that which His Father desired. Here is the new agreement of God promised way in advance. The Word not only issued forth the promise, but He became flesh to fulfill it. In doing so, He became the promise.

Without understanding what the old covenant is and why it didn’t work, and why a new covenant was needed we will eventually gravitate back to the old but still use the terminology (wording) of the new. Here is Jeremiah’s comparison/contrast:

The Old Covenant The New Covenant Law on stones ------------- Law on the heart Taken by the hand ---------- Led from within Covenant Broken -------------- Covenant Kept A broken relation -------- Unbroken Relation Man's teaching -------- No need for teaching No knowledge of God ----------- All Know Him No true forgiveness ------ All sins forgiven Constant reminder of sin ----- Sin forgotten

The New Covenant is NOT like the Old!

Have you ever driven through a paper mill town? It stinks ... to the visitor. You see, those who live there don’t smell it anymore. The senses still work, but the brain kinda tunes it out. It’s called 'getting used to it'. And this is exactly what happens to those who are inundated with certain words and phrases, they become so familiar that the words lose their distinctiveness. In the case of the old and new covenants, both the bondage of the one and the miraculousness of the other have bled together to become unrecognizable to the hearers.

We are now part of the 'New Covenant'. We are not left in the dark, for the Bible, which being inspired by God, is our authority, our 'owner’s manual'; for in it we have explicit instructions as to what is required of us. It is important to know that we are not under the Law of Moses, but instead we have in the New Testament the guidelines of Christian conduct. And because we have the written word of God in it’s completed form we can now understand much more about the things of God...for God has preserved the Bible so that we could know Him. In this, we should consider ourselves blessed by God; but we need to understand that 'to whom much is given much is expected', for God requires us to be students of His Word. But as God is gracious, He did not leave us on our own, but gave us gifted pastors and teachers; and by their teaching we can know the God of the Bible. But remember this, God does not expect perfection, for He knows that we will sin and break His laws...after all, 'Christians are not perfect, just forgiven'. But as we mature in Christ we will become better, and not break His laws as often. And the Holy Spirit will convict us of our sin so that we will know that we are offending Him. What God requires is that we 'trust and obey', living our lives knowing that we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, where our deeds will be judged by God. Keeping our thoughts on this judgment produce in the believer the balanced 'fear of the Lord' to help us stay sober in this world. We need not worry about losing our salvation, for it is by grace through faith, but our sins will be replayed as on a movie screen and we will suffer loss of reward. Though we have been forgiven in the judicial sense, we still need forgiveness in the parental sense as children who continue to offend their Father. But as long as we are not flippant about our sins, but instead continually confess them, then God will forgive us and keep us in fellowship.

Shovel ... what are you saying???

Please, tell me you didn't read all the way through that blather and find yourself agreeing with it. It would be incredibly heartening for me to know that your nose was wrinkling from the stench, as a visitor from another place passing through an open graveyard of death. For though it forms the better part of many 'Statements of Faith', I wrote it based on the list under 'The Old Covenant'. That’s right...the above paragraph -- all of it -- is a restating of the Old Covenant using New Covenant jargon!