The Daily Word of Righteousness

Four Aspects of the Kingdom of God, #7

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: (Hebrews 8:8)

Aspect Three—The Nature of the New Covenant

The new covenant can be made only with the one Israel of God, the one olive tree.

The new covenant includes the Torah, the Law of Moses. But now the Torah is lifted from the tables of stone and from the limitations of the human personality. The essence of the Torah, which is love for God and for one's neighbor, is worked into our mind and heart until we by nature practice the righteousness of the Torah.

The new covenant includes the grace of forgiveness but has much more to do with righteous and holy conduct. The grace of God in Christ is the power to change our deeds as our mind and heart are changed. The changing of our deeds by changing our minds and hearts is shown in the cleansing of leprosy from the hand of Moses as he put his hand "into his bosom" and then took it out again (Exodus 4:6).

The Kingdom of God gives us authority over Satan, as portrayed by Moses taking up the serpent by the tail and changing it into the rod of God's authority. Also, Aaron's rod swallowed up the rods of the wise men and the sorcerers, revealing the power of the Kingdom over all earthly wisdom and all sorcery.

The grace of the Kingdom of God is not only the grace of forgiveness but also the grace of authority, the grace of power, the grace of moral transformation. The Kingdom of God is the doing of God's will in the earth.

God was not pleased with the people to whom the old covenant came because they did not practice righteousness. The purpose of the new covenant is to take away our sins. First, our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus. Then the Lord Jesus by the power of the Spirit of God performs the work of removing the various sources of sin in our personality until we begin to walk in righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God.

The old covenant was limited to forgiving our sins. The grace of the new covenant covers our sins and then attacks the sin that is dwelling in us. The Lord Jesus is ready not only to forgive our sins but also to remove the Presence of sin from us.

The believer who persists in sinning will not inherit the Kingdom of God. There is no sin in the Kingdom of God. The part of our personality that is sinning is not of the Kingdom of God nor is it dwelling in the Kingdom of God.

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. (Galatians 5:21)

Whoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. (I John 3:9)

The part of our personality that has been re-created in Jesus is of the Kingdom by nature. The part of our personality that offends God will be removed from us in the last days. If we do not permit Jesus to remove from us that which offends God, we ourselves shall be removed from the Kingdom.

To be continued.