The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Vision of the New Covenant

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1)

The new covenant is superior to the old covenant.

Under the old covenant, God forgave the sins of people when they performed the appropriate animal sacrifices.

And he shall offer the second for a burnt offering, according to the manner: and the priest shall make an atonement for him for his sin which he hath sinned, and it shall be forgiven him. (Leviticus 5:10)

And the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord: and it shall be forgiven him for any thing of all he hath done in trespassing therein. (Leviticus 6:7)

The obedient Israelite was forgiven his sins. But the presence of sin, the compulsion to yield to sin, remained in and with the believer. The Day of Atonement called attention each year to the presence of sin in the camp.

The blood of bulls and goats is not able to remove the presence of sin from us.

Through the Lord Jesus Christ the very presence of sin is removed from us. Through Christ the guilt, the urges, and the effects of sin are all removed from us.

The marvel of the new covenant is that once we truly receive Christ, repenting of our sins, the guilt of all the sins we ever have committed or ever will commit has been cast behind God's back, never to be remembered against us. By one offering Christ has perfected forever those who are sanctified, those who are abiding in His Presence and will (Hebrews 10:14).

We now are without condemnation in the sight of God.

The purpose of the complete pardon is that we may be able to cooperate with the Holy Spirit as He begins to remove the presence of sin from us and heal the effects of Satan's influence and presence. The Holy Spirit desires to cast out of us the lust of our flesh and to remove King Self from the throne of our heart, installing Christ in his place.

Without the assurance of total forgiveness we could not stand up under the transforming processes of the new covenant, the processes that bring into existence the new creation, conforming us to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ and bringing us into restful union with God through Christ.

We always must keep in mind that this pardon is in effect only as long as we are following the Spirit of God in the program of sanctification, of transformation. The moment we go back to living in the flesh, according to the desires of our soul, flesh, and fleshly mind, we come under the condemnation of the Law of Moses.

God never permits any creature to exist without law. Either we are being governed by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ or else we are being governed by the Law of Moses.

We have not been set free from the Law of Moses so we may behave as we please but so we may be married to Christ. There is a total difference between these two positions.

To be continued.