The Daily Word of Righteousness

Fifty-two Kingdom Concepts, #13

It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. (I Peter 1:12—NIV)

But God found fault with the people and said "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. (Hebrews 8:8,9)

The Book of Hebrews tells us clearly that God has given us a new covenant because the old covenant did not produce righteous people.

So how do we of today define the new covenant? We say that God has given up on us and doesn't really care how we live. He has given His Son to overcome sin for us and now all we have to do is believe He did this and we will go to Heaven on this basis.

The prevailing interpretation of the new covenant is so unscriptural as to be ridiculous. It truly would be laughable if the results were not so horrifically destructive of God's intention.

No matter how God moves, men (with Satan's assistance you may be sure) always manage to frustrate and sidetrack God's loving intention.

We Christians are not separate from the Hebrew Prophets. Rather, according to the Apostle Peter, the Prophets were speaking to us rather than to their contemporaries.

The first Christian assembly comprised 5,000 Jews, all rigorously practicing the Law of Moses. Did you know that? The Christian Church never was and never shall be Gentile. If you will read in the Gospel accounts the angelic announcements and prophetic declarations that accompanied the birth of the Lord you will discover the Gospel primarily is a Jewish covenant and blessing. We Gentiles have been grafted on the Jewish olive tree.

All of the Messianic promises found in the Old Testament apply first to the Lord Jesus Christ, and then to those who are co-heirs with Him. No Messianic promise is made to Jews or Gentiles as such, only to the one Seed of Abraham—Jesus Christ and those who are an integral part of Him.

The problem with dispensational theory is that it cuts us off from the Prophets and we are left with no clear destiny. And so the unscriptural myth about mansions in Heaven continues to be unexamined.

Our goal as Christians is not eternal residence in Heaven. We would not enjoy this. We are not angels. Our inheritance is first God, and then the nations of the earth. People are the only inheritance worth having.

God advised Jesus to pray for the nations and the farthest reaches of the earth. The Lord Jesus advises us to pray the same prayer.

You know why we have gone so far astray in our doctrine? We do not pray and read the Bible. If Christians would pray and read their Bible, instead of endlessly rehearsing their unscriptural traditions about lawless grace and eternal life in Heaven, they soon would learn about the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

To be continued.