Posted in Church • Daily Living • Law • New Covenant • Old Covenant • Promise The

Covenant

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The word “covenant” is mentioned in the ESV Bible about 325 times. Sometimes it refers to the rainbow after the flood (Genesis 9:13), sometimes to the Abraham covenant in Genesis 15 and the confirmation of the covenant by circumcision in Genesis 17. Other times it is referring to a covenant between two people such as Abraham and Abimelech (Genesis 21). Sometimes too, there was a covenant even when the word isn’t used, such as the covenant in the Garden between Adam and God for avoiding one particular fruit (and thereby avoiding death). But mostly it’s the covenant made between God and Israel at Mount Sinai.

A covenant is a legal agreement with stipulations for performance by each party and penalties for breaking it, like a contract. However, if there are no stipulations for one party, then it is a “promise” because there is no legal enforcement for that party. For instance, the rainbow covenant with Noah after the flood not only doesn’t have any penalties for God if He didn’t perform His part, there is no way to enforce penalties on God anyway. He just said He would do something, and put His bow in the clouds as a sign of His commitment.

The covenant with Israel at Sinai did have stipulations for both parties. Israel was to follow the terms of the covenant and receive blessings, or break it and experience curses. In exchange, God would be their God and Shepherd, leading, protecting and blessing them in every way. By that point, God had already demonstrated His abilities in saving, protecting and blessing Israel in many powerful ways. All Israel had to do was stay on the path and do what God had laid out for them. He would live in their midst and blessings would flow as they followed all the terms of their side of the covenant. However, they refused many times and in many ways, leading to the curses warned about by God and their ultimate expulsion from the Land.

Before allowing Babylon to defeat Judah (the ten northern tribes called Israel had already been defeated by the Assyrians about a hundred years before) Jeremiah is told by God that the banishment would last 70 years and that there would be a new covenant between Him and Israel.

Jeremiah 31:31–34 ESV. “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Ezekiel, a contemporary of Jeremiah, also speaks of this new covenant (Ezekiel 11:19) along with giving the united Israel a heart transplant (also 36:26) and a new spirit. Part of this new covenant includes the God’s Laws written on the new heart, and all will obey. Jesus tells His disciples during the Passover dinner before His crucifixion that one of the cups of wine they share is the realization of this new covenant.

Luke 22:20 ESV. And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

The phrase “new covenant” used by Jesus here is καινὴ διαθήκη (transliterated kainόs diathēkē) meaning literally a refreshed agreement. Perhaps we could even use the more modern “new and improved” phrase. It is not new in the sense of something that hasn’t existed before and is now newly created. Jesus was referring to Jeremiah (notice He didn’t have to explain it to the disciples) and the power of His blood to write His Laws (including those given by Him on Mount Sinai) on a new heart of flesh.

The “new thing” called The Church, created by imagination about two to three hundred years A.D., has hijacked the application of the new covenant for itself, but has made it mean something other than what our Messiah intends. The Church of course is all the groups and organizations claiming to be part of this new thing, not just one particular group. Their interpretation of the new covenant is anti-Jewish (though God says it is between Him and Israel) and completely ignores the texts that speak explicitly of the terms. Their leaders say that the death of Jesus eliminated the Law and they don’t have to follow God’s Words anymore. In place of the Law, they have created all sorts of vague, ear-tickling and feelings-based guidelines focusing on doing what is right in their own eyes rather than the literal Law written on a new heart of flesh.

The New Testament, falsely named by the Church, is neither a covenant nor the new covenant. None of the collected books use the term “new covenant” except for the words of Jesus (also recorded in 1 Corinthians 11:25), an application by Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:6 to believers as ministers of the new covenant, and several mentions by the author of the book of Hebrews quoting Jeremiah. Hebrews speaks of the “old covenant” being obsolete, not because the Law was eliminated (Jesus said Scripture cannot be broken John 10:35) but because it was on the outside chiseled on stone tablets, instead of on the inside written on a new heart of flesh.

Believers enter in to this new covenant and are given a heart transplant in order to follow all the instructions of our Father and our Messiah in love and spirit. Jesus died a horrible death and was resurrected as the ultimate and defining act of love. Accepting His sacrifice and His lordship is to become part of His household and kingdom along with living exactly as He directs with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. If we falter, we have an advocate in heaven who intercedes for us, so we confess our failure and work out our salvation with fear and trembling. All praise and thanks to the One who has set us free from sin and death to serve the God of light, life and love.

Shalom.

Posted in Atonement • Daily Living • Faith • Repentance • Righteousness • Salvation

Irredeemable

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A dictionary says that irredeemable is “being beyond remedy, hopeless.” In a biblical sense, it means that someone has refused God’s offer of salvation because the heart is so hard it won’t listen. It can happen even to people who claim to be following Jesus. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way:

Hebrews 6:4–6 ESV. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

If it can happen to people who have seemingly converted, it can also happen to the unconverted. Israel is an example of a mixture of hard hearts and soft hearts. Those who believed (and believe) in Jesus and do what He says are soft hearted, while those who don’t are mostly irredeemable. Hearts get so hard they are just unreachable.

Irredeemable can also be applied to unforgiving people. Those withholding forgiveness are told specifically by Jesus that they are irredeemable in places like Matthew 6:14.

Matthew 6:14–15 ESV. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

 Lack of forgiveness freezes the unforgiven in time, because in the view of the offended there is now no remedy for the offense or sin. The supposed offender is locked in place. Jesus paid the blood price for sin, but the unforgiving person is mocking that sacrifice. They have deemed someone “irredeemable.” But according to Jesus, by declaring thusly, they place themselves in the actual irredeemable boat. Those who don’t forgive will not be forgiven.

No one is irredeemable according to God. All are eligible for redemption if he or she wants it. Jesus paid the price for our redemption, redeeming us from slavery to sin and death with His painful and bloody death on the cross. However, people can make themselves irredeemable by the refusal of this momentous action on their behalf. There is no other payment for our debt of sin, so refusing the sacrifice of Jesus leaves one with no option but to pay for sin with his or her own death (meaning the lake of fire).

Revelation 21:8 ESV. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

The choices are either eternal life or eternal death. Believers press on to eternal life with confession, repentance and the Holy Spirit. The writer of Hebrews quotes Psalm 95 (in Hebrews 3:7-11) which is a plea to avoid being irredeemable by the hardening of the heart.

Psalm 95:7–9 ESV. For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. There are many chances in life to confess Jesus and repent of doing what is right in our own eyes. The more they are refused, the harder the heart becomes. If you hear his voice, respond and do what He says. Your heart of stone can be turned to flesh and eternal life will be yours as long as your heart stays soft and you persevere.

Shalom

Bruce

Posted in Grace • Judgment • Love • Relevance

Integrity of the Heart

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In Genesis 20 Abimelech the king of Gerar takes Sarah from Abraham for a wife, because Abraham said she was his sister. Sarah was close to 90 years old, yet I’m guessing she was still beautiful and desirable. Abimelech and his household suffered sterility (and perhaps illness) and was risking death because of it. God appears to him in a dream and tells him the cause. Abimelech replies that he had taken Sarah “in the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands.” He hadn’t “approached her” yet (a euphemism for sex). God said that was why Abimelech was getting a warning instead of getting toasted.

Abimelech was blameless in taking Sarah for a wife. There was no malice, no intent to harm. We might even say it was an “accident.” Yet he and all his household still got sick. He was under the death penalty in spite of his integrity. At his arraignment he pleaded his innocence, and rightly so. But if he kept Sarah as a wife then the Judge was still going to carry out the sentence. Ignorance was not an excuse.

Doing something wrong, even when we do it in the “integrity” of our heart, is still enough to get us the death penalty. We may not know something is wrong, but that doesn’t excuse guilt. A police officer won’t buy ignorance of the speed limit as a reason for speeding. We’ll get a ticket anyway. God won’t buy alleged ignorance of His Law either. We are responsible for knowing right and wrong, and for choosing right. This is one of the fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Eating that fruit carried with it the responsibility for our actions regardless of integrity of the heart.

There are those who think that sinning is okay, because we have the cosmic eraser of Jesus to eliminate the consequences. Some go so far as to use lip service to some nebulous Jesus as cover for doing whatever they want – in the integrity of their heart. Just ask them. Instead of following specifics of God’s Word, they will say they “follow their heart.” Really? What’s in the heart if we ignore what God says yet claim to follow Him? Do you think Abimelech “had Jesus?” Was he perhaps exercising his “freedom in Christ?” He certainly was innocent of a crime (in this instance anyway) yet he was still experiencing the consequences as if he had. He would even die if he kept going.

Integrity of the heart is fine, if your heart has been “fleshasized” by God. If it isn’t, a person can have a wrong “integrity of the heart” because they act in accordance with a heart of stone. Integrity simply means “wholeness,” meaning consistent thoughts and actions. Stone heartedness with accompanying stone-type action is still integrity. A bad guy can have integrity within himself, since he does “bad” actions in tune with his “bad” heart. A good person has integrity because he does “good actions” in tune with his “good” heart. The only wholesome and healthy integrity, however, comes from a good person who has a heart in tune with God. Those in between, the ones who claim a good heart while ignoring God’s Word, are those God calls “lukewarm” and serve only to cause Jesus to yak (spew, throw up, or vomit; for those readers in other countries not familiar with American figures of speech).

“ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:15–20, ESV)

Shalom
Bruce

Posted in Judaism • Temple • Whole Bible Christianity book

Temple Not Destroyed Part Two

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You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. (Haggai 1:9–10, ESV)

 

One of the side effects of claiming that “the old Mosaic economy of sacred priests, sacred buildings, sacred rituals, and sacred objects has been forever destroyed by the cross of Jesus Christ” (as Frank Viola says in the book pagan Christianity) is that we ignore His house while “each of us busies himself with his own house.” We should be embarrassed that we have no Temple. We make money offerings at huge stadiums built for stupid sporting events having some slight benefit for the body but nothing for the soul. Mega-churches haul in millions of dollars and spend them on campuses and monuments to pride like huge meeting halls or TV ministries. Comfortable theater seating for thousands and huge TV’s for seeing the star or pastor are used for preaching a false gospel of freedom in Christ which then gives license to ignore God’s Word.

 

God’s house in the meantime is dust. We hide behind the claim of not knowing where to build, but we put no resources into finding the site. Many churches are “divesting” themselves of investment in Israel when we should be putting everything we’ve got there. Some cheesy pagan temple for a hateful and unjust moon god stops us in our tracks from tearing the unclean thing down and building God’s house. A temple will be built once again (according to Ezekiel) but shame on us that we put more effort into our own comfortable houses and none into His. Shame on us.

 

There were times when the Temple fell out of use. Other times it didn’t get a lot of respect, and was defiled by idols and idol worship. After a long while of this kind of treatment God’s glory finally departed according to Ezekiel. Yet standing or not, filled with idols or neglected God has never stopped trying to get people into His “house.”

 

The Temple is a picture of the heart of a nation as well as the heart of an individual. As the heart of the nation it reminds us of lost intimacy with Him and how quickly we forget or take for granted all that He is and has. Though the copy was destroyed the picture still stands as an example of heartless lip service and false belief that the mere presence of an object grants protection from lawlessness. As the heart of the individual the copy of God’s abode shows us the glorious possibilities if we embrace His presence and take Him into our hearts as we did (somewhat briefly) with the freshly completed building built by Solomon.

 

From the book Whole Bible Christianity chapter 5 What About the Temple?