THE TWO COVENANTS
May 12, 2018
(All Scripture taken from One New Man Bible unless otherwise noted)
There are so many of God’s children that do not understand what He actually did for us. We can quote the words and passages but as far as totally or personally understanding that those words truly mean – we struggle. I understand this because I was one of those children for a long time! I totally accepted that I was saved by His grace and that all my [past] sins were forgiven.
I could even grasp, at least in my head, that; as His sacrifice was in 33AD and I wasn’t even born until nearly 2000 years in the future, that all future sins were forgiven too. But were MY future sins forgiven? How could they be? I now knew better, right? I had God living inside of me! How could I still act like such a schmuck? How could I have done whatever is was that I was struggling with?
I was good with His unconditional love, because I received that from my parents (thank You Y’shua), so I was always able to give as well as receive that. But the regret which quickly turns into shame! That was a TOTALLY different story! And do you know that that leads to? That leads to turning into a Pharisaical Galatian.
Pharisaical in that you beat others up when they fall short. And Galatian in that you’re counting on being able to do everything yourself now that you’ve crossed the spiritual threshold into salvation. “O foolish Galatians, to whom before your eyes Y’shua Messiah was clearly portrayed as crucified, who bewitched you? 2Only this one thing I wish to learn from you: did you take the Spirit from works of legalism or from hearing in faith? 3In this way you are foolish, although you began in the Spirit will you now be made complete in the flesh?” (3:1-3)
And before the revelation hits you’re pretty miserable; both on the inside and the outside. You’re one of those finger-pointing Christians that can give His love to sinners, but not for brothers and sisters (who should know better just like you do)!
So before we go any further, I would like to pray: Heavenly Father, I ask that Your Holy Spirit will touch everyone reading this message, that I believe came straight from You, and set them free! That we can fully remove all the barriers that keep us from living the life Your Son Y’shua died to give us! We know that it grieves Your Heart to see Your children living [still] shackled to either their past or their present! Set us free Y’shua, set us free! Free to shine Your agape, free to share Your compassion, free to show others who doubt You that not only are You real, but truly the epitome of LOVE that we tell others You are. Because if we can’t reflect that, how can they believe it?
Give us the revelation of Your total work forus and in us, so we can with no holds barred, advance Your kingdom by allowing You to also work through us – 100%. In Your holy name Y’shua set us free to fully know You and witness You in ALL our actions, thoughts and words! AMEN
Ok, here it goes! You have heard me say many times before that God’s method of work has ALWAYS been grace. That Old Covenant or New Covenant, He always accepts us back to Him when we accept His existence, because He cannot change. If He did, He would have had to have been imperfect either before He changed or after, right? Perfection is perfection and any change at all would change that status.
The word repent means to change direction or change your mind. Be it to change your mind about what is and is not sin, or to change your mind as to Who God is, it simply means to change the way that you were either going or thinking.
So here is a revelation I received June 4, 2013 that I wrote in the front of my Bible to keep me on track:
God is the same yesterday, today and forever according to the writer of Hebrews (13:8). [And although it is written as Y’shua is the same yesterday, today and forever, as He IS God this re-wording is 100% accurate.] This is truth #1.
It therefore also holds that if He is the same yesterday, today and forever, that His plan for salvation has ALWAYS come by His grace through or because of our faith in it.
What has changed is our sacrifice TO Him and its result:
OT: Animal – yearly or as needed. Covered but not cleansed. Animals are innocent and therefore qualify to be sacrificed. With faith in God’s grace after the sacrifice was made, you were forgiven. Why? Because they had faith in His Word that told them so.
NT: A sincere heart of confession under Y’shua’s sacrifice. As He is God and therefore even more innocent as an animal that couldn’t sin, in that He was also a Man and therefore had the choice to sin but never did, He qualified also. He also qualified legally because as the first man, Adam, gave his authority over to satan, when Y’shua became a Man, He could legally take it back; hence His name as the second Adam in 1stCorinthians 15:45-46.
And more than qualified, because He is God therefore He is eternal and because He is eternal [never-ending], His sacrifice is also eternal. And THIS is Y’shua’s fulfillment. “Do not think that I came to do away with, or to bring to an incorrect interpretation to, the Torah or the Prophets: I did not come to do away with but to bring spiritual abundance, for the Torah (Teaching) to be obeyed as it should be and God’s promises to receive fulfillment.” Matthew 5:17
ALL the religious ceremonies of the OT were set up and mandatory as a SYMBOL of what Messiah would accomplish. If they (His believers, mainly the Hebrew people) didn’t constantly have the reminder in front of them they would never recognize Him when He came.
However, when their symbols became their only reality, their hearts hardened toward the Body that had always cast the Shadow their symbols represented.
They therefore rejected the Shadow Caster and remained in the Shadow which then became darkness instead of the Promise of the coming Light.
My revelation ended with this warning: Don’t fall into that trap too! Because since the Light has been revealed, the shadow is now NOT the Promise of the coming Light, but the promise of eternal darkness if we remain in it!
I believe that our confusion concerning our heavenly or spiritual status comes (in all innocence, I might add) from the passage quoted earlier by Y’shua in this revelation, so let’s finish it:
“Do not think that I came to do away with, or to bring to an incorrect interpretation to, the Torah or the Prophets: I did not come to do away with but to bring spiritual abundance, for the Torah (Teaching) to be obeyed as it should be and God’s promises to receive fulfillment. 18For truly I say to you: until the sky and the Earth would pass away, not one yod or one vay could ever pass away from the Torah (Teaching), until everything would come to pass. 19Therefore, whoever would break one of the least of these commandments, and would teach people this way, will be called least in the Kingdom of the Heavens: but whoever would do the commandments and would teach them, will be called great in the Kingdom of the Heavens. 20For I say to you that unless your righteousness would be present in abundance more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you could not enter the Kingdom of the Heavens.” Matthew 5:17-20
So let’s dive into this warning of His, shall we? First we need to note that He never said anything about NOT getting into the Kingdom of the Heavens if you didn’t keep the commandments. He said you would have a lesser position there (vs 19).
Then He said that unless we have more righteousness than that of the scribes and Pharisees we won’t even get there! Well the [bulk of the] scribes and Pharisees didn’t believe He was Messiah, did they? Therefore, they were counting on their ownrighteousness to get them in – plus I’m sure being one of Abraham’s descendents and therefore being entitled to enter.
And you thought that entitlement was just a modern issue – but nooo! As the wisest man who ever lived once said, “The thing that has been, it is that which will be, and that which is done is that which will be done and there is no new thing under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) As it was 3000 years ago, so it shall be now.
Entitlement always has and always will prove to end in nothing but disappointment. The scribes and the Pharisees were counting on their animal sacrifices as well as their own good works to get them in. And they, above ALL people should have realized that because of Genesis 2:6-7 noting the fall of man, that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. And though I know that Paul (or Saul, rather) had not received that Word yet, there was always 1st Kings 8:46, “…for there is no man who does not sin.”
But with them accepting the temporary purity an animal gave them, they couldn’t see the eternal purity Messiah was offering them. I’m SO GLAD I have His righteousness and don’t have to count on my own, aren’t you? THAT is what they WOULDN’T have and THAT is what kept them out. “But it was not written that it was counted to him for his sake only [speaking of Abraham in Genesis 15:5] 24but also for us, to whom it is going to be counted, who believe in the raising from the dead of Y’shua our Lord, 25Who was given over because of our sins and raised because of our need for righteousness. 5:1Therefore, since we have been made righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Y’shua Messiah 2also through Whom we have had access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we boast in hope of the glory of God.” Romans 4:23-5:2 (bold mine for emphasis).
And lastly, we need to understand what Y’shua meant when He used the word commandments in verse 19. In Matthew 25:35-40 He gives us His priorities, “For I was hungry and you gave Me to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, 36and I was poorly clothed and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me…40Truely I say to you, in so much as you did anything for one of these, the least of My brothers, you did it for Me.”
For which He drew from what He spoke to Isaiah (58:6-10) centuries earlier about proper fasting “Or is it not this, rather, the fast that I have chosen? To loosen, and remove, the chains of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7Is it not, rather, to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring the poor, who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh?
“8Then your light will break forth as the morning, and your health will spring forth speedily, and your righteousness will go before you. The Glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. 9Then you will call and the LORD will answer. You will cry and He will say, ‘Here I am!’ if you take the yoke away from your midst, the finger-pointing and wicked speaking 10and you draw out your inner being to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted person, then your light will rise like the sun in obscurity and your darkness will be like the noonday.”
So His commandments consist of ministering to others: feeding the hungry, visiting the sick and imprisoned, clothing the poor and also by not judging others, but loving our neighbors by truly caring about them and praying for them.
And did you notice the finger-pointingmentioned in Isaiah? Well in my Pharisaical days, I was ok with that. Even when Pastor Nick said that when we point one finger at another person, we have 3 pointing back at us, because I figured I deserved it.
But thanks be to Y’shua and His Holy Spirit I now truly know in my spirit as well as in my head that I have HIS righteousness, because mine falls short. ALL THE TIME! And I will continue to pray that each of you that need this revelation will get it too – SOON!!
“Now to the One Who is able to keep you without stumbling and to stand before His glory blameless in extreme joy, 25to the only God, our Savior through our Lord Y’shua Messiah, be glory, majesty, strength, and power before every age, both now and forever, amen.” Jude 24-25
SHALOM!!
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