Did you see it? God intended to use the spiritual (demonic) rulers of this world to bring about the crucifixion of Christ and thus fulfill His eternal purpose. They did not know that they were actually aiding in the fulfillment of God's plan, and through this, participating in their own destruction when they put it in the heart of the leaders of the Jews to crucify Christ. For them to do this willingly, the plan had to be kept secret from them.
Think of the glee in the camp of Satan and his evil angels as they celebrated their victory over God and His anointed one, Jesus. Think of their consternation when Sunday came and they realized that it was not a victory for them after all. Think of their utter despair when the significance of Christ's death was published to all nations beginning at Pentecost. Then they knew that they had nothing to look forward to but eternal punishment.
Think of the joy of the angels in heaven when the meaning of all these things-all the things they had longed to look into and understand-finally dawned on them. After all, God was just when He forgave sins because His justice had been satisfied by the ultimate sacrifice for sins-the death and resurrection of God's Son, His anointed one.
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Thus, God's eternal plan was revealed and fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The secret is this: that through the sacrifice of Himself, the Son of God would provide both forgiveness of sins and access to the throne of God. We receive these blessings through faith in Him rather than by earning them through law keeping.
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The nature of the new covenant is that it, unlike previous ones, does not consist of a document or of laws or even just a promise, but of a person-Jesus the Messiah. God came in the flesh to establish a relationship with fallen men by drawing them into himself. He came to fulfill the verbal and figurative promises he gave under the old covenant made at Sinai, plus all the prophecies of His coming and of the new covenant, as well as under the covenant of promise He made to Abraham.
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From Chapter Two: A New Relationship to Justice: Justification by grace, not by law
"I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more" (Jeremiah 31:34). While this is the third provision mentioned in the prophecy, it is the first in logical progression. Justification is necessary before the other two promises-that of knowing God as His people and of His writing His law in our hearts-can be realized. For this reason, we will consider it first.
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Forgiveness through the death of Christ is at the very heart of the new covenant. Whereas the old covenant was one of condemnation and death, the new is one of forgiveness and life; however, the penalty for sin is removed at a terrible price-i.e., the cruel suffering and death of God's dear Son. All that Chapter 4 of this book says about a new relationship to God as children to a Father; all that Chapter 5 says of God's working to change the very hearts of individuals by writing His law in our inward parts through His Spirit; everything in regard to this new covenant would be for nothing without this feature-that God gave His Son to die for fallen men so that they might be redeemed and have access to eternal life (John 3:16).
The cross of Christ is necessary to pay the penalty Justice demands. It is a common misconception that a person can make up for his own sins by an equal measure of good deeds. This is pictured as a pair of balance scales with our sins on one side and our good deeds on the other. If the sins outweigh the good, we are condemned; if the good deeds weigh heavier, we are justified. This is a false and misleading picture, both unbiblical and deceptive. It leads a person to believe that if he lives a fairly decent and moral life, he is justified in spite of the guilt of sin that he has upon his soul.
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Christ took upon Himself the burden of our sins and made atonement, a payment that satisfied the law's demands for justice, so that He could justify those who would come to Him in faith. Isaiah prophesied of Him in this manner, "All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).
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A significant verse quoted above is, "And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance" (Hebrews 9:15).
Did you see it? Christ, the mediator of the new covenant, died to redeem those who sinned under the first covenant. This is a beautiful thought: Christ's death was not just for those who came afterwards but for all those who came before as well. Those before the cross who turned from their evil ways and trusted in God received forgiveness, real forgiveness, on the basis of the sacrifice that was yet to be offered. You might say they received forgiveness on credit; yet, the credit was on God's account since He had planned from the beginning to make the payment and there was nothing that could prevent Him from carrying out His plan. God extended this credit because He knew that the payment was going to be made, since He Himself was going to make it.
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From Chapter Four: A New Relation to God: Knowing Him as Our God and Father
A distinction must be made between knowing about God and knowing God. One does not know God simply because he knows much information about God. A relationship with God is not acquired through a theology course. Such a study can help to appreciate God and seek a relationship with Him; on the other hand, a person may have little information about God and still know Him. The baby nestled at its mother's breast knows his mother intimately, although he still knows little about her. There must, of course, be a certain amount of learning about God in order to come to know Him, but knowing God means we have come into an intimate relationship with Him. One must know God, not just know about God, in order to be one of His new covenant people.
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Jesus is the way to the Father. We cannot know Him without knowing Jesus. Jesus said, "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also…" (John 14:7). Jesus came to show us the Father; if we would see the Father, we must look at Jesus.
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The Father dwells in us because His Spirit dwells in us (John 14:15-17, 23). Jesus had the fullness of the Spirit of God as His own Spirit (Colossians 1:19; 2:9); the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ are the same according to Paul, "But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Romans 8:9). In like manner, the fullness of God dwells in us, not as our own spirit but as the presence of God in us; His spirit lives in us with our spirit so that we are reconciled to God in the intimate relationship that God wants.
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Throughout the written Word, there is woven a thread that reveals the working out of God's eternal purpose. Before He even created mankind, His great love compelled Him to devise a plan for saving us from our own unrighteousness and reconciling us to Himself. This plan was only dimly seen until it was brought to fruition in Jesus Christ. His great love fills His heart with a longing for those whom He created in His own image-a longing to draw us back to Himself and to make us His own sons and daughters.
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From Chapter Five: A New Relationship to the Law
The idea that we are not under law in any sense (the big word for this is antinomianism) is not biblical. The new covenant does not sever man's relationship to God's law; however, it does profoundly change the way he relates to that law. Under the Sinai covenant, Israel related to the Law of God on the basis of "do them, and you will live by them" (paraphrase of Leviticus 18:5). If a person could keep God's law, he could thereby be just (righteous) before God. However, God knew that a person could never be justified by doing the works of law. That is why His backup plan was really His main plan, ordained before the foundation of the world.
God gave knowledge of His law (the knowledge of good and evil, of right and wrong) to man in Eden, by making it part of their instinctual knowledge.... The question is not, "What new laws can be enacted that will cause mankind to walk closer to God?"… The question is rather, "How can mankind be enabled to live according to the law of God?"
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No amount of laws could change or overcome man's sinful nature. God's commandments define what is right or wrong, but Satan also uses them to arouse the sinful nature in human beings. The forbidden thing becomes the desirable thing, and a person is drawn into sin. In this way, sin enslaves and uses law as a weapon to bring people into condemnation....
The remedy for this is to internalize the law of God. This is done by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Paul wrote: "…clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart" (2 Corinthians 3:3). God's law is written in our heart by the Spirit of the living God.
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Trying to live up to the requirements of law could never free one from sin's control. One must first be freed from the control of sin, and then he will be enabled to fulfill the requirements of law. This must be done by a twofold working of God's grace: 1) the death of Christ that gives the believer freedom from the guilt of sin; and 2) the indwelling Spirit of Christ that gives the believer victory over the power of sin.
From Chap. Eight: The People of the New Covenant: Israel, God's Chosen People
According to Jeremiah's prophecy, the promise of the new covenant is for Israel and Judah. The house of Israel was the northern kingdom of Israel, also called Ephraim, with its capital in Samaria.
…. But someone says, "I thought the new covenant was for all mankind." A covenant includes only those with whom it is made…. According to Jeremiah 31:31, 33, the new covenant is for Israel. In order to understand this, we must grasp the prophetic view of Israel. Failure to do this has caused some grievous errors in teachings and expectations. Who are these Israelites?... Let us examine some of these prophecies in order to see the prophetic vision of Israel and what that entails.
From Chapter 11: Freedom: A Predominant Characteristic of the New Covenant
True freedom is based on a firm foundation of high moral convictions. There is no such thing as absolute freedom to do as one pleases unless one pleases to do right, and if one pleases to do right, then nothing is forbidden him by God. It is in the context of his wanting to do only what is right that Paul wrote, "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any" (1 Corinthians 6:12). What the world thinks of as freedom is, in fact, slavery. One is a slave to whatever gets control over his life. If he is controlled by his lusts, passions and appetites, he is not free but enslaved in the worst sense because it is slavery that is destructive to his soul, as well as his flesh.
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The only kind of freedom that is valid is the freedom that is available to all. If I claim the freedom to do as I please and I please to take your automobile or vandalize your house or steal your money then what I claim as freedom infringes upon your freedom, for you cannot do what you would with your car or your house or your money. Obviously, this kind of freedom is not valid because it cannot be the same for all. Freedom, to be complete, must not only be the freedom to do anything that is not morally wrong but also the freedom from such things as fear, oppression, etc. As long as society claims the freedom to satisfy its lusts and desires of every kind, there will never be true freedom because the well-being of others will always be at risk. "Your freedom ends where my nose begins."
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The new covenant is designed to free us from all of these (bondage to the guilt of sin, bondage to the power of sin over our lives, and bondage to oppressive religious laws). Those who were under the Mosaic law were said to be under a yoke of bondage. They were not free because they were held responsible by a law that was beyond their ability to keep. Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). The freedom he spoke of was freedom from sin-from its guilt and its power in a person's life.
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In human courts, justice is sometimes thwarted and the guilty are pronounced innocent or the innocent guilty, but divine justice is never thwarted. The sinner will either pay for his own sin or else he will accept the payment that Christ has made for his sin. Because of the sacrifice of Christ, the guilty can be declared forgiven and thereby escape the wrath of God. The amazing thing is that justice is not thwarted in this, for God is vindicated as being just because He accepts the sacrifice of Christ in place of the sinner's eternal death.
