The law of the New Covenant is a perfect contrast to the law of the Old Covenant.
The Old Covenant was called the “law of sin and death.” The law of the New Covenant is called the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.”
One law put people in bondage; the other law made (deliver, liberate from the power of sin) them free from the law of sin and death.
Paul called the Old Covenant “The ministry of condemnation.”
It is the ministry of sin-consciousness, with the fearful punishment of death.
2 Corinthians 3:9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The word wages opsōnion means to buy meat in the Greek, gives you a little more understanding of what is happening in the unseen realm.
What kind of food are you eating in church?
I have experienced this Old Covenant ministry firsthand, the second church I went to after I was born again was a Baptist church, it was very legalistic, like every service we were running down to the altar to get saved all over again.
Thankfully they kicked me out for drinking “church discipline”
During this time in my life, my friend I would go out cruising, driving around in his car getting high and listening to Kenneth Copeland, I liked listening to him, more than getting high, because there was a powerful anointing upon him, this was in 1985.
So, my friend and I decided let’s go to one of these “word of faith” churches, these guys are crazy man, they speak in tongues and believe in miracles. I used to think, these tongues are of the devil.
So, we went to one of these churches, and of course we were high and intoxicated.
And we were greeted by a man who was literally “filled with the Joy of the Lord”, and we got the heck out of there.
But of course, we came back next week stone cold sober, and I started attending the church, but did not have a car at the time and would get off the bus and walk a mile to get to church.
In a short time I was reading something from Jimmy Swaggart in my bedroom and I got a powerful revelation of my personal powerless and I needed the power of the Holy Spirit, and that instant the manifest presence of God came into my room and I was more conscious of God than I was my bedroom and I was baptized in the Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues.
We’ll a short time later, the Baptist minister and one of his elders come knocking on my door, they figured I had learned my lesson and were going to restore me to church membership.
I told them, I am sorry guys, I speak in tongues and believe in miracles, “the adventure had begun”.
Hebrews 12: 18 For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, 19 and the sound of a trumpet and THE VOICE OF WORDS, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. 20 (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.” 21 And SO TERRIFYING was the sight that Moses said, “I AM EXCEDDINGLY AFRAID AND TREMBLING.”) 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
Johnathan Edwards and Charles Finney were experts at “the ministry of condemnation”, they would literally scare the hell out of you.
I bought all of Charles Finneys books and later discovered that his theology was all messed up.
But the Holy Spirit showed me what was happening in the realm of the Spirit Charles Finney had an intercessor with him, Daniel Nash, widely known as “Father Nash” he was the primary intercessor and “prayer warrior” for evangelist Charles Finney during the Second Great Awakening. Nash would arrive in cities weeks before Finney to pray, fast, and rent cellars to intercede, often with Abel Clary, ensuring spiritual preparation for the revival meetings.
You see YHVH looks at the motivations, the intentions and dedication in these men of God’s hearts, and even though their theology was all messed up, The Holy Spirit would go with him, and the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord would come upon the people listening to him with great conviction, and whole cities would be converted, the bar’s would go out of business, and the whore houses would shut down.
I have experienced the Fear of the Lord personally and I mean my whole body would shake as he would search my heart and would show me things in my heart, and I would say stop! I cannot deal with this, and he would lift off of me. And I can tune into him at any time if I choose to, but I have cleaned house so to speak, And I spend all my time writing and working on my website and if there is something in my heart, I am not aware of, the Lord will deal with me.
God orders my steps, so I have been failing these tests. I went to get my ID, and brought birth certificate, social security card, lease, and electric bill.
So this lady comes to me while sitting in line, and I show her what I brought, and she says this electric bill will not work because it does not have your name on it, you will have to come back, so I say I don’t have two forms of Proofs of address and she walks away, so I say I am sorry mam did I raise my voice! So she comes back and helps me by using my cash app on my phone and has it printed out with my name and address and helps me to get my ID. Then I go to to the electric company and have them print out my electric bill with my name on it.
Then last night some one knocks on the door and they leave me a free bag from Mc Donald’s with two hamburger’s, fries, coke and a note ( it is called the divine setup) because I was talking to the manager the day before with a couple neighbors trying to lead a neighbor to the Lord, and mentioned to the manager how someone from the church of light came and knocked on the door, and I scared them off giving my testimony. When are you going to get the lock on the gate fixed, and they are in the process of taking care of that. So they select a few apartments to give the food to and the note.
So, I look at the note and it says pay your rent early by the first and qualify for a free raffle to get $ 200 dollars off next months rent. So I look through at my bank statements for all of last year and I usually get my check before the first and two times on the second, last year.
So I go to the office and explain my situation, and ask her if she could take my check to the bank Monday, we’ll I will have to go to the bank today because I will be off Monday, and you have to pay your rent today to qualify for the raffle, so just pay your rent Monday and avoid the raffle.
So I tear a check out of my bank book and actually rip it so I have to use the next one and date it for the first, and say I am sorry it seems that I have this tendency to get upset, she says oh that is OK and I say if the check bounces I will just write you another one, because I think the bank in Walmart is open seven days a week.
So I have gone through these tests before and I keep going through them until I pass them. This particular test I am supposed to get excited and say praise God! And not get angry.
This is how God reveals things in my heart, when I am not aware of them. I walk with God so I know some of the ways God works.
A couple of weeks ago I was appropriating the long-suffering of the Lord towards religious people.
James 1: 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
So this week I am appropriating the patience of the Lord that has to do with trying circumstances.
So I can see now how I have been getting frustrated a lot of the time during each day. I was keeping my posts to 10 pages on my Microsoft word and the insert a number was not working, so I was trying to count the pages and then I would forget how many, so I would uninstall my Microsoft 365 and this is taking forever, and then reinstall it, and that would not work so I would get another computer, number the page and switch back to the computer I write on, I took my logos off of my other computer, and there is still not enough disk space so, It is because there is so much stuff on my one-drive, so I am going to take everything off of it except my writing on my website and put it on a empty flash drive I have,
Now my insert for numbering is working on my laptop I write on.
So the Lord wants me to be totally at rest, full of peace all day long, so I am asking for prayer, these tests seem to be getting harder. It is like the Lord puts me in a corner and the only way out is to appropriate another fruit of the Spirit or divine attribute of God. I only work on one at a time. Jesus had the Spirit without measure so that is my goal. This is the legal and vital aspects of redemption I have been teaching on. If you do not understand the difference between the legal and vital aspects of redemption, you will not know who you legally are in Christ and then appropriate it so that it becomes a vital part of your life here on earth.
The first law was titled the law “of sin and death.”
It was given to God’s people Israel and was never given for the new creation, those who have been born again.
No person who is born again has any part in the Ten Commandments. We live by a much higher law, that deals with the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Hebrews 4: 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The Ten Commandments were all fulfilled in Christ and nailed to the cross and set aside.
Jesus unveiled a New Covenant. The first Covenant was sealed with the blood of bulls and goats. The Second Covenant was sealed with the blood of Jesus, a blood so pure that it legally washed away all our sin, what was as red as scarlet is white as snow, and that is how Jesus’ blood now looks in the realm of the Spirit.
The New Creation is under the New Covenant and a New law.
John 13: 34 A New commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The Pauline Epistles are a revelation and an exposition of this New law.
Just as Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are an exposition of the law of the first covenant, so these epistles of Paul are given to us to explain the New Covenant law.
THE LOVE LAW
1 Corinthians 13:4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.8 Love never fails.
In Paul’s other epistles, we see this new law being demonstrated in the daily life of the New Creation.
It is very important that we understand this fact: the New Covenant law is not designed for men and women outside of Christ.
The natural man cannot obey the new commandment that Jesus gave.
There is only one commandment to rule the New Creation, and that is, to love one another even as Jesus loved us.
Galatians 5: 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.
Galatians 6: 15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has divine strength to any person, but a new creation.
Through these to scripture we see that the new creation is God’s faith working through God’s love.
That means God’s love in us never fails, it never gives up on someone, we love them no matter what and never stop loving them.
It means also that we have God’s faith for them, we are going to see that person as God legally sees them, perfect in Christ.
We are going to have God’s faith for everyone we meet and we are going to tell them that, in the way Holy Spirits leads us to.
We have always heard people tell us they love us, but have you ever had a person tell you that they believe in you.
I had YHVH tell me recently that he believes in me, and it literally broke my heart. I still cry every time I think about it, God believes in me!
That new commandment made any other commandment absolutely unnecessary, for the person who walks in divine love will never do wrong to another person.
As love was the fulfillment of the Old Covenant, it is also the fulfillment of the New.
But those who were in the Old Covenant did not have to divine strength to do it, because they were not new creations.
Someone asks, “Why is the Mosaic law called the ‘law of sin and death?’” Because it was to govern people who did not have Christ in them, only some had God’s Spirit upon them, filling them. David cried out!
Psalm 51:11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
The New creation does not pray that way, The Holy Spirit is here to stay.
If even a born-again believer falls into the kind of sin, that it would be shameful to speak of, The Holy Spirit is right there with him or her in the midst of such disgrace.
It is naturally unbelievable the kind of Love God has for us; He will never leave us or forsake us. Even if we commit a sin unto death, the Holy Spirit is right there with us in our death.
1 John 5: 16 If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.
I am laying a foundation for the believer so that they can know who they are in Christ. This is deep subject matter, but I am teaching on the law of love in the spirit of the new creation. So just lay this next paragraph on the shelf, I will deal with this subject latter, I try my hardest to not teach on these things, but we are talking about the nature of God who is love.
The believer is of no earthly use for YHVH, so He just takes them home. They stand before the judgement seat of Christ and God’s fire of love purifies him, and he goes to the lowest part of heaven with no reward, but his spirit is purified through fire.