The New Covenant Standard

The meat of the new covenant can only be understood in the light of our place in God's history of man.. It requires an understanding of the different expectations the Apostles had concerning the second coming. Here is my take on our new standard.

Hebrews 2:14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage.

This had not happened yet as Paul was writing Hebrews.

2:8 putting everything in subjection under his feet." Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.
1 Corinthians 5:26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

1. From the Devil (Death and Hades also defeated through Christ's return bringing about the Old Covenant saints and New Testament Christians resurrection).

1Co 15:35 But some one will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?"
1Co 15:36 You foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
1Co 15:37 And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.
1Co 15:38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.
Note: The body is equated to a dead seed being sown. The resurrection required the death of the body. Therefore this "change" would not be "visible" until they who received this promise at the return, had died. However the spiritual reality of being clothed with life would still have happened!
1Co 15:39 For not all flesh is alike, but there is one kind for men, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
1Co 15:40 There are celestial bodies and there are terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
1Co 15:41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.
1Co 15:42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.
1Co 15:43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.
1Co 15:44 It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45 Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
1Co 15:46 But it is not the spiritual which is first but the physical, and then the spiritual.
1Co 15:47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 1Co 15:48 As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven.
1Co 15:49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
1Co 15:50 I tell you this, brethren: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Note: This has been affirming the nature of the "change" or clothing they were to receive!
1Co 15:51 Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep,but we shall all be changed,
1Co 15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed 1Co 15:53 For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality.
1Co 15:54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory."
1Co 15:55 "O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?" 1Co 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

2. Deliverance from bondage. (Complete Old Covenant abolishment which enslaved them to works of the law).

Hebrews 3:10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their hearts; they have not known my ways.' 11 As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall never enter my rest.'
Hebrews 9:8 By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the sanctuary is not yet opened as long as the outer tent is still standing 9 (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper,
Hebrews 9:28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Due to the Jews wickedness, those who denied Christ, they would not enter His rest.
What rest?
The rest from "bondage" to the Old Covenant works of the law!
The seventh day was approaching!!

Chapter 4 of Hebrews is the key.
The Jews under the old covenant who rejected Christ would never enter it. The Jews who were saved would. They, however, being under the law still, by bondage to the old covenant, still had to be faithful not to fall. Their salvation was still resting on their behavioral faithfulness as faith. For they were in a unique time, one stuck between the old and new covenant. The old covenant had to be fully destroyed to enter the rest (freedom from that bondage).

We are not under this bondage in the same way we will never be under human authority figures in this new covenant because where they were still hoping to obtain, we HAVE obtained!!

Hebrews 8:6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry which is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second. 8 For he finds fault with them when he says: "The days will come, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and so I paid no heed to them, says the Lord. 10 This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,

says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach every one his fellow or every one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."

12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."

The last is the answer to how He will handle your iniquities, my new covenant Christian brethren!

13 In speaking of a new covenant he treats the first as obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

The Old is now obsolete.

Are His laws written on your heart?
Do you seek first God's kingdom over anything?
Do you love Him?

Hebrews 10:9 then he added, "Lo, I have come to do thy will." He abolishes the first in order to establish the second.

10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Hebrews 10:14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,

says the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds," 17 then he adds, "I will remember their sins and their misdeeds no more."18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Brother, if you are saved, the evidence of that is your good works. It is natural grace offspring (fruit).
Brother, if you are saved, there is no more remission of sins, for they are already covered. As in chapter 8, He is MERCIFUL toward our iniquities (because grace itself tells us we cannot stop committing them). And in Chapter 10, He remembers them not.

We are all held to a perfection standard.
Christ holds that standard on our behalf.
You cannot and never will.
That is why the old is obsolete and the new is better.

No more types. No more shadows. Pure faith and freedom in Christ.

1. You are free from the standards.
2. You live them anyway for they are in your heart.

13 In speaking of a new covenant he treats the first as obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. If we are in the same waiting stage that Paul was in, only for us, we have to die first, then we DO NOT HAVE A BETTER COVENANT!!

Hebrews 8:8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.

10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

Here is where Paul stops quoting prophecy and adds his comment. The "new covenant" he is speaking of is the one in effect as he speaks, he is simply interpreting prophecy, not suddenly adding that this new covenant he was in then was waxing old. He is referring to the passing of the ancient Jewish covenant which was crippled and about to be brought to judgement, to vanish away in AD70.

13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

The proof of this is the very next verse in Hebrews 9, Paul continues in the same vein, describing the old covenant, what it consisted of.

Hebrews 9: 1 Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.

He was never referring to the passing of the only new covenant then in effect as if it was somehow ready to vanish. We are in that very covenant he was speaking of.

He was never referring to the passing of the only new covenant then in effect as if it was somehow ready to vanish. We are in that very covenant he was speaking of

Paul was not in the New Covenant yet. Read again verse 13 of Heb 8:

13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

The New is not in effect until the Old is gone.
I believe this because all had to be put under Christ's feet BEFORE the New would be in effect.

Heb 10:12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 then to wait until his enemies should be made a stool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds," 17 then he adds, "I will remember their sins and their misdeeds no more." 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

This is not a covenant Paul dealt with in full because there sins and misdeeds would be very much remembered at the judgment.

All was not under Christ's feet yet:
2:8 putting everything in subjection under his feet." Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.

Their promise they were waiting for was life. The "further clothing" (change), or in the case of the dead, the resurrection. As I have posted numerous times.
It was only then, that death was defeated, who's sting was sin and who's power was the law. Christ had defeated it at His resurrection, but only for Himself. When He returned and the dead rose, and the alive "changed", then it was defeated for all men, for all time. And only then, at the total defeat (for all) of the law and sin and death, was the New Covenant in effect. 1 Cor 15:26,35-37,50-56. Hebrews 2:8, Heb 8:10-13. Heb 10:13-18.

Instead of being childish, tell me what serious questions you want anwsers to so I can apologize and try to do my best with them.

What is a "spirit body?" Does it have fingers, eyes, tongues? Is it a body, but without skin? (Yuck!) These are serious question, by the way. The Bible specifically speaks of these things, not as metaphores, belonging to people after death.

One like Christ's I would imagine. One that probably walks through walls. One that materializes and then doesn't. But the difference between Christ's and ours, is His was the original body He was born with, reanimated.
Ours will not be. Ours will be revealed (or grown in a way) at our death.

15:35 But some one will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" 15:36 You foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 15:37 And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.

You can say my view is wrong, but Paul calls you foolish if you think that our roting flesh will be reanimated into a body like Christs.
No. We have recieved an alltogether new one (clothed with life 2 Cor 5:4) which will shed this old sinful one at death, like a seed!

Now, if he did not have the same kind of nature as is brethren, then He was not made like them in "all things."

Christ was born of Mary, in a HUMAN FLESH AND BONE BODY! Not from ADAMS seed, but Abrahams.
Aren't you a dispensationalist?
Adams covenant, the one that was broken to usher in sin, Christ did NOT partake of that sin nature or He would have been spiritually dead as we were. But He was born by the Holy Spirit.
Abrahams covenant, the one of the promise, the one of faith, the seed, Christ was Abrahams seed (Born through Mary).

As for the nonsense about Jesus being the seed of Abraham through "faith," does that mean Jesus was "born again" into family of Abraham like we are? And why would Jesus need to be born again?

No, it means He was born of Mary, not Joseph. He was born of the Holy Spirit, not Joseph. He was divine, not spiritually dead, as we. He was LIKE his brethren, but not of the sin nature, or He would have needed to be born again

I'm sorry if I have offended you. I believe you are sincere, and truly seeking the truth, but I fear that your heart has been moved from the simplicity that is in Christ. (2 Cor. 11:3) You do admit that you "system" is not exactly simple, and requires quite a bit of explanation, don't you? You have been doing a lot of explaining.

I appreciate the grace shown inn the remainder of your post.

I am not a scholar, not vey old, and not very complex in my mind. Once I came to the belief of Christ's return in AD 70. All this became very simple to me. I do not use study guides, notes or anything, but many of my friends who believe CHrist returned, as I do, agree on these principles without having to debate them. It seems to have a clarity of a message once we relized our place in the history of man. The redeemed of the ages, after the return.

May the Lord bless and keep you.
I hope we can continue discussions civily as I believe we have maintained so far.

Nate

You can say my view is wrong, but Paul calls you foolish if you think that our roting flesh will be reanimated into a body like Christs. No. We have recieved an alltogether new one (clothed with life 2 Cor 5:4) which will shed this old sinful one at death, like a seed!

I just have one question. When you say, "which will shed this old sinful one," do you mean the "body."

If you do, do you ascribe sin to a substance rather than to choices and actions, neither of which the body is capable of?

Hank

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