Commandments Under the New Covenant
(All Bible verses quoted are from the New King James Version)

The Bible is not a set of commandments, nor a standard to try and live by, neither the new covenant a set of instructions to follow.

When we are given a command under the new covenant (especially throughout books like James & Peter), this is not for us to try and follow by the book, because this would mean that we are putting ourselves under a “law” again, we are just calling it something else, namely a command. Rather these books are to be seen as an example of what a Christian life can look like when people under the power of God manifest the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. When we live this way, walking according to the Spirit (Rom 8:1) and delighting ourselves in the Lord, we will automatically obey the commandments and manifest the fruit of the Spirit. But the commandments are not to be seen as a standard, rather they are an example. A key revelation that we as new covenant believers need to have is that we have been made fully righteous (2 Cor 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him).

It’s easy to misunderstand some of the verses in James when we read them in the wrong context. In the context of the new covenant that says we have been saved by grace through faith (Eph 2:8-9), and that we can not do anything to earn God’s blessings or approval, let’s look at a few of these verses:

Jam 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Jam 2:17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Jam 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

These verses are not supposed to condemn you and make you feel you have not been doing enough. Let’s quickly look at a commonly misunderstood principle: Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. When we are born again, we are IN Christ, but we don’t necessarily walk IN the Spirit. When we walk IN the Spirit, it means we are doing everything right. But when we walk ACCORDING TO or AFTER the Spirit, it means we are making a sincere effort, we are trying, but not necessarily getting it right. Now look again at Rom 8:1 (above). This verse says that when we try, there is no condemnation, even if we miss it. You see the old covenant dealt with the outward problem, with sin and godless deeds. But under the new covenant God changes our hearts (He deals with the inward problem), and when our hearts are changed, the good works will automatically follow. This is what it means when Paul quoted the prophet Jeremiah in Heb 10:16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them. First we have to believe the right things (that God loves us regardless of our performance and that we can not earn His approval) before we will start doing the right things. Right believing will lead to right living, but simply living right in itself will not lead to right believing.

Thus back to the James verses, the writer is saying that if we are truly saved, there will be evidence of our faith in the form of good works. But since our minds are not fully renewed, we sometimes make mistakes, we don’t always walk IN the Spirit, and we neglect to do the good works God meant for us to do. But this is where the grace of God comes in, God does not condemn or judge or punish us if we don’t do the works the writer of James talks about. He simply… keeps on loving us the same.

Not to take away any of the power of the words in James though. Think about it this way: When you really love God, your life will be a light in the darkness, you will be the salt of the earth and people will see your good works and praise God for them. But Jesus came and took away the “Have To’s” and replaced them all with “Want To’s”.

Yours in Grace
Andre van der Merwe

Purpose of the New Covenant
(All Bible verses quoted are from the New King James Version)

The primary purpose of the new covenant was not for God to come and change our external behaviour. Rather it was God changing the way He relates to us.

Under the Old Covenant, God dealt with the external problem, namely people’s sins. They were punished and cursed when they sinned and broke the laws. But under the New Covenant, God dealt with the internal problem, namely our fallen sinful nature. He changed us from the inside, giving us the very nature of his Son, Jesus Christ, and credited the perfect obedience of Jesus to our account.

Our old sinful nature has been crucified with Christ, and our spirits made 100% righteous (2 Cor 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him). And this is the way He now sees us – blameless and fully righteous in His sight (Col 1:21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight)

Rom 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Before we came into Christ, we were enemies of God, and we were alienated from Him in 2 ways:
1) We had a sinful nature inside us and we were slaves to this sinful nature, running after every evil thing to gratify the desires of our flesh (Eph 2:3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.) We were alive to sin (because of our sinful nature) and dead towards God.
2) We were also under the law, which utterly condemned us and showed us how sinful we were. Rom 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

But Rom 6:6-7 says that we are now dead to sin. We are now friends of God, and we were united with Him in 2 ways:
1) Our sinful nature was crucified with Christ, and our spirits have now been made alive towards God. The perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ has been imputed to us, and all the benefits and blessings of His obedience has now been credited to us because of our faith in Him.
2) The law has been nullified, nailed to the cross with Jesus (Col 2:14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross) and God now relates to people again like He did in the days of the Bible before the law was given, not imputing their sins against them, but instead delighting in us with the love and passion of a proud Father. God doesn’t just see us as if we’ve never sinned – He sees us now as if we have perfectly obeyed all the laws our entire life!

Eph 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Yours in Grace
Andre van der Merwe

Nullification of the Law
(All Bible verses quoted are from the New King James Version)

The following are 3 examples of how the law can creep up on Christians: Sitting in a “Christian” meeting where the 10 commandments or some of the laws in the Bible are read and you are told this is what you have to do to be blessed or accepted by God; Feeling guilty or condemned that you don’t do enough for God or that you don’t go to church or pray or read the Bible enough; Feeling that God doesn’t hear your prayers because you have sinned in some way. All of the above symptoms are signs of the law that is trying to creep up on you.

The Bible says there is now no more law, and where there is no law, there is no transgression of the law. Rom 4:15 because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.

From the time of Adam & Eve until the time when the law was given to Moses & the Israelites, there was no law in the world. God treated all those who believed in Him with love & grace, regardless of their obedience or disobedience. He never punished their sins. For example, even after Cain killed his brother Abel, God still put a mark on Cain to prevent anybody from killing him, and He even said that if anybody tried to kill Cain, that Cain would be avenged seven fold! Yes Cain’s actions caused him to be cursed from the earth (Gen 3:12) and perhaps even hated by people, but he wasn’t cursed by God. God still loved him the same.

In Gen 12 Abraham lied to the Pharaoh about Sarah (his wife) to save his own neck, and even though Abraham was clearly in the wrong, God rebuked the Pharaoh! And Abraham even left Egypt laden with slaves and cattle and wealth!

You can follow this thread of God’s grace right through the Bible for all the people that believed in God, up to the time where the law was given (Exodus 19-20). In spite of all Israel’s murmuring and complaining in the desert, God always provided for them (manna, water out of a rock, pillar of fire, etc). He never punished or killed 1 single person that believed in Him. But after Israel had received the law (and as a result they had to obey the law perfectly in order to be blessed & accepted by God), God started sending plagues (Num 16 & Num 25) & serpents (Num 21) and all sorts of calamities onto them, because they didn’t fully obey the law. In Num 16 God sent a plague and 14,000 people died. In Num 25 God sent another plague and 24,000 people died.

The following verse clenches it – Rom 5:13 For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. This says that before the law had been given through Moses, even though people sinned, God didn’t count their sins against them because there was no law to break. Dear friend, you & I have also been freed from the law! God does not punish us or count our sins against us anymore, because the law was crucified with Jesus!! Col 2:14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

There is therefore no more law to keep or to break, and thus we can approach God with boldness, no matter if we had just messed up! You see, where there is no law there is no transgression of the law. And where there is no transgression, there is no punishment. We only have to remember this confidence is not in ourselves, but in what Jesus has done for us. 2 Cor 5:21 For He (the Father) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. This is sometimes called the “great exchange”: The punishment that was supposed to come on us was given to Him, and the rewards & blessings for obedience that He earned have been given to us. And this is the grounds for our confidence before God! We don’t even have to have a guilty conscience anymore, because how can we sin or break the law if there is no law?

Heb 10:19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, 21 and having a High Priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Yours in Grace
Andre van der Merwe

3 Covenants
(All Bible verses quoted are from the New King James Version)

(If you don’t have time to read this in one go, take it in 3 parts, meditating in between on each of the 3 covenants).
There are many covenants in the Bible, but today we will only focus on three, and all three are covenants that God made with man. If you understand these three covenants, it will make the Bible much clearer. Firstly we must understand the different between a covenant and a promise.

When God makes a promise, we have to put our faith in that promise for it to come to pass. Heb 6:12 …but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises (Also Heb 11:33).

However, when God makes a covenant it WILL come to pass, whether we believe it or not. God can not lie, and when He takes an oath, He always does what He says.

1st Covenant: God appears to Abraham, and makes a covenant to be Abraham’s God and to multiply & bless him.
Gen 17:3 Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: 4 “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.
No strings attached. Abraham didn’t do anything to deserve this, he didn’t keep any laws or live unusually holy. As a matter of fact, some theological scholars believe Abraham was once an Iraqi who worshipped pagan Gods! Abraham lied about his wife and said she was his sister, and even though Abraham was clearly wrong here, God rebuked the Pharaoh, not Abraham. This was because God had a covenant with Abraham, and God always keeps His part of the bargain. So Abraham lied, but because of God’s blessing on his life he came out of Egypt laden with slaves and cattle and wealth. Now this is not endorsing sinful living, it just serves to illustrate that God blessed Abraham regardless of Abraham’s level of obedience. The law of Moses was only introduced 430 years later (so there weren’t any laws to keep in any case), which brings us to the second covenant…

2nd Covenant: God gives the law to Moses. Israel had continued to persist in unbelief and had kept on murmuring & complaining since God had led them out of Egypt with mighty signs & wonders. They also didn’t want to have a personal relationship with God, but instead always asked Moses to speak to God on their behalf.
Ex 24:7 Then he (Moses) took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they (Israel) said, “All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient.” 8 And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words.”
Israel should never have agreed to living under the law!! God would have accepted and loved them regardless of how holy (or unholy) they lived, because they were Abraham’s descendants, and we have just read about God’s amazing covenant with Abraham (God also declared Abraham to be righteous simply because he believed God – Gen 15:6). But instead, Israel in their pride said “We will obey ALL the laws that God has given us”, something they would never be able to do!! God called them a “stiff necked people” (Ex 32:9, Ex 33:3). God never originally meant for us to try to relate to Him in this way! Just after God’s commands were written on stone and He set the choice of curse (for disobedience) or blessing (for obedience) before Israel, He said this to Moses in Deut 31:16 And the LORD said to Moses: “Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.
Does this look like God’s best plan for mankind?

3rd Covenant: The most amazing new covenant under which we now live! This covenant was cut within the Trinity, with no human influence or intervention, but purely out of the heart of love of God towards us. God took away the law of Moses, cancelling the written code that stood opposed to us (Col 2:14). He made Jew, Greek & Gentile equal – God’s church has now become spiritual Israel. Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly…

Let’s see what the Bible says about the new covenant. Heb 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless (referring to the law of Moses, the 2nd covenant in our teaching this week), then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah (this means us! God’s children, His bride) — 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 did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts (this means God will give us the desire to please Him and have fellowship with Him, to seek His heart for us); and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbour, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. (This means gone are the days where we need a priest or someone else to constantly tell us about God, we can now know Him personally and intimately…) 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” (Do you really need anymore proof that God won’t ever punish you again??) 13 In that He says, “A new covenant, ” He has made the first obsolete.

Now, because we have all become “spiritual Israel”, we have all become children of Abraham, and have now also come under the covenant that God made with Abraham, to be our God and bless us: Acts 3:25 You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Gal 3: 13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

God will never again stop from doing good to us (even when He rebukes us (Heb 12), it is a loving tender rebuke from His heart of love) Jer 32:40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me.

Ez 16:62-63 And I will establish My covenant with you. Then you shall know that I am the LORD ……when I provide you an atonement for all you have done,” says the Lord GOD.’” Jesus’ blood was the atonement: Matt 26:28 For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

How can we begin to sing of His goodness….????
Yours in Grace
Andre van der Merwe