The Disciple and the New Covenant

This Sunday I spoke in the morning about the difference between a mere church-attender, and a disciple of Jesus Christ, and at night about the new covenant. These two ideas are related. I had a nice row of young people on the front rows. I am anxious to establish the youngsters in true Christian discipleship, because the days to come in America are going to be difficult spiritually and physically.

(12/3/2006) There really are two kinds of saved people mentioned in the New Testament. The first kind are those who are saved from destruction. Whoever receives Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, and then is baptized in water, will be saved from destruction in the Day of Judgment and brought forward to life on the new earth. Whoever refuses to receive Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior is lost to the Presence and redemptive operations of God. To be saved is to be part of the Kingdom of God.

But the great bulk of the New Testament is written to God's elect, the saints (holy ones), those who have been called out of the world to be specially close to God, just as was true of the nation of Israel of the Old Testament.

The elect also shall be saved from destruction in the Day of Judgment, but they are called to be disciples. This means they must deny themselves, put Christ above their relatives, friends, and their own life, take up their personal cross of pain and imprisonment, and follow Jesus Christ each day of their life.

These are the members of the royal priesthood. They are disciples. They are God's elect, chosen from the foundation of the world to serve the nations of saved people as rulers and representatives of God and the Lamb.

It is interesting to note in the Old Testament that when one of God's leaders was in charge, such as Moses, or Joshua, the people obeyed the Lord. But as soon as Joshua died, the people milled around in confusion, not destroying the inhabitants of Canaan but inter-marrying with them and worshiping their idols.

So it will be true in the ages to come. If order is to prevail, if Paradise is to be maintained, there must be strong, righteous rulers who are sternly obedient to God. They will govern mankind for eternity.

There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 22:5)

I am terming this briefest of essays "The Disciple and the New Covenant." This is because the new covenant, the only Christian covenant, is about discipleship, not about being saved, as we use the term "saved" meaning to go to Heaven when we die. The new covenant, found in chapter Eight and Ten of the Book of Hebrews, is about writing the eternal moral law of God in our mind and heart.

Each disciple of Jesus Christ must have the eternal moral law of God written in his or her heart and mind—in his mind so he will understand it; in his heart so he will be rejoice in it and be willing to perform every aspect of it.

I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart. (Psalms 40:8)

The verse above is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. It must be true also of every disciple, every member of the royal priesthood.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Tree of Life. He also is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is the eternal moral law of God. It is the Word of God in judgment.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Word of God made flesh. He is the eternal moral law of God made flesh. He does by nature that which pleases God. He abhors and rejects by nature that which does not please God.

The new covenant is the forming of Christ in us. The new covenant is the forming of the eternal moral law of God in our heart and mind. The end result of the working of the Holy Spirit under the new covenant is a disciple who has become a new creation. He himself, the new creation, is the eternal covenant of God to the people of the world. Through his life and words he reveals what behavior will bring the blessing of God on a person, and what behavior will bring the curse of God on a person. Each saint, each person called to be a holy one, is the covenant of God with mankind.

The disciple does not think of himself merely as someone who has been saved from wrath and who will go to the spirit paradise when he dies. Rather, he is a person who each day is having the eternal moral law of God written in his mind and heart. He is having Christ, who Himself is the New Covenant, formed in him.

What must the disciple, the one learning from the Master, do each day to insure that the eternal moral law is being written in his mind and heart?

First, he must receive Christ so that the Seed of God is deposited in his personality. When the Seed of God has come to maturity, it will be in the exact moral image of the Lord Jesus Christ. After that, the physical body of the new creation will be changed so that it is like the body of Christ. Thus the new man shall resemble Christ in internal character and in external form.

Now it is time for the Seed to grow. How is the disciples to take care of this Seed and nourish it; because otherwise the Seed will bear no lasting fruit, the fruit of the moral image of Christ?

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. (I Peter 1:23)

Here is what each of us must do if we are to have Christ formed in us:

Pray each day.

Read the Bible each day.

Obey Christ's commands, found in the New Testament and also given to us personally.

Confess and renounce any sin we are committing.

Praise God and rejoice in Him at all time and under all circumstances, as much as we are able.

Gather with fervent disciples on a regular basis.

Be ministered to, and minister our gifts as the Holy Spirit enables.

Give of our substance.

Forgive everyone without exception.

Look to Christ for every decision we make throughout the day.

Cultivate the Presence of Christ, talking to Him throughout the day and night.

Put on the whole armor of God, as found in the sixth chapter of the Book of Ephesians.

Add to our faith the virtues found in the first chapter of Second Peter that we may partake of the Divine Nature.

Present our body a living sacrifice.

Deny ourselves and put Jesus first in all things.

Carry our cross patiently.

Love not our life to the death, if it proves necessary.

Work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

In the evening service we also discussed Heaven. The Heaven we want to go to is found in the twelfth chapter of the Book of Hebrews. The amazing fact is that we already are here in Heaven. It is not a case of our waiting to die to go to Heaven. Rather we are to live in Heaven, as God has appointed each of His elect.

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, To the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect,To Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22-24)

The above is the "Heaven" in which each of God's elect is to live forever. We won't "go there" when we die. We already are here.

We have come to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of God.

We now are part of the church of the Firstborn, the Lord Jesus Christ and our name is written in Heaven.

We have come to God. Jesus is the way to God.

We have come to the spirits of righteous people made perfect.

We have come to Jesus, who Himself is the New Covenant, as we have described.

We have come to the sprinkled blood which keeps us holy in God's sight, and does not accuse us of murder.

As we consider what has been written above we may note that there is a huge difference, a difference in kind, between the individual who has professed faith in Christ in the hope he will not be destroyed in the Day of Judgment, and the individual who has denied himself, put the Lord Jesus above everything else in his life, and is patiently following Jesus each day, bearing his personal cross—the cross that will destroy his self-centeredness and place God and Christ on the throne of his life.

Hopefully this Sunday's message will inspire many boys and girls, young people, and older people, to attend to the writing of God's law in their heart and mind so they can become the new covenant of God to the people of the world.