The two dimensions of the new covenant
There are two great dimensions of the new covenant. One dimension is that of forgiveness. The other dimension is that of transformation into Christ’s moral image (and later His external image if we pursue Christ throughout our discipleship).
The forgiveness aspect of our redemption was accomplished on the cross of Calvary. When we receive Christ and then walk in Him we are always in a state of forgiveness. We are without condemnation. However, our forgiveness is not unconditional. It depends on our walking in the light of God’s will. We automatically are candidates for admission to Paradise when we die if we are walking in the light of God’s will. But residence in Paradise is not the scriptural goal of man’s salvation.
The transformation aspect is another matter. To be transformed into Christ’s image and to be brought into untroubled union with God through Christ requires the destruction of our adamic nature—all of it, the good and the bad!—and the creation and refinement of Christ’s Nature in our personality. Included also is the eternal dwelling of the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit in our personality.
In our day the forgiveness aspect of the new covenant is expanded until it becomes the covenant. "Grace" is defined as an alternative to righteous behaviour. Grace has been made a synonym of forgiveness, the idea being that God has forgiven Gentiles so they may enter Paradise apart from a change in their behaviour. This is totally unscriptural.
When one examines the nature of the new covenant (Hebrews 8:10-12) it can be seen that the major feature of the covenant is the writing of God’s laws in our mind and heart, which indicates the creating of righteous behaviour in our personality, while forgiveness is added as a provision that keeps us holy while the required change is taking place.
By no means is forgiveness the central provision of the new covenant even though it is preached as such in our time.
There are several major types in the Old Testament of our progress from initial salvation to the fullness of God.
For example, the seven feasts of the Lord can be studied in the twenty-third chapter of the Book of Leviticus. The first four feasts, Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and Pentecost symbolize the spiritual graces that give us the authority and power to enter the Kingdom of God.
It is the last three feasts, the Blowing of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the feast of Tabernacles, that symbolize our actual entrance into the Kingdom of God. They portray the method God uses to transform our personality. We enter the Kingdom of God only as our personality is transformed. There is no worldliness, lust, or self-seeking in the Kingdom of God. Any part of our personality that persists in the love of the world, fleshly lusts, or personal ambition is not of the Kingdom of God.
We can see from the above that there is a difference between having as our goal entrance into Paradise and having as our goal entrance into the Kingdom of God. Adam and Eve were in Paradise but not in the Kingdom of God.
Paradise is a garden of delight. The Kingdom of God is the rule of God, the doing of God’s will in the earth. The Gospel of Christ has to do with the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth.
Any person who receives Christ and abides in Him is assured of entering Paradise when he or she dies. But this is not the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God can be entered only by personal transformation.
Notice this fact in the following passage:
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelling, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
It is not that those who do such things shall not enter Paradise but those who do such thing shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.
The thief on the cross was admitted to Paradise because of his confession of the kingship of Christ. But the Kingdom of God can be inherited only as we become free from the works of the flesh.
The Lord Jesus did not come preaching Paradise but the Kingdom of God. No parable of the Lord had to do with entering Paradise, only with the Kingdom of Heaven, of God.
The reason we must be born again of Christ is so we may enter the Kingdom, not Paradise!
Now, let us see what the last three of the seven feasts of the Lord have to say concerning our inheriting the Kingdom of God, which is the same as saying the transformation of our personality—for that is what the Kingdom is.
The Blowing of Trumpets (Leviticus 23:24) speaks of the Lord of Hosts going to war against the sin in His Church, and then against the sin throughout His entire creation.
The Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:27) portrays the forgiveness of our sin, and then, by means of the scapegoat, the removal of our sin.
The feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:34) reveals God’s ultimate intention, which is that Christ (and God in Christ) may become the Centre and Circumference of the whole creation of God, beginning with the victorious saints.
That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: (Ephesians 1:10)
Assuming you have received the Lord Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour, this is how your personal transformation (which is the new covenant) will occur. This is how you will enter the Kingdom of God.
The Lord Jesus will declare war against His enemies in your personality.
The Lord Jesus, having forgiven your sins through the atonement made by the shedding of His blood on the cross of Calvary, will guide you until every one of His enemies in you have been put beneath His feet.
The Lord Jesus will nourish your personality with His own body and blood until all that was born of Adam has been crucified and all that is of God has been created in you.
The Lord Jesus and the Father will come to you and make Their eternal abode in your personality.
We have written several books and booklets dealing with the manner in which the feasts of the Lord apply to our Christian discipleship. This additional material can be obtained by writing to the address given at the end of the present booklet.
We would like to focus the present discussion on the goal of our salvation, that is, our personal transformation into Christ’s image, as being above and beyond the simple entrance into Paradise upon our physical death.