[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Wednesday, January 15, 2014

[Paul]

Hello and good day once again to my loyal readers.  I hope that, by God's matchless grace and His providential care, that you all are doing well.

This is the second of two parts of an article by Dr. O. Herbert Hirt entitled "The New Covenant:  Its Implications For the Christian Life." If you recall, we went through the following subheadings:  Introduction and Redemption:  The Forgiveness of Sins.  We continue our article with the subheading, The Law In The Heart:  The Indwelling Holy Spirit, rendered as follows:

In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul explained to the church at Corinth that the proof of his ministry is that their hearts had been changed by the Holy Spirit.  He said in 2 Corinthians 3:6, "Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament (new covenant), not of the letter, but of the spirit for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." Paul, in making this contrast between the Old and New Covenants, implied the same point this author maintains; that is, the Old Covenant could only condemn because, while it could lay out for the people the external commands of God, it could not change their hearts in the New Covenant, God put His Law in the recipient's heart in the person of the Holy Spirit.  The difference is that, under the Old Covenant, many of the Israelites saw the Law as a set of ritual commands to be obeyed, but their hearts were far from God.  Their obedience was not from the heart.  God was never satisfied with this (Ps. 40:6-8).  God wants people to obey Him from the heart because they want to please God, not because they have to in order to earn some merit.  This is what God does in the New Covenant.

For this reason, Paul could deny that his gospel promoted sin (Rom. 6:1-2).  Because believers' hearts are "resurrected" by the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, they are now different people than they were before they believed (Rom. 6:2-10).  They are no longer Satan's slaves but are now free to serve God from their hearts.  (The term Heart" implies all of the intellectual, emotional and volitional capabilities that make up a person's inner desires and motivation).

This does not mean that believers cannot sin.  While believers' hearts are changed, they still have indwelling sin (Rom. 7:20), which they will have until they die or the Lord returns and gives them resurrection bodies (Rom. 7:25; 8:18-25).  This is why Christians today are not "under the law but under grace" (Rom. 6:14).  Even after being regenerated in their hearts, believers still cannot keep the Law to perfection or try to earn righteousness because they have indwelling sin (Rom 7:14-25).  Believers must recognize that their sin will always have disastrous effects even though they are forgiven (Rom. 6:15-23).

Paul summarized his teaching on justification and sanctification in Romans 8:1-4).  He said:  "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

While Paul maintained that we cannot become righteous before God by keeping the Law but only through Christ's death, he also intimated that the person who trusts in Christ will live according to the Spirit.  In this way "The righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us."  In other words, there is more involved in the believer's justification than simply having his sins forgiven and having _positional righteousness.  The believer is now _experientially "a new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17) in that he has the Holy Spirit living in him.  The believer is able, through the Spirit's power, to fulfill the Law.  But this does not mean that he practices all the commands of the Old Covenant, but, rather, that he fulfills the Law of christ (2 Cor. 9:21; Gal. 6:2; cp. Jas. 1:25, 2:8).

Paul demonstrated the relationship between the Law of the Old Covenant and the believer's life today in Romans 13:9-10.  He said:  "For this, thou shal not commit adultery, thou shall not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  Love worketh no ill to its neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law."

To live righteously, the person under the New Covenant does not simply follow the commandments of the Old Covenant from a new perspective (although the laws of the are instructive for us in seeing how this principle of "love" was concretely implemented in Israel's daily life, just as the New Testament's exhortations show how it is implemented in believers' lives today).  Rather, what the Law was to express (i.e., love for God and man, cp. Dt. 6:5 with Mt. 22:34-40) is that which the New Covenant promises to fulfill in each believer's heart through regeneration and the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  The result of this promise in the believer's life today is not perfection, although the believer's future glorification is certain, but "the fruit of the Spirit" Gal. 5:22-23).  As the believer grows to spiritual maturity, he will evidence more and more of the moral nature of God in his life through the work of the Holy Spirit.  The truly regenerate person will evidence these characteristics in varying degrees because they are the work of the Holy Spirit, not of the believer.  In other words, the person whose life has been changed by the power of God cannot help but grow spiritually and demonstrate that he is "born of God" (1 Jn. 3:1-10).

SUMMARY

When Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, his act had two major effects on all following generations of mankind.  First, sin brought death into the world as God's promised judgment (Rom. 5:12).  Second, man's constitutional nature was changed so that his heart was turned away from loving God and his fellowman (Rom. 1:18-32).  In the Mosaic Law, God revealed His holiness so that man might recognize his own sin and helplessness before God.  But this knowledge by itself could not bring salvation.  In the New Covenant, God rectified the damage done by Adam by forgiving believers' sins and changing their natures from spiritual deadness to spiritual life.  This salvation is made possible by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, who took the penalty for the sins of mankind on the cross, and who has given to believers the Holy Spirit so that they might truly live lives pleasing to Him from their hearts.  But believers still anxiously await Christ's return so that they may be wholly redeemed, since all their unrighteousness and sin will be removed when they receive the glorified bodies in which they will live eternally with God.  This act of God will be the final fulfillment of the New Covenant, which is for all who are "in Christ."

And there you have Dr. Hirt's article which, although long, just might prove to be a blessing to you if only in a small way.  I'll let the Holy Spirit take care of that, as I admit that I don't fully understand all of this personally.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Lord willing tomorrow there will be another, much shorter, Daily Thought message for you.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul