The Covenant is a Life

There are many voices in the church today talking about the new covenant. It seems to me to have become a very popular concept or phrase. I hear it very frequently, and almost always with the same connotations, or with the same assumed meaning that people think it conveys. I think I can sincerely say that I wish every one of these people were truly experiencing the new covenant, and more importantly, KEEPING the new covenant, so that they could experience the benefits of it—but I often find that this is not the case. Far from actually living in the new covenant, and keeping the new covenant, it is extremely common for Christians in our day to live their own life, in their own will, and yet claim the benefits of a covenant that they do not know, and do not keep.

For many, the new covenant seems to be nothing more than the absence of the old covenant. I mean, when you ask some people what it means to be in the new covenant, they will tell you what they DON’T have to do. “I don’t have to keep the law. I don’t have to sacrifice animals.” Or more commonly these days, “I don’t have to practice the rudiments and outward shadows of spiritual things.” But this is not the new covenant. These are just some things that you think you don’t have to do. What is the new covenant itself? 

Others say “it’s a covenant of the Spirit, and not of the letter. It is a covenant of substance and not shadows and figures. It’s a covenant of spiritual power and revelation, and not a covenant of human power and works.” Ok, true enough. But still I ask, what is the covenant? How do you experience it? What does it do? How do you walk in it and keep it? 

Those who have listened to me before know that I frequently say, “let’s be honest with ourselves.” Presumption and imagination have reigned in our hearts and in the church long enough. We live in a generation where the knowledge of words passes as the knowledge of things. I mean, where people think they have understanding and experience because they are familiar with words, concepts, and verses. We excite each other with the sound of interesting words, deep truths, profound revelations, clever phrases, and then we all return to our houses to live in our own fleshly mind and desires. So today, let’s just be honest with ourselves about the condition of our heart. What do we REALLY know of God and His covenant? 

Before getting into the new covenant, let me just say a few words about spiritual “knowing”. I think this will be helpful for us as we go on to consider the new covenant. The limit of our spiritual understanding is the limit, or the extent to which the LIFE of the Spirit works in us. You don’t really have inward knowledge, beyond where you have life. This is absolutely true about spiritual knowledge, and it is also true about the most intimate kind of natural knowledge. 

For instance, I know what it is like to be a hand because I have LIFE in my hand. I can feel my hand, I know what it feels like, I can feel its movements and when it is cold and hot and asleep and in pain. And the reason why I know what it is like to be a hand is because my LIFE is in my hand. But if I go somewhere beyond where my life is, then my experience of true knowledge stops. Like my shirt. My shirt is very close to me, it is very close to my life. It goes where I go, and it moves when I move, but I have no life in it, and therefore I have no idea what it is like to be a cotton shirt. In this illustration you can see what I mean when I say: knowledge stops where my life stops. 

There is not a more true, or more important thing to understand when it comes to spiritual knowledge. Our knowledge stops where our life stops. In other words, where we are not experiencing the life of God actually living, moving, constraining, giving light, perspective, and various experiences of His nature, power, and truth, then we have NO knowledge there. Where there is no life, there is no real knowledge. There are just conjectures and guesses about unknown things.

And when we try to exceed, or go beyond in knowledge what we are in life, then Babylon is born. When we speak and teach beyond what we have lived, we are guessing. We are fumbling around in the dark, borrowing other men’s words and ideas. Paul did not minister this way. Paul ministered in and out from the life of Christ. He was in “fear and trembling” not wanting any of his preaching to come from “persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” (1 Cor 2:3-4) He said that, “by manifesting the truth, he commended himself to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.” (2 Cor. 4:2). Perhaps you say, Paul spoke by the Spirit and I am preaching Paul’s words. But be careful here. Moses spoke by the Spirit as well, and the Pharisees used his words to reject and crucify Christ.

There is only one way to truly know God, and the things of God, and that is by experiencing the very life, light, and nature of God being formed in the soul of man. When LIFE is working in us, then we can know some of the things that are aspects, attributes, and experiences of that life. But when LIFE is not in us, but outside of us, then any knowledge we think we have of that life is actually Anti-Life, or Antichrist. Once when He was speaking to some Jews, Jesus said, 

And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. And you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

This is like Jesus saying: “Here is the problem. You have the words of God, and you study the words of God, but you do not have the life of God. You think you have an ability to judge and understand, but your judgment and your understanding are extremely limited by the fact that you do not have His Word abiding in you. If you had his Word abiding in you, then you could truly hear His voice and see who He is. But there is no room in your hearts for His Word, and this is the only reason why you cannot understand and receive the One who He has sent.” 

Ok, that is enough about “knowing”. But it is a fitting introduction to a message about the new covenant, because the new covenant is a LIFE, and it is known and experienced as we learn to walk in that LIFE. If I were to try to define the new covenant in a few words, I would say that it is a life that is given by God, in which man can experience and know Him. Or you could say, it is a relationship with God in the life of His Son. 

When I say that the new covenant is a LIFE, and that it is known and experienced as we learn to walk in that life, you must understand that I am not talking about the life that all of us know by our birth in the flesh. Jesus says, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, Spirit gives birth to Spirit.” There is a birth of the flesh, and a life in the flesh. And there is a birth of the Spirit and a life in the Spirit. These two births can both be experienced in man, but they are as different as light and darkness. They can both be experienced by the same soul, but they are contrary in every way. They have a different source, one comes from below and the other comes from above. They have a different nature, one is earthly, the other is heavenly. They have a different light: one sees with the light of the carnal mind, the natural faculty of reason, the other sees with the eye or light of God. They have a different will, a different purpose, different desires, different everything. 

Understanding these two births is really the foundation of Christianity, because everything practical in Christianity has to do with our dying to and being freed from the one, and our living in and being changed by the other. This is the very heart of what God has given man in the gift of Jesus Christ. He has given man a way to die to the flesh, and to live in the Spirit of His Son. Jesus spoke very plainly about these things. He told us that unless we are born of His Spirit we can neither see nor enter into the kingdom of God. He told us that we need to lose the life that we have in the flesh, even hate that life, in order to find and gain the life He offers us in His Spirit. Mat 16:25  “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” In order to be His disciple, He said that we must deny the one, and follow the other. He said that “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.”

To summarize these two births in a few words, the FIRST life that man experiences in himself, or the first nature that man is by natural birth, is a life that has fallen from God’s nature and light and righteousness. In Scripture this is called flesh, or the old man, or the body of sin. Everybody knows this in their experience, even if they don’t know what the Bible says about it. What do they know? They know that there is a birth in them, a life within them, that always yearns after selfish desires, proud pursuits,  and evil pleasures. Even a four-year-old child will tell you that they feel this nature in themselves. Who can deny it? Who will deny that there is something irrationally evil in the heart and mind of man, that stands in self-will and pride, and then PULLS everything it sees towards itself. Yes, that’s what flesh does, it is like a giant vacuum that sucks everything towards self. It stands in its own self-importance, self-greatness, and then looks outward at the world. And when it sees something that it desires, it covets and lusts and desires it for itself. And when it cannot get what it wants, it envies, becomes angry, manipulates, insults, controls, and oppresses. And when it thinks it must lose something that it wants, then it is full of fear, cowardice and complaints. 

This is the life of the fallen flesh of man. It is the birth of a nature that has fallen from the life of God. How did man become this wicked creature? He turned away from the source of all goodness, from the  source of life, light, righteousness, humility, truth, and love, and began to live as a source to himself. He turned from the fountain of living water to become a broken cistern; and then from the source of SELF, he began to reach after the world, reach for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, saying “this is good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to make me wise.” I want this and that, and I will take it for myself, and in this way I will increase my greatness, my pleasure, and my wisdom. This is the lie that man believed in the beginning. This is the lie that man still believes today. And much more could be said about it if this were the place. 

My desire right now is only to show beyond doubt that there is a birth in man, a nature or life in man, which is very natural to us, and very naturally evil. It is there, it is undeniable, and it is shameful. But even though we are ashamed of it, and spend great efforts trying to hide our true condition from other people’s eyes, still most people pass their days in this world trying to fulfill the lusts of the flesh and the lusts of the mind, instead of making their escape from this nature before it is eternally locked up in darkness.

But as I said previously, there is also another thing in man that every single person feels and hears with unmistakable clearness, at least at some times in their life. There is something that has a different nature, a different light, a different will and purpose that is sown into man by the grace of God. It is like a seed of God’s light, grace, Spirit, or Word that is given to man to bring him OUT of his first birth, to lead him OUT of what he is by nature. It is the grace of God that appears to every man (Tit. 2:11), or the Light that enlightens every man that comes into the world (John 1:9). 

This is the life that I mentioned before, when I said that the new covenant is a LIFE, and it is known and experienced as we learn to walk in that LIFE. I did not mean that the new covenant is your life, or that you must learn to live your fleshly life in a different way. I mean that the new covenant is an agreement and a relationship with God that is experienced by living in, walking in, abiding in the LIFE of His Son. 

Now the word covenant just means a formal, binding agreement. The word is often used when people are getting married. A couple enters into a marriage covenant, which is a formal, binding and permanent agreement. It is an agreement regarding a relationship, or the way that two people are going to relate to each other from now on. Both people, the husband and the wife, have to understand the covenant, understand the nature of the relationship. They need to understand what is included, and what is excluded from the covenant relationship. For example, faithfulness to each other is included, adultery is excluded. Love and service is included, anger and violence and selfishness are excluded. A marriage covenant is a permanent relationship, with a very specific agreement, and both parties need to walk in that agreement, or else they break the covenant, and lose its benefits. 

If the woman said, “I would like to add another husband to this marriage”, the husband could reply, “That would break the covenant, and ruin our experience of this binding agreement.” If the husband one day said, “I am going to go live in another country, and you can stay here with the kids,” the wife could reply, “that would ruin the relationship, break the covenant.” Ok, I think you understand. 

This is how the word is understood and used in natural things, like a human marriage. And the same idea applies in spiritual things, in a spiritual covenant, except for this very important difference: with God,  the covenant is not an outward agreement or understanding that people must walk in, but rather an INWARD LIFE. It is a living covenant, a LIFE that we must walk in order to experience the relationship. The LIFE IS the permanent and binding agreement respecting how two can walk together. The way to enter into this agreement is to enter into a very specific LIFE. And the way to keep this covenant, is to walk and abide in this LIFE. And the way to disobey and break this covenant, is to walk and abide in a different life, to walk in the life of self, the life of flesh. 

This is all very important, so let me make sure that these things are clear. God has given us a covenant, which is a kind of permanent, binding relationship with Himself that is according to a very particular agreement. And what is that agreement? Here it is described in a few words: God says, “Anyone who wants to walk with Me, live with me, and experience my power and blessing, must learn to walk and live in the life and light of my Son." That is the covenant! You must learn to walk in a new life. Not the old life of the flesh, self, the old man, the natural man, the first birth. No, that life is excluded from the covenant. It is the wrong life, the wrong nature, the wrong will, the wrong kind. That old life, the first birth, has nothing to do with the new covenant. The new covenant, the new agreement, the new relationship is a LIFE, and the life of the new covenant is Jesus Christ. If you are going to walk in the new covenant, you must learn to walk in, live in the life of Christ. 

Now, you must not think that you can walk in your own life, and just try to do so according to the teachings of Jesus. No this is not the covenant. This is actually BREAKING the covenant. This is a great and common error. Christians think that they can experience the new covenant even though they don’t walk in the LIFE that IS the covenant. They think that they can claim the benefits of the new covenant even when they are abiding in the will, the nature, the life of self. This is impossible! The life or nature of flesh is excluded from the new covenant, and no one can know or experience the new covenant further than they have LEFT the life of self in the flesh and learned to live and abide in the life of the Son of God. 

Again I say, you cannot experience the covenant, or claim the benefits of the covenant, if you are living in the life that is excluded from the covenant. And what is it that breaks the new covenant? The flesh, the natural man, self-life, the first birth. This is the wrong life, and if we live in it, and by it, and for it, (even if we have correct beliefs about Christ and Scripture) we BREAK the agreement, and lose the benefits of the agreement. Remember, the agreement of the new covenant is as follows: “Anyone who wants to walk with Me, must walk and live in the light and life of my Son.” So then, walking in the flesh is walking outside of the covenant. 

Therefore, when we approach the subject of the new covenant, we must understand that it is not something that man can know, understand, or experience unless he walks in the life, abides in the life where God’s power is known. Christians are frequently complaining that they have no power over their sins, and no power over their minds, their desires, their habits. But most often, they are walking in the wrong life (the life of self, the life of the natural man) and expecting to feel and experience the benefits of the life of Christ. Do you see? They are breaking the covenant, breaking the agreement by NOT living in the Spirit of Christ, NOT walking in the light of Christ, and yet they wonder why they are not experiencing the victory of Christ. 

I need to tell you, that you will never experience the benefits of Christ, the power of Christ, the victory of Christ, if you continue to walk in the nature, the life, the birth that is outside of the covenant and contrary to Christ. You can complain, you can study the Bible, you can even pray, but if you are unwilling to follow the light out of the life of the flesh, and learn to walk in the light as He is in the light, then you will not know the new covenant, and what it can do in the soul of man. 

And perhaps you are wondering, what does it mean to walk in the light, to keep the covenant, to abide in the life of Christ, and to cease living in the life of my first birth. That is a very good and relevant question, and I ask you to hold onto it for now, because I plan to say a lot about that in the following messages.