THE PURPOSE OF THE NEW COVENANT

The main purpose of the New Covenant was not primarily for God to come and change our external behaviour; the primary purpose was that God changed the way He related to mankind, resulting in an spontaneous change in behaviour due to mankind receiving revelation about God’s vast and infinite love for them.

Under the Old Covenant God dealt with people on the basis of their external behaviour, namely their level of obedience to the law. Under this system God left people to their own devices and judged them according to their works. People were punished and cursed when they broke the law. But then came the New Covenant and God dealt with the internal problem, namely mankind’s fallen sinful nature. Those who put their faith in Christ were changed from the inside; God bestowing them with the very nature of his Son, Jesus Christ. He also credited the perfect obedience of Jesus to their account.

The believer’s old sinful nature has been crucified with Christ [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] and their spirit 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].

This is the way He now sees believers: 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].

Before we were born again, we were enemies of God and we were alienated from Him in two ways:

1) We had a sinful nature inside us and we were slaves to this sinful nature, running after every evil thing that gratified its desires: [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 Romans 6:6-7 (above) says that we've now become dead to sin. We’ve become the friends of God and we were also united with Him in two ways:

1) Our sinful nature was crucified with Christ and our spirit made alive towards God; in other words: we were born again. The perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ was imputed to us and all the benefits and blessings of His obedience have been credited to us because of our faith in Him: [Rom 5:18 Therefore as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life] (KJV).

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 believers on the basis of the obedience of Jesus Christ. God does not attribute their sins to them, but instead delights in them with the love and passion of a proud Father. Now God doesn’t just see us as if we’ve never sinned – He sees us as if we have perfectly obeyed all the laws our entire life!

But how can all of this be true when none of us could ever deserve to be given a gift like this? That’s exactly it: Nobody deserves grace. It is a free gift from God, given to those who believe in Him. If we were ever able to earn it, it wouldn’t be called a “gift” anymore, would it?

[Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God].

Yours in Grace
Andre van der Merwe


andre@newcovenantgrace.com