What Every Christian Should Know About “Grace” and The New Covenant!
Have you been taught that “salvation is by grace, so the Commandments given to Moses are not relevant to you?” Have you been taught that “Jesus fulfilled the Law, so that you don't have to obey it?” If so, YOU REALLY SHOULD READ ON...
Let's consider one of Paul's most quoted references supporting salvation by grace.
Eph.2:8-9 “For by favour (grace) you have been saved, through belief, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of Elohim, it is not by works, so that no one should boast.”
I absolutely agree! Eph. 2:8-9 pertains to the favour/grace that is extended through the New Covenant to those who will believe, receive and walk in His gift!
Now, let's consider the definition of “grace.”
Using the Strong's Dictionary of the Greek & Hebrew Scriptures, we find that the GRK word “charis” means; graciousness (as gratifying), of manner or act (abstract or concrete; literal, figurative or spiritual; especially the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude): - acceptable, benefit, favour, gift, grace (-ious), joy liberality, pleasure, thank (-s, -worthy).
Almost all terms in the definition could apply here to some degree... However, the portion “especially the divine influence upon the heart, and it's (divine) reflection in the life” is especially compelling because of what is stated through His prophet Jeremiah as to how Yahweh plans to institute the New Covenant! Consider:
Jer. 31:31-34 “See, the days are coming,” declares YHWH when I shall make a new covenant with the house of Yisra’ĕl and with the house of Yehudah. Not like the covenant I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I WAS A HUSBAND TO THEM,” declares YHWH. “For this is the covenant I shall make with the house of Yisra’ĕl after those days, declares YHWH. “I shall put My Torah(instruction,law) in their inward parts, and write it on their hearts...For I shall forgive their crookedness, and remember their sin no more.”
Yahweh's plan is to supernaturally put HIS Torah in the inward parts and on the hearts of believers so that His “divine influence” will be reflected in and through their lives!
The prophet Ezekiel confirms this!
Ezekiel 36:26-28 “And I shall give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. And I shall take the heart of stone out of your flesh, and I shall give you a heart of flesh, and put My Spirit within you. And I shall cause you to walk in My laws and guard My right-rulings and shall do them...”
Yahshua confirms this as well!
John 14:15-17 “If you love Me, you shall guard My commands.[1] And I shall ask the Father, and He shall give you another Helper, to stay with you forever – the Spirit of the Truth, whom the world is unable to receive, because it does not see Him or know Him. But you know Him, for He stays with you and shall be in you.”
The Covenant at Sinai was first offered to the people of Yisra'el. Why? Because Yahweh's plan of redemption included HIM choosing a people through whom HIS Son would be born as The Living Torah. HIS choice was Yisra'el...
The Covenant at Sinai is better seen as a written proposal in marriage. Yisra'el initially agreed to these terms,[2] but subsequently, proved to be an unfaithful bride in her rejection of the terms as contained in the Torah given through Moses. This is the reason that the Prophets would refer to unfaithful Yisra'el as a whore, a harlot etc...[3]
Yahweh again, offered the New Covenant first to Yisra'el. This is the reason for Yahshua's statement in Mat 15:24 “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Yisra’el.” Yahweh kept His part of the covenant and sent His Son to come seeking those in Yisra'el (first) who were lovers and doers of the Word/Truth.[4]
Because Yahweh does not change,[5] His standard ( His proposal) does not change. What does change is where He puts His Torah. In The New Covenant His Torah will not be put on tablets of stone or on scrolls, but will be put IN the inward parts and on the hearts of those who believe and receive His Spirit of Truth! Same Torah; New location! HIS Spirit came first to Yisra'el believers in Acts 2 and then to the believing gentiles, as recorded in Acts and throughout the apostolic writings!
Acts 10:44-46 (At Cornelius' house) “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Set-apart Spirit fell upon all those hearing the word. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter because the gift of the Set-apart Spirit had been poured out on the gentiles also, for they were hearing them speaking with tongues and extolling Elohim..”
Peter, when questioned later about this experience at Cornelius' says this;
Acts 15:11 “But through the favour (grace) of the Master Yahshua Messiah we trust to be saved, in the same way as they.”
Today traditional Christianity is making the same grievous error that Yisra'el made by rejecting His Torah. They are also redefining Yahweh's grace to mean that “the Law or Torah of Yahweh has been fulfilled and done away with so as not to be relevant for believers today.”
When Messiah first came many thought that He was going to destroy the Torah and the Prophets. Messiah emphatically rejected that assumption! Consider;
Mat 5:17-18 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Torah or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy(halt or demolish) but to complete(perfectly preach). For truly, I say to you, till the heaven and the earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall by no means pass from the Torah till all be done.”
Obviously, if you are reading this, heaven and earth have not passed away, and all is NOT done!
Many have also been erroneously taught that for believers to obey the Torah, we would have to practice blood sacrifices again. The early believers taught otherwise.
Hebrews 7:26-27 “For it was fitting that we should have such a High Priest – kind, innocent, undefiled, having been separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens, who does not need, as those high priests, to offer up slaughter offerings day by day, first for His own sins and then for those of the people, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.”
The New Covenant does not depend upon the blood sacrifices of animals, but upon the “once for all” sacrifice of Yahshua, (The Living Torah), the Lamb of Yahweh.[6]
BUT NOT SO THAT WE COULD CONTINUE TO LIVE IN LAWLESSNESS!
Mat 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Master, Master,’ shall enter into the reign of the heavens, but he who is doing the desire of My Father in the heavens. “Many shall say to Me in that day, ‘Master, Master, have we not prophesied in Your Name, and cast out demons in Your Name, and done many mighty works in Your Name?’ “And then I shall declare to them, ‘I never knew you, depart from Me, you who work lawlessness!’[7] (ie.violation of Yahweh's Law)
Who Is The Whore / Harlot / Unfaithful Bride?[8]
Covenant breaking Jew and Gentile, who profess to believe, but prove by their lawlessness, that they do not love Truth, neither do they have His Spirit of Truth!
Who Is The True Bride Without Spot, Clothed in Righteousness?[9]
Believing Jew and Gentile, born of His Spirit, and abiding by the terms of His Marriage Covenant.
The Spirit of Truth[10] will do exactly as the prophets proclaimed. Through His divine influence upon your inward parts and your heart, He will deliver you from lawlessness and will cause you to walk in obedience to the (Torah) of Yahweh!
In Revelation 18:4 Yahweh cries out to those being deceived, “Come out of her,(the harlot) my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.”
[1]Messiah did not establish His own set of Commands. See Matthew 19:17, Revelation 22:14 – 15
[2]Proposal and Response; Exodus 19:3 – 8
[3]Yisra'el As An Unfaithful Bride; Isaiah 1:21, Jeremiah 3:16, Ezekiel 16:28
[4]2Thessalonians 2:9 – 10 & James 1:22
[5]Malachi 3:6 “For I am Yahweh, I shall not change...”
[6]1Peter 1:19, Revelation 7:14, 12:11
[7]Lawlessness; “violation of / transgression of LAW” - In reference to Yahweh's Torah
[8]Revelation 17
[9]Revelation 19:7-8
[10]John 14:17, 15:26, 16:13