The New Covenant

After Moses received the ten commandments engraved in stones on Mt. Sinai his face shone. Forty days in God’s presence made his face radiate from the glory of God. He had during his consecration to God gained wisdom from above, and he thus found it prudent to cover his face with a veil. Moses knew that the glory would fade away. He also knew man’s aptness to worshipping idols. The Israelites had exalted Moses when he had led them out of Egypt, but they had soon begun to murmur when he didn’t live up to their expectations in the variety of trials they encountered in the desert.

Christians in the modern Church have the same inclinations as the Israelites. They speak highly of their pastor when he is visiting the older, when he delivers great sermons and when he always has an encouraging word to share. His face shines and the congregation says: “He is truly a man of God, a very good Christian, an example to all of us.” When the days come when he fails to live up to the high standards they begin to complain and accuse him of having lost the anointing. This is how the outer law works.

A person might have been capable of not swearing for six months, and his face shines because of his accomplishment. Then the day arrives when he is assembling a flat packed cupboard. When he has finished the task and is about to raise the cupboard to its feet the whole thing falls apart…and he swears. His face is definitely not shining anymore. Due to condemnation it is probably ash grey. The glory of any outer law swiftly fades. Unfortunately, too many Christians lead a life where they alternate between glory and condemnation. This is not the new covenant in action, because it fashions the believer to have a consciousness of righteousness only.

In the Old Testament people needed the anointing from the Holy Spirit to operate in the supernatural. The anointing was an outward thing. This is how the old covenant works - It is about outward things. The new covenant, however, is not about anointing. It is a declaration guaranteeing that the Holy One dwells and lives inside the believer. This is not a life governed by static outer laws. The new creation is in a dynamic spontaneous relationship with the ascended Christ who governs the believer from the inside. Life no longer revolves around adapting to rules and regulations, but recognizing Another and having fellowship with Him.

Laws and letters are not alive. They cannot generate growth. Only Christ, who is alive, can provide growth in a person’s life. Since letters are dead things, when applied they produce death. The ascended Christ, however, is a life-giving Spirit. It is from His life that rivers of living water spring forth inside every person who recognizes His glorious indwelling life.

Christ as a living reality generates a glory which never fades. Contrary to Moses’ glory which faded, the glory of Christ which is shining in every believer’s face increases from glory to glory. This is the new covenant in action. "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor 3:18).

One of the great challenges for the modern church is their preoccupation with the historical Jesus, the one who came in flesh. But, we do not know Him according to flesh anymore. We are in error when we spend all our time preaching about and meditating on the historical Jesus. We are studying a dead man. Our entire fixation must be on the ascended Christ who returned a second time to live inside ordinary humans. He is with us every second of the day. We cannot escape His presence. Wherever we are He is. We can look in the mirror and say: “This is Christ!” This is our new identity, this is the ascended Christ for people of today. When this becomes our reality the Spirit will breathe life into the scriptures and we can glean profound spiritual truths from the historical Jesus.

Today the historical Jesus is the veil which blinds many from seeing the new reality. This veil brings about movements such as “What would Jesus do?” As long as this veil is not removed we continue to struggle with our doings, attitudes and behavior. The historical Jesus becomes the law in a new garment. When we come to the end of our self efforts and turn to Christ the veil is removed. As long as we still can see the mountains of self effort rising above the water it will continue to rain until the ark is the only object on the water. The water, God’s works, must cover and supersede every death work of self effort.

The person who is joined to the Lord, who has entered the ark, is one spirit with Him. Two have joined as one. This of course goes far beyond appearances, because to the human mind this is a paradox; an absurdity. But, we have the mind of Christ and are thus empowered to accept this by faith. So when we look at ourselves without the veil of the old covenant we see an expression of Jesus Christ. We are saved by His life!

Moses received the law which is a perfect image of God’s character, but to man it is a dead outward thing, because he can’t do it. Now man has received Christ, who is a living inward reality. Recognizing the Another turns absolutely everything upside down. The outward law is now an inside law of love written on hearts of flesh. As Norman Grubb would have put it: “This is the key to everything.”