What it means to live under the new covenant

Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread," In His infinite wisdom, the dear Lord chose to have the apostle Paul define clearly for us what it means to live under the New Covenant (he wrote his Letters decades before the apostle John wrote his Gospel). God inspired Paul's writing of Galatians, Thessalonians, and Romans; these went everywhere in the young church. Paul defined the idea as God's justification of the world. It's the New Covenant principle of God calling those things which do not exist as though they exist already. It's like telling Abraham that He has already "made [him] a father of many nations" while he is still helplessly childless (see Rom. 4:17). So, Paul says, while all of us in this world are sinful, selfish enemies of God, He has "justified" us! Sounds crazy to people who still love the Old Covenant. It's saying something about us that isn't yet practically true as though it were already true. Ever since Mt. Sinai, God's people have had trouble believing this New Covenant principle. John wraps it all up as "unbelief." "He who believes in [Jesus] is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, ... and this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light ..." (3:18, 19). In other words, they love the Old Covenant more than they love the New. This same unbelief today hinders the wonderful work of lighting the earth with the final Good News message of glory (cf. Rev. 18:1-4). Let's review how Paul says it: "As through one man's offense [Adam's] judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation [a judicial "verdict of condemnation," NEB], even so through one Man's righteous act [since the world began, there has been only one "righteous act"!] the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life" (Rom. 5:18). As Paul has explained in verses 15, 16, "justification of life" is a "judicial" "verdict of acquittal" (NEB) pronounced upon the world while the world is still at enmity with God. It's what makes it possible for God to "make ... His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and [to] send rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matt. 5:45). Christ has taken the sin of the world upon Himself in His own soul, in His body, "made ... to be sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21). For the one who believes and appreciates this New Covenant truth, his faith enables him to "become the righteousness of God in Him." --Robert J. Wieland From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 17, 2006. Copyright © 2014 by "Dial Daily Bread."