Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Understanding the New Covenant

I believe that without the understanding of sin as a noun you cannot understand why 'sin' is only punished once. You cannot understand why you are no longer a sinner but a child of God. You cannot grasp why chastisement was punishment under the law and instruction and training of a child under the new covenant because you don't know that you really are a child of God.

Another reason it is so hard to grasp is because we forget the triune nature of man. Spirit Soul Body. Our Spirit is made completely new when we are born again 2 cor 5:17. Our Soul and Body contend against the Spirit, which is why we don't believe we are new sometimes. We are imputed righteousness (2 Cor 5:21). If we cannot believe we have the righteousness of God then we cannot profess to believe He was the sin of man on that cross. It's a false humility that keeps us saying we ARE sinners saved by grace. We WERE sinners saved by grace, we are now sons and daughters of the King, being sanctified and transformed into His image to rescue those still living in the kingdom of darkness/prisoners of sin noun. When He looks at us, He sees His children, not sinners. As Paul stated in Hebrews, the heroes of the faith, as well as ourselves, are aliens in this world because once we come to the faith of Abraham, we are no longer citizens of the prison of sin(noun) that all are born into, but have a transfer of citizenship.

When we come to the cross, there is a transfer from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light(Col 1:13) We do not have dual citizenship. Under our birth right, we were born into sin(noun) and therefore 'sinners'. Under our adoption/covenant into Abraham, we are now children of God(John 1:12) . We now belong to the King of the Kingdom of light, as heirs.

Now, to bring that home to chastisement. The word in Hebrew is Yacar, to chasten or admonish; punish. The word in the new Covenant is Paideuo, to train up a child. Since we have become His children(transferred kingdoms), it is no longer punishment, but training for us to become like Him, to rescue the lost, to glorify His name. Since this transfer took place out of Sin(noun) and into His Kingdom, we are children, therefore, we get training, not punishment. (american citizenship = american, zambian citizenship = zambian, sin(noun) citizenship = sinner)

Another problem we face with understanding this is we don't really know what took place at the cross. Atonement/remission in the Hebrew is to cover, but in the NT the word changes to mean 'to remove'. It's not the same word. And therefore, there is more confusion b/c we think it is just the atonement of sins(covering)as in the OT sacrifices, but it is not, it is the remission of sins - complete removal! Where the word atonement appears in Romans 5:11 is also not the same word as in the OT, in that case it means exchange. AGAIN!! an exchange our sin for His righteousness. So, Jesus did not COVER our sins......HE REMOVED THEM. (are you also seeing why there is so much confusion in the church regarding the greatness of grace?)

So then, if we are the righteousness of God, and the full wrath of God fell upon Jesus, how can there again be punishment? In Rom 3:25 it says He was the propitiation for our sins...........that's AN APPEASEMENT..TO APPEASE THE WRATH OF GOD!

God cannot punish sin(verb) twice. If Jesus took the sins of the whole world, past, present and future upon himself in that exchange, then for God the Father to punish sin again is to turn His back on the cross and to not accept His Son's sacrifice as sufficient. Most times, the consequence of our sin is chastisement enough. Almost always, hearing the HG say, "What are you doing?" very gently, is enough to stop you dead in your tracks!

Now, to bring this all home, if I can, without causing confusion, We are justified in Christ. Dikaioo in Acts 13:39, Rom 3:24, Rom 5:1 means to render righteous. We ARE the righteousness of God. BUT...we are being sanctified! Not the same thing. Only our Spirit is righteous. The word sanctification, sanctified, sanctify in the NT is also different in the OT. In the NT it is purification and consecration of the heart and life (#38) and (#37 in reference to rendered(imputed). So, we are not punished for sin, because Christ bore the full wrath of God on the cross. We are sons and daughters of God, fully justified but being sanctified in our hearts and lives to glorify Him.

So, for God to NOT impute our sin against us is not honoring us as children, it is honoring the CROSS and honoring JESUS and what HE did. God the Father is bound to honor the cross and it's ability to REMIT(remove) sin past, present and future. He is bound to honor the cross in it's making us children to be taught and not sinners to be punished. If He imputes our sin to us, then the justification, propitiation, remission of that precious blood would have to be rejected, and since he cannot reject Jesus (our covenant representative) he cannot reject us.

sin

chastise

remit

justify

sanctify

all of these changed when the high priest changed.

--- Jude Iannone