Fall 1982
The New Covenant
Laura (Wilson) Nicholls
Pinecrest Graduate

“For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 9:13-14

The motivating principle in understanding the difference between the two covenants God has made with His people is the condition of the heart and God’s method of dealing with this. The Old Covenant was made with a people who had within them hearts of stone—hearts hardened by circumstances and attitudes. The New Covenant was made with people whose hearts were also of stone, but with a promise to change those hearts to hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).

In the Old Covenant the people had to continually go before the priest for an offering of sin to cleanse them daily. Blood had to be shed time after time, and they had to maintain the cleansing daily by their works. The law was given to show them how to live. The law was their guideline to the holy life God required of His people. But even in directing them in their everyday lives, there was an element lacking.

That element was given in the making of the New Covenant. It enables God’s people not only to live a holy life on the outside, but to have a holy heart within them. Where works in the past had determined our “spiritual” status, our status now is determined by our attitude when performing these works.

The New Covenant was effected through the shed blood of our Lord Jesus on Calvary’s cross. We enter into this Covenant by receiving Christ as Saviour, and accepting His blood as a sacrifice, once and for all, for our sins. By His blood we are cleansed from all unrighteousness, and upon rebirth, we begin to walk out our salvation, removing gradually from our hearts unholy things and attitudes. His blood does the initial cleansing of our hearts, but now we must begin to allow Him to remove from us the things which caused our hearts to become tainted in the first place.

This removal was done in the Old Covenant by sacrifice of animals as a sign or type. It is done in the New Covenant by the wooing of God’s Spirit, and our response to His love. We in ourselves are weak and unable to change our hearts. For this reason, grace is given in abundance.

Grace, however, is to given to cover over our mistakes and make allowances for anything we seem to think should be okay with God. We cannot presume upon God, and with a true understanding of the purpose and provision of grace, we will not try. The people under the Old Covenant had within them no power to walk before the Lord in holiness and purity. Before Christ’s death, He promised to send to us the Comforter, One who would guide us into all truth, teaching us of the Father and of His ways.

The Holy Spirit is sent to comfort, but He is also sent to convict our hearts and mold within us God’s truth. We have heard so much half-truth in the church that we are often unsure or unwilling to be sure of many of God’s ways, for they are not ways we would choose for ourselves.

God’s grace is given to enable us to walk in the higher standards of His kingdom. The New covenant is meant to make of us a people whose hearts are imprinted with the law of God, His highest law. We will no longer need to turn to one another to ask, “What would God have?” for we will know in ourselves what is His will (Jeremiah 31:33-34, Hebrews 8:11). We can know Him in His fullness, and we can be penetrated through and through with His righteousness. He is seeking a righteous people in these days; people who will turn to Him in holiness and purity and honesty. People who are willing to put aside assumption and human desire for the desire of God: “ . . . a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27).

God is requiring a hard thing of us, but hard only if we refuse to put aside our desires and our ways to accept His ways. His desire for our lives is so much more incredible than we could ever imagine—so much more complete than any of the things we seek for ourselves. The desire of our heart must be to come to the place where He is truly the Lord of all our life. We must come to the place where His laws and statutes govern our thoughts and our actions, and people see only what He has worked within us, becoming “. . . conformed to His image, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29).