The New Covenant is often misunderstood, even by those of us who call ourselves Christians. It is such a radical departure from the Old Covenant that we sometimes have a hard time accepting it as true. We are conditioned by our fallen human nature, man-made religion, and worldly society to measure and compare ourselves to various norms or standards. Even we Christians often measure our standing with God in terms of our perceived performance in relation to the Law’s or the church’s demands, which is contrary to the New Covenant. It is difficult for us to grasp the enormity and completeness of the shift that is the New Covenant.
We cannot understand the New Covenant without knowing what happens to us when we are born again.
Jesus told us that the new birth is absolutely essential.
Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. 7 So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” John 3:5-8 (NLT)
The new birth is an unseen internal recreation of the spirit that gives us a new identity as God’s children.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NASB)
The new birth is not always immediately obvious to the observer or its effects easily measurable, but over time it will affect every part of our being.
Jesus also used this illustration: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.” Matthew 13:33 (NLT)
The Old Covenant failed to make us right with God because we are fundamentally flawed by sin and incapable of keeping it.
If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it. 8 But when God found fault with the people, he said: “The day is coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 9 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt. They did not remain faithful to my covenant, so I turned my back on them, says the LORD. Hebrews 8:7–9 (NLT)
The Law is perfect and accurately reflects God’s righteousness and holiness, but we are born into this world marred and corrupted by sin, thanks to what Adam passed down to us. It is impossible for humans to attain or maintain a right relationship with God through keeping the Law. It always points out our failures, placing us under judgment before God.
For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. Romans 3:20 (NLT)
The best the Law can do is point us toward our desperate need for a Savior.
But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ. 23 Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. 24 Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. 25 And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian. Galatians 3:22–25 (NLT)
God’s solution to the problem of human depravity was to provide the absolutely ingenious new and living way to have a right relationship with him.
But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit. Romans 7:6 (NLT)
Jeremiah gave us some great insight regarding the nature of the New Covenant.
“The day is coming,” says the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the LORD. 33 “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day,” says the LORD. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the LORD.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the LORD. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.” Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NLT)
Later Ezekiel added the following.
And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them. I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a tender, responsive heart, 20 so they will obey my decrees and regulations. Then they will truly be my people, and I will be their God. Ezekiel 11:19-20 (NLT)
Both prophets spoke of God’s doing something altogether new and different in his people that would fundamentally alter their behavior by putting a different spirit and heart within them. How could such a thing be done?
When Jesus told Nicodemus about the new birth via the Spirit’s work inside a person, he clarified the mechanism for this radical change.
The new thing is the fusion of our Spirit with the Holy Spirit via the new birth.
When we are born of the Spirit, we are joined to the Holy Spirit in a radical and unprecedented union with God.
But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. 1 Corinthians 6:17 (NLT)
We become sons of God because the Spirit of his Son lives within us! Our identity is a product of the new birth fusion with the Holy Spirit.
But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. 5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. 6 And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” 7 Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir. Galatians 4:4-7 (NLT)
God’s own life invades the innermost part of our being as a result of the new birth. This is why our hearts now want to do what is right and pleasing to God. Our deepest desires now spring from God himself.
At first this may sound too good to be true, and our experience often seems to contradict it. Those of us who have been born again still battle with sin. How can this be, if our spirits are united with God?
Paul dealt with this issue in Romans Chapter 7. After explaining in Chapter 6 that we are now dead to sin due to being united with Christ in his death and resurrection, he goes on to recognize the ongoing problem we have with sin in the next chapter. The essence of the problem is that, while we have recreated spirits, we also have bodies that are very much a part of the sinful old order of things under Adam. Our physical bodies are condemned to die because of the judgment against Adam’s (and our) sin.
Jesus, who is the Second Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45) and the progenitor of a brand new redeemed version of humanity, will one day resurrect our bodies from the dead and transform them into glorious spiritual bodies that will no longer be subject to sin and death (1 Corinthians 15:44), thus completely ending sin’s reign in our lives.
Until the resurrection of the body, however, we live in the paradox of being dead to sin in the spirit yet still being pulled by sin because of our union with an unresurrected body. Paul called this the war between the flesh and the spirit.
So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. 18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. Galatians 5:16-18 (NLT)
Jesus acknowledged this problem when he told his disciples that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Matthew 26:41)
Paul went a little further in his explanation in Romans Chapter 7.
So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. 15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. 16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. Romans 7:14-17 (NLT)
Even the best-intentioned God-fearing believers, such as Paul, battle with sin. The battle is in our souls (mind, will, and emotions), which is the intersection of spirit and body. (Genesis 2:7) The fusion of a born-again spirit with a mortal sin-corrupted body makes us spiritually bipolar and conflicted.
What Paul means in the above passage is that we now have a decision to make: will we identify with the new creation or with the “flesh”? Paul claimed that his true identity was the new man in Christ, and so should we.
Jesus said much the same thing in John Chapter 8.
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. 35 A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free. John 8:34-36 (NLT)
Jesus often spoke in a mysterious way that requires us to lean on the Holy Spirit to unpack the meaning of his words. Here is what I believe he meant.
- Slavery to sin results from our being a child of the devil, an enslaved descendant of the first Adam.
- Slaves are not God’s children, only those who are born of the Father.
- When we are born again, we are set free from slavery to sin because we become new creations whose inward motivation derives from God himself.
- Therefore, all born again children of God are no longer slaves to sin.
This agrees with Paul’s teaching in Romans 6-8 and John’s first letter, where he wrote the following.
Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. 1 John 3:9 (NLT)
In other words, if we are born again, we cannot continue to sin without suffering internal conflict of a major sort. It goes against our fundamental nature now to continue to sin. Yet, we all struggle in at least some area because we still live in these unresurrected bodies.
Paul tells us that now we must learn to live above the downward pull of sin by “walking in the Spirit.”
Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Galatians 5:25 (NLT)
The new birth also provides an escape from the enervating power of condemnation. We now understand that sin no longer defines us and the Law cannot control us any longer. We have a new identity in Christ that transcends sin’s power to dominate and control, and we died to the Law so that it can no longer condemn us.
Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. Romans 7:4 (NKJV)
We are still responsible for the sins we commit, but we are not defined or condemned by them anymore.
God wants us to acknowledge and renounce them without allowing them to tear us down or make us doubt our true identity in Christ and eternal relationship with the Father. We dare not become careless or flippant about sin, because we have a loving Father who knows how to discipline his wayward children.
The power to rise above the condemning power of the Law is absolutely essential in the process of learning to walk by faith in the Spirit.
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. Romans 8:1-2 (NLT)
So the next time we fall for the same old lie and commit some besetting sin, let us not beat ourselves up or start doubting if we are even saved. If we know that we have put our faith and allegiance in Christ, we can acknowledge our sin, ask forgiveness, renounce it, and move on, trusting that the Spirit will help us live out of our new identity as God’s children. Let us claim our New Covenant God-given freedom from sin by faith. The Bible says that sin will not rule over us. (Romans 6:14) We can learn to walk in the freedom and power of the Spirit. Then we will begin to more fully experience all that Christ died to give us, for if the Son sets us free, we are free indeed. (John 8:36)
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