What is a covenant relationship
Part three
We now come to our redemptive state, that Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 1:30.
Paul tells us that Christ to us is made redemption. The word for redemption in the Greek is apolutrosis:
meaning, being ransomed, set apart, some one who paid a price for and destroyed a yoke of bondage on the life of some
one else. This one act by what Jesus did on the cross can not be undone and is a completed sacrifice. Once you are redeemed
and rescued especially by a self-sacrificing free will act from sin or its punishment by Jesus at the cross, we are forever
tied to the Lord. The sad and grieves point is that this definition is not being reinforced in the pulpits across the world
as it should be.
Once saved always saved
.
To most born again leaders in the body of Christ they think that this interpretation is blasphemy and not
according to scripture. However, what they live by is a form of religion but denying the power that comes from God. I believe
that they have a love for God but not according to the true knowledge of God’s holding power and nature.
The day I had my born again experience in my automobile taking my wife to the doctor because; she was pregnant
with our second child, this miracle encounter that I had with the Holy Ghost of a rushing wind that entered my body was a
very real witness in my being and the guilt and fear of going to hell from by sinful behavior was lifted from my soul and
I had a witness of a peace and joy that was added to my emotional stability because; my sinful nature of planning to do evil
was lifted and broken off of my life, and has never returned for the last forty three years since the day I became born again
and became a child of God.
This state of our redemption can only stay secured with in our mind and heart as we co-operate with the Holy
Ghost in living by being sanctified daily as we hunger and thirst after God’s righteous spirit and are reminded by Him
of who we are and how God feels about us. As simple as I can put it. We are not sinners any longer but a saint. We don’t
have to do any great wonders and miracles and then be canonized after death and be called a saint as the Catholic Church
teaches. I use this as an example because I was raised in the Catholic faith got saved and had to leave that denomination
because they were teaching a sin conscience gospel and cursing the very people they were called to bring up in the admonition
of the Lord.
There is no such thing as getting faith from any particular denomination. Jesus is not denominational and
you can not live in the full power of your covenant with Him if you are balancing your life between
two masters. Your either actually living in the faith
of Jesus Himself or you’re following the rules and regulations of certain groups of people. The traditions of men and
the actual faith of Jesus can not be shared in a covenant walk with Him. This is indeed sad and painful because any where
they are teaching that a born again believer is still a sinner and they are not being taught their sainthood; whether they
are of a Catholic persuasion or some other denomination, they are being
cursed and they can not be taught what their true covenant with God is
and how to co-operate with it.
Born again people living under a curse and they don’t even have a clue as to the condition of their
bondage?
I must talk about this sin concept and the difference between being a sinner or a saint after we become born
again. Paul says this in Eph. 4: 17-24 “ So this I say and solemnly testify in the name of the Lord as I am in
His presence, that you must no longer live as the heathen (the Gentiles) do in their perverseness [in the folly, vanity, and
emptiness of their souls and the futility] of their minds. Their moral understanding is
darkened and their reasoning is beclouded. They are
alienated from the life of God ( there covenant ) with no share in it; because of the ignorance (the want of knowledge and
perception, the willful blindness) that is deep-seated in them, due to their hardness of heart to the insensitiveness of their
moral nature. In their spiritual apathy they have become callous and past feeling and reckless and have abandoned themselves
[a prey] to unbridled sensuality, eager and greedy to indulge in every form of impurity that their depraved desires may suggest
and demand. But you did not so learn Christ! Assuming that
you have really heard Him and been taught by Him, as all Truth is in Jesus
[embodied and personified in Him],
Strip yourselves of your former nature [put off and discard your
old un=renewed self] which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts and desires that spring
from delusion; and be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind
having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude, And put on the new nature (the
regenerate self) created in God’s image, [Godlike] in true righteousness and holiness.”
Again Paul is saying to continually put on or keep on Jesus as our white robe of righteousness. This takes
place as we are in a constant state of having our mind renewed by being reminded by the Holy Ghost of how our covenant works
in unison with God. I can say the same thing to you however, I have to assume you are hearing from God as to how your covenant
works. We as born again believers have no protection if we do not let the Holy Ghost protect us by allowing Him to instruct
us in our maturing walk with Him. He is the one that makes us stable and planted as babies growing up to be mature Christians.
James says this in James 5:12-20. “ But above all things, my brethren, do not swear, either by
heaven or by earth or by any other oath; but let your yes be a simple yes, and your no be a simple] no, so that you may not
sin and fall under condemnation. Is anyone among you afflicted ill-treated, suffering evil? He should pray. Is anyone glad
at heart? He should sing praise to God]. Is anyone among you sick? He should call in the church elders the spiritual guides.
And they should pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Lord’s name. And the prayer that is
of faith will save him who is sick, and
the Lord will restore him; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess to one another therefore your faults (your slips, your false steps,
your offenses, your sins and pray also for one another, that you may be healed and restored [to a spiritual tone of mind and
heart].
The earnest heartfelt, continued prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available dynamic in its
working]. Elijah was a human being with a nature such as we have with feelings, affections, and a constitution like ours;
and he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, and no rain fell on the earth for three years and six months. And [then] he prayed
again and the heavens supplied rain and the land produced its crops as usual. My brethren, if anyone among you strays from
the Truth and falls into error and another person brings him back [to God], Let the latter one be sure that whoever turns
a sinner from his evil course will save that one’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins procure the pardon
of the many sins committed by the convert.“
First of all James tells us to not make any oaths which is to do something such as; tell the truth made formally
and often naming God or a loved one as a witness to an agreement. He tells us to have a attitude of saying ether yes or no,
meaning it is like having to make a choice of coming into agreement with God or another entity vying for control as I have
stated earlier. Since our understanding and meditation on the word of God day and night is what teaches us our covenant with
God, then by being ignorant of not having the word of God down deep into our mind and heart; we allow a condemnation spirit
on us and our souls can not prosper in a growing relationship with the Holy Ghost.
We have many elders in churches today and they are supposed to be grown up spiritually in knowing their covenant
with God because only then can they be praying the word of faith through the leading of the Holy Ghost who lives in us and
only with Jesus faith by His leadings. It is like speaking to something like God would; when He created the earth.
The word for sin in the Greek is harmatano: meaning, erring, missing the mark,
losing our allotment and not sharing in a prize. This is what happens when we break our covenant with
the Lord. This can only happen for born again believers when they stop reasoning with their righteous mind of Christ after
becoming saved and have been given their new nature in Christ. It was God himself who made His creation aware that they were
sinning in the first place. He did this by giving Moses the Ten Commandments. He is not the author of sin although He created
the one who cursed his creation by deceiving Adam and Eve in the garden which caused them to break covenant with God and substitute
it with fig leaves to hide their shame.
Unless a person becomes born again, they will have a sinner’s nature because; they can only reason
in their mind in right and wrong concepts and they lean to their own understanding because; they have no inner power to covenant
with God since; they are illegitimate people and not in the family of God. They think; I have broken some law and now I have
a penalty to pay. That was God’s intension in the first place and that being; He had to make his creation aware of the
fact that; there was no good thing in them and they needed a power greater then their own.
Now here me again on this. There are no laws to follow after you become born again. Let me explain; for this is one of the biggest
deceptions that has ever been laid on God's children to keep them as babies all of their lives. Now remember I am explaining
our redemptive state in Christ Jesus.
Paul very clearly in Romans 6:6-13 states this. “We know that our old (un renewed) self was nailed
to the cross with Him in order that our body which is the instrument of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin.
For when a man dies, he is freed loosed, delivered from the power of sin among men. Now if we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with Him, Because we know that Christ (the Anointed One), being once raised from the dead,
will never die again; death no longer has power over Him. For by the death He died, He died to sin ending His relation to
it once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God in unbroken
fellowship with Him.
Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your
relation to it broken, but alive to God living in unbroken fellowship with Him in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore rule as king in your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies, to make you yield to
its cravings and be subject to its lusts and evil passions. Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily
members [and faculties] to sin as instruments (tools) of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to
perpetual life, and your bodily members and faculties to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness. For sin shall
not [any longer] exert dominion over you, since now; you are not under
Law as slaves, but under grace as subjects of God’s favor and mercy.”
We must realize that we truly are to live in a God covenant with a living God that has made a way for His
children to rest from their turmoil and trouble and totally lean their whole personality on Christ the God who lived in Jesus.
I am reading the same bible that all of God’s family should be reading and meditating on it both day and night however,
some of the legalistic burdens and rules and regulations being preached in the pulpits of today absolutely at times make me
despair of life and it only invigorates my resolve to set God’s kids free to explore their relationship with God with
joy and great freedom of expression and hope in what we are called to be as His children.
Paul uses two word’s that must be understood if we are going to walk in our redemptive state. There
is a totally different meaning between sin and faults. Having a sin conscience mentality looking under
our white robe of righteousness causes sin to rear it’s ugly head that wants to bring us back into bondage to the old
nature. Faults that we need to gather together and confess to one another are those areas where God is strengthening us in
our souls where we do not have the whole revelation to speak God’s covenant into our physical environment because; it
is not deeply rooted yet and needs some tender loving care and teaching by those who are supposed to know God.
Only one spirit is to rule in us not two. It is either going to be a loving covenant word from the Holy Ghost
or a condemning word from the Devil. How much simpler can I make it. God’s covenant is fulfilled in us when we obey
Paul’s instructions on what he said in Romans 8:1-4’ “ There is no condemnation to those who are living
in Christ Jesus and walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. For the law of the Spirit in Christ Jesus has made me
free from the law of sin and death.
For
what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
or sin, condemned sin in the flesh; That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.”
If you are ignorant of your covenant; you are walking in the flesh. (Period.) What are you walking in God’s Spirit or your flesh?
Paul used one of the great prophets of God when he used Elijah as an example of being a mere man and using
the power and covenant he had with God to pray and it did not rain on the earth for three and one half years and then he prayed
and it began to rain again. At my age; I am still trying to function in the Holy Ghost as Jesus and the prophets of old did.
So we have learned that it is the way we define sin from scripture and how we identify with the Holy Ghost’s
voice verses the voice of condemnation that determines our kingdom walk and what a true God covenant represents in our lives.
Continued in part four as we talk about our advocate Jesus Christ the Righteous and people we can emulate
to be covenant walkers.
