It is impossible to have a New Testament Church without first having a New Testament believer. To understand what a New Testament believer is, we must first know what the New Testament itself is.
In the days of the Prophet Jeremiah, God promised to make a new covenant, or testament, which would be very different from the Law of Moses. He said, …this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
The Law of Moses, which was instituted when Israel rejected God’s voice at Mt. Sinai in the wilderness, was never God’s plan of salvation. Rather, it was a spiritual disciplinarian that was given charge over Israel until the promised Messiah came. The Apostle Paul said, “…the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” This “schoolmaster” was like a truant officer whose job was to make sure the student made it to the classroom.
Moses’ Law was a covenant based on a person’s ability to keep its commandments. Romans 10:5. The people were commanded to study and meditate upon it continuously, lest they fail to meet even the least of its many requirements. This Law affected the people’s actions but never changed their hearts. This is why they continually turned back to sin and idolatry. For 1500 years, the Law struggled to produce a righteous people but never succeeded. It could punish the people for their transgressions, but it could never change what they were in their hearts.
The New Testament is completely different. In this covenant, God promised, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” The Apostle Paul reminds us of this, saying that the New Testament is “…written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” This is a glorious promise with staggering implications.No one can be in the New Covenant without God having written his law in their heart. This is evident because God said, “This is the covenant!” When a law is written on paper, it may change your actions. When God’s law is written in your heart by the Spirit of God, it changes your very nature.
The Apostle Paul, who was an apostle to the Gentiles, confirmed this change of nature for those in the New Covenant when he wrote about the believing Gentiles. He said, “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts…” This is what God promised the New Covenant would be.
Those who assure us that the redeemed are still a sinful people are then teaching a different covenant other than what God promised. This is important to understand, because if what is taught is not the covenant which God said he would make for our redemption, it has no power to save.
Simply Christ Gospel Insight is shared weekly by Pastor Keith Surface with believers in over 150 nations. For more information about this ministry or for your free subscription, visit www.cochurch.org
