Let's go back to Hebrews chapter
8. Hebrews chapter 8. And I also want to read 2 Corinthians
chapter 5 and verse 17 again. I want to talk a little bit this
morning about the new covenant in Jesus Christ. The new covenant
in Jesus Christ. And the last time, I started
to say last week, but it was two weeks ago, I preached on
the new creation in Jesus Christ from 2 Corinthians 5 and verse
17. It's sort of a base text of scripture
that I'm using to preach several messages on this issue of the
new creation. It says there in verse 17 of
2 Corinthians 5, therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a
new creature, or sometimes better translated as a new creation.
And it says, old things are passed away, behold all things are become
new. And I'm dealing in these messages,
last time today and then several messages on, on this issue, what
is this new creation? And how are we to understand
it from scripture? What does the Bible teach? For
example, if I'm saved by the grace of God, am I a new creation? And if I am a new creation, what
does that mean? Could it be that I am one who
could rightfully call myself a new creature or a new creation?
And according to that verse 17 of chapter 5 there, there are
two things that will prove to us, under the test of God's word,
whether or not I or whether or not you are a new creation. First
of all, he says to be a new creation is to be in Christ. In Christ. If any man's in Christ,
So that's essential. We must be in Christ. What does
it mean to be in Christ? Am I in Christ? And to be in
Christ is to be united with Christ. That's what that is. It's union
with Christ. United to Him. It doesn't mean
getting religious or even religion. It doesn't mean making a decision.
It doesn't mean getting baptized. Even though baptism, believer's
baptism is a confession of union with Christ. It doesn't even mean necessarily
moral reformation or turning over a new leaf, as some see
that. It may be included in the power
of a new creation, and not even joining a church. To be in Christ
is a living, vital union with Jesus Christ, the one and only
Savior of sinners, the Redeemer, To say honestly from the Word
of God that He is the Lord my salvation. That He is the Lord
my Redeemer. Redeemer means He bought and
paid for me. Means He paid the redemption
price. What was that price? His blood. The death of Christ. It's to be able to say from my
heart, according to the Word of God, that He is the Lord my
righteousness. And I have no righteousness but
Him. What does the Bible say about a person who is truly in
Christ? What does it mean to be in Christ? I gave you these
four things the last time. Number one is to be in Christ
by sovereign electing grace before the foundation of the world.
That means Christ is my representative. Christ has always been my surety. chosen in Christ, Ephesians chapter
1, before the foundation of the world. And that's election. God didn't just randomly choose
a people, He chose them in Christ. And election is unto salvation. So to be in Christ is to be chosen
of God, in Him. And then secondly, to be in Christ
is to be in him by effectual redeeming grace at the cross
of Calvary. I've already talked about that.
That's Christ doing the work that he was given to do before
the foundation of the world and that he was sent to do when he
came into this world as our substitute and redeemer. Not only is he
my representative and surety, he's my substitute. He took my
place. That's what it's saying. And
He was made sin and He satisfied the justice of God in my place.
And He redeemed me from sin. He ransomed me. He's the kinsman
redeemer. You know that beautiful picture
of Christ in the Old Testament, the kinsman redeemer. The Word made flesh dwelling
among us. Why? Because He had to come under
the justice of the law as the substitute for His people. and
bear our sins, bear the curse, bear our guilt, and pay that
debt. And he paid it in full. He didn't
pay part of it. So to be in Him is to be in Him
by redeeming grace. I'm redeemed by love divine. Glory, glory, Christ is mine.
And then thirdly, to be in Him is to be in Him by invincible
regenerating grace in the new birth. Now all who are in Him
We'll be born again. You must be born again. And that
speaks of Christ as the author of life and the giver of life. He's the author of life because
he died. His death is the life of his
people. Do you realize that? The wages
of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. So in that he died and was buried
and he what? What happened? He rose the third
day. And that's our life. And then
he gives life by the power of his spirit. He sends his spirit
into the world to apply that life to each and every one of
his sheep, he calls them, in each successive generation. And
you can go all the way back to Genesis to see that happening.
You see, Abel, for example, is one who had life, spiritual life
from the dead. And that's one of the reasons
we think about this, why we have to be a new creation. Because
the old creation is lost, dead, condemned. Salvation is to be
a new creation. And then fourthly, to be in Him
is to be in Him by powerful, persevering grace in preservation
unto glory. You see, salvation is not just
a one-time thing. This generation has been so caught
up in this invitation altar call system, and they call it salvation. But my friend, I'm telling you,
there is nothing in the Bible that even comes close to that
stuff. I can take you through church
history. I can show you where it began back in the 1800s. And
here's the philosophy that started it. How can I get more people
to respond to what I'm saying? How can I get more people into
the congregation? And the moment you ask those
questions, you go wrong scripturally. It's not my business to do that. That's God's business. God added
to his church, the book of Acts says. But salvation is not just a one-time
thing that happened to you in your life when you were a kid.
It's not a one-time decision that you made when you were emotionally
drawn down an aisle while the choir sang. That's not it. You say, well, don't you believe
we ought to confess Christ? Yes, I do. But we ought to do
it scripturally. What does the Bible call confessing
Christ? You know what the first act of
confession for a true believer is? Believer's baptism. That's confession of Christ before
men. Was there anything wrong with coming down and telling
people? No. No. But you see, that thing has kind
of snowballed into such a system and a mannerism. I'll tell you,
when I was in seminary, I learned the methods and they're unscrupulous. I didn't think so at the time.
I mean, you know, things like, I remember reading a book one
time on the invitation system and the fellow said that when
you preach, now listen to this now, he said, when you preach,
don't ever say finally or in conclusion in your message, even
if you're at the end, don't say that because what you do is you
give people an opportunity to resist the Holy Spirit and you
don't give the Holy Spirit a chance to sneak up on them. Now that is heresy. Now at the
time I thought, man, you know, that's great, you know. But no.
That's heresy. Could you imagine the Apostle
Paul writing something like that in the Scriptures? I'll tell you what, you see,
that's the thing. This thing of salvation, being
in Christ, is a life of grace. It's a life of looking to Him.
as the author and finisher of our faith. And we do that because
we're preserved by the grace of God. That's Christ as the
preserver. And here's the point being is
this, is that if you're ever in Christ, you'll never be out
of Christ. Now, you may be out of fellowship.
We're born dead in trespasses and sins. That's why we have
to be born again. We're born with enmity towards God, the
carnal mind, the natural man. That's what we are by nature. But to be in Christ is to be
a new creature, a new creation. Now, the next thing that it says
here in 2 Corinthians 5 is this, to be a new creation is to be
one of whom it can be said, old things are passed away. Now,
old things are passed away, and I've emphasized to you a couple
weeks ago that that's a past tense verb. That's not talking
about some process that's going on in our lives. There's a process. Now, understand, as a believer,
there is a process. It's called growth in grace and
knowledge in Christ. But the old things that are passed
away, they're gone. Whatever he's talking about,
they're gone. They're passed away. The tense
of that verb is like a completed action in the past. Now, it has
eternal implications and benefits. but it's past, it's gone. And he says, all things become
new, have become new. What are these old things? What
are these new things? That's what I'm dealing with
in these subsequent messages. I'm gonna start today. The realm
of the new things. If I'm in Christ, if I'm a new
creation, what is there new that we can talk about? Well, the
first thing I wanna talk to you about, look over at Hebrews chapter
eight now. is the new covenant. There's a new covenant. What
is a covenant? Covenant is an agreement. Most
covenants that we find among men are what we call bilateral
covenants. That means there's two people,
at least two parties, and they come to an agreement and make
a covenant, an agreement, a contract, based upon mutual grounds and
desires. But when God makes a covenant,
it's not a bilateral covenant. It's a unilateral covenant. It's
God alone making a covenant with his people. Now, there are two
parties, but you see, here's what I'm saying. I want you to
think about this. When God makes a covenant concerning the salvation
of his people, It's all of God, and none of it is conditioned
on the people. And you know why? Because it's
all of grace. It's all of grace. And I'll tell
you, there may be some difficult things, difficult passages of
scripture, but I really believe, and I've prayed over this because
I've I pray, the Lord, make it simple to me so that I can make
it simple to you. And I'm not insulting your intelligence.
Don't get me wrong. I'm talking about me too. Because
I really believe that if you get hold of this, and I know
it's only by the Spirit of God that any of us really get hold
of any of this, isn't it? That it will open up your understanding
of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It will help you
to understand the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, This New Covenant. For example, if you're a Christian,
you're a New Covenant Christian. This is a New Covenant church.
Now I know, I've seen churches, groups, religious groups who
call themselves New Covenant. That's their name. And what they
normally mean by that is they talk in tongues and they have
kind of lively services and all of that. And that's not what
this is about at all. That's not what this is about at all. The realm and power of the new
covenant. All of this, this new creation that Paul was talking
about comes under the realm of the new covenant. That term new covenant is used
four times in the scripture. Once in the Old Testament. Let
me show you that. Turn to Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31 This term new covenant you four
times Jeremiah 31 and verse 31. This is a prophecy You know what? It's about it's a prophecy of
the new covenant Jeremiah writes behold the days come saith the
Lord that I will make a new covenant for Now who's he going to make
it with? He's going to make it with the
house of Israel. What does the word Israel mean? Literally,
Israel means those who have prevailed with God. That's what Israel
means. Now sometimes you'll see it in
commentators, they'll translate it as prince of God. But that's
what it means. A prince is someone who's prevailed. And literally, it's those who
have prevailed with God. Now how does a sinner prevail
with God? How is that possible? I'll tell
you exactly how. Look to Christ. Believe in Him. Rest in Him. Plead Him. And you'll prevail with God.
That doesn't mean you'll take Him by surprise or you'll overcome
Him or beat Him or anything like that. That means that you will
be successful. in your endeavor to be saved. Look to Christ. And then he says,
I'll make a covenant with the house of Israel and with the
house of Judah. What does the word Judah mean?
It means praise. Those who have prevailed with
God will praise God and worship God. And so there's the term
new covenant. Has to do with, now the house
of Israel and the house of Judah there, I believe, is a prophecy
of spiritual Israel, which is the church. I know you'll hear
a lot of stuff about replacement theology. It's not replacement
theology, it's fulfillment theology. This is the fulfillment of what
God has always purposed all along. He has a people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. They prevail with God. How'd
they do that? They pled Christ. They come to
Christ. They believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And what do they do as a result of that? They praise
God. In everything, not just saying praise the Lord, but in
their lives, in their minds, their thoughts, in their actions,
they praise God. That doesn't mean they're still
not sinners. We're sinners. We're still sons of Jacob in
the flesh, aren't we? Sinners saved by the grace of
God. But now we have righteousness through Christ. That's his righteousness
imputed, accounted, which we receive by God-given faith. And
so there it is. Another time that the term new
covenant is right here in Hebrews chapter 8, our text. Look at
it. Now what he's talking about here
is the coming of Christ into the world as the high priest
of his people. Now under the old covenant, they
had a high priest. He was a sinful man. He was a
descendant of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi, Levitical priesthood.
But we have a better high priest under the new covenant. He says
in verse one, now the things which we have spoken, this is
the sum. I'm going to sum it all up for you now. We have such
a high priest. who is set on the right hand
of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. You see, he's
not ministering in an earthly tabernacle or temple where there's
the holy of holies, you see, the ark of the covenant and the
mercy seat. Those were all types, pictures,
shadows, the scripture says. But we have something better.
You know, they're talking about rebuilding the temple and putting
all that stuff back in. Why? We've got something better. In fact, in Hebrews chapter 13,
I think it is, he says to serve that is to deny what we have,
who we have, which is Christ. Our high priest is at the right
hand of the throne. You know what that means? That's
the right hand of power. That's the right hand of acceptance
before holy God. How is a sinner accepted before
God? Accepted, Ephesians chapter one,
verse seven, in the beloved. I'm accepted with God. Now, how
did I get there? Is it because I'm a preacher?
Well, I hope not. Is it because I've tried to be
good or dedicated? No. I'm accepted because of the
blood of Christ, the righteousness of Christ. I stand in Him. That's
in Him, see? And He's the reason for my acceptance
before God. No other reason. Even my works
that are pleasing to God are accepted in him because they
have to be washed in his blood. The iniquity of the holy things,
that was pictured back in that old covenant. And he's at the
right hand. That right hand means not guilty.
Not guilty. I'm not guilty before God. I'm
a sinner, but I'm not guilty before God because the guilt's
been removed. How? By the blood of Jesus. And then he says in verse two,
a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle. Now the
true tabernacle refers to the eternal tabernacle, which the
Lord pitched and not man. Now what is that tabernacle?
That's his church. That's his church. You know that
old tabernacle? That's what it pictured. It pictured
the high priest. He's a picture of Christ. He's
the only one who could go into the Holy of Holies one time a
year. Not without blood. Justice has to be satisfied,
you see. Sin has to be paid for. And that
was a picture of Christ, our High Priest, and Christ the Lamb
of God. Christ the Substitute. Christ
paying the debt as our surety. And then you had other priests.
Attending priests. And that's what true believers
are in the presence of Holy God. We're priests, kings and priests.
That's what we're made under God. We have, what does that,
you know, the priesthood of the believer. You know, when I was
in Southern Baptist, I used to think the priesthood of the believer
meant that you could interpret the scriptures any way you wanted
to. That's not what the priesthood
of the believer is. The priesthood of the believer means this, that
if you're in Christ, you have a full right and title to go
into the holy place by the blood of Jesus Christ. That's what
that means, you're accepted. So he says, this is a true tabernacle
which the Lord pitched, not man. He says in verse three, for every
high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices, remember
those old covenant priests, wherefore it is of necessity that this
man, who's this man? It's Jesus Christ, the God man.
He has somewhat also to, he had to have something to offer God.
in the place of his people. Now what did he offer unto God?
Himself. That high priest had to have
a lamb, didn't he? Had to have the blood. What did our high priest have?
Had himself, his whole person, his blood. Which means his righteousness
accomplished. The righteousness of God. Verse
four, for if he were on earth, he should not be a priest. You
see, if his earth, what he's saying there, if his priesthood
were an earthly priesthood, he wouldn't even be a priest, and
why? Because he wasn't of the right generation. He wasn't of
the tribe of Levi. He wasn't of the tribe, he wasn't
a physical descendant of Aaron. He was of the tribe of what?
Judah. He's the lion of the tribe of
Judah. That's the kingly tribe. He was
made of the seed of David, according to the flesh. That's his humanity,
his sinless humanity. So if he were on earth, he wouldn't
have any right to be a priest. Now you think about that. Here's
Jesus Christ, everything in that tabernacle, that earthly tabernacle,
pictured and typified and foreshadowed him. Yet if he were a priest
on earth, he would have no right to be in there. because he wasn't
of the right tribe. So we have something better.
But look at it again. For if he were on earth, he should
not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer
gifts according to the law. That's the old covenant. The
law is the old covenant. That's the law of Moses. And
he says, who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things. They weren't the real thing.
They were just a shadow, as Moses was admonished of God when he
was about to make the tabernacle. See, saith he, that thou make
all things according to the pattern shown thee in the mount. God
showed him how to make all that. It was for that nation, it was
for that time. He says in verse six, but now
hath he, who's the heather, that's Jesus Christ, he's obtained a
more excellent ministry. by how much also he's the mediator
of a better covenant. Now you might have in your concordance
there that word covenant is testament. I told you the word, the term
new covenant, you find it four times in the Bible, well sometimes
called the New Testament. Remember Christ, when he instituted
the Lord's Supper, he said this is the New Testament in my blood,
the New Covenant. words are interchangeable. Because
this is like a last will and testament that is ratified and
put into action by the death of what the book of Hebrews in
chapter 9 calls the testator. You know what it is to make a
will? You make a will. And you bequeath your goods to
either your descendants, your children, grandchildren, whoever,
your wife or your husband, whoever. And when you die, then that will
goes into effect. Well, see, Christ is the mediator,
the testator of this new covenant. It's all based upon His death.
All the blessings of it, all the benefits of it that His people
receive comes through His death. And so it's called the New Testament. Now, this is the new covenant.
Look at it again. He says in verse 6, He obtained
a more excellent ministry by how much also He is the mediator
of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
Now what are these better promises? It's the promises that attend
salvation eternally. See under the old covenant they
had promises that were given to them, but it was all earthly.
It was all temporary. They had the promise of, for
example, an earthly land. and that God gave them. And all
those promises were temporary. But we've got better promises.
All right? We've got eternal promises. And
he says in verse seven, for if that first covenant had been
faultless, that's the old covenant. That's the law of Moses. First
in time. Now we're gonna talk about time
a little bit. First in time. He said, if that first covenant
had been faultless, in other words, if it would have accomplished
eternal salvation, then should no place have been sought for
the second, that's the new covenant. And he's talking about in time. He says in verse eight, for finding
fault with them, he saith, behold, the days come. Now he's quoting
from Jeremiah 31 that we just looked at. Behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel, with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers. It's not the same as the old
covenant. It's not like the old covenant. There's a lot of differences. The new covenant, now listen
to this, the new covenant is a covenant of grace through the
Lord Jesus Christ. The new covenant is a covenant
of grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you might ask this
question, well, what's new about that? That's always been the
way of salvation, hadn't it? What do you mean by that? Well,
listen. How was Abel saved? Remember Cain and Abel. How was
Abel saved? Well, he was saved according
to the covenant of grace through the Lord Jesus Christ, wasn't
he? Or was he saved a different way? No, he wasn't a different
way. You may have heard this term dispensationalism. Dispensation
just means a segment of time. But there are people who call
themselves dispensationalists, and they say, well, in this segment
of time, people were saved this way. And then the next segment
of time, they're saved another way, by the law, for example. And now this segment of time,
this way, no. Anybody who's ever been saved
has always been saved according to the covenant of grace through
the Lord Jesus Christ Nobody has ever been saved outside
of that covenant So what's new about this that covenant of grace
has always been around well now listen to this now Here's where
here's where people getting getting a little confused and get get
in trouble because what we're talking about here is And the
reason we talk about it is because it's in the Bible are issues
of time and eternity. And it's tough. It's tough because
we really cannot understand eternity. When you start talking about
eternity, it just boggles your mind, doesn't it? I mean, think
about that. God has no beginning and no end. It almost gives you
a headache, doesn't it, to ponder. God never changes. Now, that's different from what
the world preaches, because I'll tell you what, the world preaches
a God who's at the whim of man, responds to man, reacts to man,
does this, that, and the other, you know, changes at your prayers,
your whims, all that. But that's not the God of the
Bible. God never changes. That's a concept, isn't it? The Bible teaches that the new covenant is the
establishment in time of the terms of an everlasting covenant
made before time. Did you get that? Let me say
it again. The Bible teaches that the new
covenant is the establishment, the accomplishment in time. of
the everlasting covenant of grace made before time. In other words, what God purposed
before time was ever created, before this world was ever created,
must have its accomplishment in time. Now, to give you an
example of what I'm talking about, over in the book of Revelation
chapter 13, it talks about Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. Y'all know that verse? What is
that, Revelation 13, 8? I can't remember. The lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. Well, he's the eternal son of
God. That's right. He's the alpha and the omega.
No beginning, no end. That's what that's talking about.
He's the lamb slain from the foundation. Now, when was he
slain? He wasn't slain before the world
created, was he? No. He was slain on Calvary's
cross about 2,000 years ago in time. So God purposed it before
time, planned it, marked it out, determined it. Didn't Peter say
that at Pentecost? You say preacher, that's just,
it's always interesting to me, somebody says preacher, well
that's just, that's deep doctrine for the most mature Christian.
And not for the, Peter preached it to those who'd never heard
the gospel before. Read in Acts chapter two. His
sermon at Pentecost. He stood up there and a bunch
of unbelievers out there and He began to preach Christ and
He talked about how we as sinful mankind had taken Him with wicked
hands and crucified Him and slain Him and we did no more than what
God had determined before to be done. Now how do you reconcile
all that? Well, you can't. And I'll tell
you why you can't, because we're human. We have limitations. We're not God. So the new covenant, and what
he calls the new covenant here, was instituted in time, accomplished
in time, when Jesus Christ came into this world and did his great
work of redemption on that cross. Remember what he said? He said,
it is finished, the work's done. It was always sure and certain
to be done from the foundation of the world. There was no possibility
that he could have failed. That's right. You know why? Because
he's God in human flesh. Back over in Genesis chapter
3 and verse 15, listen to this. Adam fell, brought the whole
human race into condemnation, ruination, And God made the first
promise of grace in Genesis 3.15 wrapped up in the seed of woman
who is going to come and bruise the head of Satan. That was a
new covenant promise. That means Jesus Christ is coming
and He is going to remedy this situation. How is He going to
do it? He is going to take your place and die for your sins.
And what Satan brought in Christ is going to remove so that there
is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. New Covenant. It's always been
there. You see, it's new only in its
establishment and application in time. That's the only reason
it's called the New Covenant. It was established in time by
the death of Christ on the cross. It's applied in time to us in
the new birth. Look over at 2 Timothy chapter
1. Listen to this. Verse 9, Paul's
talking about here the gospel of God which he's called to minister. The gospel according to the power
of God. In verse 9 of 2 Timothy 1 he says, God who hath saved
us and called us with an holy calling. Now that calling there,
that's the new birth. Listen, those whom God chose
before the foundation of the world, we fell in Adam, ruined
in Adam. In time, we're redeemed by the blood of Christ. And then
in time, we're regenerated by the Holy Spirit. That's the calling.
And it's not according to our works, but according to his own
purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus, when? Before
the world began. Here's that everlasting covenant
of grace. But it's now made manifest. Now it's appeared. Now we see
it. Now it's come. It's here. How? First, by the appearing of our
Savior Jesus Christ. That's how it's come. He came.
He who was slain from the foundation of the world, He came and He
was slain. And what did he do? He abolished
death. How did he do that? He took our
sins away. He paid our debt to law and justice.
He brought in everlasting righteousness, which demands life, and then
hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
There's the preaching of the gospel, wherein to I, Paul, I
am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the
Gentiles. Brought to light through the
gospel. That's how God brings his people to see it. You know, Christ's blood, which
is the ratification of the everlasting covenant of grace, the ratification
of the new covenant, you know, it's called both the blood of
the new covenant and the blood of the everlasting covenant.
It's both. You see, that everlasting covenant
of grace stands in relation to the covenant of works made with
Adam. The Bible says, as in Adam all die, in Christ all shall
be made alive. The everlasting covenant is not
new. But when God brings you to a saving knowledge of Christ,
it's new to you, new to me. That's why in 2 Corinthians 5,
that's what he's talking about. He's talking about reconciliation
with God. The new covenant, as it's stated in the Bible, stands
in relation to the old covenant made with Israel. You know, that
old covenant, now listen to me here, and I'm going to close
with this. I'm not going to give the Holy Spirit a chance to sneak
up on you. I don't think that's the way
the Lord does it. But listen, I'll close with this. This will
help you. And I'm going to expand on this now as we go through. The Old Covenant. You know, a preacher once said
that he's afraid to preach a lot through the Old Testament because
people might get the impression that salvation is by works, by
preaching from the Old Testament. Well, he doesn't understand the
old and the new covenant. That old covenant that was given
to the nation Israel was a covenant of blessings based on or conditioned
on their obedience. And you know what? They failed. That's right, they failed. And
you know what that teaches? that if righteousness come by
works of the law, Christ died in vain, that no flesh shall
be justified in God's sight by works of the law, and that includes
you and me. You see, if salvation is conditioned
on you and me, you know what happens? It's a failure, just
like Israel failed. That covenant was a testimony
of the sinfulness of man. Why was it given? Because of
the transgression. Galatians chapter 3. It was added
because of the transgression, because of sin. God was testifying
through that nation that no sinner in the best of times or the worst
of times, at his best or at his worst, can be saved by his works.
It was a conditional covenant towards that nation. There were
some unconditional things in it, but the mainstay of it, they're
staying in that land, they're prospering in that land, they're
staying together as a nation, was conditioned on their obedience
and they failed. So would you, so would I. We're
no better than they. But the new covenant's different.
The everlasting covenant of grace made before time is different.
All the blessings of the new covenant are not conditioned
on you or me. They're all conditioned on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what? He didn't
fail. He kept it all. He perfected
it. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. Christ did not fail. All the
promises of God are in Him, yea, and in Him, amen, sure and certain.
And that's the difference. That's the difference between
a covenant of works and a covenant of grace. Now if I'm a new creation
or you're a new creation or we're a new creation, what does that
mean? It means we're saved by grace.
We have a righteousness before God that we had no part in producing.
It's all Christ, all Him, to be in Him and to be found in
Him.