Covenants Part 3- How Do We Enter in to the Covenant of Redemption? How do we live in the good of it?

For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.    (1 Tim 4:10 KJV)

We have seen that God, being Trinity, hatched a plan to redeem us before we were created. We have seen that Jesus the Christ agreed to the plan. We have seen that Jesus fulfilled the role of sacrificial offering and made redemption unto eternal life a possibility.

In the above verse from Paul's letter to Timothy, there is the surprising statement that Jesus Christ, as God, is the Saviour of all men. The word translated all is Greek 'pas' and it indeed means 'all'. It then goes onto say 'especially those who believe'. The word translated 'especially', or 'specially' in the KJV, is 'malista'. It means 'chiefly, especially, particularly'.What are we to make of this?

We could ask the question, 'for whom is salvation unto eternal life a possibility?' From the verse above we can see that it is a possibility for all men. However, and from the same verse, we can see that it is a realized possibility only for those who believe.

For those who believe, and for them only, the possibility of salvation becomes the reality of salvation.

What are we believing in? The Covenant of Redemption, which is actually the New Covenant.

Further evidence that Belief is the sole means by which we appropriate the New Covenant 

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.    (John 3:16 KJV)

Our part is to believe. We must believe in Jesus and therefore in what he has accomplished. We must believe in our hearts and also confess with our mouths before other men (Rom 10:9, 10).

Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.    (John 6:29 KJV)

We enter the Kingdom by believing and acknowledging before men our belief (again, see Rom 10:9, 10).

There is a general pattern, or flow, which applies both at salvation and subsequently. We are saved by believing. By believing Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the World. We walk out our salvation by the complete transforming of our beliefs so they accord with the Word of God. We then acknowledge and display our new beliefs by expressing them with our lives.

Notice carefully that we do not strive to improve ourselves before we receive grace to change from God. Again this applies at salvation and subsequently. How does this grace work? We change by allowing God to change our idea of who we are. We are then encouraged to live out who we have now realized we really are. This is the meat of repentance: changing our inner map of who we are. It is fairly easy to change progressively into Christ's likeness if we do it in step with God; at His initiative and by His wisdom, power and strength.

Anything which makes demands on us to change without the presence of God will fail to produce real and lasting change.

Often when we are saved or hear other preaching, there is, alongside the true Gospel, a hidden message which seems to demand self-improvement.

When I got saved, I was invited to seal my commitment to Christ by taking Holy Communion. I took Communion, having just asked God in prayer how I was to go through the door into His Kingdom? I received the new birth and became a believer. I was indeed forgiven and given new life. However I was also set up for strife. the next morning I was already in a sweat about 'how I keep this Christian life up?' We do not, I believe, need to make a commitment to Christ. We need to believe in him. I believe it is far better to invite people to believe or have faith in Christ than to make a commitment to him. In the first instance this is all we can do. We believe and receive. Believe in his sufficient sacrifice and receive New Birth into a New Life. This is all supernatural of course. Our faith is in a supernatural God starting a supernatural life in us, having supernaturally cleansed our sins, guilt and shame away.

Our commitment to Christ at the point of new birth is not really worth anything. Allowing him to work in us will bring commitment by bringing new identity and security. It is more about receiving from God than about resolving to live right. It is more about yielding to Him than about striving to get things right.

The Bible contains one other pivotal covenant apart from the Covenant of Redemption. That other covenant was brought in under Moses. It is the Covenant of Law, or the 'Old Covenant'. this one does place the onus on us to live right. We bring some of our natural strength to the table. Sooner or later we fail. We can wrongly bring the underlying self reliance involved in the Old Covenant into life under the New Covenant. Calls to us by preachers to 'not be cowards' and come to Christ miss the point. Without Christ in us we are cowards, period. Peter found this out. Calls to 'commit' to following Christ, likewise, miss the point. The Christian life is a received life. We are exhorted to live out what we have received and what we will then continue to receive.

An Analogy

Military aviation sometimes makes use of in-flight re-fueling. The aircraft flies up to the tanker plane, tops up and flies off until more fuel is needed. With God, we are to be permanently hooked up to the re-fueler. Our very life should seem increasingly impossible without Him. We need to learn to abide. We need to believe, and then act like, all things are prepared and freely given, for our life in God.

I recently spent a brief time with a couple of missionary pioneers who have achieved a great deal in God. However, he was keen to point out that he had no sense of personal credit for what they had done. It was God. Not I, but Christ in me. A motivated, focused person like Paul needed to be brought to the end of his own strength (2 Cor 1:8- 9) so that Christ might be all in all.

I am not saying we do nothing. But what we do is done by yielding to God's initiative and strength within us, living out of His power and resources. This is the nature of New (Redemption) Covenant life. The focus is on believing and resting, not working and striving. We also call the New Covenant the 'Covenant of Grace'. We also call the Old Covenant the 'Covenant of Works'. While it is true that the New Covenant results in good works, the emphasis is in the grace of God; His willingness to bless and empower us before we have done anything for Him.

Christ's wrestling was to lay down his life in self-giving. Our wrestling is to forge relational intimacy and trust with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. As we succeed, both righteousness and rest will follow. There may well be a fight or two along the way.

Next I want to re-enforce my main point, the principle of a Finished Work. By looking at the very few religious rituals which Jesus endorsed or started, we can see that the substance of our redemption has already been completed.