Fighting for Real Estate: Part #7

“A New Creation: The Cannon of the New Covenant!”

By Richard Allen – May 27, 2024

In the past six blogs of this series, I’ve discussed several themes that are central to prophetic discussion: The Land, the Temple and the Throne of David.  All three are crucial to any discussion of “End Times’ ” prophetic schemes.  My hope has been to show that Jesus didn’t fulfill any of those promises in a “carnal-Jewish way.” Rather, these elements of worship were fulfilled with a Spiritual and Christocentric dynamic. They are all present and fulfilled in the New Covenant, but certainly not in the way many Old Testament believers were able to understand. Some Old Testament Saints struggled to reconcile the two contradictory prophetic visions the Old Testament presented: “The Sufferings of Christ and the Glory that was to follow” (1 Peter 1:11). Most did not see beyond their own Old Covenant perspective. They never grasped there was one coming who was greater than the Land and the Temple:  A true Son of David, whose Throne and Kingdom would have no end (Luke 1:32). In this week’s Blog, there is yet one more topic to discuss: The People of the New Covenant, that is: the True Worshippers who Worship in Spirit and in Truth!

To be honest, I think the unfolding of the New Covenant in the spiritual sense, was a surprise to many who longed for the coming Messiah. There are some modern-day teachers who suppose that the physical-carnal fulfillment of Old Covenant prophecies are all still valid – they just had to be postponed because the Jews in Jesus day rejected the very thing they said they all longed for.  Say what?  Yes, many so-called Bible authorities say that when Jesus came (in Matthew 12), he formally offered Israel the very thing they wanted: An Earthly Kingdom, Peace all around through defeating all Gentile armies, and Jesus sitting on David’s Throne in Jerusalem – with the Temple Priests “cranking out” thousands of Sacrifices – but they rejected it cold!  Let me categorically state: If Jesus had offered a physical-carnal kingdom, you sure wouldn’t know it by the New Testament Scriptures. He told Pilate that His Kingdom was Not of this World (i.e. the present order or kind).  And, if it had been, Jesus’ servants would have fought to keep him from being delivered up to death (John 18:36). Truth is, Jesus was only offering: A Spiritual Kingdom! This explains why Jesus, after feeding the 5,000, rebuffed an excited crowd that was ready to make Him an “earthly king:”

“When the people saw the sign that He had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’ Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself” (John 6:14-15).

Contrary to modern-day teachers, all wedded to a system of interpretation that’s foreign to the New Testament, Jesus “never came to set up a physical-carnal kingdom.” For all of Old Testament history, God had labored with men “in the flesh,” that is, physical Jews. So, God longed to make a Covenant that would produce “True Worshippers” (John 4:23).  The Law was incapable of producing a spiritual people because they were born in sin – that is “Born of the Flesh” (John 3:6). God knew that any Covenant based on Law was doomed to fail as: “He found fault with the worshippers” who were still slaves to sin. God could not and would not build a kingdom of worshipping people “Born in Sinful Flesh.”  No, He needed a New Covenant People – those “Born by the Spirit!”  Here’s how the writer to the Hebrews explains the criteria for a New Covenant People, Not Born of the Flesh or Under the Curse of the Law:

“But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For He finds fault with them – when he says: ‘Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more’ ” (Hebrews 8:6-11).

So, who are these New Covenant People, “Born of the Spirit, not under the Law, but under Grace?” Sadly, many of these modern-day teachers twist Scripture, then give a false answer: They are Gentiles who are merely “Born Again by Faith in Jesus Christ.” In God’s prophetic plan, these teachers proclaim that “The Cross of Jesus Christ” was Plan B, the backup plan that God the Fatehr reluctantly accepted, all because Israel after the flesh rejected the physical kingdom that Jesus supposedly offered!  God had to delay His real purpose, to give natural Israel a physical Holy Land, a physical Temple, and a Literal Throne for David’s Son to sit on in Jerusalem. I’m being facetious, none of this is true. The New Covenant People are not Jew OR Gentile: “It’s the New Creation in Christ!” Here’s how Paul describes New Covenant recipients of the blessings of Faithful Abraham, and those who are His real descendants:

“Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called ‘the uncircumcision’ by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands – remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,  and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So, then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit (Ephesians 2:11-22).

Wow! This New Man in Christ Does Not Sound Like Plan B, because It’s Not!  This was God’s plan for this age, and the age to come –  to gather all things together in Jesus Christ!

“Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:18-22).

You see, it’s not Jew or Gentile any longer, but The New Creation – The New Man – The Church of Jesus Christ, made up of both Jews and Gentile, the Law having been satisfied in Jesus’ body on Calvary’s Cross! In Christ there are no longer the distinctions that existed in the Old Testament – they have all been done away in Christ. And to bring those distinctions back is to reject Jesus’ death and resurrection! Here’s how the J.B. Phillips Translation states this:

“For now that you have faith in Christ you are all sons of God. All of you who were baptized “into” Christ have put on the family likeness of Christ. Gone is the distinction between Jew and Greek, slave and free man, male and female—you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, you are true descendants of Abraham, you are true heirs of his promise” (Galatians 3:28).

Rejecting this truth, these modern-day teachers insist that the “distinctions between Jew and Gentile are alive and well,” and God is pursuing separate plans for both Jews and Gentiles. Truth is, the Cross of Jesus Christ made all believers a “New Creation,” no longer tied to things of the “flesh,” but rather, “Born of the Spirit!”  This is why Paul, after warning Galatian Believers “not to fall prey to another gospel” (which is no gospel at all), tells them to “stand firm and not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” By teaching there are still Jews according to the flesh, these modern-day teachers would condemn these poor sinners to keeping the Law, and severing them from the New Man in Christ.

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love” (Galatians 5:1-6).

In Paul’s final words to the Galatian Church – plagued by Judaizing teachers, insisting on circumcision and Law keeping – Paul closes his Epistle by giving them the “Cannon of the New Covenant” – The New Creation:

“It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule (Greek, Cannon), peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:12-16).

You see, the People of God, the Worshippers in Spirit and in Truth which God has always desired, Paul calls: The Israel of God!  They are not born Jews – nor are they born Gentiles – but rather, they are The New Creation in Christ, The New Man, a Redeemed People Born of the Spirit! These modern-day teachers would insist that I am teaching a “replacement theory,” that is that the Jewish people have been replaced by Gentiles – that is the Church. This presents two serious errors, neither Jews nor Gentiles are accepted because of their flesh, and the Church is not just Gentiles! The New Covenant does not replace Israel after the flesh with Gentiles after the flesh, No! The New Covenant is no longer Jew or Gentile – but THE NEW MAN IN CHRIST!  And the Church of Jesus Christ is neither Jew nor Gentile, but The New Man, a New Creation through Faith, a People Born of the Spirit – from both Jews and Gentiles, as many as the Lord shall call (Romans 10:12; Acts 2:39)!  God is building a New Temple with the “stone (Jesus) that the builders rejected as the Chief Cornerstone” to establish true worship in the Spirit (Acts 4:11-13)!

Soli Deo Gloria!