Part 1 of a New Series: “Principally Regulated by the Scripture”

The New Covenant & Not Falling from Grace

This study will be a doctrinal subject study with a focus on understanding the Lesson first taught by God through the Law as a School Master which leads to Christ, and the profession of one lead to Faith in Christ as they live by God’s Holy Law.

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Compiled by JS LOWTHER
renewedcovenantministry.com
servant@renewedcovenantministry.com

Principally Regulated by the Scripture

Part 1

The New Covenant & Not Falling from Grace

2Ti_3:12-17
Our Father we know by thy word :
All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Therefore make us strong.
Let us not be decieved by evil men and seducers

which wax worse and worse, being deceived them selves. 

Continue us in the things which we have learned of and have been assured of by thee:
Though we may have from a child known the holy scriptures,
allow them to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Profit unto us All thy scripture given by thy inspiration:
for our doctrine, for our reproof, for our correction, for our instruction in righteousness:
That we may be the men and women of God perfectly & thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
Amen

Gal_3:21  Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
Gal 3:22  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Gal 3:24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
Gal 3:26  For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
Gal 4:5  To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
Gal 4:6  And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Gal 4:7  Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Gal 4:8  Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

IN the book of Galatians, as we here read and as I have expressed in the proto message of this new monthly series, I hoped to above all things lay the ground for understanding the purpose of the schoolmaster, of the guardian and governor for the children of God, primarily.

firstly the law who is the school master, is to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. So the Law teaches us that we need a savior from the transgression of God’s Law, which is sin .  That is the profession according to Paul that one who has learned the lesson of the school master will eventually learn.

And secondly, the lesson of the schoolmaster, who is the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, is how to live redeemed.

Remember in :

Rom_8:1  we read There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

So as redeemed or freed sons of sin and death we are living now by  the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

Being redeemed means we have receive the adoption of sons, and as son’s God  sends  forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, which cries, Abba, Father. as says Gal_4:6-7

Wherefore our service is now reasonable service, even to be a living sacrifice as Per Rom_12:1

We no longer regard service as a servant, but we see it as loving duty as a child of God by Faith; and if a child we are then an heir of God through Christ.

This is a transformation of the mind, a new heart and a new mind, though once we were servants with obstinate stony hearts and foolishly darkened minds, now we are new creatures with a new heart and a new mind and a new soul to drive our physical and bodily strength. Renewed by a New Covenant, not new to God but New to us by Grace through Faith taught by a hard, but perfectly just school master.

And Yet while we can absolutely and most assuredly know that the change to occur by the knowledge of Sin and salvation by the blood of Christ, is a redeemed serves to the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ, the very Law spoken by the spirit of God to Moses, yet there is a warning we should never ignore from the book of Galatians, a pitfall which our Israelite forbearers fell into time and again and that is a fall from Grace due to the knowledge of the Law.

Now because our congregation seeks to be principally regulated by the scripture, many who do not seek to be so ignorantly think we who keep the Law of God and do so in the name of Christ have slipped into this act of falling.

And therefore I must further explain what a fall from grace definitively is, so that you are:

1. not in a state of failure
2. will not go down that pit
3. can give an answer for why you are not fallen from grace by keeping the law of God as a Christian
4. not afraid of keeping God’s law as part of a collective body as best as you can by having assurance in God’s Grace.

And so the book of Galatians is primarily dedicated to these points, namely establishing God’s grace in Jesus alone and establishing the proper order of God’s Law in the life of a Christian.

And so at this juncture of looking at the redeemed life we must deal with this pit also, and firmly establish the new covenant as the scripture principally regulates it and we witness it to be.

Paul asks the Galatians who have some among them that have fallen from grace and others falling from that gracious free gift by works of the law, and well as works that are not by the law, as Paul says:

Gal 4:8  Howbeit then, when (Formerly) ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

So remember this: if you are a son you are no longer a servant in bondage, these people are desiring again bondage, that is to be a slave and not an heir, not a child of faith, a child of God. This is not saying that they are doing service as a son and that is bondage, no, they are son’s desiring to not have faith in Christ, and that is because they are gaining confidence in their flesh to save themselves by the works of their own hands.

This is not saying, in contradiction to the whole bible prior that any service is bondage, or else Christians would have no reasonable service as sons.

Now it is apparent from the prior statements of the book in chapter 2 and 5 that the Galatians have immersed themselves in the Law, so much so that they have some among them that have fallen from grace.

And as we desire to be principally regulated by the scripture we do in fact need to be mindful of this error of the flesh, and that is exactly what it is an error which is a wrangling of the flesh over the spirit. And so it is important to lay the next course of study upon the last, and establish how to think of the law as a Christian, it’s function as bring us to faith in Christ for justification, as well as its function in being the will of our heart mind and inward parts as the Covenant people of God, as citizens of the commonwealth of Israel, princes that rule with God through Jesus Christ.

I like the consistency of how the Tyndale version says this says:

Gal_5:4 Ye are gone quite from Christ as many as are justified by the law and are fallen from grace.

Gal 5:5 We look for and hope in the spirit to be justified through faith.

What does that mean?

Grace is a free gift plain and simple. Free because we can not work for it in any fleshly action, salvation can never come by the perfect and holy law of God especially- Simply because the Law is holy, just and good and we are not. We are depraved sinners are fallen from the law’s goodness with our Christ, it is Christ takes us up out of this State of deprivation.

So simply, Grace must be free from God to man definitively  ‘a free gift’ with ZERO of our work added to accomplish salvation.  All is filthy before God nothing is clean enough to merit mercy and eternal life from our own  doing.

So to fall from grace is to  make an attempt at payment from your own efforts, and believing if you pay enough, or gave the right token to Jesus or the Father you can do what Jesus alone has done. That is to Save a sinner from the punishment of sin (law breaking 1Jn_3:4).

Simply to attempt to do so, rather brings about  more of the laws wrath and makes it impossible to pay.

To fall from grace is to return to any standard lawful or otherwise, in the books of the old testament or new testament, to obey in doing something for God before Christ or after Christ: to pay for salvation in any way, says you believe you can do what God sent his Son to do for sinners, this mindset affectively says Christ has died in vain.       What a slap in the face of Christ and the Father.

Yet, Paul prior told us the Law was a school master, a teacher a child guardian for the children of God, therefore we must realize that the law which taught us about our own sin, is the knowledge that drives us to Justification by Faith in  Christ’s blood which Christ alone gives by his gift, this is because all our effort to work for God will never meet the laws demand of perfection.

Simply said:

Gal_3:21 … if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness or justification should have been by the law.

Paul, says “IF a law“, this is if any cause and effect relationship commanded by God could save you, then in truth your justification would be dependent upon your own works or actions, but?

… the scripture hath concluded all under sin (transgression of the Law) and this is so that that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ (Jesus’ faith not yours) might be given to them that believe. Gal_3:22

This is the Covenant of Grace which Faithful Christ, before the foundations of the world were laid promised, that is that he would justify many and believers would believe in him.

To use the Law and law or any human work based in your humanity, your creaturely flesh that is, is no different than if you serve other god’s, because, the scriptures are clear and the meaning is absolute “the scripture hath concluded all under sin, the Scripture it self in the Law justly judges all  are in transgression of the holiness, justice and goodness of the Law, and to not acknowledge this is to belittle the law and make it more human and less godly, to make the law of God less holy, to make the justice of God less just, and to make the goodness of God less good, because you are making an impossible attempt as a man; beyond that, to do so is to abolish god’s very own Son and messiah, Gal_2:21  says it is to “frustrate the grace of God” because you are saying contrary to scripture “righteousness come(s) by the law” which says “then Christ is dead in vain.”.

So,  for the continuance of this message I must presume that this truth has been imparted unto you, a true and singular knowledge that all your hope and righteousness in terms of entrance into eternal life rests on the completed and perfect work of Jesus Christ, and that from hence forth you understand that everything we will be speaking of rests upon this established and immovable lesson first taught to you by God working through your own conviction of sin.

And so this is why it is so crucial to know where the living water is? to know Christ Jesus as the one who will cause you to thirst no more? Because it is only by the strength of his flesh which is food indeed, and drink of his blood which is drink indeed, that we may to the good works he foreordained in his holy law for us to do (Eph_2:8-10)

The place of the Law in the New Covenant

And this is why it is so important to hear what Jesus Said in Mat_5:17 and see what he is in the image of his eternality and immortality to His saint which he has redeemed. When he says

Mat_5:17 I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

Mat 5:18  For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Mat 5:19  Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Knowing the Law is the schoolmaster, here is what he says:  I am not come to destroy the schoolmaster, but to be the school master, the tutor and the governor.

And when we recognize Jesus as the Word of God made flesh we can see a perfect harmony, as to how we are taught the next lessons from the very same law, the same prophets and the same word of God which always was is, and shall be as we are taught by our brother Jesus Christ who has redeemed us unto himself that we might to God bring forth much fruit.

While it is common that the second lesson here taught plainly by Christ is not often factored into the Christian revelation it does not mean that the lesson is not to be understood.

The fact is that Galatians tells us:

Gal_3:24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

and because

Gal 4:1  …the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;

Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.

We therefore reckon our selves the same like wise.

And therefore Paul says of himself with the heathen Galatians:

Gal_4:3  …when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world…

Make no mistake about it, the simplicity of the elements of the world, the most elementary and or a rudimentary part of the substance of this universe is the object under which we are bound as servants, and heirs that differ not from servants. And the Law of God in its infinite holiness, perfection and justice justly judges us to never be able to be redeemed from that bondage unless Christ comes to our aid and mediation.

To learn this lesson from the school masters and to be driven to justification by Faith in Christ by this lesson results in this confession:

Col_2:8-10 …Christ, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And we are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.

Therefore, for Christians subject to grace, lead to Christ for justification and redemption must live as subjects to his head of state that is principality and power, this is the Head of Government, remember you Brother is the king of kings and lord of lords! As a King he has a kingdom, and kingdoms are governed by the law of the King. Therefore Galatians 3-4 is not destruction, cancelation, or nullification of the Law but, as the text clearly reads a redemption to is through Christ, simply stated now you’ve got your mind right about who rules this cosmos / world, and even the simplest of elements of the would enslave you because Christ made them to do so, when as the word of God he was spoken into world and made all things. This is a renewal in you to the covenant God made with you before the foundations of the world, as well as in revealing it in history by the terms of the New Covenant, which is as John says:

1Jn_2:8  Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

Go to Heb_8:5-13 , where we will read what was spoken by the Prophet Jeremiah in Jer_31:31, and let me help here lay the next course I have prepared for consideration, The author of Hebrew is speaking of Christ as the true high-priest in the temple which in fact truly exists in heaven where YHWH God dwells in his fullness. You must understand this, as prior in Hebrews the Author already made a case of what I have prior said concerning covenantal revelation, that is God’s word spoke before creation and is not old to God but true, that is eternal, it is new in us but it is not new in time. Christ the only begotten eternal Son has served the Father’s heavenly altar since before we can imagine in our finite minds, but this revelation of his priest hood is revealed to us in time, and was revealed to Moses at the time of giving of the Law, and so if there is a scripture to carry with you in this context is is that which the thrust of Chapter 6-7 made in this statement:

Heb 7:28  For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.

This is the key because in the next statement we are speaking of is in that same context of the ‘fullness of time’ as Galatians put it, when it says “the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.”. And while Christ is the eternal and heavenly high priest the very image that the pattern was imitating, the revelation in time was revealed in a first and second order in the ages, yet that oath which preceded the ages is perfect and above all:

therefore speaking of Aaron’s Levitical priest he says:

Heb_8:5  Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

Heb 8:6  But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

Heb 8:7  For if that first  covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second .

Heb 8:8  For finding fault with them, he saith,  Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

Heb 8:9  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.

So, notice, it is because of the weakness of men, and the fault of flesh the bettercovenant is revealed:

Heb 8:10  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

Heb 8:11  And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

Heb 8:12  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

Heb_8:13  In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

(old literally means old like clothing, wax old literally means like an old man before death, and ready to vanish away literally means utterly destroy- see lxx Deu_7:2).

so what then is being spoken of ?

If you remember the reason for the second covenant, Jeremiah calls the New Covenant, was weakness of men who served as priests as well as and in connection to the fault of flesh.

So God Squarely places the failure upon the flesh, not on the law itself, nor on the covenant it self, but that God in bi-lateral covenant or two party contract with man is not equal.

Your flesh will always fail, the flesh of the priest will always fail.

And therefore God by the power of His Word makes a covenant, a contract, a promise based on his own self to wax your failure of flesh old like a garment, to age near death your weakness, and to vanish away your unprofitableness  in life.

And again the question is, do you accept the terms of this unilateral, one party covenant? That is not you entering into the contract, but to you accept that these terms are about you?

Heb_8:10 YHWH GOD will put his laws into your mind, and write them in your hearts: and HE will be to you a God, and you shall be to Him a people:

Heb 8:11  And We shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man OUR brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know HIM, from the least to the greatest.

Heb 8:12  For He will be merciful to OUR unrighteousness, and OUR sins and OUR iniquities will HE remember no more.

Just think about it, the point of Hebrews 8 could not be to obsolete, growing old and  vanish away the Law God is placing in your heart and mind by his own power based on his eternal oath and covenant!

But rather this tri-fold Will of God marks the recipients of the benefits of this covenant as not having a New Covenant never heard of before, but rather being a recipient of that which has been since the beginning that is as 1Jn_2:8  said, ” which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.”

Expressed  the New Testament is the Will of God which he accomplishes in Christians by the blood of Jesus Christ ( Mat_28:26 ) , but promised since before the foundations of the world.

And here is the unilater Will of God in the WORD of the New Covenant / Testament:

 5 I wills of YHWH GOD:

I will make (it) with the house of Israel

I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts

I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

I will be merciful toward their iniquities,

I will remember their sins no more.

YHWH GOD’s will abideth for ever, it is un-separable from His word which abides forever, a will and word contained and revealed in the all the inspired Scriptures of God are as stated.

Isa_51:4  Hearken unto God, His people; and give ear unto Him, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from YHWH, and I will make His judgment to rest for a light of the people.

Isa 51:5  His righteousness is near; His salvation is gone forth, and His arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon Him, and on His arm shall they trust.

Isa 51:6  Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.

Isa 51:7  Hearken unto YHWH GOD, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is His law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.

Isa 51:8  For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but Our God’s righteousness shall be for ever, and Christ’s Salvation is from generation to generation.