MYSTERIES OF GOD'S KINGDOM. Kenneth B. Alexander

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СКАЧАТЬ again. There was never a change of nature that made sin impossible. A better, more permanent, sacrifice was needed. So by Christ’s once and for all sacrifice on the cross he made available a provision whereby man could appropriate a nature like unto His, which would be forever incapable of sin.

      This New permanent Covenant is stated in Hebrews and reproduced here: “For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. For finding fault with them [the Old Covenant], He says,

      “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord,

      When I will effect a new covenant

      With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;

      Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers

       On the day when I took them by the hand

       To lead them out of the land of Egypt;

       For they did not continue in My covenant,

       And I did not care for them, says the Lord.

       “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel

       After those days, says the Lord:

       I will put My laws into their minds,

      And I will write them on their hearts.

      And I will be their God,

      And they shall be My people. “And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen,

      And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’

      For all will know Me,

      From the least to the greatest of them.

       “For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.”

      When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear” (Hebrews 8:7-13; Jeremiah 31:33 et. sq.).

      Under the New Covenant the laws of God are written on our hearts rendering sin impossible. What we could not do in ourselves, as evidenced by our failures under the Old Covenant (applicable to the ancient nation of Israel) Christ did with one perfect sacrifice acceptable to God. It will further no longer be necessary for us to teach one another to know the Lord for we will all know Him. Having this sinless nature we will thus be like Him in every respect. This is salvation to the “uttermost”. He has saved us and He has delivered us by one sacrifice.

      Through the true salvation experience we will come to “know the Lord”. In God’s mind, He is looking for a marriage relationship with us, just as we come to “know our wife/husband” in the natural realm. God says: “And I will make them lie down in safety.

      “I will betroth you to Me forever;

       Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice,

       In lovingkindness and in compassion,

      And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.

      Then you will know the Lord” (Hosea 2:19-20).

      “So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.

      His going forth is as certain as the dawn;

      And He will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth” (Hosea 6:3).

      Receiving full salvation means a “pressing on” to know Him more. Every day we seek the Lord to expand our salvation experience. As we do so, He provides more and more light to show us the way. Isaiah 28:13 describes how the Lord will lead us:

      “So the word of the Lord to them will be,

      “Order on order, order on order,

      Line on line, line on line,

      A little here, a little there”.

      God wants us to return to Him with all our hearts.

      “Yet even now,” declares the Lord,

      “Return to Me with all your heart,

      And with fasting, weeping and mourning; And rend your heart and not your garments.”

      Now return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness and relenting of evil” (Joel 2:12-13).

      We must be diligent every day to seek the Lord. He is happy when we do this: “I love those who love me; And those who diligently seek me will find me (Proverbs 8:17).

      We must seek Him with all our hearts in order to obtain this gift of entire salvation.

      You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

      ‘I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.”

      Therefore there are actually many levels of salvation; there are many mansions in the house of God. Wherever you stop seeking the Lord for more, you will stay where you are. Dying is not a magic way of receiving salvation. What you have obtained on earth will go with you, be it good or bad. By continuing to expand your salvation experience you are eligible to receive and manifest, as Christ, everything pertaining to life and Godliness in this age and in the age to come.

      With this New Covenant experience we are literally “born again”. Basic Christian thought is that once you have received Christ you are immediately “born again”. This has become a catch phrase for the Christian movement. But being born again is not a trite statement used as a synonym for salvation. It is a literal rebirth into a new age of the Kingdom and the spirit.

      Although it can happen in one great experience, more likely it will happen through a continual, daily, unfolding experience. Actually being entirely born again is the day we become mature in Christ and stand with His entire nature perfected in us. This happens as our spirit is continually perfected by the working of God in our lives. The obvious difference is that when we initially accept Christ, we are mere babies in the things of Christ. There is a maturing process that must go on throughout our lives. The baby must grow up.

      Too many feel the initial acceptance of Christ is enough for us to be reborn and then receive our reward in heaven when we die. So many feel entitled to simply wait for that time confident they will appear prefect in Heaven after their physical death. That is not the truth. There are many in Heaven right now who are not perfected and are waiting for their full fulfillment. Hebrews 11:30-40 makes this clear. After remembering all the great men of God who died in faith in Hebrews chapter 11, the writer of Hebrews notes that they all died without receiving the promise. The writer of Hebrews states: “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. None of those who died in faith will be made perfect until we are made perfect. This confirms Christ’s СКАЧАТЬ