2Cor.5:17 (Amp) tells us that we're not an "Urban Renewal" project, but we've been made new creatures altogether in Jesus Christ. We're a new species of being that has never existed in all of God's creation. Our carnal minds prevent us from seeing the Truth of what God has done for and in us, by Jesus. The Love covenant that He has brought into being, is stronger and more powerful than anything God has ever created.
It was because of God's Love for mankind, that He established the Law, whereby the people's sins would be covered, until He could bring Jesus into the earth. God tried using Grace from the time of Adam, but sin separated the people's spirits from God and the flesh couldn't accept Grace and allow it to lead them. God needed to govern mankind in the flesh, until Jesus. "All had sinned," but God's Love accepted the innocent blood of Lambs as covering for sin, instead of destroying mankind. The blood needed to be renewed daily, so it was shed daily.
The people were still sinners and "None were righteous," but God's Love fostered the Law to hold back what justice demanded. Satan used every kind of temptation, trying to provoke God into destroying mankind and bring justice for their disobedience and sin. LOVE though, NEVER FAILS. We've misunderstood the awesome power and patience of God's Love for His children. Some like Noah, found Grace in God's eyes, by doing everything possible to walk according to His Word and live right before Him. Love provided Grace to those who were seeking Him, by His Word. Most though, only offered the sacrifices needed to prevent their destruction, by appeasing God and His Law. God appointed certain days and sacrifices for the people to follow, in order for them to remain covered by the blood. Very few offered sacrifices to God, because they loved Him.
The new creation people are to bring our tithes and offerings to God in love, rather than obligation or fear. We don't "take up" a collection. We receive an offering brought not to the church, but to the Lord in love and in faith in His Love for us. God didn't only demonstrate His Love in Jesus, but He sent His Love into our hearts (spirits) by His Own Spirit. God's Love lives inside the spirit of every believer, in order to show us how to understand His heart.
The world has influenced the lives of God's people, causing us to trade God's Love for the Law of the old covenant and other man-made laws, by which we're to serve Him. God's Grace has allowed our good intentions, but has never truly been touched by them. He wants us to return His Love. If we really understood the covenant of Love, then we could remove the guilt and condemnation of the old man/woman and walk in faith, in the family position we've been placed in. We keep waiting for "the other shoe to drop," because our faith hasn't reached into the realm of the Father's Love, whereby we could rest in the salvation He has provided. Jesus paid the entire bill that Adam's transgression brought onto mankind. The blood of animals could cover, but not erase the bill we owed from Adam's transgression.
The only way one could completely walk in what God had for mankind, was to perfectly walk out the Law and receive the fullness of Blessing. James tells us that, "If you broke even one of those Laws, then you were guilty of the whole Law." The only Man Who completely walked it out, was Jesus and in Him, God sees us as having completely walked it out too. Jesus said that He "didn't come to take away the Law, but to fulfill it." Not even the Law has a hold on the new creation people.
Many today, still observe the habits of the Law, especially in their eating habits. We don't "have" to eat certain things, but we don't have to abstain from eating them either. We read about someone who knows his/her covenant by faith and one who knows his/her covenant by tradition, in Rom.14. Paul tells us that "All things are good to eat," but if this brings offense to those who don't understand, then we're to walk in love and abstain from doing so in their presence. It is sin, when we don't walk out of love for the person who is weak in the faith and doesn't understand the new covenant. These liberties are for every believer, but those who don't know their covenant of Love are afraid of offending God and receiving punishment for breaking these Laws.
We're not just covenant people, but through Jesus, we are family. The covenant of Blood brought us into the full Grace, by faith. We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus. By faith in God's Word, we're as much sons and daughters of God, as Jesus is. We're blood family of the Almighty Creator Himself and He has created us new. This is His Blood swore oath to us. God's covenant holds all the deliverance He Promised, but God went beyond covenant and made us His family, by the Blood of Jesus.
Genesis 1:12 (Amp) says, "The earth brought forth vegetation; plants yielding seed according to it's own kind and trees bearing fruit in which was their seed, each according to it's kind. And God saw that it was good (suitable, admirable) and He approved it." We were created after the Seed or Word of God, after Kind. 1Peter 1:23 (Amp) says, "You have been regenerated (born again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from One that is Immortal by the Ever Living and lasting Word of God." Everything produces after kind, including mankind, animals, plants, and family. We're not just covenant, by we're God's Own children and He has Blessed us with the inheritance of a Father to His children, through Jesus. God created the heavens and earth for us to enjoy, from the beginning. We lost it through Adam's transgression, but we've received it again through Jesus.
My wife and I made a marriage covenant 60 years ago. Our children now carry the DNA of their father, because of this covenant. They're recipients of this covenant and all we have it theirs to share equally. Our Father made covenant with Jesus and because to that covenant, we share His DNA or Same Spirit. Just prior to His arrest, Jesus prayed in John 17:22 (Amp), "I have given to them the Glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are One." Jesus told His followers, in John 16:14-15 (Amp), "He will honor and Glorify Me, because He will take of, receive, draw upon what is Mine and will reveal, declare, disclose, transmit it to you. Everything that the Father has is Mine. That is what I meant when I said that He (the Spirit) will take the things that are Mine and will reveal, declare, disclose, transmit it to you." We are joint heirs with Jesus and everything the Father has is His.
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