Christian Philosophy: Everyone Has a Philosophy. It's The Lens Through Which They View The World and Make Decisions. (15 page)

The way God turned people away from sin under the Old Covenant law was by bringing judgment on the sin and using punishment. When the Law was given, it held people accountable for sin. The Law made people realize that God wasn’t indifferent to the way they were acting. It revealed God’s standard of righteousness, and it made the Israelites fearful of God’s wrath against sin. As a result, they turned away from sin. So the law limited the amount of sin, but it also had the effect of making people feel guilty and unworthy. The Law was part of God’s plan for redemption, but it was only a temporary measure put in place until Jesus should come.

But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

Galatians 3:23-25

Just as the giving of the Law brought judgment for sin, the sacrifice of Jesus brought a return to grace. Now that we have been transferred to the kingdom of Christ, we’re no longer under a schoolmaster (Galatians 3:24-25). Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law and God isn’t imputing our sins against us any longer (2 Corinthians 5:19). Under the Old Covenant, Elijah called down fire from heaven and it consumed 102 soldiers, but Jesus rebuked His disciples for wanting to do the same thing because He was ushering in a transition to the New Covenant of grace.

I believe that if Jesus had been on earth in His physical body when Elijah was calling fire down out of heaven, Jesus would have rebuked Elijah. Elijah got away with calling down fire because he was under the ministry of the Law, which was holding men’s sins against them, but it was never the true nature of God to deal with people that way. It’s the way He had to deal with people to restrain sin and rein us in, but it was only a temporary way of dealing with humanity. Now that grace has come through Jesus, we’re no longer under the Law.

Under the Old Covenant, there were very harsh punishments for sin. The Lord often commanded the Israelites to kill all the men, women, children and even the animals when they conquered other nations (Joshua 6:17-21; 10:40; 11:11-14). There was even a commandment to kill your own children if they were persistently stubborn and rebellious (Deuteronomy 21:18-21). This was because they couldn’t be cured or healed, so they were taken out of society; in much the same way that doctors cut out a cancerous tumor to save the rest of the body. It wasn’t possible for anyone to be born again, and God didn’t want foreign peoples infecting the children of Israel with demonic beliefs or behavior.

But under our new and better covenant (Hebrews 8:6, 13), we don’t kill our rebellious children or people who are committing ungodly acts because they can be born again and changed. Praise God for the vast change that Jesus made!

Under the Old Covenant, God’s judgment against evil was mercy to the rest of the body, but under the New Covenant, we can be delivered from evil. There is no need to judge individuals in order to save the rest of society. Today, we minister the love of God to anyone who is caught up in sin and we share the Good News about Jesus Christ. This difference should help us understand the harshness of the Old Testament, and why we now have a better covenant through Jesus.

Some make the mistake of thinking that the transformation in how God has related to mankind over time reflects some sort of conversion in God, which isn’t true. God declares, “I am the Lord, I change not” (Malachi 3:6), and Jesus Christ is “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). God hasn’t changed, we have—and the way He relates to us under the New Covenant has changed as a result.

Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

2 Corinthians 5:16

At first, the disciples related to Christ through His physical presence and attributes, but now that He has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, we relate to Him through the Holy Spirit. In the same way, we shouldn’t look at ourselves only from a physical perspective. We have a spiritual identity that completely changed when we were born again, and we need to know who we are in the spirit—the part of us that is created new in the image of Christ.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

2 Corinthians 5:17

This is a startling statement! When you are in Christ, old things have passed away and
all
things have become new. Not some things, but all things—and they aren’t in the process of transforming into something new, they
are
new.

A lot of people struggle with this scripture because they don’t feel completely new, and they don’t see anything new in themselves. They say, “I still get angry. I still have some of the same bad habits. I feel like I’m getting better, but I’m not there yet.” They struggle with accepting the idea that they are already new because they don’t understand that this scripture isn’t talking about your physical body or your personality. Getting born again doesn’t cause obesity to disappear, and it doesn’t automatically change your personality. The Holy Spirit can help you improve, and you can change, but it isn’t automatic. Your thoughts and memories don’t immediately change, but in the spirit you become a totally brand new person—instantly.

The reason you don’t see a totally new person when you look in the mirror is that you are looking at your physical appearance or searching your mental and emotional makeup, but the changes in your spirit cannot be perceived by your natural senses. Your spirit is the part of you that becomes completely new. Look at how the Amplified Bible translates this scripture:

Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!

In your spirit, your salvation is perfect. You have been united with Christ and your spirit is as perfect, pure, and holy as it ever will be. The moment you are born again, your spirit is transformed into the new creation you will be for all of eternity. Your spirit will never change. We will get new heavenly bodies, and our souls will be renewed so that we know all things even as we are known (1 Corinthians 13:12), but our spirits are changed forever the moment we get born again. The next verses say,

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:18-19

God has already—past tense—reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ; more specifically, God was, in Christ, reconciling the sins of the entire human race. “Reconcile” is a term we don’t use every day, but it just means to reestablish a close relationship between, or to settle or resolve. God took away all of the discord that sin caused and He harmonized our relationship with Him again.

This scripture also says God is not “imputing” our sins anymore, which means to attribute responsibility for. It is a term used in bookkeeping to describe charging or accrediting fees to an account. For instance, when you use a credit card to purchase something, you are really asking the seller to give you the item and charge - or impute - the fee to your account. The item isn’t actually paid for until you pay off your credit card. You didn’t pay for the item when you gave the seller your credit card; you just had the cost imputed to your account. If you don’t believe that, just refuse to pay the credit card bill when it comes and see if they think you’ve already paid.

When Scripture says that God reconciled the world unto Himself, not imputing our trespasses unto us, it means that God didn’t charge sin to our account. He went ahead and paid the debt for us—a balance that was impossible for us to settle—so that He could reestablish a close relationship with us.

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

2 Corinthians 5:21

God took the sins of all humanity and charged it to the account of Jesus, and He was also in Jesus on Calvary. God didn’t just turn His head and pretend sin never happened. No, sin had a cost—death—that had to be paid (Romans 6:23). God’s pure, holy, and righteous nature wouldn’t allow Him to look the other way, yet He loves us and desires a relationship with us, so God decided to pay for sin Himself. Sin was still imputed, but instead of charging us, God charged it to His Son.

Going back to the credit card illustration, imagine if you were to roll a cartload of computer gear to the checkout in an electronics store and just as you are about to be charged, someone steps up and says, “Let me get that for you,” and puts it all on his credit card. That’s very different from the store clerk saying to you, “Don’t worry about it. Everything is free today.” The items aren’t free—someone has to pay for them. Similarly, I give away a lot of my materials for free, but it isn’t because I have unlimited resources. Everything we give away has a cost; it’s just that we absorb the expense. We pay the cost to help those who can’t afford to buy materials.

God didn’t say, “Oh, let’s just forget sin. Let’s not impute sin anymore.” No, sin had a cost that had to be paid—a price we couldn’t possibly pay—so God charged it to His own account. He put all of our sin upon his Son, the Lord Jesus. He made Jesus, who never sinned, become sin for us, and He took the sin of the entire human race (2 Corinthians 5:21). The apostle John wrote,

And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

1 John 2:2

Jesus didn’t just die for a select number of people who would later accept Him. No, Jesus paid for the sins of the whole world, even the people who reject Him. Hitler’s sins, for example, were paid for—Jesus took the murder of six million Jews and the responsibility for a World War upon Himself. Jesus suffered shame, hurt, and degradation on Hitler’s behalf. All of that evil was charged to Jesus. Jesus suffered all of the humiliation and depression that results from sin for every person who has ever lived—billions and billions of people.

That doesn’t mean Hitler was saved. Because, as far as we know, Hitler didn’t accept the salvation that Jesus provided. All of his actions indicate he was in rebellion towards the Lord and in union with the devil. We have to humble ourselves and make Jesus our Lord (Romans 10:9) for what He did for us to be credited to our account.

Once you truly understand the significance of Jesus’ sacrifice, then you can understand why God dealt with people differently under the New Covenant than He did under the Old Covenant. God didn’t change—God never changes—but the atoning sacrifice of Jesus changed everything. Under the Old Covenant, the payment for sin had not been made and people bore their own sins. People bore the wrath and the punishment of God.

You can find a limited amount of mercy under the Old Covenant, but only to the degree that people understood God’s grace nature and operated in it. King David is a good example: when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, according to the Old Testament law, he should have been stoned to death. Yet God showed him mercy because David understood the true nature of God. In a sense, David was able to reach into the future by faith and appropriate some of the grace that we live under in the New Covenant. You can see this reflected in the psalm David wrote when he said, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight” (Psalm 51:4). David showed his understanding of God’s true nature when he went on to say that he would offer a sacrifice, but he knew that sacrifice was not what God really wanted (verse 16). Under the Old Covenant, David was supposed to offer a blood sacrifice for his sin, but by his own admission, he knew it wasn’t what God really wanted. David broke free from the Old Testament system and offered the sacrifice of a contrite heart.

Instead of David being killed in the way the Law prescribed, God showed him mercy. But we also see the Old Covenant punishment for sin in how the child who was born to Bathsheba was killed in judgment. We don’t see that kind of judgment under the New Covenant. God has always desired to relate to us by grace, but He couldn’t under the Old Covenant because of humanity’s hardness of heart. Fortunately, the debt of sin has been paid now and God is free to be just and merciful.

Jesus coming to this earth made a pivotal difference in the way God deals with mankind. Without the sacrifice of Jesus, humanity would still be living under God’s wrath against sin. Instead, God poured out all of His wrath against sin on Jesus (John 12:32). God isn’t judging our sin now because the judgment for all sin, for all time, was put on Jesus.

Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

1 Peter 2:24

Does that mean we are free to go live however we want? Of course not. Sin has negative consequences that are purely natural, and it gives Satan an inroad into our individual lives and into our society (Romans 6:16). When our societies promote ungodly principles and make morality a completely private issue, then it gives Satan an opportunity to destroy nations (Proverbs 14:34). Society cannot continue to seek the immorality it promotes and succeed in the long run, but the consequences of sin are not a punishment from God.