Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God

The New Covenant

The healing and deliverance ministry of Jesus showed us that He is about conquering sin and its corrosive effects.  The connection between the atonement and both spiritual and physical is perhaps most clearly communicated in Matthew 8, “And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”[1] 

     The context of this quote in Matthew 8 from Isaiah 53 shows that even while He ministered before the actual sacrifice was made, He was functioning in power of His blood through the Spirit.  In Matthew 27:46 it is recorded, “About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,^[a] lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).  What occurred at the crucifixion in the spiritual realm and its application in our own lives was further elaborated upon by the apostles in the New Testament.  Peter wrote in his first epistle, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”^[2]

     Sin, sickness and death were not present in Eden before the fall.  Jesus is restoring humanity and creation to Eden through the three phases of salvation: new birth, sanctification and glorification.  All of this is made possible by grace through faith in Jesus and His atoning sacrifice.  His work of restoration will see its crescendo with the renewal of the children of God and creation[3] in the form of the New Heaven and the New Earth.[4]

     Every human being who has ever lived is loved by God.^[5]  The Father sent the Son to live as fully God and fully man on earth, our perfect example of life and godliness in order to take all sin upon Himself, pay the ultimate penalty, and conquer death by rising again.^[6]  This sacrifice began in the Garden of Gethsemane when the weight of the world was laid on the shoulders of Jesus.^[7]  He bore our burdens on the cross of Mount Calvary, the mountain of the Lord and when He breathed His last,^[8] His body was laid in a garden tomb which saw the greatest miracle the world has ever known!^[9]

      This gift of redemption and restoration is freely offered to anyone who chooses to believe and put their trust in Jesus.^[10]  In doing so, we must turn away from the fallen ways of this world and make a conscious decision to follow God.  When an individual believes, confesses, and repents they are born again^[11] and the Spirit of the Living God dwells within them bringing them from spiritual death to spiritual life.^[12]  This connects that person spiritually to God and to every single true believer in Jesus who has ever or will ever live.^[13]  This beautiful unity forms the eternal family of God.^[14]  We are the Body of Christ.^[15]

     When Adam was formed as a clay sculpture by the hand of God, He breathed into the man’s nostrils and he came alive.^[16]  The study of the Holy Spirit is pneumatology.  Pneuma for “breath” or “spirit” and ology for “the study of.”  What a beautiful picture. Adam and Eve became alive with the breath of God but died spiritually inside when they allowed sin into their lives.  Physical death also came through sin.  When a person is born again, they go from spiritual death to spiritual life^[17] and their body becomes a temple of the Living God.  God breathes into them the Holy Spirit, the breath of new life.^[18]  Through this new birth experience and the ensuing sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, God is making men and women who surrender to His authority into who they were meant to be. 

     After being born again, God wants us to grow in Him and, “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”[19]  Before we came to Christ, we were spiritually dead in our transgressions.  Once we were cleansed spiritually in the blood of Jesus by the Spirit we came alive, He made us His temples, and fused our spirit with His Spirit.[20]  I Corinthians 6:17 reveals to us, “But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.”

     At the new birth, the core of our being is justified before the Father, meaning our hearts are made right with God just as we had never sinned.  Unfortunately for us, we still live in the temporary tent of our bodies, which have been corrupted by the effects of sin in this fallen world.  The Spirit wrestles with the flesh within us.  The Apostle Paul described the struggle within us this way in Romans 7,

“So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!  So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.”[21]

When we say no to our flesh and yes to Jesus, His kingdom expands in our lives and we become more like Jesus.  As we grow in our faith and knowledge of Him and His ways, we are to live a lifestyle of repentance which is to say that we continually turn away from selfish and worldly ways and choose to follow God and live according to His principles.

     As we follow the Lord, we are to manifest His love upon the Earth by sharing His love and message with those around us.[22]  We are called to live holy lives, set apart for His purposes and plan in loving God, loving others, loving ourselves in the healthy way He has shown us,[23] and making disciples.[24]  As we grow spiritually and each area of our lives is brought under the authority of Jesus through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, we are transformed from glory to glory to be more like Him. II Corinthians 3:18 reveals, “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplatethe Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”  Adam and Eve were made in the image of God, but that image was corrupted by sin.  Every generation of humanity has a derivation of that divine reflection, but it is marred by disobedience.  Through the process of sanctification, the Father is shaping us like clay in the hands of a master potter back into the perfect image of His Son. 

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[1] Matthew 8:14-17

[2] I Peter

[3] Romans 8:18-25

[4] Isaiah 65:17, 66:22, II Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:1-4

[5] John 3:16

[6] II Corinthians 5:21

[7] Luke 22:44

[8] Luke 23:46, Isaiah 53:6

[9] Luke 24:1-3

[10] Acts 4:12

[11] Romans 10:9

[12] John 5:24, I Corinthians 6:19-20

[13] Hebrews 12:1, Ephesians 4:11-13

[14] John 1:12, I John 3:1-2, Ephesians 2:19-22, Galatians 6:10

[15] Romans 12:5

[16] Genesis 2:7

[17] Romans 6:23, I John 3:14, John 5:24, John 3:16

[18] John 20:22-24

[19] Philippians 2:12b-13

[20] I John 4:15, I Corinthians 6:17

[21] Romans 7:21-25

[22] I John 4:9-21

[23] Mark 12:28-31

[24] Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8