Living in the New Testament Reality of forgiveness, cleansing, and power for loving God and our neighbor.

Once concrete has been poured into the hollow of the wooden forms that define the shape of a foundation, it is left temporarily to harden until it can stand on its own. Then the forms can be peeled away and discarded.

The writer of Hebrews reminds us that the ceremonial law of the old covenant priesthood was introduced as a temporary measure to help define the shape of the priestly work of Christ to come.

Now that Christ has come, the New Covenant reality can stand on its own.

The priesthood and earthly sanctuaries of both the tabernacle and the temple were part of the old covenant parable. (Hebrews 9:9 teaches that these were an illustration; 'parabole' in the Greek, from which we get the English, 'parable'.)

The Old Covenant was a temporary measure to point out the reality of sin, the barrier it creates and the way in which a righteous and holy God must deal with it. The work prescribed through the offerings of the levitical priesthood could only be fulfilled by the perfect God-man and His substitutionary sacrifice of His sinless life.

"The law is only a shadow." (Hebrews 10:1). Shadows are not meant to be embraced; only the realities that give them form.

The tabernacle proved to be a textbook giving us reference material for understanding what God intended to do through Christ. The myth that the religious offerings represented in the 'tabernacle textbook' are sufficient to deal with sin must be discarded! (see NOTE below). Practices, phrases and programs that obscure the relevance of what Christ has done, is doing, and Who He is today as Head of the Church must also be abandoned, no matter how sentimentally attached we are to them. The Old must give way to the New. The types must give way to the realities they represent (the antitypes). The shadows must give way to the substance! The menu must give way to the meal! Too often people mistake the religious parable for the reality which results in confusion and bondage.

The Old Covenant is inferior to the New in that, although it legislated outward religious performance, it could not cleanse the inner conscience, regenerate the spirit, renew the mind or energize the will. It can only call for external conformity to standards whereas the New Covenant brings the power of internal transformation. Beware of slipping back into an old covenant mentality.

The New Covenant is about God the Law Giver sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to be the Law Keeper on our behalf. Jesus fulfills the law through both His sinless life and His sacrificial death. After He is resurrected and ascends to the Father, the Holy Spirit is sent to indwell our spirits and fulfill the law of love towards God and our neighbors.

The inner sanctuary of the tabernacle can be an illustration of the regenerated human spirit, our God conscious capacity; the middle court - the human soul, and the outer court, the human body. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil that prohibited access and that prevented the powerful presence of God's glory from shining forth, was torn in two. Through our faith in the perfect work of Christ as priest and sacrifice, God the Holy Spirit now indwells the human spirit, shines forth into the soul, illuminating our mind, cleansing our conscience, imparting divine affections to our emotions, wisdom to our will, and makes our bodies vehicles for the expression of His life and the implementation of His will on earth.

Once the new has been introduced, the old becomes redundant. The old priesthood must give way to the new priesthood. The old sacrifices must give way to the once and for all sacrifice. The old sanctuary must give way to the heavenly sanctuary. The treadmill of religious ceremony must give way to the reality of a covenant relationship.

The New Covenant introduces the dynamic that fulfills all God's demands: the indwelling Spirit of Christ! We can be empowered on a moment by moment basis to live from the inside out!

The presence of God's glory has come to dwell in a new temple. Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we have a deposit, a foretaste of heaven, our promised future, in our hearts. Behold the tabernacle of God is with the community of redeemed and regenerated people! Heaven has planted its flag in the church! We have become an official colony of heaven on earth. Through the grace of the New Covenant, (the power of the indwelling Spirit), we can live a heavenly life on earth today.

NOTE: Read Hebrews 9:8-10. This does not mean that we discard the Old Testament Scripture or the value of its types and teaching. "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2Timothy 3:16)

Out of the shadows and into the Son,