The Made Whole Faith

Over the past five years of my walk, I have come to realize just how little we know about our bibles; about God; about His covenant.

I recently asked a question in a whole-bible believing Facebook group: If you were to teach your children the Covenant, what aspects would you highlight to share with them?
Some of the answers included:

- The Cross, w/out the cross there wouldn't be a covenant
- Psalms and Proverbs
- Daily life application
- Chronological order
- "What do you mean by 'the' covenant, there are 5"

This "test" really proved how little the covenant is understood. People can quote verses that mention the covenant but I have personally only witnessed a very small number of people that can articulate the 6 primary aspects of the covenant.

Yes, I am saying THE covenant because there is only ONE. There are 5 main characters in the Bible that were given blessings and promises associated with aspects of the covenant, but the whole covenant has always been ONE promise for ALL believers. It is only because of dispensation theology that the majority of Christians think in terms of Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, Messianic/New Covenant.

I am also saying ONE covenant because the 'REnewed' covenant is built into the promise laid out in the "old" covenant. They overlap; the covenant is two-fold: partially for now and the other part pertaining to eternity.

~Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine. And unto Me you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to speak to the Israelites. Exodus 19:5-6

~Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I declare in your hearing this day. Learn them and observe them carefully. The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. He did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with all of us who are alive here today. The LORD spoke with you face to face out of the fire on the mountain. Deuteronomy 5:1-3

Re-read that – ”He did not make this covenant with our fathers,” is to say that the covenant was not only given to the generation that died in the wilderness but to the children who were alive on this day. This same sentiment is carried on in Deuteronomy 29:15, the covenant was not only for those standing there but for generations to come of both native born and the foreigner who dwelt among them.

~These are the words of the covenant that the LORD commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant He had made with them at Horeb. Deuteronomy 29:1

~So keep and follow the words of this covenant, that you may prosper in all you do. All of you are standing today before the LORD your God—you leaders of tribes, elders, officials, and all the men of Israel, your children and wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your wood and draw your water—so that you may enter into the covenant of the LORD your God, which He is making with you today, and into His oath, and so that He may establish you today as His people, and He may be your God as He promised you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I am making this covenant and this oath not only with you, but also with those who are standing here with us today in the presence of the LORD our God, as well as with those who are not here today. Deuteronomy 29:9-15

The covenant was being established with native born Israel AND the foreigners who grated into Israel. This is one example of Abraham being ‘the father of many nations’. This is the same covenant given to Abrahem, Isaac, and Jacob; it is the same covenant that was given to this generation and carried on for all generations afterwards. It was not separated into ‘Abrahamic’ and ‘Mosaic,’ it was the same! Yes, there were additions or amendments to the Law portion of the covenant for community living around the tabernacle and in the land; these are situational stipulations a.k.a common sense- but, the covenant as a whole has never changed- the people, they required more instructions as more issues arose with such a multitude of people.

The entire story- the point of the covenant, is to get us back to original design; Yahuah is restoring His whole creation back to perfection- eliminating sin and death in order for His children to live abundantly in His garden land.

In short- The “old covenant” gives an explanation of how to do life as we dwell on this earth in the flesh, AND includes the promises of future restoration- life after the resurrection in eternal bodies.
The covenant for both this life and the next includes the following aspects:

•Law/ Circumcised Heart
•Forgiven/ Cleansed
•The Spirit
•Land inheritance ('Promise Land')
•Messiah as our High Priest (previous priesthoods)
•YHWH is our God, we are His children

We have each of these aspects in a portion, a DEPOSIT for this life. But in the next, they will be complete; full; perfected FOREVER!
Ezekiel 37 provides a wonderful concise layout of each of the aspects of the covenant- the NEW covenant. NEW is simply re-newed; fresh; restored. Each aspect of the “new” covenant is explaining what God’s original intention was from the beginning.

~ Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘O My people, I will open your graves and bring you up from them, and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, My people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put My Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.” Ezekiel 37:11-14

**This has not happened yet!

~ I will take the Israelites out of the nations to which they have gone, and I will gather them from all around and bring them into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over all of them. Then they will no longer be two nations and will never again be divided into two kingdoms. They will no longer defile themselves with their idols or detestable images, or with any of their transgressions. I will save them from all their apostasies by which they sinned, and I will cleanse them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God. My servant David will be king over them, and there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow My ordinances and keep and observe My statutes. They will live in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They will live there forever with their children and grandchildren, and My servant David will be their prince forever. And I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary among them forever. Ezekiel 37:20-26

We see glimpses of Israel being one nation- this only happened during the days of David and Solomon, history proves that Israel was divided at every other point, the apex being the separation of the northern and southern houses. The new testament passages that explain that “there is no longer Jew or Gentile, but we are one in Messiah” are depictions of what we see Ezekiel say- they will be one nation and one king will rule over them.

We also see Israel being brought back to the land that was given to Jacob- that land was from the Nile river to the Euphrates river. Although Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sojourned throughout that whole span of land, the whole nation didn’t have rights to the whole land- only the portions from the Jordan to the Euphrates after the Exodus up until until Israel transgressed the covenant and lost their rights to that portion of land. The renewed covenant gives ALL of Israel ALL of the land of inheritance.

These are just a couple of small examples to hopefully peak your interest. Considering what I just shared, I point back to the question I submitted to that facebook group:

If you were to teach your children the Covenant, what aspects would you highlight to share with them?

It doesn’t even have to be your children, it can be anyone that you have the opportunity to share the gospel with, because - reality check: the Covenant IS the good news! Our Messiah is the chief of the covenant- the mediator, but unless we understand what the covenant IS, we can’t fully appreciate what our Messiah’s role actually means. He came proclaiming the Kingdom and the resurrection, evangelical Christianity has come proclaiming the life, death, and resurrection of Christ without any other context or direction for what that means.

Once you understand the foundational pieces of the covenant, the rest of the bible will start to click in place and make a whole lot more sense.

I'm going to take you to an allegory from Paul:

~ For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born through the promise. This is allegorical [symbolic], for these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bo***ge, which is Hagar— for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bo***ge with her children, but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written: “Rejoice, O barren, You who do not bear! Break forth and shout, You who are not in labor! For the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband.” (Isaiah 54) Galatians 4:24-27

The Old Covenant is linked to Jerusalem which now is- it is still there to this day. The New Covenant is linked to Jerusalem above- the New Jerusalem which comes down at Messiah's return, where the saints are gathered to at the resurrection (she has many more children)- this is where and when we are free from the bo***ge of the flesh.

-> Mt. Sinai/ bond woman / Ishmael = Jerusalem which “now is” represents the covenant made with flesh: the flesh desires sin as Paul emphatically explains in Romans 7. In order to keep the flesh in check and understand what sin is according to God, the stipulations of His covenant laws were given to mankind. (For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. Romans 7:14)

-> New Jerusalem/ free woman/ Isaac = the covenant made with our new spiritual bodies at the resurrection when we inherit New Jerusalem- the whole land of promise. The deposit of the Spirit we currently have was given to lead us to understanding the fullness of the Spiritual nature that is to come at the resurrection. Being children of the free woman is denying the flesh and having a mind set on things above. (Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:2) …literally, New Jerusalem above!

This hope of our future reality is to be our focus and aim for walking in this fleshy life. The old and new covenants have nothing to do with “old testament Israel” being different from the “new testament church,” we are grafted together into the covenant of promise- just as the foreigners were grafted into the covenant at Horeb. The Old Covenant is made with ALL flesh; the Renewed Covenant will be made with ALL who are resurrected at Messiah's return and brought to the NEW Jerusalem in the land of promise. To put it into a bit more perspective of what we’re talking about:

~ For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want. Galatians 5:17

~ Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Romans 8:12-13

Paul is saying the exact same thing Moses said 1,500 years earlier when he was laying out the terms of the covenant before Israel:

~ I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, and that you may love the LORD your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Deuteronomy 30:19-20

The exhortation to not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, is the foundational instruction for the whole covenant. The Kingdom and resurrection that we set our hope on should be mirrored in the way we walk in this life, denying the flesh and obeying the voice of our Shepherd. But the thing is, going back to a lack of understanding of the covenant promises, when we ourselves lack understanding the “how I should act as a believer” fades away or leaves people to be easily led astray with various doctrines.

If we don’t have the solid foundation of the covenant, why does our behavior matter? Why does following the Torah matter? Why does believing in the Messiah matter? There is a great falling away happening even among those who began in the Torah because they jumped into a trend that made sense, zealous and excited for something new, something outside of the mainstream. But because many teachers have failed to understand the basics, and instead led with romantic ideas and hyper-spiritualized stories taken out of context, our body has suffered- we are weak. We literally see people perishing for a lack of knowledge. Let that not be us, let us be the ones who slow down, get solid in the covenant foundations and then begin building our house.