The New Covenant and Its Ordinances

Just a couple of notes on the past two posts about the non-inclusion of natural ordinances under the new covenant. The apostle Paul stated very clearly to the Galatians, who had been duped by errant Jewish believers to observe the ceremonies of the law, that they were going backwards from the leading of the Spirit of God: "But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law" (Gal. 5:18). It is very simple really: If we attribute godly regard to symbolic ordinances that only pointed to what Jesus was going to accomplish spiritually for us, we are going [backward] from what he died and rose to provide; that being the indwelling of his Spirit, which in fact IS the fulfillment of ALL of the law's ceremonial ordinances, including water baptism and what is called communion, but really is only a broken off fragment of the passover (Rom. 8:4; Mat. 3:15; Mat. 26:26-29). We just can't mix the old covenant with the new covenant, without polluting, diluting, and nullifying the purifying and empowering effect of the holy Ghost, which itself IS the new covenant (Heb. 10:15,16; II Cor. 3:3). Paul explained that very reality to Peter upon rebuking him for his example to the gentile believers that they should be under the law also: "If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? ... Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ... I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain" (Gal. 2:14,16,21). So according to Paul, if we are made to believe that we are made right with God by the carnal ordinances of the law in addition to faith in Jesus that results in the baptism of the Spirit, we are in effect saying that Jesus came here and died in vain (Mk. 1:7,8; Acts 1:4,5; Jn. 7:38,39; I Cor. 6:11).

So again, the observance and regard for natural ordinances puts us in a backward direction from the leading of God's Spirit, because the only thing that the Spirit leads into is true holiness through the purifying power of the Spirit, resulting in the perfection of God's love in our hearts (I Pet. 1:22). And that is the meaning of Pauls words to the Philipians, which we started this three part post with a few days ago, where he said that "we worship God in spirit... and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philip. 3:3). And this is exactly why the apostle Paul made the following statements directly after telling the Galatians that they could not be led by the Spirit and be under the ceremonial ordinances of the law at the same time, as the opening scripture of this article shows: "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law" (Gal. 5:19-23). The "works of the flesh" are the only place we can end up if we go backward from the Spirit, and the "fruit of the Spirit" is what we will produce if we go forward after the leading of the Spirit. And the point of all this? Well, just that the former damns as the apostle stated, and the latter saves the soul. I believe this is a matter very worthy of our attention, seeing that God's people have universally been duped into this old covenant mindset, and consequently have been made to believe that sin is something that we all have to put up with; when in fact we cannot be saved if we do not get rid of sin from our lives literally (Rom. 6:23; Heb. 12:14). Amen.