It is remarkable to witness how the Lord is increasing our understanding as we pursue the truth of Christ together. Not long ago, these distinctions were obscure, but now, as the Word has been sown and vocabulary has grown, we are beginning to take for granted what should always have been clear: we are not under Israel’s New Covenant. We possess something far superior—a New Testament inheritance. This is not a mere shift in terminology; it is a radical change in the very nature of the Christian life.
The Ministry of the Spirit: Not Law, but Life
The confusion between the New Covenant and the New Testament is not a minor doctrinal quibble. When believers imagine themselves under Israel’s New Covenant—with its language of law and obligation—they inevitably fall into confusion, legalism, and hypocrisy. This error robs the Christian of the very experience God intends: a life of transformation and glory, not by external law but by the Spirit’s inward ministry.
Gospel preaching is not mere agreement with facts. When the New Testament ministry proclaims Christ, something profound happens: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6). The Gospel is not a set of ABCs to get you into heaven; it is the unveiling of Christ Himself, imparting His life and glory directly into you. The Holy Spirit is not simply a helper to keep you in line; He is the living ink by which Christ is engraved into your very being. You become a living epistle—Christ written into you, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God (2 Cor 3:3).
This is not a one-time event at conversion. The ministry of the New Testament is the ongoing distribution of Christ’s unsearchable riches (Eph 3:8), nourishing and transforming you continually. As you behold Christ shining in your heart through the Word, you are being built up as God’s habitation, brought into the mutual indwelling of the Father and the Son. Growth is not a matter of striving; it is the enjoyment of your position as an heir, receiving your inheritance through faith.
Suffering: The Tool of Transformation
Why, then, do believers still experience weakness, affliction, and failure? In God’s economy, suffering is not a sign of defeat but a tool for maturity. Your spirit has been regenerated, but your soul—your mind, will, emotions, and conscience—is being saved. God uses affliction to strip away your reliance on the visible and the flesh, forcing your gaze to the unseen glory of Christ. “Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction… worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor 4:16-17).
This is not mere theory. In the midst of trial, as you look away from circumstances and to Christ, the Spirit imparts more of His life. You are renewed, transformed, and filled with a joy unspeakable and full of glory (1 Pet 1:8-9). This is the salvation of your soul—the overflow of Christ’s life from your spirit into your mind and heart, producing real peace and transformation.
The Language of Inheritance, Not Obligation
Here is the critical distinction: we are not parties to a covenant of mutual obligation with Christ. The New Covenant is law-language: “I will do this if you do that.” That system always breeds legalism, hypocrisy, and the collapse of assurance. It puts the focus on your performance, not on Christ’s finished work. If you accept this error, you lose the ground of justification, the experience of sonship, and the enjoyment of your inheritance. You are left with confusion, striving, and spiritual impotence.
The Church is not a contractual partner; she is the very Body and Bride of Christ, taken from His side as Eve was from Adam. We are “bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh.” We are not working to earn a reward; we are joint-heirs, stewards of a Testament—a will already enacted by the death and resurrection of Christ. We are nourished and cherished as His own flesh, not by law-keeping, but by the continual supply of Christ Himself through the Spirit.
The Hidden Glory of the Christian Life
This New Testament inheritance produces a spirituality that is glorious, but hidden. Outwardly, the Christian may appear weak, afflicted, even defeated—like a captive in Christ’s victory procession (2 Cor 2:14-16). Yet, inwardly, there is a continual triumph: the fragrance of Christ diffused in every place, the savour of life to those who believe. God deliberately brings us into situations that consume our outer man and expose the futility of the flesh, so that the life of Christ may be manifested in us.
This is not the visible glory Israel will have in the Millennium. Ours is the treasure in an earthen vessel, the power of resurrection life shining through weakness. The more we are brought low, the more Christ is wrought into us, and the more His glory is revealed. This is the true path of transformation, maturity, and joy.
What Is Lost If You Accept the Error
If you insist on living under the language of covenant and obligation, you forfeit the very heart of the Christian life. You trade the Spirit’s ministry for the futility of the flesh, the inheritance for a contract, sonship for servitude. You lose the experience of Christ’s glory, the nourishment and transformation that only the Spirit can supply. You become a hypocrite, bound to a standard you cannot keep, blind to the riches of your inheritance, and cut off from the true joy of the Gospel.
The Only Way Forward: Dependence on Christ
The answer is not to try harder, but to embrace your dependence on Christ’s power and the Spirit’s ministry. As you do, you will find humility, transformation, and joy. You will be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, Christ dwelling in your heart by faith (Eph 3:16-17). You will comprehend, with all the saints, the breadth and length and depth and height of His love, and be filled with all the fullness of God.
This is not a secondary issue. The distinction between covenantal obligation and New Testament inheritance is salvific. It is the difference between a life of confusion and defeat, and a life of hidden, victorious glory in Christ. The New Testament ministry is the only means by which God brings us into the enjoyment of our inheritance. Anything less is a collapse of the Gospel itself.
Let us, then, reject the language of law and covenant, and stand fast in the liberty of heirs—sons and daughters, nourished and transformed by the Spirit, filled with the unsearchable riches of Christ, to the praise of His glory forever.
