Sign of the New Covenant (eBook)

Chapter Two

The Pattern God Established

~ God makes Himself visible ~

Our Creator, Maker of heaven (the spiritual world) and earth (the natural world) knows us so well that He has established patterns as signposts to help us bridge that divide. In this chapter we will see His grace at work in providing both visible and invisible evidence of His Kingdom at work.

There are two worlds. One is a natural world or creation as we know it, consisting of planets, stars, earth, water, animals, billions of visible things, and people from different tongues and cultures. There is also a spiritual (unseen) world known as God’s realm. In this realm, you find spirit creatures (some with eyes inside and out and some with four faces), demons, and angels. God created both these realms; first the unseen or the spirit world and then the seen or natural world.

In the beginning, God created the heavens [Spirit] and the earth [natural].

(Gen. 1:1)

No one knows how long the unseen world existed before the natural world was created. God existed before anything was ever made. The spiritual world also exists outside of time. The eternal past and the eternal future are entirely beyond the realm of our finite understanding. How long has the natural or seen world existed? Some scientists estimate that the universe with all the planets is billions of years old. According to Scripture, creation, and history from Adam to where we are today are approximately six to seven thousand years old.

By either worldview, everything in the natural world is finite. Everything in the natural world has an expiration date.

However, human beings are the only created beings made in God’s image.11 Nothing else in creation reflects Him as we do.

For this reason, we have a connection to the spirit world, as cultures around the world give abundant proof. For centuries, even people and nations who have not known God have worshipped idols they made to represent gods. The Native Americans refer to “The Great Spirit.”

Peoples of Africa talk about their ancestral spirits, and in India people worship over three thousand gods. In Christianity, we learn about God, the Creator of the universe, Jesus his Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are taught that God is the Creator of all things and that He has the answer to the problem of sin for all humanity. Clearly, humans are beings with a spiritual awareness.

Why God uses signs

As human beings, we are bound to live, experience, see, and understand earthly things with our natural ability. Even though we are spiritual beings created in God’s image, we are most acquainted with the natural world. Our earthly experience is what we all live in day to day.

Yet Scripture says that God is a Spirit.12 So how do we understand and know about a God that is a Spirit? Scripture tells us creation declares God and helps us see that He exists. God has no problem showing us something in the visible world so we can understand His intentions or plans, know His character, and understand His power.13

On many occasions, we see how God gave someone a visible sign as proof of His intentions. Think about the story of Moses, Israel, and the ten plagues; Abraham, God, and the stars of heaven; David, Israel, and Goliath; Jonah, Nineveh, and the big fish. Think about the prophets and how God used them as a sign to show Israel what He was going to do. In the Old Covenant, there were a lot of visible signs. The sign of the Old Covenant was circumcision in the flesh of all the males (Abraham); God also gave the Law on stone tablets (Moses). As we study, we will see both visible and invisible signs.

Visible signs

Consider these examples of times God gave visible signs:

1. God gave the rainbow as a visible sign to show Noah He made a covenant not to destroy the earth with water again.14
2. God gave Abraham two visible signs: circumcision, and the promise of a son. These signs to Abraham were to show that God would keep and fulfill his commitment to his posterity and Abraham and Sarah.15
3. God gave a sign as a prophetic promise to Israel: A virgin would conceive and bear a son, and He would deliver His people from sin.16
4. God gave many signs to establish a prophetic word by one of his prophets. (For example, Hosea married a harlot to show Israel that they were acting like a spiritual harlot by serving false gods.)

It would take too long to mention every sign that God gave. We haven’t even mentioned Gideon and his fleece, Samson and his hair, Jonathan fighting uphill, and many more. These were not to be the only signs. There would also be visible signs to prove the New Covenant. Some of the visible signs of the reality of the New Covenant would be:17

1. You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit comes on you. 
2. You will lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
3. You will cast out devils in his name.
4. You will speak with new tongues.

In the New Covenant, the gifts of the Spirit are invisible gifts we carry that only become visible when they are in operation.18

Now, what makes the New Covenant unique and different from the Old Covenant is that God would give a visible sign but also perform invisible works as part of the New Covenant. So, let’s look at some of the invisible signs God gave.

Invisible signs

When God instituted the New Covenant, He promised circumcision would be in man’s heart, and God would write His Law on the heart of all believers.19 He would also remove the heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. The Holy Spirit will indwell a person and lead them, guide them, teach them, and convict them.

Inward Work of the New Covenant

In all the covenants God made, He gave them a visible sign. The New Covenant is no different. But, beyond the outward sign, God does an inward work in the New Covenant that the other covenants could never accomplish. Here are some things God does for us.

The born-again experience

In the Old Covenant, nobody could experience being saved or being born again. We have already seen that the Holy Spirit came on people in the Old Covenant. However, they could not receive the Holy Spirit in the manner we do in the New Covenant.

The born-again experience makes us children of God. It is about becoming family, not just joining a fraternity. You belong because you were born not out of your own decision but because God wanted children.20

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name. Who were born not of the will of man or the will of the flesh but of God?

(John 1:12-13)

To be a child of God, you must have the Spirit of God inside you. Jesus promised that He and the Father would come and make their abode in us.21 He promised that the Holy Spirit would indwell us.22

Jesus clearly stated that we must be born of the water and the Spirit. The born-again experience is when you are spiritually birthed into the family of God. This experience has nothing to do with your natural birth. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.23 This new birth is an act of recreation, God creating you as a new person:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

(2 Cor. 5:17)

Paul also explains that part of that new birth is the Holy Spirit living inside of us:

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

(Rom. 8:9)

His Law written on our hearts

Another thing that happens when you get born again is the Holy Spirit writes the Law of God on your heart.

It is a work done by the Holy Spirit. First, God replaces the heart of stone with a heart of flesh. Ezekiel prophesied to Israel about what God will do in the future. We know this points to the New Covenant because His Spirit will be in them.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you;
I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh
and give you a heart of flesh.
I will put My Spirit within you 
and cause you to walk in My statutes,
and you will keep My judgments and do them.

(Ezek. 36:26-27, emphasis mine)

Paul picked up on this new heart promised as part of the New Covenant:

Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? You are our epistle written in our hearts, known, and read by...