Jesus Christ is my God!
Issued 18.04.2007
Holy Covenant
Many only abuse God's love and don't want to live in a covenant with Him. Force your way through deceptions into the spring of God's power and enter the Holy Covenant with Him - to be faithful to the One and Only.
Call to the Holy Covenant
The message about the crucified and up risen Son of God is God's call to the Holy Covenant. He wants to enter into the covenant with you. He proved His love for you when He gave Jesus to suffer your punishment. He is waiting for your personal response to His love.
He accepts only a holy covenant. If you want to receive His love and at the same time to remain loving your idols, you try to enter into an unholy covenant with Him. This kind of unfaithfulness is seen in the relationship of a man and a woman. Many willingly receive love which someone gives, but they don't want to enter a covenant remaining faithful to one only.
Hearing the gospel gives you faith, but for what purpose are you using it? Many have lost the faith they got because they have not used it for entering into the covenant. After you tasted God's love you might have warmed to Him so that you received Jesus as the Saviour in your troubles and as the Redeemer who sets you free from your sins. Did you abandon your love of idols at the same time? Many have not done it, but want to be "loved by all gods".
Accordingly a girl may warm to a proposal of a man and accept him, but at the same time she maintains her relationships with other men, who also have proved their love for her. Your desire to be "loved by all" can make you a harlot.
Spouses who are faithful to each other live in a holy marriage. They belong to each other. In the same way Jesus and those who belong to Him are faithful to each other. If a believer worships something else than Jesus, he has offended against the Holy Covenant. "The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant." Isa.24:5
The message about the crucified and up risen Son of God is God's call to the Holy Covenant. He wants to enter into the covenant with you. He proved His love for you when He gave Jesus to suffer your punishment. He is waiting for your personal response to His love.
He accepts only a holy covenant. If you want to receive His love and at the same time to remain loving your idols, you try to enter into an unholy covenant with Him. This kind of unfaithfulness is seen in the relationship of a man and a woman. Many willingly receive love which someone gives, but they don't want to enter a covenant remaining faithful to one only.
Hearing the gospel gives you faith, but for what purpose are you using it? Many have lost the faith they got because they have not used it for entering into the covenant. After you tasted God's love you might have warmed to Him so that you received Jesus as the Saviour in your troubles and as the Redeemer who sets you free from your sins. Did you abandon your love of idols at the same time? Many have not done it, but want to be "loved by all gods".
Accordingly a girl may warm to a proposal of a man and accept him, but at the same time she maintains her relationships with other men, who also have proved their love for her. Your desire to be "loved by all" can make you a harlot.
Spouses who are faithful to each other live in a holy marriage. They belong to each other. In the same way Jesus and those who belong to Him are faithful to each other. If a believer worships something else than Jesus, he has offended against the Holy Covenant. "The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant." Isa.24:5
A gospel calling to community faith
Much have been done so that nobody would experience the gospel as a personal call of God. The message about Jesus appears in a church service as a part of a liturgy, a ceremony or a rite. In this way the gospel is used as a call to the fellowship of the church.
When the message is told in a ceremony form of a service, listeners are led to receive the gospel as a community faith. Then the gospel itself needs not touch their inmost being, because a devout atmosphere touches them instead of it. In this way they accept the gospel in theory, but they don't experience its power. A devout ceremony produces a community faith that invalidates the gospel.
Some communities say they evangelize with the Holy Communion. That kind of activity delivers God's call to all people without calling them to give any personal response. This wine has been given all nations to drink. The world has been filled with the message of God's love, but in such a way that it doesn't produce requited love towards God. Instead that only makes people abuse it. This is said in the Bible:
"For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her." Re.18:3
Through the ages rulers have persuaded Christians to do wickedly against the Holy Covenant by becoming the worshippers of the state idol. Lust for power is a temptation that has transformed many God's men into servants of the devil. The government and patriotism have been idols which many Christian leaders have not wanted to forsake. Their own unfaithfulness has caused them to give others the same unfaithfulness to drink.
Do not drink "the wine of the wrath". Do not participate in a Communion that is fornication in the eyes of God. Don't allow yourself to get confused by hearing the gospel there. The wrath of God will one day appear from heaven against those who suppress the truth of the gospel with the power of injustice.
Although God made the Old Covenant with one nation, He makes the New Covenant with individuals. When Jesus gave the command to make disciples of all nations, He commanded to make them of individuals of all nations.
He doesn't make the New Covenant with any nation, because only an individual is able to agree with the terms of this covenant. The New Covenant is too holy to be established with a nation, because it is sealed with the blood of the Son of God. It must touch the heart of a person, into its bottom.
As it is true that the body of the Son of God has been broken into pieces for our sake like a broken bread, in the same way it is true that the New Covenant is made with individuals, who become partakers of Jesus.
Much have been done so that nobody would experience the gospel as a personal call of God. The message about Jesus appears in a church service as a part of a liturgy, a ceremony or a rite. In this way the gospel is used as a call to the fellowship of the church.
When the message is told in a ceremony form of a service, listeners are led to receive the gospel as a community faith. Then the gospel itself needs not touch their inmost being, because a devout atmosphere touches them instead of it. In this way they accept the gospel in theory, but they don't experience its power. A devout ceremony produces a community faith that invalidates the gospel.
Some communities say they evangelize with the Holy Communion. That kind of activity delivers God's call to all people without calling them to give any personal response. This wine has been given all nations to drink. The world has been filled with the message of God's love, but in such a way that it doesn't produce requited love towards God. Instead that only makes people abuse it. This is said in the Bible:
"For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her." Re.18:3
Through the ages rulers have persuaded Christians to do wickedly against the Holy Covenant by becoming the worshippers of the state idol. Lust for power is a temptation that has transformed many God's men into servants of the devil. The government and patriotism have been idols which many Christian leaders have not wanted to forsake. Their own unfaithfulness has caused them to give others the same unfaithfulness to drink.
Do not drink "the wine of the wrath". Do not participate in a Communion that is fornication in the eyes of God. Don't allow yourself to get confused by hearing the gospel there. The wrath of God will one day appear from heaven against those who suppress the truth of the gospel with the power of injustice.
Although God made the Old Covenant with one nation, He makes the New Covenant with individuals. When Jesus gave the command to make disciples of all nations, He commanded to make them of individuals of all nations.
He doesn't make the New Covenant with any nation, because only an individual is able to agree with the terms of this covenant. The New Covenant is too holy to be established with a nation, because it is sealed with the blood of the Son of God. It must touch the heart of a person, into its bottom.
As it is true that the body of the Son of God has been broken into pieces for our sake like a broken bread, in the same way it is true that the New Covenant is made with individuals, who become partakers of Jesus.
A gospel calling to unfaithfulness
If the invalidating of the personal call of the gospel doesn't work with some persons, much has been done also in this case so that the personal experience would not lead to the Holy Covenant with God. The response of a person is wanted to happen on the altar of a church so that it would not be too personal.
Many emphasize the importance of the personal decision and proclaim the gospel as the call to the fellowship with God. However they are not "engaging" their listeners "to the One and Only" unlike Paul.
"For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." 2Co.11:2
While preaching the gospel they say that you need forsake nothing when you become a believer. It is the same as if a man when proposing to a girl would say that you need not forsake your other boyfriends when becoming his own.
If they trusted Jesus' ability to conquer hearts, they would proclaim only Him and not themselves. If Jesus doesn't influence a person and conquer him, we have no right to persuade anyone to become His own.
Woe to the community of the unfaithful, backsliders who have got drunken on God's love! I hope they would become sober and dispel their drunkenness by forsaking their idols. Woe to the fishers of souls who try to decoy souls to the Kingdom of God with a fraud! If they followed Jesus, He would make them become fishers of men who draw their fellowmen up from the restless sea of nations using the net of truth.
If the invalidating of the personal call of the gospel doesn't work with some persons, much has been done also in this case so that the personal experience would not lead to the Holy Covenant with God. The response of a person is wanted to happen on the altar of a church so that it would not be too personal.
Many emphasize the importance of the personal decision and proclaim the gospel as the call to the fellowship with God. However they are not "engaging" their listeners "to the One and Only" unlike Paul.
"For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." 2Co.11:2
While preaching the gospel they say that you need forsake nothing when you become a believer. It is the same as if a man when proposing to a girl would say that you need not forsake your other boyfriends when becoming his own.
If they trusted Jesus' ability to conquer hearts, they would proclaim only Him and not themselves. If Jesus doesn't influence a person and conquer him, we have no right to persuade anyone to become His own.
Woe to the community of the unfaithful, backsliders who have got drunken on God's love! I hope they would become sober and dispel their drunkenness by forsaking their idols. Woe to the fishers of souls who try to decoy souls to the Kingdom of God with a fraud! If they followed Jesus, He would make them become fishers of men who draw their fellowmen up from the restless sea of nations using the net of truth.
Be saved from the unfaithfulness you were given to drink
God is always calling an individual. Although one million or only two persons would listen to the same speech of the gospel they cannot receive it together with a common decision. Because the call is private the response also must be private. Jesus says: "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me." Joh.6:37,44-45
Coming to Jesus is not a public thing. Instead following Him is a public issue. When you want to make a covenant with God, don't do it in public. Announce the covenant after you have experienced that it has become effective.
God wants that you "come to the front" to the altar of your heart in secret by people and so only He sees it. It is not enough to God that you dare to come to the altar of a church while the crowd is watching at you. He wants your heart's response to His great sacrifice.
It is a right thing to confess Jesus publicly after getting into the Holy Covenant. Do not go to the front in a church aiming to come to faith, but go home and close the door and be alone there and make the Covenant with God. Of course your heart can make the Covenant with God anywhere, even among a crowd, but don't seek God's confirmation to your covenant publicly.
When you are approaching God on the faith of the Gospel you live the most important moment of your life. The content of that moment has crucial effect on your later progress in the way of God. A church choir swelling around you and the prayers of a preacher may give you so impressive experience that you therefore believed you were born again from above. Because your experience didn't come from the power of the gospel but from the power of the ceremony, it deceived you. At the same time the ceremony might suppress a quiet voice of the Holy Spirit which would have given you the genuine experience of the salvation.
After praying to God privately you may first experience that nothing happened. However if you don't give up but continue your life thanking God for the gospel, He soon replies you and confirms His Covenant with you. It may happen wherever and whenever.
Pray according to the gospel and let God do His work in your heart. Then your faith is based on God's response you received for the sake of the gospel. You can ask believers to pray for you but reject their "priestly ceremonies". Also do not pray any prayer that others put into your mouth. A sinner's prayer must come out from you voluntarily and genuinely.
A good and brilliant speech of the gospel can charm you so much that you rather reply to the call of the speaker than to the call of God. An impressive meeting drives you easily to commit a covenant with that excellent Christian community as if with God.
God is always calling an individual. Although one million or only two persons would listen to the same speech of the gospel they cannot receive it together with a common decision. Because the call is private the response also must be private. Jesus says: "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me." Joh.6:37,44-45
Coming to Jesus is not a public thing. Instead following Him is a public issue. When you want to make a covenant with God, don't do it in public. Announce the covenant after you have experienced that it has become effective.
God wants that you "come to the front" to the altar of your heart in secret by people and so only He sees it. It is not enough to God that you dare to come to the altar of a church while the crowd is watching at you. He wants your heart's response to His great sacrifice.
It is a right thing to confess Jesus publicly after getting into the Holy Covenant. Do not go to the front in a church aiming to come to faith, but go home and close the door and be alone there and make the Covenant with God. Of course your heart can make the Covenant with God anywhere, even among a crowd, but don't seek God's confirmation to your covenant publicly.
When you are approaching God on the faith of the Gospel you live the most important moment of your life. The content of that moment has crucial effect on your later progress in the way of God. A church choir swelling around you and the prayers of a preacher may give you so impressive experience that you therefore believed you were born again from above. Because your experience didn't come from the power of the gospel but from the power of the ceremony, it deceived you. At the same time the ceremony might suppress a quiet voice of the Holy Spirit which would have given you the genuine experience of the salvation.
After praying to God privately you may first experience that nothing happened. However if you don't give up but continue your life thanking God for the gospel, He soon replies you and confirms His Covenant with you. It may happen wherever and whenever.
Pray according to the gospel and let God do His work in your heart. Then your faith is based on God's response you received for the sake of the gospel. You can ask believers to pray for you but reject their "priestly ceremonies". Also do not pray any prayer that others put into your mouth. A sinner's prayer must come out from you voluntarily and genuinely.
A good and brilliant speech of the gospel can charm you so much that you rather reply to the call of the speaker than to the call of God. An impressive meeting drives you easily to commit a covenant with that excellent Christian community as if with God.
Foundation of the Holy Covenant
The message of the cross of Christ can become insignificant in the mind of a listener due to many reasons. Paul knew that a human rhetoric can destroy the effect of the gospel: "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1Co.1:17-18
Notice that Paul means by the invalidation of the message the situation where a listener of the gospel is impressed by another thing than the cross of Jesus.
"My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." 1Co.2:4-5
The message about the death and the resurrection of Jesus is the power of God, but it has an effect in you only if you have internalized it personally. We can enter into the Covenant with God only and exclusively because He loved us in the sacrifice of Golgotha. Whatever it is that makes the message of the cross of Christ less significant for you, it prevents you to be saved.
Now examine your heart and recognize what you have answered God based on what He did for you on Golgotha. Forget all your other spiritual experiences and your decisions and your altar events. If the death and the resurrection of Jesus have not yet been allowed to lead you to the Holy Covenant with God, you can experience it today.
The message of the cross of Christ can become insignificant in the mind of a listener due to many reasons. Paul knew that a human rhetoric can destroy the effect of the gospel: "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1Co.1:17-18
Notice that Paul means by the invalidation of the message the situation where a listener of the gospel is impressed by another thing than the cross of Jesus.
"My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." 1Co.2:4-5
The message about the death and the resurrection of Jesus is the power of God, but it has an effect in you only if you have internalized it personally. We can enter into the Covenant with God only and exclusively because He loved us in the sacrifice of Golgotha. Whatever it is that makes the message of the cross of Christ less significant for you, it prevents you to be saved.
Now examine your heart and recognize what you have answered God based on what He did for you on Golgotha. Forget all your other spiritual experiences and your decisions and your altar events. If the death and the resurrection of Jesus have not yet been allowed to lead you to the Holy Covenant with God, you can experience it today.
The Bible version used in references is NIV