As stated previously, the Old Covenant had an inbred, continuous problem–a “fault” that had to be addressed and eradicated.  As Hebrews 8:7,8 notes, the fault was not found in the Law, but in God’s chosen people themselves.  The Law he designed for them was perfect.  The problem had come about when they exercised their power of choice.  Just as had Adam and Eve, their descendants chose to live in opposition to God’s Law-keeping way.  They did not have the inner power to withstand Satan’s pull toward sin.  Therefore mankind, including Abraham’s seed, chose Satan’s wide gate and broad way over God’s strait gate and narrow way (Mat. 7:13,14).  Just as had Lucifer and one-third of the angels, man chose to please himself rather than God.  The result was sin, the wages of which was, is and will continue to be, death.  With rare exception, God’s chosen people did not have a desire for righteousness.  Only a minutely few resisted Satan.  Those who did were given Holy Spirit help.  These were the “holy men of old” who, along with a minutely few followers, served God with all they had (2 Pet. 1:21).  Mankind’s, as well as Israel’s failure was not the fault of the Old Covenant or the Law that had to be obeyed.  As numerous Scriptures tell us, the Law is good, righteous, holy and eternal.  The fault lay within man himself.  The New Covenant was designed to correct the fault.  Adam was created in the physical image and spiritual likeness of God: “And God saw EVERY THING HE HAD MADE and it was VERY GOOD” (Gen. 1:31).  But man, as had Lucifer and the angels, had the power of choice.  Therein lay, and continues to lie, the problem.  God, being just, will always give man the power to direct his own life.

The promise of the New Covenant was that the fault would be addressed.  Man, having the Law written in his heart, would come to desire to obey it.  And having the power of the Holy Spirit within him, man would obey it from the heart/mind as the Prophet Joel had prophesied (2:28).  Under the New Covenant converted man would have the power to obey the Law which would result in righteousness and holiness (Rom. 5:21/6:22) which, if continued unto the end of man’s life, would result in salvation (Mat. 10:22) upon the return of Jesus Christ.  Read Hope and Salvation.  Key word–Hope.

The New Covenant was first offered to the Judahites–the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi–who were nicknamed “Jews” by the King James translators.  Jesus would later send His apostles to “the lost tribes of the house of Israel” who had been scattered among the nations.  At the time the New Covenant came into being the Jews already had the Law.  They simply lacked the desire (will) to obey it and the power to do so.  The other tribes (collectively called “Israel”) had become spiritual Gentiles and had abandoned God’s Law and had adopted the doctrines and practices of the heathen gods of the Gentiles among whom they had lived for generations.  Under the New Covenant God would call them back to Him.  This promise is brought out in Ezekiel 36:16-27 where God promised them that He would forgive their sins and: “… a new heart I will give you, and a new Spirit I will place within you, and I will take away your stony heart and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes (decrees) and you will keep My judgments and do them” (vss 26,27).  In order to live up to what was (and is) required of salvation seekers, they would need the Holy Spirit residing within them.  This power is still available to those who DESIRE TO OBEY HIM.

This desire must come from man himself.  God does not manipulate man’s will.  He reacts to it.  Even Jesus had to voluntarily submit His will to the will of the Father in order to accomplish what He had been sent to earth to do.  On the night before His crucifixion He prayed that the Father might provide another way to accomplish His assigned task.  So dreadful was what lay ahead of Him that “He sweated, as it were, great drops of blood.”  But in the end He said, “… nevertheless, not My will but thine be done” (Lk. 22:42).  Like any other human being, Jesus did not want to undergo the pain and suffering that lay ahead of Him.  His human will was to avoid such treatment.  Nevertheless, He submitted His will to the will of the Father and allowed Himself to be tortured and killed in the most cruel manner imaginable.  But let it be known, He could have backed out of His commitment at any time.  Jesus was 100% man.  Man always has the final say in terms of obedience to God.

Under the New Covenant man must want to obey the Lord at all times and in every way.  Contrary to popular (“Adam made me do it”) opinion, man has the option to obey the Lord as did Jesus of Nazareth.  However, without the power of the Holy Spirit abiding and working from within, man is low hanging fruit in the hands of the devil.  Man does not have it within himself to resist Satan’s temptations.  As Jesus told the disciples following His resurrection, they had the Holy Spirit WITH them, but not IN them.  It was for this reason that He told them to go to Jerusalem and “… wait for the promise of the Father” before they did anything on His behalf (Acts 1:4,5).  Until they received “the promise” internally they had only their own inner powers to work with.  Because their personal powers could not compete with Satan, Jesus told them to go to Jerusalem and wait for “the promise.”

Contrary to popular opinion, “the promise of the Father” was (is) not the promise of salvation, but rather the promise of the Holy Spirit which would enable them to resist Satan and to walk in the holiness required to qualify for salvation.  Under the New Covenant, salvation was not promised those who seek it.  Rather, the power to obey God’s Law and thereby EARN salvation was promised to those who believed what God said.  That promise is still in force today.  True sons of God are those, and only those, who are led (and empowered) by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:14) to obey the “holy, just and good” Law (Rom. 7:12).  In Romans 2:14 the Apostle Paul tells the people to be doers (workers) of the Law and not hearers only, thereby deceiving themselves.  In Romans 15:8 Paul tells us that Jesus came to confirm the promises made to the Israelite fathers.  The most important of those promises was the “gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).  This gift is voluntarily received by those who desire to please the Lord, who are determined to “walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh” (Rom. 8:1,4).  Those who walk in the flesh are God’s enemies (Rom. 5:10).  By receiving God’s Holy Spirit one has “… power over all the power of the enemy” (Satan)–Lk. 10:19.  As Paul states, it is only by walking in obedience to the Holy Spirit that we can please God.  We can please Him only by manifesting the righteousness that is required of us.  Such righteousness can only be manifested by obedience to (walking in the power of ) the Holy Spirit.  The true sons of God do this (8:14), making them true children of the most High (16).  Righteousness is the opposite of sin.  Sin is the transgression of the Law (1 Jn. 3:4).  Obedience to the Law=righteousness.  Obedience to the Law constitutes spiritual WORKS.  Faith without such WORKS is dead faith.  Read James chapter two.

How many times have I heard a churchite say, “You can’t obey the Law.”  Incredibly, the masses of church people believe such Satanic voices rather than the “voice” of God coming from the Holy Bible through His servant.  I was rejected as God’s minister by a group of people who had been “waiting for God to send them a leader.”  They declared me to be that leader.  Until, that is, I voiced my faith in the ENTIRE Word of God.  There were a few Scriptures they could not accept.  Why?  Because a woman in their group could not accept them.  These people, numbering about two dozen, chose to follow a woman who called God a liar.  Never underestimate the power of Satan over those in “the church,” which is in reality his church.  L.J.