The New Covenant succeeds, or arises from and out of, God’s old covenant with Abram (who God later renamed Abraham). In this article we will see that the Old Covenant was a covenant of flesh. God first established the covenant with Abram in Genesis 15. The word translated “covenant” is the Hebrew word ber-eeth’ which means “an agreement or contract made by passing between pieces of flesh.” Here is the Genesis 15 account.

After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

² And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?

³ And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.

⁴ And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.

⁵ And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.

⁶ And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

⁷ And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.

⁸ And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?

⁹ And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.

¹⁰ And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.

¹¹ And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.

¹² And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.

¹³ And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

¹⁴ And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

¹⁵ And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

¹⁶ But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

¹⁷ And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces [pieces of flesh].

¹⁸ In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates…. (Genesis 15:1-18)

About fifteen years later, after Abraham had attempted to establish the covenant in his own flesh and procreated Ishmael (who became the perpetual thorn in the flesh of the spiritual man), God renewed the covenant.

And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

² And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. (Genesis 17:1-2)

Here God reveals his ultimate goal regarding his covenants with man, that he would walk before him in perfection just as he himself is perfect. But, men had many lessons to learn before this could ever become reality. Thus the LORD continued explaining to to Abram, saying,

⁴ As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.

⁵ Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.

⁶ And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

⁷ And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

⁸ And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

⁹ And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.

¹⁰ This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

¹¹ And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

¹² And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.

¹³ He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

¹⁴ And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

¹⁵ And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.

¹⁶ And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.

¹⁷ Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

¹⁸ And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!

¹⁹ And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.

²⁰ And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.

²¹ But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. (Genesis 17:4-21)

Here once again we see that God established his old covenant by the cutting of flesh. In order to remain under the Old Covenant every Israelite male child had to be cut in his flesh, he had to be circumcised. If he was not so cut, then his “soul” would be “cut off from his people.” By this we see that the Old Covenant was a covenant of flesh. Paul’s teachings make it very clear that no one will ever be perfected in their flesh, and yet “perfect” is exactly what God called Abraham to be. Paul says, “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3) The obvious answer here is, “No, we cannot be made perfect by our flesh.” Also, remember that the book of Galatians deals almost exclusively with the Christian heresy of Paul’s time which demanded that Christians become circumcised in order to be saved, in order to be true Christians. By this Paul was showing the distinction between the Old and the New Covenants. The Old was a covenant of flesh, the New a covenant of spirit.

Regarding our flesh Paul also says, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” (Romans 7:18) Concerning this distinction between flesh and spirit Jesus says, “It is the spirit that quickeneth [gives life];  the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63) Clearly both Jesus and Paul think very little of man’s ability to please God by his own fleshly efforts. God revealed his standards of right conduct in his old covenant laws, but both Jesus and Paul affirm that man cannot perfectly obey those laws. Thus we see that the old covenant of flesh was destined to fail because man in and by his flesh could never walk in the perfection which God requires. Men required something more than the laying down of right precepts in order to please God. They needed to eat God’s body and drink his blood, said Jesus. They needed the very life of God himself. This is why God himself came in the flesh and established a new covenant. Once again a covenant was established through torn flesh, but this time the flesh was God’s own flesh, and it resulted in tearing the veil that separated God from man and allowed man to enter into God’s spiritual presence.

Passover itself is eternally bonded to the Feast of Unleavened Bread which begins on the day the Passover lamb is eaten according to the Scripture,  

⁴ “These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. ⁵ In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight,^[a] is the Lord’s Passover. ⁶ And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.⁷ On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.⁸ But you shall present a food offering to the Lord for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.” (Leviticus 23:4-8 ESV)

The LORD commanded that the Passover lamb be eaten on the night when the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins.

“They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.” (Exodus 12:8-11 ESV)

Israel slaughtered their Passover lambs on Nisan 14 “between the two evenings.” Then each family roasted its lamb and ate it after dusk in the “night.” Since Israel’s days begin at dusk this means that they ate their Passover Lamb on Nisan 15. God gave Israel detailed instructions concerning Israel’s eating of the Passover lamb. Each detail looks forward to particular spiritual realities which we should understand and apply to our lives. We will examine the requirement for using unleavened bread in this article, but first is a brief summary of the specific requirements for keeping Passover.

1. The lamb had to be eaten on the night of Nisan 15
2. It had to be roasted on the fire, not boiled in water or eaten raw;
3. It had to be eaten with unleavened bread, not leavened bread;
4. It had to be eaten with bitter herbs;
5. It was to be roasted whole, with its head, legs, and inner parts. In Exodus 12:46 we learn that none of the lamb’s bone could be broken;
6. No flesh of the lamb could be left until the morning of Nisan 15. Anything left over was to be burned with fire;
7. Each Israelite was to eat his lamb with his “loins girded”;
8. Each Israelite must eat with shoes on this feet;
9. Each Israelite must eat with a rod in his hand;
10. Each Israelite was to eat in haste;
11. No foreigners could eat of the Passover lamb (Ex. 12:43-45)
12. The lamb had to be eaten in one house and none of its flesh could be taken outside of that house (Ex. 12:46)
13. Every member of the nation of Israel was to eat the lamb (Ex. 12:47)
14. Besides women, only a male who had been circumcised could eat it. Strangers who sojourned with Israel who were circumcised could also eat it (Ex. 12:48)

Every one of these strict commands looked forward to their prophetic fulfillment in Jesus Christ and the people who believe in him. First we will consider why God required that Israel eat the Passover lamb with unleavened bread.

Jesus himself taught his disciples concerning leaven. One occasion occurred just after miraculously multiplying loaves of bread.

⁵ When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. ⁶ Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” ⁷ And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” ⁸ But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? ⁹ Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? ¹⁰ Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? ¹¹ How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”¹² Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but ofthe teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. (Matthew 16:5-12)

So, Jesus revealed here that leaven in bread prophetically spoke of false teaching, false doctrine. In the following passage from Luke we see that it also speaks of hypocrisy.

12 In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. ² Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. ³ Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops. (Luke 12:1-3)

Remember Paul’s admonition, “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Cor. 5:7-8 ESV)

Now we should be able to understand the prophetic meaning of leaven in Scripture. Jesus and the apostles use the word to describe the carnal, sinful attributes and condition of mankind. Man is a malicious, evil hypocrite who teaches false doctrine to his fellow man. He treats his brothers wrongfully, he justifies his evil actions, and he leads his brothers into companion pits of hell with his errant teachings. On the other hand, says Paul, we must repudiate our carnal malice and evil and become like Christ, full of sincerity and truth.

Okay, so then what did Jesus mean when he said, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.” (Matthew 13:33) Well, I had to ask the prophetess (my wife) this morning before I understood. Does it not seem that Jesus says exactly the opposite of what the other Scriptures teach concerning leaven in this short parable. Yes, in the natural it does. And this is why Jesus spoke in parables, to obscure the truth. Only those who diligently seek him can ever understand his words or his ways.

Do you realize that you and each of us live in a fully leavened, carnal body of flesh? We each have a sinful nature that remains with us until God glorifies us. Those who belong to Christ, who yearn to be part of his Kingdom, all share in this current state of being. But only the overcomers realize it and only the overcomers mourn over their sinful condition and long to become unleavened like their LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. The overcomers are the first (first fruits) to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven because they are the first to understand, acknowledge, and repent of their leavened, sinful condition. Thus they become the first to enter into an “unleavened” state of being, a sinless perfection like Christ.

The overcomers will be resurrected (some will still be alive) and glorified at the end of the two thousand year period from the natural life of Jesus. They will then rule with a rod of iron (God’s Law) over the entire planet earth for a thousand years. During that time they will teach the world’s inhabitants the truth about their carnal natures thus bringing to fulfillment Jesus’ parable above. All of mankind who will ever enter into the Kingdom of Heaven will by the time of the end of these three thousand years (three loaves = 3,000 years) and at the White Throne Judgment acknowledge their sinful, leavened condition and seek Christ’s forgiveness with humility. Thus we can see leaven as representing a type of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Men must ultimately realize the difference between good and evil and learn to choose the good voluntarily. We must all learn we are “leavened,” come to mourn this condition, and desire to become unleavened like our Passover lamb. It will take 3,000 years from Jesus’ life to accomplish this.

As a parable, then, eating unleavened bread with the Passover lamb pictured all of this.

A further application of the principle of applying the lamb’s blood at Passover is found in the Book of Deuteronomy.

Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth. For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him. (Deuteronomy 11:18-22 KJV)

Notice that God commanded his people to write his words upon the door posts of their house, door posts which would have been smeared with the Passover lamb’s blood. John tells us that Jesus himself is the Word of God who was made flesh and dwelt among us. Paul calls Jesus our Passover, so of course, the lamb’s blood represents Jesus’ blood. Now recall Jesus’ testimony when he revealed that he was the bread of life. He said in part,

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” (John 6:53-58, ESV)

Returning to the Feast of Passover now, first the people of Israel applied the lamb’s blood, representing Jesus, to the door posts of their houses. Later they wrote Jesus’ words upon their homes. These actions symbolically and prophetically represent spiritual salvation through the blood of Jesus, which reconciles us to God, and then soul salvation by eating Christ’s blood (applying Jesus’ words to our lives) which brings us into the full status of being a son of God.

Now recall what Peter says concerning us, “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5 KJV) And consider what Hebrews says concerning this:

Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) (Hebrews 3:1-11 KJV)

The passages directly above thus show us that even the houses in ancient Israel prophetically pointed to each of us individual believers in God (Jesus Christ). We become believers when we believe that Jesus died for our sins and shed his blood for our reconciliation with God. We eat his blood (spiritually) when we eat his words, when we assimilate his words into our lives and make them part of us. This is a progressive salvation. It begins in our “most holy place,” our spirits, and moves outward to what is supposed to become our “holy place,” our souls. The final, or third salvation, is the salvation of our bodies which occurs at our glorification, our resurrection from the dead. This can only occur after we each achieve the second salvation (the one of which Paul says, “work out your salvation in fear and trembling”). Jesus Christ has already effected the first salvation, but most people remain in the prison of their unbelief and cannot begin to walk the path of “becoming” a son of God yet.

God guarantees all men the salvation of their spirits, although few have understood this presently. Consider the following verse which I believe irrefutably proves this. “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Cor. 15:22) Clearly it is the same “all” who die in Adam who shall be made alive in Christ. It makes no sense to say that this refers to two different groups of people or to say that Paul really meant to add the words “who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior” after the second use of the word. (What exactly was it that God said would happen to people who added to Scripture? Look it up if you can’t remember!)

Now look at a couple obscure verses from the Gospel of John. Just before Jesus’ betrayal he said, “While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” (John 12:36) In the beginning of his book John said, “to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.“ (John 1:12) Both Jesus and John make the point that believing in Jesus as Savior is only the beginning. That is the step that everyone must take before he can even begin to walk on the path to “becoming” a son of God.

So, if believing in Jesus as Savior (putting the lamb’s blood on our door posts) only gives us the initial right to become a son of God, what must we do make it a reality? We must also “drink” that blood… we must write his word on our door posts as well.

O foolish [Christians], who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been openly set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received you the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? (Galatians 3:1-3 KJ2000)

A prophetess recently received a word from God that we are now “in the end game.” This phrase specifically speaks about the ending moves of the classic strategy game called chess. God has made it clear through this prophetess and others with prophetic gifting that he intends to establish his kingdom soon. Part of this prophetic word concerns examining ourselves to be sure that we are currently living lives of obedience and faith to God. Another word tells us to rest in God right now until he does a new greater work in us which will empower us to build the kingdom with him.

If we do not know and understand God well we may become fearful and anxious, instead of restful, during this time. On the other hand we could also “rest” carnally and fall into gross sin. As in all things relating to God and his Word we must walk the narrow path, which means we must keep our balance and not fall off of it. We may become fearful and anxious because we perceive, and rightly so, that we are still not good enough in God’s sight. Every one of us, if honest with himself, can point to something in his life that is not perfect. I can beat myself up, I can try to keep myself from everything that might not be the best for me, but ultimately I still cannot be good enough to satisfy the perfection of God. And so Paul says, “O foolish Christians, who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been openly set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received you the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?”

So, given the imminence of the change of time, the literal coming of God’s kingdom, do we now expect to perfect ourselves by the flesh before that instant gets here? I don’t think so. But, neither do I believe that I have a license to go out and sin so that grace may abound unto me. I cannot obey the written word in perfection by the power of my flesh, but I can obey God according to the faith that he gives me. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God,” says the Scripture. I can pray that God will open my ears to hear and my eyes to see his truth. I can pray that he then gives me faith to obey the truth he shows me.

I will close this post by quoting certain passages from the book of Romans as interpreted by J. B. Phillips. This morning the Holy Spirit quietly whispered the title of today’s post to me, and I knew this was a Scripture I had read somewhere. I could only find one translation, the New International Version, which rendered Roman 1:5 and 16:26 this way, and I have not read that version for over fourteen years. But as I searched for this verse I also found J. B. Phillips’ translation. I find his insight amazing and very helpful in understanding this whole idea.

Romans 1:3-6
The Gospel is centred in God’s Son, a descendant of David by human genealogy and patently marked out as the Son of God by the power of that Spirit of holiness which raised him to life again from the dead. He is our Lord, Jesus Christ, from whom we received grace and our commission in his name to forward obedience to the faith in all nations. And of this great number you at Rome are also called to belong to him.

Romans 4:13-14
[ The promise, from the beginning, was made to faith ] The ancient promise made to Abraham and his descendants, that they should eventually possess the world, was given not because of any achievements made through obedience to the Law, but because of the righteousness which had its root in faith. For if, after all, they who pin their faith to keeping the Law were to inherit God’s world, it would make nonsense of faith in God himself, and destroy the whole point of the promise.

Romans 16:25-27
Now to him who is able to set you on your feet as his own sons—according to my Gospel, according to the preaching of Jesus Christ himself, and in accordance with the disclosing of that secret purpose which, after long ages of silence, has now been made known (in full agreement with the writings of the prophets long ago), by the command of the everlasting God to all the Gentiles, that they might turn to him in the obedience of faith—to him, I say, the only God who is wise, be glory for ever through Jesus Christ! PAUL

Galatians 2:15-21
And then I went on to explain that we, who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, know that a man is justified not by performing what the Law commands but by faith in Jesus Christ. We ourselves are justified by our faith and not by our obedience to the Law, for we have recognised that no one can achieve justification by doing the “works of the Law”. Now if, as we seek the real truth about justification, we find we are as much sinners as the Gentiles, does that mean that Christ makes us sinners? Of course not! But if I attempt to build again the whole structure of justification by the Law then I do, in earnest, make myself a sinner. For under the Law I “died”, and now I am dead to the Law’s demands so that I may live for God. As far as the Law is concerned I may consider that I died on the cross with Christ. And my present life is not that of the old “I”, but the living Christ within me. The bodily life I now live, I live believing in the Son of God, who loved me and sacrificed himself for me. Consequently I refuse to stultify the grace of God by reverting to the Law. For if righteousness were possible under the Law then Christ died for nothing!

Therefore I choose the obedience that comes by faith and by reliance upon the Holy Spirit of God rather than the obedience that derives from the power of my flesh. But, make no mistake, I choose obedience, not disobedience and rebellion to the commands of God!

² Let me ask you only this: ^(A)Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by ^(B)hearing with faith? ³ Are you so foolish?^(C)Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by^[a]the flesh? ^4 (D)Did you suffer^[b] so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? (Gal. 3:2-4, ESV)

With respect to our final approval or disapproval by God can it get any simpler than this statement by Paul? Who is responsible for your initial faith and thus for your salvation in Jesus Christ? You or God? If you believe that you are a great person who because of your greatness sought out and believed upon Jesus all on your own, then you might believe that your salvation rests upon your own shoulders. But, I doubt that many of you think that. I know that I can still look back thirty-five years to a young man barely twenty-one years old who was about to cast everything away for a life of sin when I began to feel a longing inside for “truth.” Shortly thereafter God put the “New English Bible” in my path along with the thought, “I have always heard that the truth is in this book. Why don’t I just buy this, read it, and see if it is.” Within three months, and in a story I have told before, God revealed to me that he wrote the Bible and that indeed the truth did reside in that book. He further showed me that his truth had a name and that his name was Jesus Christ. I then believed in Jesus, determined that I had better start doing what he said, and was baptized in water as I made that confession of faith.

During those three months while I first read the Scriptures God’s Spirit slowly, but surely, convicted me of sin. I was not convicting myself; my flesh did not say, “Flesh, you are bad and sinful.” No, the LORD began to say through his word, “The things you are doing in your flesh are bad and you need to stop doing those things and obey me instead.” When I finally realized that Jesus was in fact the God of the Bible, when I came to faith in him, suddenly I had both the conviction that my sinful behavior was wrong and the power to stop doing those things. Those two things did not come through my flesh, they came by the Spirit of God. Thus I received the Spirit of God by “hearing with faith.” The first time that I “heard with faith” was when I realized by reading the Bible that God wrote the Bible (through men). Simultaneously, as I came to this understanding, God spoke to me in a voice which seemed audible (yet I believe it was within me), “That’s right, Glenn, and I want you to teach my word.” Since then, the spring of 1977, it has been a struggle to understand and follow the leading of the Spirit versus the leading of my own flesh.

At this time in our spiritual journey the LORD communicates to us through our “flesh,” through our minds (souls) which are housed in these temporary bodies of dust. We also each possess a spirit and if we have believed in Jesus Christ as our LORD and Savior, then our own particular spirit has been “quickened” or “born again.” This occurs when we first hear the Word with faith. If we do not believe in Jesus then our spirit remains dead. This is what Jesus meant when he spoke to Nicodemus.

3 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named ^(A)Nicodemus, a ^(B)ruler of the Jews; ² this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “^(C)Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these ^[a](D)signs that You do unless ^(E)God is with him.” ³ Jesus answered and said to him,“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one ^(F)is born ^[b]again he cannot see ^(G)the kingdom of God.”