Comments Re. A Beautiful Stumbling

(I received many comments (some via email) in response to last week's LifeNote, "A Beautiful Stumbling." One of those I want to include here, as well as my response. If you would like to weigh in on all this, you may post a comment or email me.)

The comment: I don’t know whether to be mad or scared at these kinds of things. How many times have we seen exclamations like these in newspapers from people “hearing” from God, saying the world is coming to an end on a certain date? Part of me throws this from Wilkerson in that bunch, but. . .

My response: Well, all I can say is what I said in my last LifeNote, A Beautiful Stumbling. Could I be wrong? Yes. Further, I am trying to factor out past doom-sayings that might have caused me to be instantly skeptical and, therefore, unable to discern properly.

I don't know a lot about David Wilkerson, but I respect him.

However, I have learned that, in addition to me, we're not infallible, no one is 100% correct when predicting the future or giving their opinion about what God is doing or is about to do. That makes it tough on us. We want to know what's going to happen. We bet our lives on it.

So that 's why I went biblical, particularly New Covenant, since it tells us what God is doing now regarding sin, not what He might have done during the former covenant. Because of Jesus, things simply are not the same now. For example, whereas sin and disobedience and lots of things used to separate us from God, nothing does now.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:38,39)

It is my experience that many of us discount the difference between the covenants, particularly what Jesus accomplished on the cross and through the resurrection. This age, where the sins of the whole world are on Christ with whom the covenant was made, differs from the previous age when our sins were upon ourselves. In that age, God's covenant was dependent upon individuals, and how each one performed. In this age, God's covenant is dependent upon Christ because God made His agreement with Him, not with us. Because we are now in Christ, our sin has been judged already at the cross, and we have been seated with Him in the heavenly realms.

None of this was true under the former covenant. That's why I often use the term "Covenant" instead of "Testament," since it more clearly distinguishes the word and meaning.

Anyway, good comment. I will be writing more about this.

-Ralph