UNDERSTANDING BEING IN CHRIST

By J W Luman

Part 1 – TWO COVENANTS

We will be looking at some specifics regarding our BEING IN CHRIST. We want to talk not just about the scriptural fact that you are in Christ; not just the positional belief; but the reality. What does it mean to you to "be in Christ"? There is a time when you and I were NOT in Christ. Ephesians 2:11. Paul here is speaking to the Gentiles in this letter, but he includes both Jew and Gentile in what he’s saying here. "Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past…" What is "time past"? Historically and spiritually, what is "time past"? Time past is TIME BEFORE THE CROSS. That’s a scriptural truth. It is the time of the Old Covenant. We must understand that in order to understand your Bible, we must see that the Bible is made up and divided by two Covenants – the Old Covenant and the New Covenant; what is called the First Covenant and the Second Covenant. It is also called in your Bible the flesh and the Spirit; the letter and the Spirit; the Law and Christ. But the Law involved more than the Ten Commandments: the Law is all the statutes, ceremonial offerings, priesthood etc. There are two Covenants. Everything in your Bible – and there are NO exceptions to this: everything that is promised, prophesied; everything that is in type and shadow; everything that is said in people and places and things – EVERYTHING that is presented in the scripture is presented in light, in association, in relationship to one of those Covenants; and is defined by one of those Covenants.

For instance: the old heaven and the old earth is a heaven and an earth of the Old Covenant. It is the scriptural order of the Old Covenant. The new heaven and the new earth – that’s not when planets disappear and God creates new planets! It has nothing to do with planets. The new heaven and new earth are found IN CHRIST, because the New Covenant is IN CHRIST. He is the mediator, that is, He is the Living Word of the New Covenant. Now, what is a Covenant? A Covenant is an understanding; it is an understanding given of God. There can be a Covenant between men too, but in the Scriptures, the Old and New Covenant is an understanding given of God. And THE CROSS is what divides the Old Covenant from the New – not time. Times evolve, but time doesn’t determine anything. The Cross determined all time. Who determined the Cross? God determined the Cross. "In the fulness of time… He sent forth His Son to redeem them that were under the Law." God determined that.

But the Cross divides the Old Covenant from the New Covenant. That’s the dividing factor. The Cross is Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. If we could only get a hold of this – it would revolutionize your whole life! It would revolutionize your theology; it would completely renew and renovate your soul! You would never read the Bible the same again! If we could see that the event of the Universe is THE CROSS; the one event that came right out of heaven into the earth is THE CROSS. It’s when heaven and earth came together in the Crucified Son of God, Who in His death brought to a close and a fulfillment the Old Covenant, and Who in His resurrection established the New Covenant.

The Old Covenant is an understanding given of God, but it is an understanding given of God in types, in shadows, in people, in places, in things, in figures, in promises, in prophecies, in songs and psalms, in ceremonial offerings. It is an understanding of God given in those things. Now if you understand that, then you have to understand that everyone of those things – every person, like Abraham; every place, like Canaan; every thing, like the altar Abraham built, was in effect a type of Christ. In the Scriptures you will find in it a type that will be fulfilled in Christ Jesus. That’s the reason Jesus was able to stand and say, "Search the scriptures…they are they which testify of me." (John 5:39) You mean some of it? No, I mean ALL of it. If you would have had eyes to see and ears to hear – they all speak of ME. Everything! Everyone God ever raised up and did anything with – all pointed to Me, because all that fell short of fulfillment in and of itself." We recognize the big ones like the Tabernacle, the Ark of Noah, the Temple of Solomon; but there are hundreds and thousands more. They are all there. They are all God giving an understanding of Himself to mankind; from the creation all the way through to the natural birth of Jesus Christ, born of a woman, born under the Law. Every one of them was a type of that which He would fulfil IN CHRIST.

So this Old Covenant had a heaven and earth; it had a religious system. It had sun, moon, stars – all in the natural; a religious system that was bound up with Israel. But the New Covenant had a NEW heaven and a NEW earth. It is not a religious system, but it is a spiritual system, a spiritual order. CHRIST HIMSELF is the light, the sun of it! This one needs no sun, no moon, no stars, because the Lord Himself is the Light of it! It doesn’t need what the old system needed and functioned by. And until we understand this, what we are going to do is read about something in the Old Covenant, and then we’re going to come over past Christ, past being in Christ, in "never, never land", trying to find the fulfillment of it, and wondering when it will ever be fulfilled. If it’s in the Old Covenant, it’s fulfilled IN CHRIST, where we must walk by the Spirit and only walk by the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, yea the deep things of God and reveals them to those who have a heart to know Him.

See, we think that the Old Covenant is a bunch of ‘things’ and the New Covenant is a bunch of ‘more things’. But it isn’t. Even the City – Jerusalem of the Old Covenant finds its fulfillment in Christ Jesus. "For ye are come to Mount Zion, the City of the Living God, the New Jerusalem…" "The Jerusalem which is above, the mother of us all." That is speaking of a New Covenant in Christ Jesus. Yet how many people go way beyond Christ, way beyond Salvation in Christ, and they are looking for … a city? They’ll say Abraham looked for it. Yes, Abraham in the Old Covenant looked for a city; but what Abraham looked for by faith, the scripture declares in Hebrews 12 is found IN CHRIST JESUS! The faith of Abraham doesn’t go beyond Christ; it’s fulfilled in Christ. Concerning the land, concerning the Seed, concerning the City, concerning the foundation, concerning righteousness – everything that the faith of Abraham embraced is fulfilled in Christ. It has to be, otherwise Abraham’s faith would be null and void.

And that’s why Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 15 was that if Christ be not risen from among the dead; if Christ be not the Resurrection, then all of our preaching is in vain! Why Paul? Because we are preaching everything in the Old Covenant comes to be fulfilled in Him. Not only don’t you need to be circumcised in the natural body, you don’t need to give a goat or a bull or a lamb; not only that – you don’t need to go to the Old Tabernacle; not only that… and on and on he went. So he says if Christ is not raised, then our preaching is in vain because we are declaring that everything is fulfilled in Him. And we are declaring beyond that – we are in Him! But in the preaching of our religious system of the day, you can just erase the whole Cross, because the only thing they see about the Cross is that Jesus died so that I wouldn’t have to die; Jesus died to forgive them of their sins. But did you know that of the five offerings in the Old Covenant, only one of them was the sin offering? What about the other ones – were they not fulfilled as well? And do you know that there were not just those five offerings, but there were seven feasts of Israel, ending with the Feast of Tabernacles, which is the clearest type of Being in Christ in the Old Covenant. Were those feasts not fulfilled? Well – Passover was! But if one of them was, then they all had to be, because it took seven of them to make up what God presented to Israel as a complete Salvation. Do you mean that we don’t have a complete Salvation in Christ? Do you mean in Christ that one of those feasts is not fulfilled? What kind of a Salvation would that be? It doesn’t make sense!

There isn’t a third Covenant waiting over here in the wings; there is not an Old Covenant, a New Covenant, and then another Covenant. We think there is, but it’s made up by men who won’t come to the reality of Christ. It’s made up by religious tradition that will not come to the reality of being IN CHRIST. It is made up of those who want to "die and go to heaven" rather than live in Christ NOW. I’m just telling you that if something is found in the Old Covenant any way at all, it has to be fulfilled in Christ. If it is not, then Christ died in vain, and may as well have not been resurrected, because if you are going to start keeping pieces of this out of being fulfilled in Christ, then who determines what pieces you keep out? But the Scriptures clearly say that it is God’s plan and purpose to gather together IN CHRIST ALL THINGS – all things in One, even in Christ. (Ephesians 1:10)

All things – what? The "all things" of the Old Covenant. Here in the Old Covenant God gave a promise and a prophecy of a Salvation to people, and He gave it to them through types and shadows. In the New He fulfilled everything He said in the Person of His Son. Do we not read that in Hebrews 1:1? "God, who in sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath at the end of those days spoken IN SON." It means that everything He said in the Old Covenant – sundry times, divers manners – EVERYTHING – He has perfectly summed up, perfectly said in His Son, His Eternal, Living Word. Everything in the Old was in fragments; everything in the New is gathered together in completeness and fulfilled in Christ. And it is phenomenal to begin to understand that!

Back to Ephesians 2:11, "Wherefore remember that ye being in time past…" "Time past" is going back before the Cross. "…in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands." He’s concluded both Jew and Gentile as being "in the flesh". One was circumcised, the other uncircumcised. "That at that time…" What time? Before the Cross – time past. "…ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world, But NOW IN CHRIST JESUS…" Now the point is, there was a time when you were not in Christ. Historically and spiritually you were not in Christ. Historically and spiritually there are two places: one that is not, one that is time past, one that is without God, without hope. And the other – but NOW – not time past, but NOW IN CHRIST. Here there is no promise of "going to be with Him". We only have that in the Old Covenant. The New Covenant writings are BUT NOW; you who were not, but now are IN CHRIST. The Scriptures declare you are there! And the Scriptures declare that Salvation is just this: it is BEING IN CHRIST. All of the terms of Salvation: restoration, reconciliation, resurrection, redemption, justification – they are all terms that are IN CHRIST. You can read this in Colossians: IN WHOM you have redemption, IN WHOM you have forgiveness of sins, IN WHOM – over and over again. It’s all IN CHRIST.

There is a reality to being in Christ, and that is the reality we’ll be talking about. But the only way to talk about this reality is to first show the reality in the Scripture. This is what the Scripture calls Salvation. We’re going to see from the Old Covenant to the New Testament Scriptures that the Salvation promised of God before the Cross is fulfilled in Christ NOW. And the only way you are not part of that is if you are not in Christ. And if you are not in Christ, then spiritually you are still in "time past" and you are still reckoned under the Old Covenant, because the Cross is not only some historical Work of God, it’s an ever present Work of God. It’s as real NOW as it was 2,000 years ago. And that’s why time is not what separates the two Covenants; THE CROSS separates these two Covenants. And when it works in your heart, it will separate these two Covenants in your heart. It will separate the old concept of God from the concept of God revealed in the Person of His Son. It will separate us from the concept that God is far off, by bringing us into the reality of being IN CHRIST. Jesus says about this Covenant; the Covenant that is only revealed of the Spirit; the Covenant that Christ Himself is the Living Mediator, the Living Word of; Jesus says, "In that day you will know that I am in My Father, you are in Me, and I am in you."

That’s BEING IN CHRIST! So in Ephesians 2 Paul says "…in time past… but NOW in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." Verse 18, " For through him we both (Jew and Gentile) have access by one Spirit unto the Father." How so? Because in verses 14-16 He has eliminated the Jew and Gentile. How did He do that? He brought them both into one body by The Cross! He slew them, and brought forth One New Man who is at peace with God! IN CHRIST JESUS! That is the reality we are talking about – BEING IN CHRIST JESUS. We’re looking at the fulfillment. 2 Corinthians 5:14, "For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead." A better translation says that we understand that if one died for all, then were all made to be dead with Him. That’s what this means. That has to do with all men. When Christ died at the Cross, He fulfilled for man a promise given of God. It was a declaration given of God, and since that declaration had been given, the judgment had been waiting. What was it? "For it is appointed unto men once to DIE…" But that has nothing to do with physical death. If it had, then when the original Adam died – that would have fulfilled it. But it didn’t fulfil it because it wasn’t talking about physical death. It was talking about death of a humanity – reckoned dead; adjudicated dead, and separated from God and having no life. That has nothing to do with physical bodies dying

Look at the flood… but the flood didn’t satisfy. "Thou shalt surely die." That didn’t satisfy. It was very much a type and a shadow, and the Ark of Noah was very much a type and a shadow of Being in Christ. But there’s only ONE DEATH that satisfied God. Look at Hebrews 9:26. "For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." That’s saying that if Jesus was like all the other High Priests then He would have to suffer again and again every year. But He didn’t suffer again and again every year, but once at the end of the age He suffered one time. That’s the Cross. Then verse 27, "And as it is appointed unto men once to die…" Why would this be put here? We’re talking about the Cross here. He appeared once at the end of the world to put away sin. The end of the world – what world? The world that was defined by the Old Covenant. The word ‘world" there is "age" – aeon. The Old Covenant age. It’s the same word that Jesus’ disciples used in Matthew 24 then they said when will the end of the world be? That world, that Old Covenant world, the Old Covenant age stopped AT THE CROSS. And the "world to come" is IN CHRIST JESUS. The word "to come" means "a never ending, eternal, ever ongoing". That world is in Christ Jesus.

So we’re talking about the Cross here in Hebrews, and then he says, "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment." The word "after that" should be translated "consequently, or as a result, or therefore". It should read, "… appointed once to die, consequently the judgment." He connects "once to die" with "the judgment". The Cross and the judgment are the same. Jesus said that in John 12. He’s about to be lifted up – on the Cross – and He says, "Now is the judgment of this world. Now is the prince of this world cast out." The judgment that is promised of God to man is not yet waiting in the wings: it came at the Cross! And what greater judgment could there be than God to gather up a whole humanity in the Person of His Son, and reckon it dead, separated from Him, never being able to approach Him EXCEPT it come by The Way, The Truth, The Life that Jesus presents Himself as being?

Look at this: Hebrews 9:27, "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." So Christ died once. We’re back now to 2 Corinthians 5:14; When one died, all died with Him. But you see, when this whole thing is brought to an end at the Cross, it opens up the possibility of the NEW ONE to come. While the first remains, the second could not come. While sacrifices (plural) are given, THE SACRIFICE cannot be accepted. While the Old Covenant is honored of God, a New One cannot take its place. So the Cross brings one to an end, and you see that right here. "…then were all dead, and in that He died for all (for all mankind), they which live…" And Paul understands because he’s already said that they which live, live ONLY by Christ. If all have been reckoned dead and they which live, live only in Christ, then the whole is "that they which live should not live unto themselves (as though they had a life of their own) but rather, unto Him, Who not only died, but Who rose again, that He may be unto us Eternal Life." Therefore, henceforth… in the light of this understanding, in light of what has been said, Know we no man after the flesh. That is, we can know no man after the flesh, after the first creation. How we know men is: dead – or alive in Christ. That’s just the way it is. Here’s what Salvation is: it is passing from death unto Life. You do that by THE CROSS.

But the Life you have is not your own. You come from death – which is YOUR life, unto Life – which is CHRIST living in you. This is how Paul is reasoning. Verse 17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." But "creation" here is defined by this New Covenant, just as it was defined by the Old Covenant. How is creation defined by the Old Covenant? Jew and Gentile, time past, circumcised, uncircumcised, male, female, bond, free. But now, by a New Covenant it is defined altogether differently. "Old things are passed away; behold all things are become new." But there are very few Christians who understand the true concept, the true realization of what this verse is saying. "Old things are done away, behold, all things are become new." Where? He’s not talking about the world: that’s IN CHRIST. But you can’t get there except you come by the Cross. IN CHRIST! "And behold, all things are of God…" Where? IN CHRIST! And all things are reconciled unto God. Where? IN CHRIST! Yet that concept is so foreign and so strange to the mind of most believers, because most believers who are by the Spirit of God IN CHRIST, are in their minds and in their hearts still living in TIME PAST; they are still living under an Old Covenant.

The Old Covenant judges you for everything you do; but it cannot judge you dead. The Cross judges you for nothing that you have done. Why? It judges you dead: so what difference does it make what you’ve done! You are dead! Take a man – dead. There’s a country song that goes, "Send me no flowers when I die. I can’t smell the fragrance if I’m gone. And don’t spend your hard earned money on an old dead body trying to make it look like it’s alive." Here comes the whole community: some who hate his guts, but now he’s the nicest person that every lived! What’s the difference here? The difference is the man is dead! If he would sit up in that casket, they’d take back everything they said! The issue is dead – dead and alive; but not I, Christ Who liveth in me, because the resurrection is NOT me living again, THE RESURRECTION IS CHRIST LIVING IN ME. Old things are gone – I’m included; all things are become New. And there’s not a handful of Christians throughout the world that really understand that. I know because I listen to them talk, and see how they deal with one another.

They are over here in time past, under the Old Covenant, and their judgment is still based upon things: what you did or didn’t do, or what you ought to do. ‘Thou shalt, thou shalt not." But all of that was an Old Covenant, and it was only good until HE Whose right it is should come, and bring it to its end. And He couldn’t do that without bringing in a far greater Covenant in His Own Blood. And He administrated it by His Own Spirit: not by Moses, not by messengers, but by The Spirit of The Living God. I’m telling you: you are IN CHRIST. It means something to BE IN CHRIST. If we could just get a hold of this! You are IN CHRIST twenty four hours a day, three hundred and sixty five days a year! And it doesn’t make any difference where you are on earth – you are IN CHRIST! If we could only comprehend "IN CHRIST"!

Now I want to show you one place in the Old Covenant of a promise given. We sing a song taken from Genesis 49:10, "Unto Him shall the gathering of the people be." Here Jacob is blessing the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve sons. And he says that the law shall not depart from between the feet of Judah until Shiloh come. And the name "Shiloh" there means the Lord who is to come; the Lord coming in His glory. And unto Him shall the gathering of the people be. In the Hebrew "the people" means Israel, Who is it then that is gathered unto Him? It is not all the peoples of the world. The gathering is OUT of all the peoples of the world. The gathering is IN CHRIST. We are gathered unto Him as His very Own Body. It has to do with all people that are gathered OUT FROM among all nations, tribes, kindreds, out from among the dead; and brought forth in the power of the Resurrection, and the gathering is unto Shiloh; the gathering is unto HIM; it’s IN CHRIST.

But look in Exodus 3:8, "And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey…" That is explained, and goes on in Exodus 15:17 with regard to Israel, with regard to God’s idea and concept of Salvation. It is not just getting them out – but " Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established." In that place. Here is the place – IN CHRIST. Jesus says, "I go to prepare a place for you. If I go I will come and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." He’s not talking about a building there. Even the grammatical structure of the verse in the original language shows that "where" has as its object: I AM. It means CHRIST is "where": He is the place. "That where I am you may be also." "In that day you will know that I am in my Father…" That’s not a place: that’s a RELATIONSHIP. "…you are in Me, and I am in you." "You will bring them in, O Lord, you will plant them in your very own mountain." Yes, in MOUNT ZION. "In the place you have prepared for yourself, in your Sanctuary, and the Lord shall reign for ever!"

God’s whole promise concerning Salvation is fulfilled IN CHRIST! No wonder 200 times in the New Testament alone that reality is referenced: IN CHRIST, IN HIM, IN WHOM. What is this talking about? It’s talking about a relationship. Salvation is a relationship NOW – IN CHRIST. It brings us from death unto Life, but Life is not simply the gift He gives: Life is Who He is! He brings us into relationship with Himself – as His Body, as His very Own Body, of which He is the Head and the fulness!

Romans 3:24, "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is IN CHRIST JESUS. Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are IN CHRIST JESUS, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8:2, "For the law of the Spirit of life IN CHRIST JESUS hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:39, "Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. Romans 12:5, "So we, being many, are one body IN CHRIST, and every one members one of another." On and on, there are so many references – IN CHRIST, IN CHRIST.

We must understand our Salvation is BEING IN CHRIST! We are brought there for the purpose of relationship. May we continue to search the Scriptures to see what Being in Christ is all about, so that the Spirit of God may bring you and I literally into that very relationship, so that we become an expression of it. That’s what Being in Christ is all about. Your Salvation is not someplace we’re going to go some day; it’s a relationship with Christ NOW, and to be expressed NOW. But relationship is a thing of the HEART; it’s a thing of Covenant, and Covenant must be revealed by the Spirit. You can not walk in that which the Spirit has not revealed, and He can not reveal that which we will not turn to see. So I’m praying that this will be a time of turning for us; turning to see; turning to hear, that the Spirit of God may through the revealing of The Son bring us into the Covenant that is IN CHRIST JESUS; bringing us into the understanding that is in Christ Jesus. That we may live there and walk there. If we say we live in the Spirit, then we should also walk in the Spirit. Amen.

Part 2 – Motivation – By Covenant

We are dealing with the fact of our being in Christ. The reality and the substance of Salvation is Being in Christ. We looked at 2 Corinthians 5:17, "If any man BE in Christ…" The word "be" there is added in the English because in the Greek word it is supposed. In the original structure of the Greek it is a state of being. It could have been translated as "Whoever is in Christ", but the phraseology is implying that it is a state of being: not temporary. For instance, today we are in a building. You could say it is a state of being; but it is very temporary, because we will leave this building. It is a temporary thing, but BEING IN CHRIST is not temporary; it isn’t controlled by location or time. It is the reality of Salvation, the reality of the Spirit. There is never any time that you are not in Christ; and if there were, you would lose your state of being, you would cease as a New Creation to exist. That would be the consequences. The word "in" in the Greek is " a relationship of rest". So by that translation, we are not "in this building" because to "be" in this building by that definition, we would have to be what the building is made of. The word "in" is an inclusive word which means a "relationship of rest."

Now, if you bring all of this over to the New Creation, that is exactly the understanding of our BEING IN CHRIST, because why are we said to "BE" in Christ? Because Christ is in us! When is He NOT in you? Never! When are we not in and with Him? Never! HE IS OUR STATE OF BEING! It is IN HIM we live, and move and have our being. And all of that is because He is in us; not in theory, not in theology, but in Divine Truth. So the whole reality of Salvation is not the reality of being in a building; it is the reality of BEING IN CHRIST – wherever I am, whenever I am – I am there IN CHRIST! When this begins to actively be your state of being; when the reality comes… See, we’re not just talking about the fact, but the reality of being in Christ; and the reality of the thing has to do with the Covenants.

We are talking about reality. You and I are motivated only by what is real to us. Unfortunately a lot of things that are real to us, are not real at all, but to us it is real. Think of someone alone in a cabin in the woods, and all of a sudden they start hearing something outside. And something rolls or knocks. They may be hearing the wind, but all of a sudden they are hearing a big, grizzly bear who is trying to get in that cabin! That’s real to them. Now, it could actually be real, but my point is, it is real to them, and they are motivated by it. That’s a drastic example, but you and I are only motivated by what is real to us. If it’s not real to you it doesn’t motivate your actions or your values. It doesn’t determine things; but what is real to you does. You are governed in what you do by a real situation, by a real circumstance, by a real relationship. Whatever is real to you governs you accordingly. And it governs your thoughts, your reactions, your relationships with others, your time – it governs you. You are continually under that until it is no longer a real situation, and that can be good or bad.

Now that’s in the natural, and we jump from one thing that’s real, to another thing that’s real – that’s the way we live. Not so IN CHRIST, because here there’s only one reality; and He’s the same yesterday, today and forever. We don’t understand that because we try to apply that out here in the ‘non-real’ world: in the Old Covenant world, in the world of "not" – we who were NOT; time past. But in Christ, sooner or later everyone who is in Him is going to be faced with reality. What’s the difference between the two worlds; between Being in Christ and still living in this world? COVENANT – understanding. Covenant is a matter of understanding given of God. The understanding given of God in the Old Covenant was in types and shadows. The understanding given of God in the New Covenant is IN HIS SON. All the types and shadows in the Old spoke of The Son, but none of them were The Son. The Tabernacle spoke of you being in Christ, but the Tabernacle was NOT you in Christ; it spoke of it. The Jordan – the Jordan River is the type of God revealing His Son in the earth, bringing His Son forth. Well, the next time you see that happening is the Apostle Paul: "It pleased God to reveal His Son in me". We could say Paul had a "Jordan River" experience.

We could say that at that point Paul came from Old Covenant issues to New Covenant realization. And he said that he did – when God revealed His Son in him, that with him, the things that were gain, he counted loss – for the excellency NOW of the knowledge of Christ Jesus My Lord! It is life changing! And even in the history of it: when God finally did get Israel from the wilderness into Canaan, would you not say that life, and every aspect of it changed? These people now had to grow food! For forty years they didn’t have to grow any food; they just had to go pick it up off the ground! But now they have to plant, now they’ve got harvest, now they’ve got seasons, now they’ve got to honor the seven feasts. Would you not say that life changed for them? Just on that one River! It is Life changing!

For Paul, when God revealed His Son in him, bringing him from One Covenant which he was schooled in, to a New Covenant, to a realization of all things in Christ – life changed, motivations changed! One time he was motivated by altars and sacrifices, and ceremonies. Now – it’s CHRIST! Now, for me to live, is Christ! Under this Covenant Paul is motivated 24 hours a day. It determined his life. It didn’t determine what he did for a living; it determined his life. What you and I do for a living is NOT our life. Do you understand that teaching and preaching is NOT my life? CHRIST is my Life! If I were smitten somehow and could not make a sound out of my mouth, Christ would be no less my Life! Our motivation has got to come from there. I am not motivated by preaching; I don’t preach because I love to preach. I have no love for preaching – period! But I preach because Christ is my Life, and I preach because I understand we are bound up together in Him, and I preach for the sharing of Life, and the receiving of Life, and the increase of Christ in the earth. That’s why I preach. And however we can best accomplish that is fine with me. It doesn’t make any difference how many I preach to, because I’m not there to preach to numbers, I’m not built up or torn down one way or the other. I’m there to share Life.

See, we’re still bound up with this Old Covenant understanding and motivation. Paul was motivated 24 hours a day by his understanding of God. His life was motivated. It didn’t determine what he did for a living, but it determined his living, it determined his Life. But when Christ was revealed in him; when he was knocked down, turned around, smitten blind… and received the Lord Jesus; and God called him by His grace. But then Paul was set aside; he went out into the desert, a wasted place. He testified himself it was for 3 years, and it was there that God revealed His Son in him. And Paul’s life was changed! Now he was motivated 24 hours a day by Christ! Not by the Law – by Christ! It didn’t determine how he made his living, because preaching wasn’t that, and Paul says that. Paul said he wasn’t there so he could get their money. He said, I’m here declaring Life. I’m here declaring Christ! My motivation in walking all over the Middle East is not because I’m making a lot of money! Paul stopped and made tents from time to time, but the whole point is that wasn’t his motivation and people don’t seem to be able to divide the two.

Paul was sharing Life, and in one place he said that he was here, and except this group over there had sent to me, I would be sitting here sharing Life to you – starving to death! I have robbed others that I might make up for your lack. And yet he says I will still not require anything, less you say Paul just comes to rob us. What I’m saying is it didn’t make any difference how he made his living; but he was motivated by Life: CHRIST WAS HIS LIFE. Christ determined where he was, when he was there. He determined all these things by Life. Before the Law had determined it: now Christ does it. You are never in a situation where something is not your motivation. You are never in a situation where you just willy-nilly do whatever. No – that’s not real. Something is determining; something is motivating; something is behind either what you do or don’t do. But I’m telling you that when we come to the reality of BEING IN CHRIST, that CHRIST is that something: CHRIST is that someone! Where before any number of coming and going situations was the motivation, now CHIRST is the motivation, and He is the same. Our Life now becomes consistent, becomes stable, becomes predictable. I don’t mean "things" become predictable, or our "lives" become predictable. It just doesn’t make any difference what situation you find this person in whom Christ is being revealed: they are the same. Situations change every day – they don’t!

Most Christians change with the situation – we just bounce around! That’s the way the world is, but in Christ there’s never a moment when He is not my Life if we have come to this reality; if we’ve come to this Covenant. In the Old it was ‘read this’. So we read it: now ‘do this’. Well what happens if I don’t? We’re going to kill you! Oh, okay! Now that’s a little motivation! The Law said this – and that is what is going to happen. That becomes a motivating force, and Paul was under that. But NOW – in Christ Jesus… and while here we are made free from the law of sin and death, we are bound by the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus! We don’t come from ‘motivation’ to ‘no motivation’. We come from one motivation to an altogether other motivation. So that at any time, in any place, Christ is my Life. And motivationally, that is preeminent. If it comes to a decision – that’s preeminent. If it comes to value or worth – there’s no question: He’s my Life! That’s the REALITY of Being in Christ. And it is NOW – not in time past – but NOW in Christ. And it is a matter of Covenant. It isn’t a matter of whether you’re in Christ or not; it is a matter of whether God’s Covenant is written in your heart or not. In the Old Covenant it was read, and then you were expected to obey. But in Christ, it can’t be read. You can read about it; you can read Paul speaking about it, but here the Covenant has got to be revealed. Here the Covenant is ONE WORD – "hath spoken IN SON". Here the Covenant, the understanding of God is given ONLY in Christ.

What is the Covenant all about? RELATIONSHIP. The Old Covenant was describing a relationship that God had with His people, and as long as you offered a sacrifice, you had a relationship with Him. As long as you came to the door of the Tabernacle, you had a relationship with Him. As long as you were circumcised, you had a relationship with Him. It was describing a relationship. Here in Christ we come to understand my relationship is the Person of His Son Himself. Christ is my Life; He is my relationship with the Father. And it is a Covenant of One – ONE. Here we have a relationship not as many; but as One Son. In the Old the relationship was with many and of many; "many" was involved in the Old Covenant. But in Christ, not many, but One. Here the "many" never get beyond the Cross. In Christ it is One New Man. Many members – oh yes, but One Body. Here "many" is not the issue: ONE is the issue. We’ve come from many to One. That’s what Covenant does. God has always wanted a Covenant of One –with One, in One. So the reality that you come to here is that we are One with Christ. Most people don’t understand this.

In the Old Covenant, they were all Israelites; but in their relationship with God, they were many. That’s what most Christians think being ‘one’ is: that you and I are all one body. But that’s the same understanding Israel had: ‘we’re all one Israel, we’re all one nation.’ But their relationship which was determined with one another was as to their relationship with God, and they were far off. They had no oneness with Him, they had no access to Him, and the Church world has brought that right over and has applied that to the Body of Christ. ‘Well, we’re all children of God, we’re all one with one another, we’re just all one body.’ But they don’t understand that in Christ, the ONE IS CHRIST HIMSELF! It’s not that we are one with one another; it’s that we are One with Him. It’s not that we are still many – who are all Christians. No, here it’s that we are One with Him; One New Man. It’s altogether different, but most Christians don’t understand that. They have the same Covenant, the same understanding that Israel had. ‘We’re all Israelites, we’re all circumcised, we’re all this or that… so we are one Israel.’ Yes, but you are NOT one with God! With God you’re still many, and you are still living as many!

At the Cross the many are done away. In Christ there is ONE Spirit, ONE Body, ONE Baptism. God here deals with us as ONE SON. Here the Covenant is that as One Son, we have that union with our Father. "As we are One, that they may be One." Here we live not as many who love Jesus; here we live as being ONE with Jesus. Here we live as One Son: not as many Israelites who honor and fear God; not as many Christians who honor and fear God. No – One Son. It’s a different understanding, it’s a different Covenant. It is not a Covenant afar; it is a Covenant of nearness. Now, Hebrews 8:6, " BUT NOW…. Not this… but NOW hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a NEW covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand…" We have Christians today who say Jesus is going to "take them by the hand and lead them home." No, that’s the old. Over in Christ He doesn’t take you by the hand and lead you any place! You live in Him! You are His Body! It’s not NOW the picture of Jesus in a flowing robe leading some poor soul through his trials and tribulations; taking him home to glory. John saw the picture in the book of Revelation. He saw the glorified Son of God standing in the midst of the Church; the Church which is the Body of His fulness. That’s the picture here in Christ.

We need to come from one Covenant to another; we need to come from one understanding to another. And of course, that understanding only comes with God revealing His Son in you. We believe that Moses went up in a mountain and God literally wrote on the stones – we believe that. How is it that we cannot understand the necessity of that same God, who then wrote on stones literally, to actually writing in our hearts – not our natural minds. No, but God literally revealing His Word, His Son in our soul, in our hearts; engraving as it were His image upon our soul so that we would bear the image of Him. That we would bear the image of Him. Where? Everywhere! When? All the time! That we would never not be walking in understanding. That wherever we were, wherever – that we would be there in Covenant, we would be there understanding that I am in Christ, and He is my Life! This understanding, this Covenant. So we who have come from death unto Life must now come from the Covenant of death to the Covenant of Life. We who have by the Spirit been placed in Christ must allow the Spirit to reveal Christ in us, else we’re here trying to walk in an understanding of God that is not given in His Son. It is an understanding that will let us "go to church", but it is not an understanding that will cause us everywhere and always to live as "Church", to live as the Body of Christ.

Now Hebrews 8:9, "Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days…" What days? Time past. What is after those days? CHRIST is after those days. The New Day in Him! Well, what’s after that Day that Christ is? NOTHING! It’s an endless day; an ever endless day! Very few have even begun to walk in it, but it is an endless day. "…I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people." And the word "people" there doesn’t mean a lot of people; it’s speaking of a unit, a whole, a body. They will be to Me a House, they will be to Me a Body, and they will be to Me a Sanctuary. A Covenant is not about a bunch of people; a Covenant is about ONE.

Verse 11, "And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother …" That’s not talking about something off in "Never-never land". That’s talking about our Life in Christ NOW. That’s why we gather; we’re sharing the reality of the Covenant, from the oldest to the youngest. Paul said we preach and we teach, warning every man, persuading every man that we may present every man perfect in Christ. That is fully grown up in Christ. Now our whole motivation changes, and our whole ministry changes. Verse 13, "In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." Ready to vanish away.

So we are looking to these two Covenants, and each of these is related to a spiritual condition, and a spiritual comprehension. And you can’t separate spiritual condition from spiritual comprehension because your spiritual comprehension determines your spiritual condition. Whatever you comprehend your relationship with God as being determines the condition of your relationship. Now this is evident even in the natural. Take marriage: whatever you comprehend of husband and wife – that will determine the condition of that marriage. And in the Old Covenant you have all of that: relationships, marriages. Now over in Christ you have relationships too, but they are part of a NEW comprehension, IF a New comprehension exists. But if it doesn’t, you can get them to "go to church" but that doesn’t change anything! It doesn’t change anything down deep in the motivating center of their heart: going to church doesn’t change anything. Getting them in religion doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t change their background or their concepts. It doesn’t change anything. But the Covenant which is IN CHRIST will! It will change everything. A NEW comprehension. Why? Because everything begins to be motivated by our NEW understanding of our relationship with Christ. Consequently everything is affected by that – everything!

And I finally, after being married for many years; finally IN CHRIST came to understand marriage. That there is only one marriage. And that locked into my soul: the great mystery – Christ and The Church. And every other relationship on earth comes to be dominated and controlled by that understanding. And if that understanding is not there, then your idea of marriage will be deficient. But the Lord uncovered my idea of marriage, and He uncovered it in relation to Christ and the Church. Not what I read about it, but when I really came to see my relationship with Him as His Body, The Church, as His Wife and His Bride. Then, I looked at how I considered my wife, my bride, my flesh – and it changed me! I thought that all of my egotism was done away when I first saw the Lord. I saw the old man and the New Man; but it wasn’t all done away. It may not be all done away yet, but a big hunk of it went out when I realized the relationship of marriage. Then all I wanted to do was elevate my wife; all I wanted to do was bless my wife; all I wanted to do was love, nurture and care for my wife. And I’m not talking about with "things". I’m talking about with myself! No man ever hated his own body. But see, I had no concept in Christ of who MY body was. I knew I was HIS Body, but who is MY body – for purposes of manifestation? And all of a sudden I saw that in my wife!

What I’m telling you is that everything changes here because of the Reality of Being in Christ. Nothing can remain the same, nothing can be viewed the same; because its NOT the same NOW. It is determined by our relationship with Him. But we don’t know that relationship until a NEW Covenant, until He, The Covenant Word is revealed in us. But I will tell you that as you see your relationship to Him, it will determine your relationship with every human being on the face of the earth. And of course, it will determine most of all, your relationship with those that are closest to Him – certainly. It will, because you are never not in Christ; you are there. I remember once when I was in Ghana, West Africa with a counsel of Churches. I don’t know how many denominations were represented – from Anglicans to Pentecostals. But the first thing I told them was I was not there to preach to, or teach Africans. I care nothing about Africa or Africans. I said, however, I care nothing about Americans either! I care nothing about whites or blacks, or yellows or browns. That’s not my realm of concern. I told them I was there ministering to the Lord’s Body which is neither… nor. And my whole concern during that time was to bring them to that understanding. Here I am ministering to you as the Lord’s Body, which is not Jew, not Gentile, not male, not female.

So what I’m telling you is this will change your relationship with every person on the face of the earth. And if you ever come to deal with some of those human beings, your relationship is already established IN CHRIST. You don’t have to establish a relationship with them: it’s already been established in your mind and in your heart. We used to teach in "Missions" in Bible School the "cultural shock" and cultural differences, because you’ve got to "understand" the people you are going to minister to so you don’t offend them. Well, I understand them in Christ! The Truth is that you are dead, and your Life is Christ! And if that’s offensive – so be it, but that’s the Gospel, that’s the Truth! We shouldn’t go to be culturally sensitive, but just go to present the Truth – as it is in Christ. I’m not going to make better Africans of them, or better Mexicans of them, or better Texans of them. We read that "Henceforth know we no man after the flesh; Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more." So as we come to this Covenant and see our relationship with Him, it changes our relationship with humanity, and most particularly those that are closest to Him, because we find the perfection of that reality in our union with Christ. It works in us that way.

Part 3 – Time Past – But Now

We want to look now at the contrast between the time when we were "not": not in Christ, but just "not". Paul says you were not a people; you were without hope – we were "not". But NOW in Christ… That’s what Salvation is, but we don’t teach this in modern day religion. We teach that Salvation is taking what you were, and making it better. But that’s not what Salvation was. Before the Cross – we were NOT! You can just write a big NOT over the Old Covenant – we were not. But NOW in Christ… New Creation. We come there by The Cross. That’s how we come from being "not" to now being in Christ. Let’s look at some scripture showing that "time past" relates to this time under the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant is that Covenant from Adam all the way through the Cross. It takes up the Covenant with Adam, the Covenant with Abraham, the Covenant with Moses, and it binds them all up in an Old Covenant. An Old Covenant has its creation. Think about this: it is interesting, because you find the reality of this in Christ. Do you know why most Christians have no concept of the reality that is in Christ? Because they know nothing about the Old Covenant. They don’t know anything about it, but in the Old Covenant we find three distinct types of Salvation. Under the Adamic Covenant, which goes up through Noah, we find the Covenant with creation. Under the Old Covenant there was a creation that God related to in His types and shadows. He related to Adam through the type of the Tree of Life and the Tree of knowledge of good and evil. He related to Noah through the type of his Ark. I’m not saying these were not "real", but they were types. There was a real Ark, but it was a type of a reality. This was Covenant.

Then you come to Abraham, and the whole thing was a Covenant relation to a Seed and a Land. Those are the two things with Abraham: ‘Unto thy seed will I give this land. In the land was the inheritance.’ The inheritance belongs to the Seed because they would inhabit the land. And we know the types and shadows of that. But we understand in Salvation it is Seed and land, involving an inheritance, and then with Israel Salvation was seen as redemption of a Household, the Blood of the Lamb – redeemed. "Out of Egypt have I called My Son." So with Israel we see that Salvation is a Corporate Son, a redeemed House. And we find the reality of all that: BUT NOW IN CHRIST – you are a New Creation; in Christ Jesus, you are that Seed. "And unto Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, as to seeds, as to many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." That’s Galatians 3:16. Then verse 29 says, "And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise." We find the Lamb here in Christ, wherein dwells the promise, wherein dwells the inheritance.

What I’m saying is that every aspect can be drawn over. Here we find the household of The Son, The House that you are, The Son dwelling, manifesting that House’s glory. What I’m saying is you do not have to, and you must not go OUTSIDE OF CHRIST to find any fulfillment that is set forth in the Old Covenant. They all come right over, but you can only walk in it by Covenant. Just because it’s fulfilled in Christ doesn’t mean you and I are walking in it. We can be here still "looking for a better land". Listen – there isn’t a better land than the One you are in! We can be here still looking for an inheritance; but your inheritance is IN HIM! There’s no greater inheritance than Eternal Life! But we only possess by Covenant. Even in the old, that’s the way they possessed – by Covenant. Now that’s the only way you possess - by Covenant. Not because it’s in Christ, but because the Covenant is in you. It is by Covenant that you possess what is in Christ. So we are either living in a Covenant that relates to "time past" or a Covenant that is declaring "but now in Christ."

Look at Galatians 1:13, "For ye heard of my conversation IN TIME PAST in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it." With Paul "time past" is time spent in the Old Covenant. How many believers today are living in "time past"? One clear indication of that is when people talk about going back to the ‘good old days’, with that ‘good old religion’. It wasn’t that good, but they thought it was good. Time past. ‘We need an ‘old time revival!’ You mean a "time past" understanding? That’s what they are talking about – an Old Covenant relationship with God where God ‘comes down in our midst’ rather than dwelling in us; it’s when God visits from time to time. It’s time past.

Galatians 5:19-21, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in TIME PAST that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Here Paul is relating all of those things to "time past"; a time when they were not in Christ.

Ephesians 2:1-3, "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in TIME PAST ye walked according to the prince of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in TIMES PAST in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." Paul is talking about himself and the Jewish religion. We read that today and don’t realize that "time past" is the time that Paul uses to say that our lives were regulated by the Law. But what did the Law expose Paul as being? A sinner! It’s a time past, it’s a time of the Old Covenant, of the Old Law; and I’m telling you that most believers in Christ have no more understanding than that! They have no real understanding of Divine relationship, so they relegate Salvation to: well, we don’t have to offer sacrifices any more because Jesus died for our sins. But that’s it with them, and for the rest of it, it’s still an OLD understanding, an Old Covenant. And they will quote Old Covenant Scripture and make it their present understanding. Abraham looked for a city…. We’re looking for a city! Wait a minute. Abraham looked for a city under an Old Covenant! Yes sir, we have come to the City of God, the heavenly Jerusalem! We are not "city-less"! We are not strangers, not foreigners – NOW IN CHRIST! But many believers are still living in "time past".

Ephesians 2:11-13, "Wherefore remember, that ye being in TIME PAST Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at THAT TIME ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." There’s the difference – you were sometimes far off, BUT NOW in Christ Jesus. And Paul speaks to them not in time past, but in relation to their being in Christ. And Paul says the same thing here as he says in 2 Corinthians 5:14-17. Ephesians 2:14 says, "For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us." 2 Corinthians 5:14 says that in that He died, all died with Him. What was the middle wall of partition? It was the wall of flesh, it was the wall of humanity. How did He do that? Verse 15, "Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain (Jew and Gentile) one new man, so making peace." How did He make One New Man out of two halves of the human race? How did He do that? Verse 16, " And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." He made them to be one body – but it is not the Body of Christ. He made them to be one body BY HIS CROSS. The body that He made them to be… Remember Jesus said in John 12, "When I be lifted up I will draw all men in unto Me. This He spake concerning His death." In that one died, all died with Him. He brought them all into the body of His death; and the Jew and the Gentile became one body in death. He brought them there, so that in His Resurrection He brings forth a Body, but it is not the Body that is planted that comes forth. He brings forth an altogether NEW BODY that is now neither Jew nor Gentile, but One New Man! This is not the body of a Jew or a Gentile. It is the Body of Christ. He lives in it! NOW IN CHRIST JESUS…

Paul says the same thing in every epistle. "For He is our peace… having abolished in His flesh… that He might reconcile both unto God…" How were we reconciled unto God? Romans 5:9 and 10 says we were reconciled by the death of His Son; that we might be saved by His Life. Ephesians 2:16-19, "And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh, For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation…" NOW IN CHRIST JESUS… But now in Christ Jesus… and it speaks of our relationship of BEING IN CHRIST.

Hebrews 1:1, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in TIME PAST unto the fathers by the prophets…" That has to do with Covenant, the Old Covenant. Verse 2 says "Hath in these last days", but a better translation in the Greek says "Hath in the end of those days." "Hath in these last days" is misleading because it seems to say these are the last days. No – the last days of the Bible were the last days of the Old Covenant. Every time you find "last days" in the Bible it is related to "time past" – not time ahead. We think the "last days" are coming. No, the last days are not coming: the last days are come. We say ‘in the last days God is going to raise up…’ He did! In the last days He raised up His Son, and by His Son this Body is raised up. That’s in the last days. The last days are of this Old Covenant, and the last days are always connected to the coming to the close of the Old Covenant. Listen – where are you going to find "last days" in Christ? There’s no last days in Him; there’s just one glorious day! We say it’s the last days in the world; but the "last days" related to this world, this age, the Old Covenant. Time past = last days.

So the original translation of this verse is "at the end of those days hath spoken in Son." And that makes sense because CHRIST IS THE END OF THOSE DAYS, the end of the Law for righteousness, the end of the first, the beginning of the second. He is the end of those days, but the problem is most believers in their heart have not come to the end of those days. BY COVENANT: we've got to come there by Covenant, to the end of those days, because you can’t fix it up. If you do you’ve got a mixture. We’re having a problem with Sabbath: we don’t know where we live. WE’RE LIVING IN CHRIST! It just makes a difference! Saturday is going to be the same, but I’m not the same. I’m living in The Day, and here He’s not going to change. Our comprehension changes, but that’s not really where we live. We are to be living in Him, and manifesting that in the natural creation. This is the creation where I live – IN CHRIST JESUS. The rest of it is time past. Time past – and I don’t live there any more!

1 Peter 2:10, "Which in TIME PAST were not a people, but are now the people of God; which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles…" Peter writes mostly to the Jews who are now in Christ. Paul went to the Gentiles, Peter remained with the Jews, and yet Peter finally comes to declare the same thing Paul does: The One New Man. Peter had a problem with circumcision when he first started out, but he got over that, and here he’s referring to the Jews as being "time past". Under their own Old Covenant they were NOT a people, but NOW… He’s come to see that. "Unto Him shall the gathering of the people be…" But in time past you were not a people. You are a people here: unto HIM shall the gathering of the people be. But we’ve still got preachers standing up saying that "one day" there will be this gathering unto Him. But this is the gathering unto Him! I’m in that gathering! You’re in that gathering! We are quickened, raised, seated by the Spirit of God! And if we only understood that our very lives would be a MANIFESTATION of that gathering. Our gathering would be a manifestation of the reality of that gathering. We wouldn’t ‘go to church’ because it’s Sunday morning: we would gather because we are gathered in Christ Jesus. And it may look like the same thing on the outside, but it’s not the same thing in our hearts. The one you get tired of doing. The other is a manifestation of reality. And it makes a difference.

One last verse: 1 Peter 4:3, "For the TIME PAST of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries. He’s talking to the Jews here; he’s talking about Old Covenant abominations. "Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you." He’s talking to these Old Covenant Jews who have come out of the Old Covenant and are found in Christ, and he’s saying they are not doing those same things any more. See, we think this is about going down to Harry’s beer joint and getting drunk, but he was talking about involving ourselves in the riotous living of the Law and the excess of that. You did that in time past, and now you’re wondering why your neighbors are persecuting you. Well, because you have come to a NEW comprehension of Christ. Verse 6, "For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead…" Them that are dead – that’s Old Covenant Israel, and at this time many of them are still dead! "…that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer." The end of all things is AT HAND! Not coming one day – it’s here! We’ve come to that right here IN CHRIST JESUS.

This is just a contrast between the Two Covenants: one relating to a comprehension therefore a life style that is "time past". The other is a comprehension and therefore a life style that is "but now." Everything is here NOW; everything is real NOW – IN CHRIST JESUS! This is the reality of our Being in Christ – by Covenant!