14.14 Reading for yourself what Christ has done on the cross

Let us go back to the illustration. The son received an inaccurate message from the messenger, which deprived him of his inheritance of the $10m, and he could not fulfill his calling. But the son had the will of his father. He had the opportunity to read for himself the message. Instead of depending on the will, he depended on the messenger.

Today, it is the same with the believer. Jesus has given us His will or testament or covenant. This is called the New Covenant that was established through the death of Jesus. We should be reading the Bible to find out about the New Covenant.

However, many messengers have not fully understood the New Covenant. In fact, they tend to rely a lot on an obsolete covenant called the Old Covenant – which works very differently. The Old Covenant tells us what we must do to attain to righteousness and blessings. That was made obsolete because man could not fulfill it and Jesus came to fulfill it. The New Covenant tells us what Christ has accomplished. Therefore it is important to read and understand the New Covenant for ourselves.

The Bible is divided into three sections - the Old Testament, the Gospels and the Epistles of the New Covenant. The Old Testament was not written to us. It was a covenant between God and Israel. We can learn from it but we are not under that covenant. Israel did not attain to righteousness. So the Old Testament pointed to the coming of Jesus as the Redeemer and Savior.

The Gospels tell of the coming of Jesus, His life, His death and His resurrection. The Gospels is not the New Covenant because Jesus was sent not to the Gentiles but the lost sheep of Israel. The New Covenant was not cut until the point when Jesus went to the cross – which is at the end of the Gospels. A lot of what Jesus said to Israel was under the context of the Old Covenant. The Gospels do not explain why Jesus went to the cross and what He accomplished on the cross.

The Epistles are the letters written to the Church. They are based on the New Covenant and they apply directly to us. This explains why the Epistles are so different from the other parts of the Bible. We should be spending most of our time on the Epistles.

Only the Epistles (Romans) explain what happened on the cross. It explains what the Gospel is all about. They tell us what has changed after the cross for us the New Covenant believer. They are like the will for us as children of God. Ministers of the New Covenant will usually teach from the Epistles. I encourage you to study the Epistles, especially the letter of Paul – which are revelation packed.