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RenewingMinds
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The Five Biblical Spheres
A superficial handling of the Bible creates confusion not only for Christians, but for the general public and modern-day democratic governments as well. Decades of humanistic reasoning has led members of liberal denominations, and so-called peace churches, to abandon the veracity and authority of Scripture. Nevertheless, driven largely by emotional needs and motivated by the natural desire to bring an end to earthly conflict, many search the Bible to find support for their particular social and political bias. When it fits their cause (e.g., "beat swords to plowshares"), they treat Scripture as universally applicable to all times and place. When they find something they don't like (e.g., immorality of homosexuality) they apply an opposite principle so as to reject Scripture's authoritative claim. In short, they twist and manipulate.
"Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother [the Apostle] Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters [epistles: Romans to Philemon] speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some thing that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort [twist], as they do the other Scriptures to their own destruction" 2 Peter 3:15,16.
A widespread bad habit of these manipulators is to misapply Matthew 5 (Christ's Sermon on the Mount) to the present age. By contrast, the discerning student sees that portion of Christ's teaching as primarily applicable to the future Millennial Kingdom, an age anticipated by ancient Patriarchs and Prophets. The nominal reader's inability to understand, their mishandling and misinterpretation of the biblical text, is due to failure to read Scripture under the sovereign control and illumination of the Holy Spirit.
"In subject matter the division between the OT and the NT occurs at the Cross of Christ, rather than between Malachi and Matthew. The [Synoptic] Gospels, in the main, carry forward the same dispensational conditions that were in effect at the hour when Christ was born." L. S. Chafer, The Kingdom in History and Prophecy, p. 39.
The 2nd century tradition of dividing the sixty-six books of the Bible into Old Testament (OT) or Old Covenant and New Testament (NT) or New Covenant was unfortunately simplistic, misleading, and has biased the minds of scholars and average readers alike.
The English word testament, also translated covenant, is taken from the Hebrew and Greek words designating a compact or agreement. While a basic understanding of the these covenants is critical to understanding the Bible, much of the OT manuscripts (39 in number) are not about the Old Mosaic Covenant and a majority of the NT manuscripts (27 in number) only briefly reference the New Covenant.
The Bible discusses various God-authored spheres of human conduct. Some of these spheres relate to biblical covenants, some do not. Some related to dispensations, some do not. Understanding these spheres is critical to understanding the Bible. Discussed below are:
Under Government (Noahic Covenant)
Under Promise (Abrahamic Covenant)
Under Law (Mosaic Covenant)
In Christ Risen (The Church - Heavenly Parenthesis - No Covenant)
Millennial Kingdom (Israel's New Covenant)
Under Government - Noahic Covenant: The first occurrence of the word covenant is in Genesis 6:18. After divine global judgment, God made a covenant with Noah and his descendents who, like Adam before him, stood in the place of a representative man. With Noah, God instituted universal basic government. The full details of this covenant are found in Genesis 8:21 through 9:17.
Noah was chosen by God to representative both the earth and earth's inhabitants. The planet, every living creature, as well as mankind was made legal parties to the Noahic covenant.
The Noahic covenant specifically:
- reaffirms a procreation mandate (9:1),
- infuses "fear and dread" of mankind into the animal kingdom (9:2),
- revokes vegetarianism (9:3),
- forbids the consumption of blood (9:4),
- requires an "accounting" of all "lifeblood" (9:5), and
- mandates the death penalty for the crime of murder (9:6).
With a vivid reminder of man's anarchy and depravity (Gen. 6:5), the death penalty (to be imposed by society) was to serve as a multi-faceted deterrent to future violence and corruption. Those who oppose the death penalty, either through ignorance or willful rejection, are in defiance of God's agreement.
God gave the covenant duration--"As long as the earth endures" (8:22) as well as ratified it by placing the rainbow in the sky (8:12,13). The rainbow is similar to a signature on a written agreement. When the rainbow appears in the sky, God remembers His agreement with "all life the earth" (9:14-17). God has not withdrawn the covenant nor its obligations. It remains binding today on all humanity.
Under Promise - Abrahamic Covenant: According to an unconditional election, God gave the Jewish patriarch a covenant of promise (Genesis 15:1-21;17). That covenant had to do with: heir/descendents, physical land, as well as grace, faith, and with Christ (the Seed).
Grace - "...but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise" Galatians 3:18.
Faith - "He [Abraham] believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness...So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith" Galatians 3:6,9.
Christ - "The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ" Galatians 3:16.
On the basis of grace, faith, and a coming Christ, OT saints trusted and were forensically "justified" (Romans 4:5) as well as supernaturally empowered to walk morally. These were "children of the promise" (Romans 9:8). Further, Abraham was told that "all the nations" would be blessed on the basis of the principle of faith (Galatians 3:8). However, the Scriptures nowhere state that the blessings would be identical to his under the covenant.
Under Law - Mosaic Covenant: Four centuries after Abraham received the covenant of promise, God presented the Mosaic Covenant (law) to Israel. "For the law was given by Moses..." (John 1:17).
The law was not meant to replace or be added to the principle of promise, grace, and faith, but rather it was brought in alongside as a test. Israel was chosen by God to test and illustrate the character of fallen humanity in a special way.
"The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise" (Galatians 3:17,18).
God gave the law to Israel and set them on display before the world, to reveal the depths of mankind's depravity and lost condition, our depravity, inherited from the fallen First Adam. God's "law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good" (Romans 7:12). But it pertains to sin and death, not righteousness and life. "...through the law we become conscious of sin" (Romans 3:20b).
The law energizes sin and leads to hypocrisy; it reveals mankind's lost condition and intensifies his need.
"The law was added so that the trespass might increase" (Romans 5:20a). "But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it [law] produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful" (Romans 7:13).
Because we are all lost sinners, the law brings condemnation...NOT LIFE!
"Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men" (Romans 5:18).
The law was never given as a means of life for either elect Jew or non-Jew, but to lead sinners to Christ. The law can have nothing to do with grace, faith, or life.
"The law is not based on faith...Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up [on account of our sinful nature] until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified [and sanctified] by faith" (Galatians 3:12, 23,24).
The Mosaic Covenant proved that mankind's condition in the First Adam was totally incorrigible.
"For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But the Scriptures declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin..." (Galatians 3:21a-22b).
"For God has bound all men over to disobedience [through impartation of the law] so that he may have mercy on them all" (Romans 11:32).
"For if there had been nothing wrong with the first [Mosaic] covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people..." (Hebrews 8:7,8a)
The law was also given for governmental social order.
"We know that the law is good if a man uses it properly. We also know that law is made not for good men, but for [judging and punishing] lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious..." (1 Timothy 1:8,9b).
To posit the Mosaic Covenant as the Christian's "rule of life" constitutes unlawful use. The law is good, but its value is limited by design, and even that purpose will disappear in the future.
"By calling this [coming] covenant 'new,' he has made the first [Mosaic] one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear" (Hebrews 8:13).
The zenith (pinnacle) in testing of the First Adam came with the advent of Israel's Messiah (Christ) and His offer of himself as their King and Kingdom foretold in the OT. Although, the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are at the beginning of the traditional NT, they are directly related to the consummation of testing under the OT/Mosaic Covenant. Listen to Paul's words in Romans 5:12-21 and then study the graphic:
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. If, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Graphic: R. A. Huebner, Dispensational Truth, 1998, Volume 1, page 93.
God's testing of mankind ended at the Cross of Calvary! God would not, and could not, forgive fallen humanity; rather, He judged and condemned it in death through the Cross of Christ. Listen to seminal Christian author, Miles J. Stanford:
Our Position of Sin -- God did not forgive the principle of Satan-injected sin that dealt the death-blow to the human race through Adam. He does not forgive sin any more than He forgives Satan. On the Cross, in the person of His Son, our Father once and forever dealt with the principle of sin, thereby canceling our position of sin.
"For He hath made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us." "God sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the [His] flesh" (II Corinthians 5:21; Romans 8:3). Far from being forgiven, sin was judged and condemned in death.
Our Nature of Sin -- Our sinful life and nature were not forgiven, but likewise were taken into the judgment-death of the Cross. All that we inherited from Adam suffered this same fate. "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him" (Romans 6:6, ASV). Had it been possible for God to forgive our old nature [life inherited from the First Adam], it could then have been restored, or reinstated.
Our Personal Sins -- Our sins were forgiven--past, present, and future--by His shed Blood on Calvary. "Who His own self bore our sins in His own body upon the tree." "Having made peace through the Blood of His Cross." "Unto Him that loveth us, and washed us from our sins in His own Blood" (I Peter 2:24; Colossians 1:20; Revelation 1:5). The Complete Green Letters.
For the three aspects of the Fall, forgiveness is only extended to the third. God extents no forgiveness to either our position or condition of SIN. There is NO testing of mankind taking place today, no testing in any so-called "Grace" or "Church" Dispensation, and no testing in the Millennial Kingdom to come!
The Law is the sphere of hypocrisy (Romans 2:17-24). It was not God's intention that the Mosaic (Old) covenant would bring life.
For if there had been nothing wrong with the first (Old) covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people..." Hebrews 8:7,8.
And thus,
"The time is coming, declares the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah..." Hebrews 8:8a.
Sadly, a majority of Christians foolishly attempt to live according to Mosaic covenant. For over two millennia, the doctrinal error spoken of in the NT epistle of Galatians (Galatianism) has ravaged Christians and Christendom.
In Christ Risen - Mystery Revealed - Before establishing His New Covenant with Israel (Jeremiah 31:31-34), God initiated something previously hidden from OT patriarchs and prophets. Through the Apostle Paul, God revealed...
"...the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints." Colossians 1:26
While the NT contains only eight verses which refer to "new covenant," the Apostle Paul's epistles speak of mystery (μυστήριον///-musterion), truth previous hidden but now revealed, several dozen times.
So what is the mystery? Before answering this all important question, it may be beneficial to identify what the mystery is not. It was no mystery that blessings would come to non-Jews (Gentiles) on the basis of grace and faith. Such righteousness, from God and apart from law, was no mystery. God revealed this to Abraham and it was a well-known OT fact (Romans 3:21). Neither was it a mystery that God would send Israel a Messiah, and that He would establish a Kingdom. This was the subject of many OT prophecies.
Like a gem stone, the mystery has several facets. So let's draw together three of Paul's references to the mystery:
"To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Colossians 2:1:27.
"...and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church." Ephesians 5:31b,32.
"And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ" Ephesians 1:9,10.
So the mystery has to do with Christ in you, the union of Christ and His Bride, and the coming consummation by Christ the Head of the New Creation. Regarding this soon-to-be implemented oneness, listen to Christ in His prayer to the Father:
"My prayer is not for them [current disciples] alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believer that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 'Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.'" John 17:20-24.
It is vitally important to understand how the Lord Jesus prepared His then disciples for the imminent transition from His ministry to the nation of Israel to the descent of the Holy Spirit and formation of the Body of Christ at Pentecost. For your progressive growth, please read, THE TRUE VINE, exposition by Miles Stanford on the 15th Chapter of the Gospel of John.
Pentecost: The Baptism of the Holy Spirit
The key to understanding the baptism by the Spirit is that it is a positional truth. It is not an experience; it has nothing to do with feelings. The baptism is an instantaneous work comprised of many simultaneous acts of the sovereign God. The following comments deal with but five of these acts which concern us here.
- Observing what transpired at Pentecost we see that the first act was regeneration, or new birth, by the Spirit (Titus 3:5; John 3:6).
- When the Holy Spirit came, He was to indwell the believers. Hitherto, He had been with them; now He was to abide in them forever, ministering the risen life of the Lord Jesus (John 14:16, 17; Colossians 1:27).
- At the same time, He baptized each of them into union with Christ at the right hand of the Father on high (Ephesians 2:6). This was the fulfillment of our Lord’s promise, “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (John 14:20). The believer is not baptized in or into the Spirit, as the charismatics teach. The Holy Spirit is the Baptizer, or Agent of baptism, not the element into which one is baptized: “For by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body” (I Corinthians 12:13). The “one body” is the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the Church (Colossians 1:18, 24).
- Upon believing, each was sealed with the indwelling Spirit. This has a threefold significance: a finished transaction; a mark of ownership; a guarantee of safe delivery [security]. “In whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest [down payment] of our inheritance, unto the [final] redemption of God’s own possession” (Ephesians 1:13, 14, ASV).
- Also, each received the anointing of the Spirit, which is closely related to His indwelling. This too, abides and is not a repeated act (I John 2:20, 27). “Now he who...hath anointed us, is God, who hath also sealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” (II Corinthians 1:21, 22).
Hence each believer from Pentecost to this day has been, by the Holy Spirit, regenerated, indwelt, baptized into Christ, sealed and anointed--all apart from feelings. These are separate acts, but simultaneously wrought--and non-experiential. Faith in these scriptural facts is absolutely necessary if the believer is to be invulnerable to the siren call of the charismatic claims.The baptism by the Spirit involves more than being “immersed” into the Body of Christ. It means to be brought into organic union with that which is capable of bringing about a change. This baptism is the sovereign act by which the believer’s position is changed from death in the first Adam to life in the Last Adam. The Christian becomes a completely new creation in Christ Jesus (II Corinthians 5:17). “Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with Him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3, 4, ASV)THE LINE DRAWN, Miles J. Stanford
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Millennial Kingdom - Israel's coming New Covenant.
"For if there had been nothing wrong with the first [Mosaic] covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: The time is coming, declares the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt [under Moses], because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,', because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. By calling this covenant 'new,' he has made the first [Mosaic] one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear" (Hebrews 8:7-13).
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In summary, the following illustrates biblical history.
For a more detailed chart, click on this graphic.
- SEATED
- ASCENDED
- RAISED
- BURIED
- CRUCIFIED
