YAHWEH'S Two Covenants: Their Relationship

The Spirit Of Bondage And The Spirit Of Freedom

There were the types of the two covenants, the Spirit of bondage and the Spirit of freedom, even as it was in YAHWEH'S Tabernacle

YAHWEH'S Two Covenants were necessary, each in their own workings, to bring us into a full and complete relationship with our ABBA (FATHER) YAHWEH. It has been written: "Avraham (Abraham) had two sons, one by the maidservant and one by the free woman. The one of the maidservant was born according to the flesh and the one of the free woman through the promise. These things are an allegory: for these are two Covenants" GalutYah (Galatians) 4:22-24. There are two Covenants, one called the Old, the other the New. YAHWEH speaks of this very distinctly in YermeYah (Jeremiah) : "The days come, that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Yisrael, not after the Covenant I made with their fathers" (YermeYah (Jeremiah) 31. This is quoted in (Ivrim (Hebrews) 8:8-13), with the addition of: "In that YAHWEH said a New Covenant, YAHWEH has made the first old." YAHSHUA spoke of the New Covenant in HIS blood (MattitYahu (Matthew) 26:28). In YAHWEH'S dealings with YAHWEH'S SetApart Ones in the working out of the great deliverance, it has pleased YAHWEH that there should be two Covenants. It pleased YAHWEH not as an arbitrary appointment, but for good and wise reasons which made it necessary that it should be so, and for no other reason. The clearer our insight into the reasons of there being two Covenants and into their relationship to each other, the more full and true can be our personal understanding of what the New Covenant is meant to be to us. They indicate two stages in YAHWEH'S dealing with man, two ways of serving YAHWEH; a lower or simpler one of preparation and promise, a higher or more advanced one of fulfillment and possession. As that which is truly excellent in the second opens up to us, we can spiritually enter into what YAHWEH has prepared for us. Let us try to understand why there should have been two, neither less nor more The reason is to be found in the fact that, in religion, in all fellowship between YAHWEH and man, there are two parties and each of these must have the opportunity to prove what their part is in the Covenant. In the Old Covenant man had the opportunity given him to prove what he could do, with the aid of all the means of favor that YAHWEH could grant. That Covenant ended in man proving his own unfaithfulness and failure.

The New Covenant which YAHWEH engaged will never be broken, YAHWEH keeps it and ensures our keeping it, therefore YAHWEH makes it an everlasting Covenant

In the New Covenant YAHWEH is to prove what YAHWEH can do with man, unfaithful and weak as he is, when YAHWEH is allowed and trusted to do all the work. The Old Covenant was one that was dependent on man's obedience, one which he could break and did break (YermeYah 31:32). The New Covenant is one which YAHWEH engaged will never be broken, YAHWEH keeps it and ensures our keeping it, therefore YAHWEH makes it an everlasting Covenant It will repay us richly to look a little deeper into this. This relationship of YAHWEH to fallen man in the New Covenant is the same as it was to unfallen man to his Creator. And what was that relationship? YAHWEH wished to make a man in YAHWEH'S own image and likeness. The honour of YAHWEH is that YAHWEH has Life in this One's own self, YAHWEH is independent of all else and owes what YAHWEH is to this One's own self alone. If the image and likeness of YAHWEH was not to be in NAME only and man was really to be like YAHWEH in the power to make himself what he was to be, he needs to have power of free will and self-determination. This was the problem YAHWEH had to solve in mans creation in YAHWEH'S image. Man was to be a creature made by YAHWEH and yet he was to be, as far as a creature could be, YAHWEH-like or self-made. In all YAHWEH'S dealings with man these two factors were always to be taken into account. YAHWEH always takes the initiative and is to man the source of life. Man was always to be the recipient and yet at the same time the arranger of the life YAHWEH created. When man had fallen by disobedience and YAHWEH entered into a Covenant of deliverance, these two sides of the relationship had to still be maintained intact. YAHWEH always to be first and man the second. Yet man as made in YAHWEH'S image was always to be second, having full time and opportunity to take or reject what YAHWEH gave to prove how far he could help himself and indeed be self-made. His absolute dependence upon YAHWEH was not to be forced upon him, if it was really to be a thing of moral worth and true happiness, it must be his deliberate and voluntary choice. And this is the reason why there was a first and second Covenant, so that in the first, man's desires and efforts might be fully awakened and time given for him to make full proof of what his human nature, with the aid of outside instruction, miracles, and means of YAHWEH'S favor, could accomplish. When his complete weakness, his hopeless captivity under the power of Law breaking (sin) had been discovered, there came the New Covenant in which YAHWEH was to reveal how man's true freedom from Law breaking (sin) and self, his true place, and YAHWEH-likeness was to be found in the entire and absolute dependence in YAHWEH'S being and doing all within him.

It Is Possible Within The New Covenant To Still Be Held In Bondage Of The Old

In the very nature of things, there was no other way YAHWEH could deal with a being whom YAHWEH had given the YAHWEH-like power of a will. And all these reasons for YAHWEH'S dealings with YAHWEH'S people as a whole are equally true in dealings with the individual. The two Covenants represent two stages of YAHWEH'S education of man and of man's seeking after YAHWEH. the progress and transition from the one to the other is not merely chronological or historical, it is organic and spiritual. In greater or lesser degree, it is seen in every member of the body of YAHSHUA, as well as in the assembly. Under the Old Covenant there were men in whom the powers of the coming deliverance worked mightily. In the New Covenant there are people in whom the spirit of the Old Covenant still makes itself manifest. The New Covenant proves in some of its most important epistles especially those to the Galatians, Romans and Hebrews, how it is possible within the New Covenant to still be held in bondage of the Old. This is the teaching from which our text is taken. In the home of Avraham, the father of the faithful, Yishmael (Ishmael), and Yitzchak (Isaac) are both found, the one born of a slave, the other of a free woman. The one after the flesh and will of man, the other through the promise and power of YAHWEH, the one only for a time, then to be cast out, the other to be heir of all. This is the picture held out to the Galatians of the life they were living, as they trusted to the flesh and its religion, and yet they proved by their being captive to Law breaking, to be not of the free, but of the slave woman. Only through belief and trust in the promises and the mighty quickening power of YAHWEH could they, could any of them, be made truly and fully free, standing in the freedom for which the MESSIYAH YAHSHUA made us free.

One Great Cause Of The Powerlessness Of So Many Believers

As we proceed to study the two Covenants in this light and in all scripture, we will see how they are indeed YAHWEH'S uncovering of two systems of religious worship, each with its spirit or life principle ruling every man who professes to be a believer. We will see how the one great cause of the powerlessness of so many believers is just this, that the Old Covenant spirit of bondage still has mastery. And we will see that nothing, but a spiritual insight with a whole hearted acceptance and a living experience of all the New Covenant engages that YAHWEH will work in us, can possibly fit us for walking as YAHWEH wants us to. This truth of there being two stages in our service to YAHWEH, two degrees of nearness in our worship, is shown by example in many things in the Old Covenant worship. Perhaps nowhere more clearly, than in the difference between the SetApart Place and the Most SetApart Place (the holy place and the most holy place) in the Tabernacle, with the veil separating the two. Into the first the kohen- (priests) could enter to draw near to YAHWEH. Yet they could not come too near, the veil kept them at a distance, to enter within the veil was death. Once a year the High Kohen (Priest) could enter as a promise of time when the veil would be taken away and full access to dwell in YAHWEH'S presence would be given to YAHWEH'S SetApart Ones. In the MESSIYAH'S death, the veil of the Tabernacle was torn in two and YAHSHUA'S blood gives us boldness and power to enter the Most SetApart Place of all and live there day by day in the immediate presence of YAHWEH. It is in this way that in Avraham’s house there were the types of the two Covenants, the spirit of bondage and the Spirit of freedom, even as it was in YAHWEH'S Tabernacle. The Kohen did not yet have the freedom of access into the ABBA'S presence. Not only among the Galatians, but everywhere throughout the Assembly there were, and are, found the two classes of believer. Some believers are content with the mingled life, half flesh and half Spirit, half self-effort and half unmerited favor (love). Others are not content with this, but are seeking with their Whole heart to know the full plan of deliverance from Law breaking, and. what walking in the full power into YAHWEH'S presence is, which the New Covenant has brought in and can give. YAHWEH help us all to be satisfied with nothing less! So be it.

 Note: There is a true pure religion (religious) of YAHWEH as mentioned in the New Covenant. Yet we do not want this word to be misconstrued to mean the worldly "religion" that is defiled by man today.

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