Lifted Veil

Dear friends,

Introducing NewCovenantTheology.org. - my latest team project.  I’ve set it up and have invited a number of key New Covenant Theology (NCT) representatives to be added as editors to the list of contributors.

Goal:  An NCT hub to act as a portal to key NCT information and sites.  Continue Reading »

New Covenant Person - Joe KrygierNew Covenant Person - Joe Krygier

New Covenant Power - Shane BeckerNew Covenant Power - Shane Becker

Applying the truths of Gospel Sanctification to Repentance means maintaining a deeply sorrowful sense of indwelling personal sin while also rejoicing in the present reality of the full and free forgiveness in Jesus Christ, looking forward with expectation to the final delivery ‘from this body of death’.

“. . . God’s kindness leads you toward repentance.” Rom 2:4

A high view of our Holy God mixed with a sorrow over our own personal sin leads to a treasuring of Jesus Christ and complete surrender to His wondrous, gracious and extensive Gospel promises, and gift of Himself, as the only way to return us to the embrace of our loving heavenly Father.

Repentance therefore ought to be coupled with a relishing of the full & free gospel promises of love, forgiveness, acceptance, justification and of union with Christ Himself. Otherwise, repentance can become a defeated and mournful wallowing in the very slough we are being saved from rather than a turning from it and glorying in the eternal happy state we are being saved to. Thus even your repentance ought to be to the heart-felt praise and glory of God!
Although we are miserable creatures, of ourselves, we don’t wallow in defeat or remain self-focused but rather look to God, with thankful heart, for the provision of a solution in Jesus Christ.  True repentance leads to Christ-exultation:

“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Rom 7:23-25

“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” 1 Tim 1:15-17

Our repentance must not be characterised by wallowing or self-focus because, ” . . . whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.” Phil 4:8

When you are convicted over sin, don’t wallow in defeat, but simply confess your sin and weakness to God, thank Him that even in this Christ is sufficient to cover your sin and present you faultless before the throne of grace, and He is the one that will bring deliverance from the very sin you struggle with.  He loves you anyway and always - thank and praise him for it.  And in this you will glorify God in your repentance.

Is your repentance done to the heartfelt praise and glory of God? 

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
1 Cor 10:31-32

At one point I came to understand the need for the ministry of grace to strengthen believers.  I struggled knowing exactly how or where the preaching of commandments came into things.  I was challenged by a legalist to explain why we can’t simply take an ‘imperative’ text and preach it, by which he meant rebuke believers for their lack of faithfulness and exhort them to obedience ( i.e. club believers with the commands). After all, it’s in the Bible, we need to hear it, and be exhorted to obey, right?  It took quite a while for me to figure out what was actually wrong with what he was saying (and doing).

I came to realise that an assumption was brought to the commands by the legalist that forgets that the indelible mark of a Christian is he “loves to keep God’s commandments because those commandments are no longer grievous” ( I John 5:1-3). 

The assumption implicit (and sometime explicit!) in legalistic preaching is that believers don’t want to obey and need to be dragged against their will to obedience.  Taken out of the equation is the new heart, the Spirit’s work, New Covenant realities, and ultimately Jesus Christ Himself.  

Legalists underestimate the power of a believer’s new heart feasting on the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.  So legalists turn their attention to subduing the flesh through rebuke and sharp exhortation.  Scripture teaches this doesn’t help bring about obedience but rather fuels the sinful nature by either leading to pride in those who feel successful or leading to despair in those that feel the burden of failure. 

In one illustration, Walter Marshall says that much preaching is like telling a man to take his weapons and go and enter a battle.  If the man is a soldier he will do it readily.  But we are more like sick men on our death beds without the strength to so much as pick up our weapon. The question that needs answering is: How can I, without any strength in myself, perform such an overwhelming task?

The strength to enliven us, and give us power to get out of our sick beds to face the battle, is the gospel alone - to be embraced afresh every day.  So our first duty is to believe on Christ and receive healing strength from the great physician who alone gets the glory. 

“1O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4Did you suffer so many things in vain–if indeed it was in vain? 5Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith– 6just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?” Galatians 3:1-6.

Resting in grace-

Shane.

I was recently part of a great discussion that all started with this short video clip: 

http://www.desiringgod.org/media/video/vftp_promo05.mov

(Reference: Sound of Grace discussion Group April/May discussions: http://freegroups.net/groups/soundofgrace/)

Over the next few posts I’ll be explaining the importance of Gospel Sanctification, sharing some of the discussion details, and answering some of the questions raised - which were some of the very issues I have struggled with and perhaps some of you also struggle with.

Shane.

Below are some selective quotes from Prof. Dennis M. Swanson, from The Masters Seminary, critiquing New Covenant Theology (NCT) and its adherents.  Prof. Swanson accurately states, NCT . . .

” . . . is firmly within the Evangelical Tradition . . . they love the Scripture, they believe in inerrancy, they love the Lord Jesus Christ, they teach justification by faith, they teach . . . many of the things we would affirm here. “

“. . . is characterised by a diligent and sincere effort to understand and apply the Scripture consistently . . . it is clear that these are folks who honour the word of God and want to understand it and they want to apply it rightly to their lives and to the lives of the people they are leading”.

” . . . is a movement dedicated to the local church. It is a local church movement. It is a group that is probably more concerned about their local churches than they are even propagating their system . . .”

“. . . is a grass roots movement. It is a movement that has come not from the academy, not from noted theological writers, not from seminaries, and filtered down to the churches. It is a movement that has started among Pastors in churches . . .”

“There is also no unified eschatology among New Covenant Theologians.  In New Covenant Theology premillennialism,  postmillennialism and amillennialism are all represented  . . . the only unanimity they have in their eschatology is . . . they are unified in rejecting a future for the nation of Israel as a distinct entity . . . What they have done with eschatology is simply render it unimportant . . . Corporate eschatology, in relation to the millennium, rapture, and so on, those kinds of questions are just not important (to them). . . it is simply not important. It is a non-issue. It is nothing to get bothered about. It is a minor and unimportant issue in terms of studies.” 

“It is clear this movement does represent an honest attempt to examine the Scripture and apply it to the believer.  Their ministries are geared around the local church,  helping individual believers, evangelism . . . they are very, very strong in Bible study.”

And my personal favourites:

“Perhaps most importantly . . . New Covenant Theology is a theology of the Internet. . . absent the internet, and absent the connectivity of people being able to have web pages and email and communicate back and forth, it is likely that New Covenant Theology simply would not exist. It would exist in individual minds and individual churches scattered who never connect.”  (Yes!!)

“All of their (NCT related) published works have come from their own ministry based publishing efforts.” 

“In Depth Studies began as a campus ministry in Arizona state.  This is the ministry of Lehrer, Volker and Feather. It is a web based umbrella sort of ministry . . . It is very well done. It is a good site, they take very good care of it, they are very savvy in their use of the internet and their material there is easily accessible and for the most part its free.” 
(And well done to Jaime Adams, the webmaster of IDS.org!!).

Thank you Prof Swanson for your fair, kind, encouraging and accurate words regarding NCT in the above quotes. 
 

The Masters Seminary (TMS) is currently critiquing New Covenant Theology (NCT) in their current faculty lecture series.  These are available for download from their site:    Download Link.

Also be sure to keep up with the In Depth Studies (IDS) ongoing response by Steve Lehrer on their blog:

http://idsblog.org/

As I am associate editor of SoloChristo.com the comments by Prof. Dennis M. Swanson, regarding the growth of NCT being largely attributed to the internet, makes me do the happy dance.  SoloChristo.com was the flagship of the NCT internet web sites.  Full credit to senior editor Dale LaVoie who early recognised the significance of the internet medium for the spread of the great gospel truths expounded in NCT, who built the site from scratch and launched it back in 1994.  I can take no credit for the early impact of SoloChristo.com but am privileged to be part of this great project in taking over the running of the site and keeping its impact going.  The story of how I came to take over this great work can be found here.

Full credit also to Jaime Adams who has built the IDS.org site and blog and keeps it going.  The quality of IDS.org sets a new standard in web site excellence that the rest of us webmasters in the NCT community struggle to keep up with. Prof. Dennis M. Swanson also mentioned the quality of this site and its ongoing impact.  It was a real joy for me to meet Jaime last year and discuss options for working together. 

And I must also mention Moe Bergeron, who has single-handedly launched the following:

• SoundofGrace.com, the web ministry of John Reisinger.
• Piper Notes, the original John Piper library web site launching his ministry on the internet.
• Christway Media, for Donald A. Carson and others.
• Biblical Studies, the web ministry of Fred Zaspel.
• The Grizzly Bible Institute web site.
• The Sound of Grace Discussion Group, which continues to be a key web forum where NCT representatives sharpen one another.

Moe has become a wonderful friend and role model for me.  In addition to his web work Moe has maintained a full time secular job as well as maintained a Pastorate. 

There are others who I haven’t mentioned because I don’t know who they are although I am very familiar with their web sites and the authors they support.  The work of an NCT webmaster is largely ‘behind the scenes’ and not recognised although the impact has been significant.  Maintaining the prominent NCT web ministries come down to only a handful of people.  For the most part we don’t have paid webmasters or faculty staff to do this work.  It is a labor of love to our glorious Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

A friend at church asked me how I would describe New Covenant Theology. Below is my reply.

–//–

Regarding your question about the characteristics of New Covenant Theology.
 
I would describe New Covenant Theology in terms of ‘flavour’ and ‘distinctives’.
 
1. Flavour
 
You are familiar with the flavour.  It is the same flavour of Christ Community Church (NB: Church we both attend) . That is, seeing the totality of God’s redemptive program culminating in the person and work of Jesus Christ and living daily in the joy and grace of that reality.  For the most part, when I think of NCT, I think of people, churches, and theology that use the entire Bible to help us “look unto Jesus”, “preach nothing but Christ and Him crucified” and display Christ’s work through “Moses and all the Prophets”. (Heb 12:2, 1 Cor 2:2, Luke 24:13-27).  NCT is centred upon the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
 
This article describes NCT with an emphasis upon that ‘flavour’:  http://liftedveil.org/theology/nct/MurrayMcLellan_GloryofGodinFaceofJesus.html
 
2. Distinctives
 
The distinctives, like Covenant Theology & Dispensationalism, have some variance among the NCT individuals.  However, I believe this article summarises the key distinctives well: http://liftedveil.org/theology/nct/GaryLong_NewCovenantTheologyDistinctives.html
 
Your brother in Christ, Our Covenant-
 
Shane.
 
“I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness;
   I will take you by the hand and keep you;
I will give you as a covenant for the people,
   a light for the nations” Isaiah 42:6
 
“Thus says the LORD:
‘In a time of favor I have answered you;
   in a day of salvation I have helped you;
I will keep you and give you
   as a covenant to the people,
to establish the land,
   to apportion the desolate heritages,’ ” Isaiah 49:8
 
 
 

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"Since there is but one covenant, and the Scriptures speak of it as though it were two, we must consider in what particulars the old and new covenants agree and in what they differ." Dr. Zacharias Ursinus

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Study Notes

16So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. 18Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. 20Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations– 21Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” 22which all concern things which perish with the using–according to the commandments and doctrines of men? 23These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.  Col 2:16-23
 

The “Sabbath(s)” of Colosians 2:16

“So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths . . . “

Four interpretations – 3 Sabbatarian & 1 Non-Sabbatarian:

1.      Sabbath = “Ceremonial” Sabbaths and not the Sabbath of the 4^th Commandment. (Common among Sunday Sabbatarians such as the puritans).

2.      Sabbath = Old Testament ceremonial and civil elements which are abolished. However, a 1 day in 7 cycle still remains.

3.      Sabbath = a perverted “Sabbath” practiced in Collose which bears no resemblance to the Sabbath of the 4^th Commandment. The condemnation is against this new and perverted “Sabbath” with no reference being made to the true Sabbath.

4.      Sabbath = The Weekly Sabbath day of the 4^th Commandment.

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