Power of the Blood Covenant: Uncover the Secret Strength of God's Eternal Oath

by Malcolm Smith

  Hebrews 6:4,5

  The New Testament believers, although living as citizens of the Roman Empire, knew that first they were citizens of the kingdom of God and that ...the form of this world is passing away (1 Corinthians 7:31).

  The company of believers are those who, although living on earth, have their true citizenship in heaven. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:20).

  Paul wrote to the Philippians and made reference to the status of the city of Philippi within the Roman Empire. In the interest of colonizing Macedonia, the conquering Romans chose this important city and declared it a “little Rome” in the midst of Macedonia. Although Greek-speaking Macedonians, all the citizens of Philippi were made citizens of Rome. Within the city all the laws of the city of Rome were enforced, and the manners, fashions, and habits of Rome were encouraged. The Macedonians for miles around had a living demonstration of what the capital of the Empire was like; to enter into the city of Philippi was to enter into Rome and to be exposed to what Rome was all about. The Romans knew how to colonize; it was not long before the whole area had been Romanized.

  In the same way, Paul said to the Philippians, “Although you live on earth in Philippi, you are already true citizens of heaven. To come among you believers is to come into a ‘little heaven’ on earth, where His will is done as it is in heaven and the law of divine love holds sway. You are the living demonstration of the heart of Christ and what it means to be in Him. You are, in fact, the presence of the glory of God in Philippi.”

  As I have traveled the world, on occasion I have been in a country that is hostile to the West. In such a country, it is a great comfort to see the U.S. flag flying over a building. It tells me that it is the U.S. embassy, and to cross over its threshold, one enters “little U.S.” where the laws of the U.S. are operative. When I enter that building I enter an outpost of the U.S. Likewise, any pagan or believer who enters a company of believers has come into heaven, on the way to heaven, to be embraced by the unconditional love of God.

  But although in the Spirit the New Testament believers lived in all the powers of the end, the age to come, they yet waited for its fullness to be revealed at the Second Coming of Christ. They were people in whom the end had begun to be, while they awaited its consummation.

  This understanding gave them their outlook on life, how they conducted themselves and understood what was happening. It gave them a clear understanding of where they fit into the world that was finished and passing away.

  Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

  1 John 2:15-17

  They were forbidden a clinging to this life and its possessions, being part of this world that was passing away. They saw themselves as those who were passing-through strangers and pilgrims not caught up with a world that finds its meaning in the satisfaction of the flesh.

  Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.

  1 Peter 2:11

  We are walking the streets of our cities, working in factories and offices, with the stamp of eternity upon us. We are strangers and pilgrims, citizens of another world.

  The future heaven is as sure as the presence of the Spirit in the church. The Spirit is the seal of ownership on the believer; His presence is God’s saying, “This one is Mine.” He is also the guarantee of our finally receiving our covenant inheritance, which we have begun to receive in Him.

  In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

  Ephesians 1:13,14

  The Community of Agape

  Such a people living in this present age in the power of the life of God, everlasting life which is agape, are going to be marked by a divine love for one another.

  For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

  Galatians 3:26-29

  In any age, the community Paul describes is a miracle! Race, status in society, and gender have been transcended in Christ so that the people truly love and accept one another. Such a community of love and acceptance can only exist because the God who is love is dynamically in the midst of the people; His love is being poured into their hearts. It is this divine love for one another that marks and defines the covenant people in the world.

  “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

  John 13:34,35

  It is the Holy Spirit who pours out that love in our hearts.

  Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

  Romans 5:5

  The covenant produces a new and divine community of men and women who are literally the body of Christ on the earth. They are infused with His life, His very being, by the Spirit. This company is the dwelling of Jesus Christ on earth by the Spirit; it is among these people that His words of forgiveness are heard and received, that His healing power can be known and experienced. It is the place where God reveals Himself and His purposes.

  The presence of the Holy Spirit is the badge of the covenant people of God; and where the Spirit is, there is love. Any group that does not give first place to the Spirit and allow supernatural love to reign is not an authentic expression of the church. Note this connection in 1 John 4:7-8:

  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

  John addresses the Christian community and calls them to love one another. He uses the word agape, which we have seen is the word to describe the unique, unconditional love of God. The rationale he gives for such a command is that love (agape) is of God; it finds its eternal source in God, who is love. If we are born of God, then we will be partakers of God’s life that is agape and we will therefore love (agape) one another. That for John is the answer to the question as to who is in the community of the people of God and who is not. A person who does not love neither is born of God nor knows him.

  We are the people who have come to grasp and give definition to the love of God in the act of God in Christ. A Christian can never talk about love in the abstract; love has a face in the person of the Lord Jesus. Our salvation is in our seeing and believing His love, confessing Him as the truth, saying our amen, and submitting our lives to Him. If this is the case, then it is expected that we adjust our entire lives to that love and show it in loving one another.

  No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

  1 John 4:12-16

  He makes the amazing statement that the invisible God is beheld in the community of believers who actively love one another. As a community of people who have received Hi
s Spirit, we abide or dwell in Him and love one another. This is true of the community because it is true of each man and woman in the community. Notice it is not only the us of community but also the individual him or her.

  If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

  1 John 4:20,21

  He sums up the whole of the argument, showing the absolute necessity of love in the Christian community. We are the objects of the infinite unconditional love of God; we have partaken of that love through the Spirit and love our brothers with the power of that Spirit. If not, John dismisses our claim to being part of the people of God without further discussion.

  This high and lofty goal is set before us, and we move toward it. Do not be discouraged that you are not yet perfect! A little green apple is perfect for its age, and many of us are green and sour apples if compared to what we shall be when He is finished with us.

  Know and believe that the love of God to us transcends any human love of a parent. The little babe stumbles and falls, but the parents are delighted at any indication that steps are taken. There is celebration and records are made when the first stumbling step is taken in the midst of many sprawls on the floor. Likewise, there is celebration in heaven over the most awkward and immature attempts of the believer to walk in love and show any indication that Christ lives within. Do not focus on your faults and imperfections, but give glory to God and share in the celebration when you take a step that manifests Christ your life. You will fall, but you know who lives within you; pick yourself up and move on more aware of your weakness and, therefore, trusting in Him more deeply.

  Your Place in the Church

  Someone asked me if the church I have attempted to describe here really exists on the planet! The most common questions that come to me by letter and fill my e-mails are questions concerning the church. They ask, “Where do I find a local church that even remotely fits the New Testament model?” I find countless thousands of people burned out on the local church; they love the Lord but have given up on His people. They are tired of a church that is run like a Fortune 500 company, where the main reason to go on Sunday is to give in the omnipresent offering plate. Others are exhausted from a weekly diet of condemnation. Where do we find the people I have described in this chapter?

  There is no question that the church at the beginning of the twenty-first century is in a pitiful condition—from apostasy at one end of the spectrum, to spiritual lust after supernatural experience that at best is flesh and sometimes borders on witchcraft at the other end. How shall a believer go about coming to the kind of gathering of believers described here?

  Let me be frank with you who ask these questions. I have noted in talking with many believers concerning their involvement in a local church that they approach the matter almost entirely from the perspective of what they are going to get out of the arrangement. Finding a church has degenerated into a social context; it is understood as joining an exclusive club of like-minded people, where there will be lectures and entertainment provided each week. Church is understood as joining together to fulfill common goals and share common interests and have our children involved in a clean and safe environment, where they will also find their entertainment and social life. There is no awareness of being joined by the Spirit to a supernatural company of people to bring about the agape community of the covenant.

  The believer gathers together with those in the locality who have received the same grace gift of eternal life as he or she has and together with them seeks to give visible form to the community of agape in the area of town in which he or she lives. The believer along with all the others in that church will be the body of Christ in that neighborhood of the city.

  I often tell those looking for the perfect church, “You will find that the people in the church are probably not qualified to serve you, any more than you are ready or qualified to serve them. You are joining yourself to a group of very imperfect people who are at various stages of their growth in Christ. They will make many mistakes as they move toward loving one another as Christ has loved them. You will join yourself with them because they are your covenant brothers and sisters in Christ, and you too are a mistake-making, imperfect brother or sister, learning how to love.”

  The churches we know of in the New Testament were far from perfect, and Paul was aware that he was dealing with imperfect, immature believers who were liable to act in the most unchristian fashion at times. To discover how he handled those churches will help us as we settle into our imperfect, immature group.

  Spirit-Directed Imagination

  Paul had what we might call a Spirit-directed imagination; he saw believers as they truly were in Christ and how they would be when He had finished with them. He thought of them and addressed them in that fashion. The church in Corinth was in many respects a spiritual disaster, a zoo of conflicting voices fragmented around various leaders. In writing to them, Paul addressed them according to his Spirit-inspired imagination.

  To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

  1 Corinthians 1:2-8

  That is an amazing paragraph to be written to such a church! It is only because he has thus seen them that he can confront them in all of their problem areas. As you look at the body of believers that you are bound up with in being the body of Christ, learn to deliberately see them as they, as you, are in Christ. Let your faith see you with them as you will be when He has done His perfect work in you.

  Spirit-Directed Prayer

  But then, Paul prayed that the body would grow and mature. His prayers are to be found throughout the Epistles. Ephesians 1:16-21, 3:14-21, Philippians 1:9-11, and Colossians 1:9-12 are the major ones. In these prayers, he prays for them—believers—to come to know by experience who they really are in Christ.

  In the early 1960s I was a rookie pastor in Northern Ireland trying to bring my flock of Irish farmers to maturity in Christ, with little success. Then I realized that these prayers scattered through the New Testament were given to us by the Spirit, giving us a model for our prayers. I began to pray them for myself, and then for each member of the congregation, adjusting the prayers to their specific needs. Within months, a transformation had come to all of us. Daily pray these prayers for your pastor and the congregation, and you will see miracles take place before your eyes.

  Surrender to the Spirit, asking Him to show you what your place is in the body of believers, where you fit in bringing to pass this community of agape. Above all, remember that this is a covenant community and, therefore, hesed is the way the fellowship works. Toward every member, act in steadfast, loyal, covenant love. Put aside gossip and all malice, and speak only words of love to them and about them.

  Chapter 17: The Friend of God

  After addressing pastors in a meeting in Brazil, a young pastor shared his testimony. In broken English, he told me how he surrendered his life to God to preach the Gospel. He left a successful, blossoming business career, and his denomination sent him, along with his wife and baby girl, to a remote village in the region of the Amazon. They threw themselves into the preaching of the Gospel with zeal and excitement. He prayed and employed all his strength in the attempt to fill the little church with converts.

  But nothing happened.
The people did not come, and the few Christians who were there when he arrived did not share his excitement. He worked in the stifling humidity, watching his personal funds gradually drain away. Tithes from his tiny congregation were paid in vegetables. The weeks passed into months, and he watched in mental agony his wife and children living on a starvation diet. His denomination assured him that they would send money, but it rarely came. He felt disillusioned and abandoned by God and humanity.

  One night, lying awake sweating in the stifling heat, he felt his discouragement take over. He woke his wife and told her that he had decided they would leave and return to Rio Janeiro, where he would resume his business career. But before leaving, he knew he had to process his anger toward God.

  “He brought us up here and dumped us. He doesn’t care whether we live or die, and I have to tell Him how I feel,” he angrily told his wife. He left her to pack their few possessions while he went to spend time in a remote shack on the edge of the jungle to pour out his angry and confused heart to God.