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The
Covenant Relationship
Lesson Ten (part Four)
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Blessings and
Curses of the New Covenant:
As God’s ultimate and final covenant with humanity, the New Covenant
abounds with both blessings and curses.
We will look at the ultimate forms of reward and punishment, but first a
look at the immediate.
“’I tell you the
truth,’ Jesus replied, ‘no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or
mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to
receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers,
sisters, mothers, children and fields--and with them, persecutions) and in
the age to come, eternal life. But
many who are first will be last, and the last first.’” (Mk. 10:29-31).
Immediate Blessings and Curses: The focus will be on the blessings Christians
receive as God’s NC partners in this life (and likely continue into eternity).
1. Fellowship—Christians are
one with God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (the Spirit is the immediate link,
see 2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:1). Their
entire life experience is now shared with God, and His incredible attributes of
love, faithfulness, power, wisdom, and riches of every kind are theirs. Fellowship means sharing or participation. Thus we share a oneness with God that even
includes sharing in the sufferings of Jesus[1] (2 Cor. 1:5; Phil. 3:10), and
this is considered a privilege (Acts 5:41; 1 Peter 4:13). Fellowship also opens the Christian’s line
of prayer to God, including perfect prayer translation by the Holy Spirit
(Rom. 8:26-27).
The fellowship linking God and Christian
also joins all members of the church (Acts 2:42; Gal. 2:9). The blessings resulting from Christian
fellowship are wide in scope and variety.
Fellowship is restricted exclusively to other Christians (2 Cor.
6:14-7:1) and it may be revoked from Christians who become heretical, sinful,
immoral or divisive (Matt. 18:15-20; Rom. 16:17-18; 1 Cor. 5:1-2, 11). This loss and exclusion is definitely a
“curse”!
2. “Grace-gifts”—These spiritual
gifts are called “charisma(ta)” in Greek, drawn from the word
for grace, “charis”. Thus, we
might call them grace-gifts and see them as expressions of God’s grace (thus,
undeserved gifts). Some of the
grace-gifts (especially speaking in tongues and prophecy) confirm the
truthfulness of the Gospel preaching (Acts 14:3; Rom. 15:18-20). Although all grace-gifts are
“supernatural” or “miraculous”, in that they are given by God from the
supernatural realm, still some grace-gifts do not demonstrate supernatural,
superhuman ability. Lists of grace-gifts
often include miraculous and non-miraculous gifts without distinction (Rom.
12:3-8; 1 Cor. 12:4-11; 1 Pet. 4:10-11).
The purpose of grace-gifts within the church (i.e. apart from the
evangelistic purpose) is to enable the various members with differing abilities
to function as a single, God-directed body through the Holy Spirit.
Some
other important considerations:
a.
Every Christian receives at least one gift (1 Cor. 12:7; Eph. 4:7-13).
b.
Since the lists of grace-gifts differ, we may assume that none of them lists
all possible gifts. There may be some
gifts that appear on none of the lists.
c.
Gifts that were “evidential” have ceased, since they were tied to the
apostolic ministry, with the “laying on” of apostolic hands (Acts 8:17-18). With the end of the apostolic age, the “revelatory”
gifts (prophecy and inspiration) that produce “Scripture” have also ceased.
d.
While some gifts are more valuable than others (1 Cor. 12:27-31; 14:1-5, 18),
we are often poor judges of their relative value (1 Cor. 12:21-26).
e. Paul insists that LOVE is a greater
attainment than any or all of the spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 13).
3. Angels—Angels are
supernatural beings sent by God to serve His purposes and His people (and His
prospective people, see Cornelius in Acts 10) in the natural world (Heb.
1:14). Sometimes they are visible, but
we may encounter them without even recognizing their true identity (Matt.
18:10; Heb. 13:2).
4.
Relational blessings—these are too numerous to spell out
here, but consider that the Christian receives love, hope, joy, peace, and
comfort through struggles and hardships.
The Christian need never fear being totally alone. Many of these blessings are touched-off in
the profound experience of worship.
Beyond this, those taught of God to achieve success in relationships
(especially covenant relating) may translate this success into other relationships: marriage, parenting, church fellowship,
etc. We also are strengthened through
instruction and wisdom when God speaks to us through the Scriptures, through
reading, teaching, and in preaching.
5. A word on immediate curses. Those who remain outside of covenant
blessings may consider the losses of the above blessings as a curse. We see the power of this loss in two other
ways. First, church discipline is
administered with no other punishment than severed relationships, and with this
a corresponding loss of blessings.[2] Second, the “baptism of the Holy Spirit”
on Pentecost should be considered a judgment that distinguishes unbeliever
from Christian. Curiously, while the
focus of most judgments is on the negative side, (that is, the reception of
punishment by the ungodly, while God’s people escape), the focus of this NT/NC
judgment is on the positive side—the blessings borne by the Spirit exclusively
to the children of God in Christ, while those outside go lacking. This exclusion from blessing then goes to the
heart of the “ultimate” blessings and curses to which we now turn.
Ultimate Blessings and Curses:
It may be simplest to continue the thought of the previous section, where
the major immediate “curse” was simply missing out on the blessings received by
Christians. Now, as we look to the end
of times when God’s final judgment is convened, the same curse applies:
“I say to you
that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at
the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown
outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth." (Matt. 8:11-12)
Yes, “outside” of Heaven is Hell, a
place of eternal torment (Matt. 25:41, 46), but the greatest punishment will
not be the sheer torment. The worst
punishment will be banishment and exclusion from God and from saved loved ones,
with all hope gone for changing one’s mind.
1. Heaven--Ultimate
blessings bring Heaven to mind, but it should be understood that the few
passages that attempt to describe Heaven do not provide a detailed
picture. Instead, the limited treatment
is merely suggestive, designed to whet the appetite of the imagination, as if
to say, “It’s going to be awesome beyond words!” And to reflect oppositely of Hell, the
greatest blessings involve not WHAT is in Heaven, but WHO is in Heaven! The greatest enjoyment will be relationships,
first with God and then with Christian brothers and sisters. The covenant built on faithfulness and love
will continue to produce the fruit of successful, vital relationship.
2. God’s approval—“Well done, good
and faithful servant!” will be the delightful proclamation of our Lord for each
of us. Although we have this approval
now, it will often have a too-good-to-be-true feel until we have passed the
final test. We have all felt the
terrible burden of guilt and disapproval; in Heaven it will be finally lifted! And we will not again lose God’s approval,
since there will be no sin in Heaven.[3]
3. Reigning with Christ—Adam and Eve
were intended to have “dominion”, but the sin experience led to domination by
Satan instead. There are powerful hints
in Scripture that our role in Heaven among the redeemed will involve a recovery
of this dominion, so that we reign with our Lord (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 3:21,
5:9-10, 20:4-6) and will also judge (1 Cor. 6:2).
4. A new body—Although our
spirit is stripped from our body in death, we will not go bodiless, like
sanctified ghosts, into the next life (2 Cor. 5:1-4). At the end of all present things and the
beginning of eternity, our bodies will be changed (1 Cor. 15:35-44).
5. A new purpose? We can only speculate here, but we can say
without doubt that everything in this life and in this world was, in some
sense, preparatory for what follows. Sin
and suffering and death, enemies one and all, have served a purpose in these
earthly realms of both testing and developing our souls. We can see this not only in our individual
life experiences, but in the purposes of God worked out in the total flow of
redemptive history. Adam and Eve, before
the plunge into sin that engulfed the entire remaining history of humanity,
were on the verge of a very different reality.
We can only imagine how different their existence if God had then been
honored and Satan defeated from his first temptation. But now at last, all who graduate will be
gathered in eternity and we might guess that we will take up at the point
before the great failure some purpose of God that will finally come to glorious
fulfillment.
[1] These sufferings do not include many of the
incidental ways we suffer (such as health problems, or even catastrophes),
although these sufferings stir dynamics in our spiritual life (thus, we do not
even grieve as do unbelievers, see 1 Thess. 4:13). Rather, the “sufferings of Christ” that we
fellowship are those that come when we “pay the price” for decisions made to
honor or obey the Lord.
[2] “The power of disFELLOWSHIP is in the
FELLOWSHIP.” The punishment will be
perceived to be stronger if the loss of fellowship involves breaking especially
dear and valuable relationships.
[3] From a website:
“The Bible describes heaven in great detail in Revelation chapters
21-22. Nowhere in those chapters is the
possibility of sin mentioned. There will
be no more death, sorrow, crying, or pain (Revelation 21:4). The sinful are not in heaven, but in the lake
of fire (Revelation 21:8). Nothing
impure will ever enter heaven (Revelation 21:27). Outside of heaven are those who sin
(Revelation 22:15). So, the answer is no,
there will be no sin in heaven.”
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