The most important thing to understand about the Bible

The Whole Bible was written for you........

BUT the whole Bible was not written to you. 

(Extracted from the free eBook Administering the children's bread by Cornel Marais and Simon Wilson www.charismaministries.org)

• You have to rightly divide the Word of truth (The Scriptures) to find out which are applicable to you and which are not.
• The most important thing to divide between, is the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

Law vs Grace 

This is not to be confused with the Old Testament and New Testament

which are merely a collection of books written before and after a significant point in time.

Covenant Governs Relationship

The covenant you are under determines: 

1. How God relates to you and 

2. How you relate to God. 

Don’t relate to Him through a covenant that is not applicable to you!

A covenant is like an employment contract. It defines the parameters of your relationship. Without understanding your covenant/contract you do not know how to relate to your employer (or God).

2 Tim 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (NKJV)

John 1:17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (NKJV) 

Hos 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (NKJV)

Knowing your rights (what Jesus died to give you) as a son of God and finding your identity in Him, is what will result in you living a life of faith and power. The most sure place to find out what your rights are is the Word of God. 

Heb 8:6-13 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah — 9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." 13 In that He says, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. (NKJV)

• Covenant determines how God relates to people.
  
• The Old (Law) Covenant: God had to relate to sinful people as a Holy Righteous God
  would/had to. Do bad get cursed, do good get blessed.
  
• The New (Grace) Covenant: God relates to sinful people through Jesus, reconciling them to Himself and no longer relating to them through the Law since Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law on the behalf of people.
  
  
  Heb 7:18-19 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. (NIV) 

• The Law Covenant was weak and useless in providing people with right-standing before God because nobody could ever keep it perfectly (Gal 3:10, James 2:10, James 4:17).
  
• The better hope by which we draw near to God is not our own righteousness or holiness, but through Jesus Christ’s free gift of righteousness. (Eph 2:8-9, Rom 3:20-26)
  
• Because of this Jesus qualifies you to do the same works and greater because you have the same right-standing before God as Jesus has. (John 14:12).
  
  
  Gal 3:11-14 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." 12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them." 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. (NIV)
  

• NO ONE is justified by the law. No one can please God by keeping the law and living holy.
  
• Righteousness (right standing before God) is attained by faith in Christ only.
  
• The Law is not of faith which makes relating to God through it not pleasing to Him. (Heb 11:6)
  
• Jesus became a curse for us, removing the right of the curse of the Law to come on us. (This doesn’t mean the curse doesn’t exist)
  
• Living under the Law, trying to be justified by your own efforts to live holy and pleasing to God is A CURSE! No good will come from it.
  
• In fact, you alienate yourself from the life of Christ by doing it. (Gal 5:1-5)
  
  
  2 Cor 3:4-9 Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant- — not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9 If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! (NIV)
  

• Law Covenant: Ministry of DEATH and CONDEMNATION.
  
• Engraved on stone: 10 Commandments.
  
• Grace Covenant: Ministry of LIFE and the SPIRIT.
  
• Engraved on our hearts
  
  
  

Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (NKJV) 

(The underlined part in the NKJV does actually not appear in the original Greek text. It was added by translators, trying to place a conditional on no condemnation)

Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (ESV)    

You will feel condemned whenever you try to live under the law. That is the purpose of ministry of death and condemnation. 

Walking in the flesh refers to your own self-efforts (self-righteousness) to please God. (Law) 


Walking in the Spirit means trusting in Christ for your sufficiency. (Grace through Faith) 

• Matt 9:16-17 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. 17 Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved. (NKJV)
  

• We are not to mix the old and new covenants. Mixing them will never work. You have to decide which one is better, which one you want, and live according to it.
  
• Jesus + anything = nothing.  Jesus + nothing = everything.
  
• Under the Old Covenant, God dealt with people as a righteous just God would. Under the New Covenant, He treats them like He wants to: With love, kindness, favour, joy, peace etc.
  
• Under the Old Covenant, your right-standing before God was determined by your ability to live righteously. Under the New, your right-standing before God is Jesus. You are the righteousness of God in Christ. (2 Cor 5:21).
  
  
  
  
  Why do I need to know this?
  

• Otherwise you will believe God is the problem, causing or allowing sickness as judgment and punishment.
  
• You will always wonder about God’s will and never be truly able to be in faith. As long as you are not sure, you will always be on a rollercoaster of faith or unbelief.
  
• You will be problem-focused instead of solution focused.
  
• You will judge people instead of ministering to them. (Salt losing saltiness.)
  
• You will become purely works-based, prescribing things the person needs to live up to before God will move on their behalf.
  
• You will minister condemnation and guilt which leads nowhere good.
  
• You will confuse people.
  
  
  
  
  Conclusion
  
  
  Your knowledge and understanding of the new covenant and new creation will give you confidence to believe for supernatural blessings to manifest. If you are not sure of who you are or what you are allowed to do, you won’t have confidence to be or do anything. But if you know your position and authority, you will have the confidence to do what needs to be done.
  
  
  Be. Know. Do.
  
  
  Because we are and know who we are, we do. 
  
  
  We don’t do to become. 
  
  
  Our identity is found in Christ alone, 
  not in our deeds. 
  
  
  Whether we succeed or fail, 
  we remain the righteousness of God in Christ.