God's Blood Covenant - Part 6 - Between The Covenants

A seismic shift sits at the center of the Bible’s story—one that moves us from law and sacrifice to grace and belonging. We walk through that turning point with clarity and care, exploring how Jesus’ kingdom message prepared the way and how Paul’s encounter on the Damascus road unveiled the mystery that welcomed not just Israel, but every nation, into God’s promises.

We share why the earliest preaching still sounded like the hope of Israel and how the church’s global horizon came into focus through the Pauline revelation. You’ll hear how faith, not works, became the decisive basis for salvation; why “born again” describes more than a moment; and how union with Christ reframes forgiveness, identity, and daily strength. We unpack the new covenant’s gifts—complete pardon, hearts made new by the Spirit, confident access to God, and the steady hope of eternal life—showing how these truths move from doctrine to lived experience.

Along the way, we lean into Paul’s image of the olive tree: Israel as the cultivated root, Gentiles grafted in by faith to share the same rich promises to Abraham. This isn’t a rewrite of Israel’s story; it’s the widening of mercy. If you’ve wondered how the Bible’s threads tie together—from Jesus’ words about the kingdom to the church’s birth and the spread of the gospel—this conversation is your guide to the throughline.

Listen to gain a deeper grasp of the new covenant, renew your confidence in God’s unearned grace, and discover how this ancient mystery brings freedom and purpose now. If the episode encourages you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review to help others find the show.

Transcript

Framing The Covenant Shift

Lynne 0:00

You are listening to Higher Realm with Lynne Little. Our program highlights Biblical strategies for living through life's difficulties and finding your path to healing. We tackle issues particular to those who have experienced painful loss in any form. Lynne is the founder and president of Lynne Little Ministries and the author of Missing Lisa, A Parent Grieves, and Finding God in Death and Life, a Passage Through Grief. Now, here's Lynne. Hello and welcome to episode six of God's Blood Covenant. We titled this episode, Between the Covenants, to examine what occurred between the time Jesus ushered in the new covenant through his death and resurrection to the institution of the church age. Using the phrase between the covenants is merely for illustrative purposes, because there really was no pause per se. But within a short space came a seismic shift in mankind's relationship with God. It was one marked by forgiveness, having God's laws placed in men's hearts, and a lasting assurance of salvation. All promises prophesied in some measure within the old covenant. As we reviewed the old covenant, we discovered benefits that included divine health, prosperity, protection, God's favor, success against an enemy, and numerous other blessings, all of which were repeatedly displayed in these ancient agreements. The benefits were lavish, far-reaching, and quite remarkable when taken altogether. You may recall that Jesus foretold the new covenant at the Last Supper, with symbols that foreshadowed his own death. But at the time, he was addressing an entirely Jewish population. Remember, before his sacrifice, Christianity did not exist. Nor had the Christology branch of study, which describes the person, nature, and work of Jesus Christ. We sometimes religiously attribute the idea of salvation or the born-again experience to the disciples of the Gospels, in the same way we religiously affix Christian principles to the Jewish population. At this point in time, the reality could not have been more different. Let me explain. Prior to Jesus, God's dealings with mankind came through Israel, stemming from Father Abraham. We've discussed how, based upon the Abrahamic covenant, God's blessings to Gentiles were supposed to come through Israel. And the blessings to Israel were to come through the Messiah. But how could God bless the nations as foretold when Israel, who received all the covenants and promises, had rejected their Messiah? Throughout the Old Testament, God had hinted at a plan to bless Gentiles, that is, any nation apart from Israel. Of course, God knew Israel would reject their Messiah, and he had already made provision to remedy this. What was God's plan then to fill this gap? Prior to the cross, and even for a while afterwards, the disciples had no concept of the idea of the church. They were operating between the covenants, as it were, where the promises were confined by and large to Jews. In this order, Gentiles had no standing or claim to any promises of their own, and were rather proselytes under the Mosaic law. As the word tells us, at one time all non-Jews or Gentiles were considered to be strangers of the covenants of promise. Ephesians 2:12 describes this. "Remember, at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world." In his earthly walk and ministry, Jesus did not fully reveal the concept of the church. There was a brief mention in Matthew 16: 18, where Jesus declares, "and I say also, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Even there, the word translated church is the Greek term ecclesia, which signifies a called-out assembly. He also just briefly mentioned the concept of being born again in his dialogue with Nicodemus in John 3:7. Rather, he primarily spoke of a kingdom. The gospel that he and John the Baptist and the twelve proclaimed was the gospel of the kingdom. Matthew 4:23 reads, "Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. "And again, in Mark :1, 5, he said, "The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news." Although the requirement for being included in the kingdom was to declare Jesus as Messiah, there was no mention, for obvious reasons, of believing in his death and resurrection, neither having yet occurred. However, even after Christ's resurrection, the message didn't appreciably change. Early in the book of Acts, the message was still to believe in the Messiah, repent, and be baptized. Also, at the time, the apostles' commission was to the Jews. No biblical record exists that Peter and the other eleven apostles ever had a ministry to Gentiles. Being born again wasn't yet in their vernacular. They had little or no concept of the substitutionary work of Christ, the church as the body of Christ, and as importantly, the Gentiles' inclusion into the new covenant. Recall that Jesus' mission on earth was to Israel, according to Matthew 15: 24. "But he answered and said, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." He had to steadfastly carry out, complete, the old covenant to the fullest, before he could usher in the new. But having accomplished that, and before he ascended to heaven, he then commanded his disciples to go to all nations. Matthew 28: 19 reads, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." This was different. Apparently, a new order was going to be instituted that would be far more inclusive than the old. Up to now, it seemed that God's plan for all nations had been completely shrouded in mystery. But what happened next changed everything. God chose a man to begin his program to bless all mankind, even though the Jews had rejected their Messiah. Along came a man named Paul. When God saved Saul and renamed him Paul, he revealed to him his hidden plan to bring the message of salvation to Jew and Gentile alike. The unveiling of this mystery, named by scholars the Pauline Revelation, revealed a plan so marvelous, so comprehensively compassionate, it beggared description. And guess what? It had been in the mind of God all along. Here's what happened. Saul was a Jewish zealot who persecuted members of what he considered to be the cult of Jesus. Acts 8:3 reads, "Saul began to destroy the church or the ecclesia. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison." Jesus, in all of his heavenly glory, appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus, knocked him to the ground, and revealed himself as the Messiah. Acts 9: 4 through 6 records the scene. "As Paul fell to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, Who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and it will be told what you must do." Paul, instantly converted, did not immediately reveal this to the disciples. Imagine with what skepticism Paul's conversion would have been met with. Instead, God insulated Paul, leading him into the desert for three years, where he received revelation of the basic principles and tenets of the new covenant. In a supernatural manner and in his glorified form, Jesus ultimately revealed to Paul the mystery, the secret, hidden through the ages of God's plan of salvation through Christ. What was the secret? The message was that Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead to justify us, and that salvation is possible by placing trust solely in this. This fact was not known until Paul received it through revelation. People did not realize that Christ's death on the cross was meant to atone for humanity's sins, nor did they know that salvation could be gained simply through faith until Paul shared this message. As he recorded in Romans chapter 1: 16 and 17, "for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For here is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith." When Paul finally conveyed these principles to the apostles, they were likely astonished, as they represented a differentiation as well as an elaboration of long-held beliefs. After a lifetime of viewing the world through an exclusively Jewish lens, the apostles, including Peter, had to have struggled with this. So much so that it required an open vision in Acts 10: 9 through 15, from God to Peter to change his mind. Even in later years, prior to his execution, Peter still mentioned these things being hard to understand. "Just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the scriptures to their own destruction. " God's revelations to Paul indeed heralded "a new covenant, established upon better promises," as stated in Hebrews 8:6. The old covenant was governed by a law that demanded correct behavior and that the people continually broke. It contained a system of sacrifices that only temporarily removed sins. The sacrifices were administered by priests who represented the people of Israel to God, but the people could not enter God's presence themselves. This was a works-based, conditional relationship impossible to fulfill. The new covenant, on the other hand, based on faith rather than works, marked a profound change in mankind's relationship with God. It offered forgiveness, laws written on the heart, and lasting assurance, distinctly setting it apart from the old covenant. The Apostle Paul was the first to explain exactly what God did for us in Christ through his great plan of redemption and the born-again experience. Experiencing that rebirth as a new creation provides believers with an incredible array of rights and privileges. First comes complete forgiveness. God forgives all sins, not just covering them temporarily, like the Old Testament priests, but removing them entirely. Second, there's no remembrance of sins. God promises to remember our sins no more, signifying a complete cleansing. Third, we have a restored and unbreakable relationship with God. The new covenant ensures a lasting relationship with God, unlike the old, which is often broken by the people. This all evolves from a believer's total union and identification with Christ. Fourth, we experience the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, and what the Spirit through the Word can do within us. The phenomenon of the Holy Spirit coming to indwell us was outlined by Jesus at the Last Supper. And because of this indwelling spirit, we have the fifth privilege, which is an internalized law, God's law written on the hearts of believers, leading to a genuine desire to obey. Sixth, we experience the joy of what Jesus is doing for and with us now within the church, as he is seated at the right hand of the Father. Seventh, we have the eschatological hope of things to come, such as the promise of eternal life. Believers are a promised eternal life through faith in Christ, according to Romans 6:23. We could go on and on about the bundle of privileges, such as God's divine protection, God empowering believers to overcome challenges, our peace and rest in Christ, and experiencing the everlasting love from a God who promises never to leave or forsake us. This is certainly by no means an exhaustive list, for it would take many more episodes to enumerate all the blessings that we inherit through Jesus Christ. But there is a final element of the Pauline revelation that, although mentioned last, is certainly not least. It is explained in the eleventh chapter of the book of Romans. Paul writes that the falling away of Israel presents the opportunity for non-Jews to gain entrance into the promises. In this analogy, Israel is described as an olive tree, with Gentiles depicted as wild branches that are grafted on to that tree. As a result, they can partake in all of the original Jewish covenants. And in fact, according to Galatians 3:29, Gentiles through faith in Jesus are considered spiritual children of Abraham, inheriting every single blessing promised to him. Now that we have established the legitimacy of our claims to the new covenant, we can now turn our attention to how that translates to our daily lives. So next week, we'll delve into the specific promises given to us in the new covenant, ratified by our perfect blood sacrifice, the blood of our Lord Jesus. Meanwhile, are you grafted in today? Would you like to be? All it takes is a simple prayer to make Jesus the Lord of your life. Would you pray this with me and made it with your heart? Heavenly Father, I believe you sent Jesus to die on the cross and pay the price for my sins. I believe he rose again on the third day. Jesus, I accept your free gift of salvation. I invite you to come into my life, forgive my sins, and make me brand new. I confess you as my Lord and Savior. Amen. If you prayed that prayer, contact us. Lynnelittle Ministries @ gmail.com. Have a wonderful week. Thank you so much for listening. Lynne Little Ministries is a 501c3 whose mission is to assist those who have suffered loss and to help them discover hope, peace, and restoration. For books, resources, or to make a tax deductible donation, go to lynnelittle.org.