“…God, Who also has made us able ministers of the New Testament/covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life,” II Corinthians 3:6.
“For the law of the spirit of life, in Christ Jesus, has made me free from the law of sin and death,” Romans 8:2.
This epistle of Christ is written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. II Corinthians 3.
Paul is commenting on the fulfillment of Ezekiel 11:19 & 20 – “And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new Spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes, and keep My ordinances, and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.”
How is it that we walk in His statues?
“For this covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord; ‘I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hears; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord; for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more.” Hebrews 8:10-12.
Paul further explains how it is that we become His people.
“For you are the temple of the Living God, as God has said, ‘I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people,’” II Corinthians 6:16.
This new covenant, the New Heavens and the New Earth, is this fulfillment that Paul discussed in II Corinthians. “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God,” Revelation 21:3.
What is this new law written on our hearts?
“And this is His commandment that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment,” I John 3:24.
“Owe no man anything, but to love one another; for he that loves another has fulfilled the law. For this, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet; and if there by another other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love works no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law,’” Romans 13:8-10.
“For all the Law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’” Galatians 5:14.
Paul in Romans and II Corinthians states that the fulfillment of Ezekiel has already been accomplished in himself and the believers he is writing to. John and the writer of Hebrews state that this new covenant was still to come.
How do we make sense of this?
A good explanation is that Paul and the early New Testament believers were the first fruits of the new covenant. This is evident with the book of Acts as believers received the Holy Spirit by laying on of hands. The apostles were the ones with the signs and wonders as they were the ones who were enlightened by Jesus.
John stated many times that his Revelation writing was soon to be fulfilled (Revelation 1:1; 1:3; 21:6; 21:10). A solid study of the book of Revelation shows that he is metaphorically prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
This is the fulfillment of Daniel 9:24 – 27 and the words of Jesus in Matthew 24 and Luke 21.
The New covenant is here now; it is available to those who have eyes and ears to hear. Christ has filled His temple, His Body with His glory.
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