Clash of the Covenants - new book from Mike Kapler

The brand new book, Clash of the Covenants - Escaping Religious Bondage Through the Grace Guarantee, from Growing in Grace co-host Mike Kapler is now available for Kindle on Amazon!  Remember, you don't need a Kindle in order to read.  Download the Kindle app on your computer, tablet or smartphone. 

GOD IS NOT YOUR PAROLE OFFICER, HE BROKE YOU OUT OF PRISON!
Have you been robbed by religion? Have you ever wondered where you really stood with God? For everyone trapped in a mindset of wondering whether God is angry or disappointed with them due to a lack of performance or dedication, help is on the way. In fact, it already arrived more than a couple thousand years ago.

Christian churches are filled with people who have been hearing Bible teaching built upon a foundation of mixing together two very different covenants that are not alike. Frequently embraced in most Christian circles, the practice of combining the old and new covenants has resulted in a diluted version of the gospel. This religious formula has caused many to avoid the institutional church altogether, often puts them in a state of confusion, and leaves them hungering and thirsting for a new identity of righteousness, unaware it has already been provided.

The current reality of unconditional love, peace, freedom, forgiveness, and everything else that is good, has been gifted to us by God's grace through the finished work of Jesus Christ. This is the message most people have been longing to experience, but it may require a complete change of mind from a lifetime of traditional church doctrines that have left many drowning in guilt and feeling as though they are in a state of bondage. God has provided a way of escape from the burdensome religious business—it is through a New Covenant where it is impossible for us to fail, because Jesus is the mediator and guarantee of this better covenant, and it has been established on better promises.

THE Promise Keeper

The gospel, redemption, salvation, eternal life, righteousness, our heritage, our anointing, the Spirit, the New Covenant, our hope, etc, etc, etc... What is it ALL based upon? Our promises and faithfulness to God? Or HIS promises and faithfulness alone?

Rom 4:13-15 For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.

2 Cor 1:20-22 For all the promises of God in Him (Christ) are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

Gal 3:13-14, 18 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith... For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

Heb 8:6 But now He (Christ) has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

The New Covenant is New

The New Covenant is not "Old Covenant Part 2." The New Covenant is something new. It replaces, takes the place of, does away with the Old Covenant.

The Old Covenant was weak for one specific reason. Man. It was a covenant between God and man, and man did not keep his part. The New Covenant is better because man is not involved in making or keeping the covenant. Rather, man is the beneficiary of the covenant.

In the Old Covenant, God had no problem keeping His part. However, since man did not fulfill his part, the covenant was null and void.

The New Covenant is not a carry-over of the Old Covenant. No parts of the Old are mixed or brought in with the New. God has made it that way. (So why do we try to mix them???) But if any part of the Old were mixed in with the New, it would be null and void because just as always, man would end up not keeping his part and it would be a failed covenant.

The reason the New Covenant is better, and perfect, and stands for always and forever is because it's not dependent upon man keeping his part. God has initiated His covenant and keeps His covenant. The promises of God in Christ are not blessings and curses, as were the promises of the Old Covenant. The promises of God in Christ are blessings. Period. They are "Yes" and "Amen." The benefits of this New Covenant are bestowed "to all and on all who believe."

The finished work of Jesus - including nothing less than His blood - provided the fulfillment of this New Covenant. Do we really think there's something we can add to that?

Heb 8:6-13
6 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

2 Cor 1:17-22
17 Therefore, when I was planning this, did I do it lightly? Or the things I plan, do I plan according to the flesh, that with me there should be Yes, Yes, and No, No? 18 But as God is faithful, our word to you was not Yes and No. 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us — by me, Silvanus, and Timothy — was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes. 20 For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. 21 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, 22 who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
NKJV