AMAZING GRACE

NEW COVENANT IS A GRACE COVENANT

A. NOT UNDER LAW, BUT UNDER GRACE

      "For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law (the Law Covenant), but under grace" (the New [grace] Covenant), Rom 6:14. This simply means that we are not under the Law Covenant but under the New Covenant which is a "grace" covenant. The Law Covenant was a "flesh works" covenant which required the works of man (flesh works, our works, Gal 3:3-12; 5:16-18), while the New Covenant is a "grace" or "grace works" covenant administered by the Holy Spirit in and through us, II Cor 3:1-10,17-18; Phil 2:13.
      A chief intent of the Law Covenant was to manifest to the covenant people and to the world that we are all sinners by birth, by choice, and inevitably by practice in our natural state, and are utterly unable to keep the perfect righteousness of God set forth in the Law Covenant. Though we have been delivered from the flesh works of the Law Covenant, we are still literally in the flesh and are still helpless and hopeless as far as WE within ourselves are concerned.

B. STEWARDSHIP OF GRACE

      "If indeed you have heard of the dispensation (house administration, stewardship) of the GRACE of God which was given to me for you," Eph 3:2.

      "As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards (house administrators) of the manifold GRACE of God," I Pet 4:10.

      "Oikonomia" means "house administration" or "stewardship." A house administrator was one who administered the property of another person. A stewardship of the grace of God is precisely what the New Covenant is, and this means that everything in the New Covenant is performed by the grace of God when done scripturally. This is also precisely what is meant by the New Covenant being the administration of the Holy Spirit, II Cor 3. The Scriptures will marvelously establish this as we proceed. Every iota of the "all things" of the Great Commission is by the work of the Holy Spirit in and through us and is therefore by grace through faith.

C. WE STAND IN GRACE

      "Through whom also we have access by faith INTO this grace IN WHICH WE STAND, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God," Rom 5:2.

      "By Silvanus, our faithful brother as I consider him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God IN WHICH YOU STAND" (be you standing, imperative), I Pet 5:12.

      Other translations say, "...this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it." When Peter said, "This is the true grace of God," he was referring to all he had written in I Peter. All the godly activities, the "good works," of the entire five chapters of I Peter are "the true grace of God." Standing fast in the grace of God means standing fast in the Word of God, in the New Covenant, in the "all things" of the Great Commission, in the Gospel of Christ. By the grace of God we are to stand fast in the grace of God. It is all by grace through faith.