The New Covenant

This opening lesson traces the word covenant through its Hebrew roots, the noun berith and the verb karath, and distinguishes three "categories of grace": promise, fact, and covenant. Drawing on John 14, Daniel 9, and God's dealings with Noah, Abraham, and David, it explains why God willingly binds and limits himself by covenant so that believers may approach him with confidence and assurance.

Continuing the introduction, this lesson presents the new covenant as both covenant and testament, working from Hebrews 9. It examines the four parts of a will, the testator, executor, recipient, and eternal inheritance, showing Jesus as both the one who died and the mediator who guarantees it. It then weighs faith against works, affirming Christ as "the end of the law for righteousness."

Titled "Cleansing," this lesson establishes forgiveness as the foundation of the new covenant (Hebrews 8:12). It separates our "sins" from the indwelling "sin" nature, explains why blood alone satisfies God (Leviticus 17:11), and applies that blood Godward, manward, and against Satan's accusations. It closes with a second cleansing, the ongoing purging worked by the Word, pictured in the red heifer of Numbers 19.

"Co-Death" teaches that just as Christ's death, burial, and resurrection are settled facts, so is our death with him (Romans 6; 2 Corinthians 5:14). Through an extended family-genealogy illustration and the image of a severed fan belt, it shows how the crucified "old man" no longer links sin's power to the body, and why revelation, not effort, makes this truth experiential.

This lesson on water baptism introduces "spiritual reality," truth that is neither merely literal nor figurative, illustrated by the heavenly tabernacle and the Lord's Supper. It unfolds baptism's four meanings: cleansing, death and burial, resurrection, and deliverance. Drawing on Noah's flood and Israel's baptism "into Moses," it expounds the broad Greek sozo as rescue from the whole world system (kosmos) and Satan's dominion.

Focusing on "the heart," this lesson surveys roughly ten scriptural functions of that faculty, including emotion, understanding, faith, conscience, and will, and carefully distinguishes it from spirit and soul. Likening the heart to a subconscious "data processor," it argues that only a God-given new heart (Ezekiel 36:26) permits obedience from within, echoing Martin Luther's preface to Romans that helped convert John Wesley.

"Life, Power, and Inward Knowledge" examines the new spirit given under the covenant (Ezekiel 36:26-27) and the intimate, experiential knowing (epignosko) it brings. It contrasts the law of sin with the law of the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2), identifies the indwelling Spirit as the singular "blessing of Abraham" (Galatians 3:14), and shows how light and seeing transform us as we obey in small things.

The final lesson expounds Hebrews 8:11, "all shall know me," distinguishing experiential from merely experimental knowledge and insisting that Jesus exceeds even doctrine and Scripture. Using Peter's confession (Matthew 16) and the intimacy of "Abba, Father," it calls every believer into firsthand relationship with God. A closing review gathers all eight lessons together and proposes the Lord's Supper as the covenant's token.