Beyond the shadow, into real Light. 

Only when you fully embrace the new covenant and put God’s salvation back over your performance and merit will you have complete peace to live a godly life with joy.

In the everlasting covenant, your security does not rest on how perfectly you behave, but on how long Jesus lives and reigns – which means your salvation is held steady by an unchanging High Priest, not by a fragile human track record.

Hebrews 7:16 who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.

Hebrews 7:18-19 For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness 19 (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

God’s will for you is not constant anxiety, but settled rest—because your salvation is held up by a living High Priest, and King of Peace. Melchizedek. 

Hebrews 7:25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

He is able to save to the uttermost

The phrase "is able" is a present active indicative. That is a continuous, current power.

This capacity to save is an active reality rooted in the indestructible life of Christ (Heb. 7.16)

The term "uttermost" suggests that no part of the man’s salvation is left to chance or human effort; it is a total work.

To save "to the uttermost" means that Christ’s work is exhaustive; it reaches into the depths of a man's past, covers his present, and secures eternity.

We pray because Jesus prays perfectly for us.

Think about it. How many of you ask for prayer for yourself, and you expect that your brother or sister’s prayer will help you go through life’s uncertainty?

But Jesus continually intercedes for me so that I persevere to the end, and I will, because God always listens to Jesus’ prayer for me.

The historical narrative of Ezekiel 22 depicts a landscape of total moral and social disintegration. Within this "bloody city," the God details a catalog of abominations—ranging from slanderous lies and sexual immorality to systemic injustice and murder.

It is a dark scene in which every level of human leadership failed to preserve the land. However, the tragedy of the vacant breach in Ezekiel’s day serves as the perfect backdrop for the gospel of grace.

When God sought a man to stand in the gap and found none, He was demonstrating the total insufficiency of the fallen man to mediate his own salvation or hold the hand of divine judgment through his own willpower.

Ezekiel 22:30 "And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none."

It points directly to the Messiah’s ultimate intercessory power, Jesus Christ.

Where the first Adam failed, the Last Adam succeeded. The darkness of Ezekiel 22 only serves to magnify the brightness of the grace that now covers the believer.

Isaiah 59:16 He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede;

then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him.

God provided for Himself the lamb. The righteous one prayed for us. While our "righteousness" is described as "filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6), God’s own righteousness serves as the sufficient support. 

His holiness requires that sin be dealt with, and His mercy and love require that His people be redeemed. That makes the cross the point of intersection of perfect justice and complete love.

Psalm 85:10 "Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.

Luke 22:31-32 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

The image that you must have of this sifting of wheat is in a threshing floor. The sifting process was a forceful separation of the valuable from the worthless. It involved intense agitation to break apart the plant and isolate the heavy, nutritious grain from the light, useless chaff. For Peter, this meant a period of testing designed to strip away everything superficial, leaving only a pure and resilient faith. The wind would blow away the useless straw and chaff. 

Jesus did not pray that Peter would be spared from the test. But that his faith would not fail. Jesus wanted Peter to have a resilient Active Faith.

Now the calling for intercessory prayer is a duty for all of us.

As we approach the upcoming fast, I urge you to prepare your hearts for our 21-day prayer campaign. 

While the Lord Jesus Christ provides a perfect and perpetual intercession that secures our standing.

As overcomers, we must recognize that He has invited us to participate in His work through the ministry of prayer.

It is time to pray

The fact that He is the perfect High Priest does not render our prayers unnecessary; rather, it makes our prayers effective.

We pray and fast to bring our wills into harmony with His and to exercise the spiritual authority bestowed upon the Church.

Apostle Paul instructed Timothy like this:

1 Timothy 2:1–2 "First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way."

Prayer is a privilegeand a duty for the man of God. By praying for our leaders, we cooperate with the Holy Spirit to build an environment where the gospel can be proclaimed without hindrance.

Additionally, a specific posture and mindset are required:

1 Timothy 2:8 "I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling."

The lifting of hands is a physical expression of a heart that is surrendered and a life that is set apart for His purposes.

As we fast over these 21 days, we are disciplining the flesh.

Romans 15:30 "I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf,"

2 Corinthians 1:11 "You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many."

While the High Priest intercedes for our invisible needs, we intercede for the temporal and visible needs of our brothers, our leaders, and our nation.

James 5:16b “… The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."

Let us enter this campaign with the confidence that we are heard.

We do not fast to move God but to move ourselves into a deeper sense of His power.

Secured to enter the New Covenant

The conclusion of Hebrews 7 is that a born-again believer does not lose his salvation due to his own inconsistency; he would only lose it if Christ ceased to live.

Since Christ can never die again, the believer can never be lost. Rest in this truth. Stop centering your sin and start centering the Man at the right hand of God, who sympathizes with your weaknesses and intercedes for your perseverance.

The first thing to consider is that the Old Testament is only a very long illustration of Christ's reality. 

Hebrews 8:5 5 They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.”

Imagine an architect who has designed a magnificent, hundred-story skyscraper. Before the first foundation is poured, he constructs a meticulously detailed scale model in his studio.

This model is crafted according to a precise "pattern" that exists in the architect's mind and on his blueprints. 

A man can look at the model and see the exact placement of the windows and the beauty of the facade. He can learn much about the building by studying the model.

However, no man would ever attempt to move his family into the model. He would not try to find shelter or rest within its miniature rooms. 

The model is merely a "copy and shadow.”

The value of the model is found only in how accurately it reflects the "pattern" of the real building.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the end of the law, having fulfilled every requirement to inaugurate a superior ministry as the Mediator of the New Covenant.

While the law of the Lord is perfect, the Old Covenant system was found to be faulty because it depended upon the inconsistent obedience and willpower of man.

Romans 3:20 "For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin."

In contrast, the New Covenant is firmly established upon better promises and the indestructible life of the Son of God, ensuring that you, as a believer in Christ, can be secure. 

Hebrews 8:6 "But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises."

What is a Covenant?

A covenant is fundamentally distinct from a contract; whereas a contract contains a termination clause allowing for its dissolution, a covenant is an indissoluble bond that only death can conclude.

The Old Covenant, though it contained the perfect law of God, was found to be faulty, so God established a superior New Covenant, enacted (made it law, the new norm, the new standard) on better promises.

This is a formal legal term. It signifies that the New Covenant is not merely a divine preference; it is the established law of the New Testament.

The better promises have been codified into a divine statute. Because these promises are enacted, the believer is secure in his standing. The grace he receives is not a violation of justice but the fulfillment of a new, superior legal standard—the new norm.

In this new system, everything is accomplished by the Lord Himself, ensuring that the believer's security is not tied to his own merit.

The New Covenant

Hebrews 8:10-12 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel

after those days, declares the Lord:

I will put my laws into their minds,

and write them on their hearts,

and I will be their God,

and they shall be my people.

11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor

and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’

for they shall all know me,

from the least of them to the greatest.

12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,

and I will remember their sins no more.”

The transition from the Old Covenant of Law to the New Covenant of Grace establishes the believer in a position of absolute, unshakeable security.

Based on the clauses of the New Covenant, the benefits of the New Covenant reality are a total displacement of a faulty system with a superior, eternal one.

1. Total Deliverance from Divine Wrath

Under the Old Covenant, men lived in a constant state of dread, fearing the visitation of punishment for their iniquities.

Romans 5:9-11 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

The righteous man does not live by his obedience to the commandments, but by faith in the One who fulfilled the law on his behalf. 

This is why the New Covenant is a superior covenant; it rests entirely on His faithfulness rather than our own.

In the New Covenant reality, the wrath of God can no longer fall upon the believer. Because the Lord Jesus Christ satisfied the demands of justice on the cross, the Overcomer is exempt from judgment. The threat of wrath has been replaced by the assurance of Free Grace.

2. The Absolute Non-Remembrance of Sins

While animal sacrifices under the Law served as a "yearly solemn reminder of sins," the New Covenant provides for the total erasure of the record.

Time cannot redeem a man from sin, nor can human willpower.

Only the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ possesses the power to erase the stain.

If God no longer remembers the sin, He has no basis upon which to judge the man. 

Colossians 2:13-14 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Today, stand as clean as the Record maintained by the Father says.

3. The Permanent Indwelling and Seal of the Holy Spirit

A primary dispensational distinction is how the ministry of the Holy Spirit was and how it is now. 

In the Old Testament, He came upon specific men (priests, kings, and prophets) temporarily. Today, the Holy Spirit resides within every believer.

Ephesians 1:13-14 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

He does not merely visit; He dwells. 

This seal acts as a mark of ownership and a guarantee of the inheritance. Just as the seal of the Antichrist in the tribulation is described as definitive, the Seal of God upon the believer today is an irreversible mark of salvation.

This permanent residency is the engine of victorious living, providing the power for each believer to stand as an overcomer and obtain the reward.

4. Amalgamation with Christ

The New Covenant establishes a union that is described in the original Greek as being "glued" or amalgamated with the Lord. We are not merely alongside Him; we are mixed with His Spirit.

1 Corinthians 6:17 "But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him."

joined to the Lord = κολλάω kollaô; to glue, to stick, cleave, keep company forever.

This union is so profound that it cannot be undone. Because the believer has been made "one spirit" with Him, the promise of His presence is absolute.

Hebrews 13:5 "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

Your salvation and security do not depend on the duration of your own faithfulness, but on the longevity of His life and the permanence of this union.