When I am trying to help someone discern the difference between old covenant thinking and new covenant thinking, I use an example involving the presence of God.

If, for some reason, my life gets busy one day and it interferes with my ability to set aside a morning time with God, do I feel as if He is distant now?  If I feel that my failure to get alone with Him that morning means He has pulled Himself away, I am not thinking in a New Covenant way.

God’s presence in my life is established forever, not by anything I do or do not do.  It is established based on what Christ has done.

There’s New Covenant Scripture that can help us with this idea.

Colossians 1:21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

I was once alienated and an enemy of God.  The evidence of that was visible to others by the life I lived so selfishly.  But in His mercy, He came to me and reconciled me.  He did this when Jesus sacrificed Himself to pay for past, present, and future sins to reconcile me to God through His body, not mine.  This is literally saying that this work of reconciliation, which makes the presence of God available in my life, was done by Jesus through His flesh when He died.

What was done?

He reconciled me and presented me holy, blameless, and above reproach!  Where?  In His sight!  Jesus in me made me the righteousness of God!  I am righteous now, not by anything I have done to become righteous but by what He did to make me so.

This brings Paul to offer a serious admonishment regarding this truth.  He says, “If you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard.”  I’m not to be looking for this solution anywhere else.

In other words, I need to do as Colossians 2 encourages me to do.

Colossians 2:6  As you, therefore, have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

Old Covenant thinking wants to make righteousness and the presence of God about what we do to merit it, whereas the New Covenant makes it about what Christ did to make it our continual reality.  If Christ lives in me and I am filled with the Holy Spirit, how is it possible to be away from the presence of God?  When spirituality is reduced to methods and means apart from Christ, it moves a person away from true New Covenant reality and faith into self-derived merits to sense God’s presence.  It strips a person of the hope of the Gospel and places them in a performance-based lifestyle that is a roller coaster ride of disappointment and exasperation.  Always wondering about whether or not enough has been done to please God, although Scripture says He is pleased by our faith.  Faith in Christ pleases God.

I encourage you today to remain in the hope of the Gospel now and always!