The Will of God
God is Love
Believers – worship the Father in the Spirit
All have one Saviour.
EXTENDED HERE https://yahason.1117.ca/the-old-and-the-new/
The New Covenant of Grace. See it is internal with love and a new heart and it is enslaved to righteousness.
Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:38–39):
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”
(Similar teaching appears in Luke 6.)
Old Testament origin
The phrase “eye for an eye” is the classic statement of lex talionis (law of retaliation) found in the Torah:
Exodus 21:23–25
“But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”
Leviticus 24:19–20
“If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him.”
Deuteronomy 19:21
“Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.”
In its original context this was a legal principle meant to limit vengeance (ensuring the punishment matched the injury rather than escalating into unlimited blood feuds). Jesus quotes it (“You have heard that it was said…”) and then reorients his followers away from personal retaliation toward non-resistance and love of enemy (see also Matthew 5:43–44).
The shift Jesus announces (and the apostles later unpack) is precisely from the external administration of the Old Covenant to the internal reality of the New Covenant.
Key Old Testament promises that point forward
The prophets already said this change was coming:
Jeremiah 31:31–34
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant… I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts… for they shall all know me…”
Ezekiel 36:26–27
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes…”
New Testament fulfillment
The apostles explicitly connect these promises to what happened through Christ and the Spirit:
2 Corinthians 3:3–6
The law that was once written on tablets of stone is now written on hearts of flesh by the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 3:16; see also 6:19
elievers themselves become the temple: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”
Hebrews 8–10; John 4:21–24
The external sacrificial system and physical temple are superseded because the true once-for-all sacrifice has been offered and the Spirit now indwells.
How this relates to “eye for an eye”
Under the Old Covenant the law regulated external behavior and limited retaliation (“eye for eye”) because the people still had unregenerate hearts.
In the New Covenant, Jesus goes deeper: the issue is no longer merely controlling outward retaliation but transforming the heart so that love, forgiveness, and non-resistance become possible. The Holy Spirit supplies the power and the new desires that the external law could only command but never produce.
So my summary is correct:
Old Covenant → external law, external temple, external battles, law on stone, heart of stone.
New Covenant → law written on the heart, temple = the believer indwelt by the Spirit, internal transformation, power to love even enemies.
Think about this. Are you drawing lines for God? The world is the enemy and all are or have been in sin and are the enemy. I too was in sin, I was lost yet now I am found, I was in and understood the darkened veiled ways in the hardness of heart and I was as a fool.
In Jesus Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Gone is the hostile and you are to win in love. Love is the strength, Love is God and Love is forever.
God guided all to fight with love — to love the enemy as I love you. Do not be conformed to this fallen world. Love as God with agape love, it is not earned it is given. The New Covenant of Grace.
This is the win: with love and the belief in Jesus — the One who frees you from the hardened and sinful heart. The new heart is enslaved to righteousness. And if you are with this new heart, you will also know everything here said is true and if I was not to say it you would say it.
If still hostile, cruel, violent or in lies it is all your battles are still fallen. Fallen and pointing to the left wing or the right wing with hostility. Yet both of these wings are of the bird of sin and death and this bird of death loses all battles.
Love the enemy
Matthew 5:38-48
Eye for Eye
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Love for Enemies
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Luke 6:27-36
Love for Enemies
“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
John 4:21-26
“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
John 8:31-36
Dispute Over Whose Children Jesus’ Opponents Are
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’
John 16:33
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
Colossians 2:6-15
Spiritual Fullness in Christ
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
1 John 3:8
For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
Revelation 12:9-12
So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him… Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.
Luke 10:16-22
Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.
The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.
He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
2 Corinthians 5
Awaiting the New Body
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
The Ministry of Reconciliation
Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
