updated March 4, 2019

It was an incredible joy to discover the Father and Son relationship as expressed in 1 Cor 8:6 provided the key to unlocking so many complexities of Scripture that had previously been shrouded in mystery or simply were unknown. That key which is described in the booklet Divine Pattern of Life reveals the Father as the source of all things and the Son as the channel of all things. This source and channel relationship has its signature upon many elements that are coupled together: Man and wife, Old and New Testament, Holy and Most Holy Place, Sabbath and Feasts, Sun and Moon; all of these things have found greater clarity in light of the Divine Pattern. It makes complete sense that knowing the relation of God and His Son would open for us the key to unlocking many mysteries in Scripture.

In 2015 I pondered whether the two covenants mentioned in Scripture operated in this divine pattern where one covenant led to the other. Operating in an oppositional system, the Old Covenant that leads to death is placed in opposition to the New Covenant which leads to life. This framework gives the sense that the Old Covenant is bad and the New Covenant is good. The Old should be avoided and the New embraced. But was that how it worked in a divine patern system?

As I pondered these things, the text in 2 Cor 3:7 was suddenly illuminated where Paul states that “the ministration of death written and engraved in stone was glorious”. If it was glorious, then it was a good thing. It then became apparent that in order to be born again one must first die and then be born again. This places death and life in a sequence where one follows the other. This means that the Old Covenant, which is the ministration of death, is the channel through which one must enter into the New Covenant. Both covenants actually work together where one brings you to the other.

In the following year. while conducting meetings in Northern Germany. I was reading the book Studies in Galatians by A.T. Jones. Within this book I found the confirmation I had been looking for.

 Thus the covenant from Sinai brought them to the covenant with Abraham. The first brought them to the second covenant. The old covenant brought them to the new covenant. And thus the law, which was the basis of that covenant, —the broken law, —was the schoolmaster to bring them to Christ, that they might be justified by faith. A.T. Jones RH July 17, 1900

The significance of this fact cannot be overstated. The process of the Old Covenant leading to the New Covenant is the process of the schoolmaster bringing the soul to Christ. “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Galatians 3:24