CODE WORDS WITH A COMMON MEANING
God uses symbolism extensively throughout the Bible. We have discussed this in Symbols, Signs, Types, Allegories, Parables, Copies, Shadows and Patterns. 

STUDY TIP: See God’s Written Word and God’s Spoken Voice Part 1, God’s Written Word and God’s Spoken Voice Part 2, How to Hear God’s Spoken Voice, Literal or Symbolic Interpretation Part 1, Literal or Symbolic Interpretation Part 2, and Literal or Symbolic Interpretation Part 3.

Also see God’s Spoken Word for a list of many words that have the same symbolic meaning as Faith, Grace, Mercy, Peace, Love, Glory and Blessing.

Also see Place Where God Will Place His Name for understanding of the heart.

Many people might wonder why God doesn’t just say what he wants his people to hear instead of filling the Bible full of Mysteries and Symbols, Signs, Types, Allegories, Parables, Copies, Shadows and Patterns. They might wonder why God doesn’t make knowing him easy instead of difficult. The simple answer to these questions is that God’s ways are not man’s ways. The more complicated answer is that he requires that the people in whom he makes his home in their hearts seek him with all of their heart, mind, soul and strength. The emphasis here is on seeking with the heart. If he didn’t have that requirement, people would continue seeking for God as they have always done: Through religious activity in religious places.

The main reason, however, that God doesn’t say what he wants to say in the words of the Bible is that he speaks a spiritual language. Being spiritual, he does not employ natural tools or devices such as books and words to communicate with man. The only device he uses is his voice which is represented as his spirit. Thus he writes his laws on the hearts of prophet (i.e. New Covenant disciples), and then speaks through them to people who do have hardened their hearts to hearing God’s voice. Because God’s laws/words have been written on their hearts, his messengers are able to speak from their hearts. And what they speak are God’s words of love.

God speaks to his prophets and they do their best to record and report what they hear to others using human words. Their words are mainly words of warning to quit religion and listen to God’s voice.

Much, but not all, of what God says through his prophets such as Jesus is symbolic. God’s purpose in of all this symbolism is to challenge and encourage Bible readers to learn about him through his voice/word spoken to their hearts instead of listening to and reading human language. God’s purpose in the Bible is to lead people out of Old/Fist Covenant religion, which is based on human words, to the New Covenant which is based on God’s spoken voice. This process is consistent with the “first the natural and then the spiritual” principle.

Learning how to interpret God’s voice in the symbolic language is not easy and does not happen quickly. The process is described in the Bible as a forty year journey through the wilderness on the way to the promised land.

No one enters directly into the promised land which is a spiritual place. Each individual must first spend a season of time in the wilderness where he/she learns the literal words of the law and practices religion based on those words. This season is different for each individual. It is a season of being natural (i.e. in the flesh, religious) that always precedes the season of faith and eternal life (i.e. promised land) in the spirit where God’s spiritual laws are written on the heart.

On the way through the wilderness of religion represented in the literal words of the Bible, God uses Symbols, Signs, Types, Allegories, Parables, Copies, Shadows and Patterns as code phrases and words that refer to and anticipate the New Covenant. It could be said that the code words  are God’s “short-hand” technique for pointing Old/First Covenant religionists to New Covenant truth. This is how the law of sin and death (i.e. literal words of the Bible) leads religious people to faith that comes through God’s words spoken by messiahs/prophets whom God sends to speak for him.

STUDY TIP: See GOD’S WRITTEN WORD AND HIS VOICE ARE NOT THE SAME.

Faith, Grace, Mercy, Peace, Love, Heart, Glory, Blessing and Spirit are among the key code words that use Old/First Covenant language that symbolize God’s laws (i.e. his words) written on the heart of New Covenant disciples.

Or, to put it more simply, these terms all symbolically refer to God’s spoken voice (i.e. his word) which is the vehicle by which these terms are communicated to clean, pure hearts.

STUDY TIP: See Two Covenants Part 1 and Two Covenants Part 2.

Knowledge of these code words is very important to Bible study. The fact that these words appear so often,and because they integrate everyday language into religious doctrines, Bible readers skip over them thinking that they understand what God is trying to say. They wrongly think that human knowledge and Godly wisdom are the same. But they are wrong.

STUDY TIP: See TWO KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE.

Without a solid understanding of what these code words mean, they become empty, filler, religious words that add little or no value to understanding God. But, once we understand their individual meanings and spiritual content, they become flashing neon signs in the wilderness that directing us toward the Promised Land in which New Covenant disciples hear God’s spoken voice.

Without even knowing the meaning and application of these code words, we should interpret from their frequency in scripture that they are very important and that we should not assume that we know their meanings. It is beneficial, therefore, to invest time learning about each word in contexts which contribute to spiritual understanding.

Clicking on the word combinations below reveals the multitude of scriptures in which these code words appear together.

Some may think it a bit of a stretch to say that all of these words point to the New Covenant. We might agree except for the following scriptures that are clearly tied to the New Covenant:

It is unwise to ignore the significance of the frequency with which these word combinations appear in both the Old Testament and New Testament. After reading the many scriptures found in the table above, we are compelled to accept that they are indeed code words that God has salted throughout the Bible to tell us that the New Covenant has always existed. It is not “new” in terms of chronological time. It is only “new” in terms of the experience of Old/First Covenant religionists. Whereas, while they were religious, the listened to false prophets and followed religious laws, when they become New Covenant disciples, they only listen to God’s spoken voice (spoken by God directly and his true prophets) and only follow God’s spiritual laws. When this change occurs, they are born again. That is a new thing for them. The kind of life that they then live is a new life as a New Covenant disciple.

This should be good news for Jews who still doubt what the Promised Land is and how to get there. It should also be humbling and edifying for Gentile Christians who mistakenly believe that they have something that the Jews do not have because they believe in Jesus. Just believing that the man Jesus lived as a human man, died and was resurrected so they could go to heaven is theology that does not agree with what God says about Jesus or the New Covenant.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: See Messiahs and Jesus for understanding about Jesus.