The Terms of the New Covenant

The terms of the New Covenant are simple, but they are not what is commonly published. The terms of the New Covenant were laid out at the Last Supper when Jesus took the Bread and Wine, consecrated them, and declared them His body and blood which would seal the contract.
They are as follows:

"Make your home in Me, and I within you. Just like the branch can't bear fruit from itself if it doesn't make its home in the vine, so neither you if you don't make your home within Me. I am the vine, you the branches. This person making his home within Me and I within him bears a lot of fruit, because separated from Me you can't do anything at all. If anyone doesn't make his home within Me, he is tossed outside like the branch and is dried up and they collect them and toss them into the fire and they are burned. If you make your home within Me and My words make their home within you, you will ask whatever you would wish, and it will happen for you."

     That's it. That's the terms of the New Covenant as declared at its signing, so to speak. They aren't "believe in Me," but "remain in Me," "Make your home within Me," "Stay put within Me."
     Just like with the Old Covenant, there are natural consequences for not keeping its terms. Jesus illustrated these consequences with the analogy of a vine branch. As long as the branch is connected to and remains in its vine, it receives the life of the vine and can produce fruit. But it if it broken off or cut from the vine, it can no longer produce fruit, or do anything at all. Instead, it dries up and is fit for nothing but to be burned.
     The same is true of Paul's illustration of the Body where Christ is the Head. As long as the members of the body are joined to the Head, they can function. But if they are separated from the Head, dismembered, they can do nothing but sit there as dead flesh.
     The New Covenant isn't strictly about God dealing with the consequences of our mistakes and wrongdoing, but dealing with the source of the mistakes and wrongdoing. As long as we make our home in Jesus Christ, cooperating with the Spirit of Christ and submitting to it instead of our own malfunctioning neurology, then the life and presence of Jesus Christ manifests within and through us, enabling us to not produce the errors of that malfunctioning flesh, as well as enabling His powers and presence, because it is He who is acting and speaking through us. But when we stop cooperating and succumb to our own fear, aggression, or bodily cravings, then we cut ourselves off from the Head, and the natural consequences begin to kick in.
     The problems in the churches today stem from not keeping the terms of the contract, and even misrepresenting them. It was never about forgiveness. Jesus said every sin and blasphemy would be forgiven human beings except one. Forgiveness was the least of God's concerns. Rather it was about dealing with the problem itself, the source of our errors.