The New Covenant in Christ
"But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises" (Hebrews 8:6)
When the Lord created the heavens and the earth and everything in it, He had a special plan to redeem a people for Himself that He would unite together for His glory. He knew that the human race would fall short of His glory and that we would be unfaithful. But God did something that He did not need to do, He made a covenant with us.
A covenant is a holy agreement between two parties...a solemn, reciprocal commitment between God and a human person or persons, initiated by God Himself where God obligates Himself to do something.
Why would God make a covenant with His creation since He was under no obligation to do so?
This is because God is so loving and so perfect in beauty and holy perfection that He wanted to enlarge His glory and express Himself to and through a people that would love Him in return.
So God chose a man (Abraham), a land (Israel), a lineage (Judah, Messianic Line), a lifestyle (a people of love, light, and blessing), and redeemed a people (a new creation made up of Jews and Gentiles who believe.
God made various covenants like the one He made with Noah and Abraham and David but the Old Covenant primarily speaks of the covenant of God's law including the sacrificial system. God's law represents God's holy STANDARDS and what God requires of mankind. The Law could not save us but it can expose us and show us how we fail to meet God's holy standards of doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God (Micah 6:8).
However, despite all the goodness of God and the blessings and favor that He would show, He saw the hearts of His people turn away from Him time and time again. Like Israel as a nation, we too have taken God's grace for granted and have been unbelieving, disobedient, and unfaithful.
Psalm 106:12-15 says, "Then they believed His words; They sang His praise. They soon forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel, But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, And tested God in the desert. And He gave them their request, But sent leanness into their soul.
But God remains faithful to His covenant promise. The amazing grace of God is that where man is unfaithful, God remains faithful because He cannot deny Himself.
Hosea the Prophet says, "My people are bent on backsliding from Me. Though they call to the Most High, None at all exalt Him. “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? ...My heart churns within Me; My sympathy is stirred" (Hosea 11:7-8).
God voluntarily obligated Himself to save, preserve, protect and provide for His covenant people. However, on the human side, the obligations under the two Covenants differed. Under the Old Covenant, man’s obligation was to observe the Law of Moses. Under the New Covenant, man’s obligation is to believe in and obey the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have broken God's law and have transgressed against Him. The Law is perfect, make no mistake about that, BUT WE ARE NOT. The Law gives us God's holy STANDARD, which God uses to drive us to Christ our Savior, who is our SUFFICIENCY. He is the perfect representation of God and the One who fulfills the Law and the Prophets.
In Luke 5:36-39, Jesus spoke this parable: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, “The old is better.’ ”
It is difficult to break away from our human methods and religious habits but the New Covenant is built on a BETTER covenant with BETTER promises and reminds us that Christ is BETTER than we ever could be on our own. In Jeremiah 31, the LORD reveals that He would make a New Covenant. Here is what Jesus promises in this new covenant:
JESUS: The Five Faithful Promises (Jeremiah 31)
The Lord is showing us that He desires to come and make His dwelling with and in man. This is why the New Covenant is so far greater! It comes with “Triple A” Insurance:
Abiding - Indwelling Life of Christ
Anointing - Internal Teaching of God
Atoning - Complete Forgiveness of Sin
O how wonderful it is to be in Christ and to have Christ living in us! Paul the Apostle would later write, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3).
Everything good comes from God, and His Son was sent from God, so that Christ could make us good and pleasing to the Father. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Cor. 3:5-6).
So the New Covenant blesses us with:
The Pardon of Sin...the Purity of Heart...and the Presence of God’s Spirit.
THIS WEEK’S “New Covenant” EXHORTATION:
Let us fully embrace the New Covenant and be fully immersed in the Fullness of Christ…where it is “NO LONGER I WHO LIVE, but CHRIST WHO LIVES IN ME”
When the Lord created the heavens and the earth and everything in it, He had a special plan to redeem a people for Himself that He would unite together for His glory. He knew that the human race would fall short of His glory and that we would be unfaithful. But God did something that He did not need to do, He made a covenant with us.
A covenant is a holy agreement between two parties...a solemn, reciprocal commitment between God and a human person or persons, initiated by God Himself where God obligates Himself to do something.
Why would God make a covenant with His creation since He was under no obligation to do so?
This is because God is so loving and so perfect in beauty and holy perfection that He wanted to enlarge His glory and express Himself to and through a people that would love Him in return.
So God chose a man (Abraham), a land (Israel), a lineage (Judah, Messianic Line), a lifestyle (a people of love, light, and blessing), and redeemed a people (a new creation made up of Jews and Gentiles who believe.
God made various covenants like the one He made with Noah and Abraham and David but the Old Covenant primarily speaks of the covenant of God's law including the sacrificial system. God's law represents God's holy STANDARDS and what God requires of mankind. The Law could not save us but it can expose us and show us how we fail to meet God's holy standards of doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God (Micah 6:8).
However, despite all the goodness of God and the blessings and favor that He would show, He saw the hearts of His people turn away from Him time and time again. Like Israel as a nation, we too have taken God's grace for granted and have been unbelieving, disobedient, and unfaithful.
Psalm 106:12-15 says, "Then they believed His words; They sang His praise. They soon forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel, But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, And tested God in the desert. And He gave them their request, But sent leanness into their soul.
But God remains faithful to His covenant promise. The amazing grace of God is that where man is unfaithful, God remains faithful because He cannot deny Himself.
Hosea the Prophet says, "My people are bent on backsliding from Me. Though they call to the Most High, None at all exalt Him. “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? ...My heart churns within Me; My sympathy is stirred" (Hosea 11:7-8).
God voluntarily obligated Himself to save, preserve, protect and provide for His covenant people. However, on the human side, the obligations under the two Covenants differed. Under the Old Covenant, man’s obligation was to observe the Law of Moses. Under the New Covenant, man’s obligation is to believe in and obey the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have broken God's law and have transgressed against Him. The Law is perfect, make no mistake about that, BUT WE ARE NOT. The Law gives us God's holy STANDARD, which God uses to drive us to Christ our Savior, who is our SUFFICIENCY. He is the perfect representation of God and the One who fulfills the Law and the Prophets.
In Luke 5:36-39, Jesus spoke this parable: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, “The old is better.’ ”
It is difficult to break away from our human methods and religious habits but the New Covenant is built on a BETTER covenant with BETTER promises and reminds us that Christ is BETTER than we ever could be on our own. In Jeremiah 31, the LORD reveals that He would make a New Covenant. Here is what Jesus promises in this new covenant:
JESUS: The Five Faithful Promises (Jeremiah 31)
- I will make [this covenant] with the house of Israel [and of Judah]
- I will put My laws in their mind and hearts
- I will be their God and they My people
- I will be merciful to their unrighteousness
- I will remember their [sin] no more
The Lord is showing us that He desires to come and make His dwelling with and in man. This is why the New Covenant is so far greater! It comes with “Triple A” Insurance:
Abiding - Indwelling Life of Christ
Anointing - Internal Teaching of God
Atoning - Complete Forgiveness of Sin
O how wonderful it is to be in Christ and to have Christ living in us! Paul the Apostle would later write, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3).
Everything good comes from God, and His Son was sent from God, so that Christ could make us good and pleasing to the Father. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Cor. 3:5-6).
So the New Covenant blesses us with:
The Pardon of Sin...the Purity of Heart...and the Presence of God’s Spirit.
THIS WEEK’S “New Covenant” EXHORTATION:
Let us fully embrace the New Covenant and be fully immersed in the Fullness of Christ…where it is “NO LONGER I WHO LIVE, but CHRIST WHO LIVES IN ME”
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