Tag: New Covenant
God Says: “I will”
Scripture reading for October 23: Hebrews 8
““For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” In speaking of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” Hebrews 8:10-13
When God speaks a Word, we can believe it and know that it is true. God Alone has the ability to know all things and all power to bring what He has spoken to pass. According to Solomon, not one Word of any of God’s promises to Moses had failed! (1 Kings 8:56) When God makes a promise or oath, He swears by Himself, as there is no one higher in authority. (Hebrews 6:13) The Old Covenant contained the Law and was given to Israel. It was conditional upon their obedience. If disobedient they must make sacrifices as prescribed by law as necessary to cover the sins. But this ‘Old Covenant’ was becoming obsolete and was passing away to be replaced by a New Covenant based on better promises, a better Sacrifice, and the perfect High Priest Who would mediate for sins,
Jesus Christ, as God’s Son, would come to earth to show God the Father’s mercy towards sinners. He would perfectly fulfil and obey the first covenant and offer Himself, body and blood, as the final sacrifice for sins by death on a cross. He would raise from the dead establishing a New Covenant through faith in His sacrifice and the Father’s Gift to each believer of the Holy Spirit. Jesus would mediate this New Covenant seated at the Father’s right hand. The Holy Spirit would enable each person to know God personally and His law would be written on their hearts. Their sins would be cast away and remembered no more! Through faith as a Gift from God, the “I will’s” of the New Covenant become eternal reality. Amen!
Do you struggle to believe the promises in this passage that God makes when He says, ‘I will’? If you dared to believe these promises and live by faith, how would your life be different? Which of the ‘I will’ statements is most encouraging to you right now?
Prayer: Amen! Thank You for Your amazing proclamations of Your finished work on our behalf! Thank You that You are my God and that I know You through faith in Jesus Christ. Thank You for Your great mercy to forgive my sins and remember them no more. Thank You for Your laws on my heart. Amen!
Spirit written tablets!
Scripture reading for July 31: 2 Corinthians 3
“You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ towards God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, Who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a New Covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” 2 Corinthians 3:2-6
Paul explained to the Corinthians the spiritual nature of the New Covenant that had brought them salvation and made them into a new creation in Christ Jesus. (2 Corinthians 5:17) He compared them to a letter written by the Holy Spirit from Christ that was delivered by Paul and His ministerial team. They had preached the Gospel of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, God’s Son. The Corinthians had repented and believed. The Holy Spirit had come and written God’s law and Word on the tablet of their heart, bringing them into God’s family and eternal life.
This letter written by the Holy Spirit on believers human hearts was contrasted with the letter from God received by Moses on Mt. Sinai written on tablets of stone. That first letter had brought conviction of sin and revealed God’s wrath and death. The Law came with thunder and lightning and glory that faded from Moses. (2 Corinthians 3:9-13) The Law was glorious but was superseded by the New Covenant. The Holy Spirit comes into the repentant believer in Jesus and writes God’s Word on the tablet of the human heart. That glory that comes into the believer transforms them into a new creation that increases in glory as the Spirit brings revelation. The Spirit brings eternal life!
Have you ever struggled with trying to keep God’s law and do everything to make Him happy? How does viewing your life in Christ as a letter from God written by the Holy Spirit help your attitude? Do you have confidence towards God in your salvation?
Prayer: Father God, I am thankful that You have given me rest from a life of working to please You. I am confident in Your New Covenant with me through the Holy Spirit living in me and transforming me through a relationship, not just rules. I look forward to life daily and life eternal in Your Spirit. Amen!
New Covenant Realities
Scripture reading for December 12: Hebrews 6-10
I love new things! Old things are nice to collect, but new things are more up to date. However, change and adoption of the new is difficult when we have to learn the new. This is what happened to many Jewish believers in the time of the letter to the Hebrews. The author spent time explaining the New Covenant and how it was better than the Old Covenant.
The Old Covenant had laws and requirements for those who broke those laws. The Old Covenant had promises for those who obeyed and warning for those who didn’t. Moses, God’s servant, was the mediator of the Old Covenant and Aaron and the Levites were the high priest and priesthood. These were men who had failings themselves and eventually died. The Old Covenant had a mobile tabernacle carried by the Levites, and God could only be visited at prescribed times by a certain few people. In fact, only Aaron the high priest could go in the Holy of Holies to meet with God once a year.
Under the New Covenant, Jesus Christ, God’s Son is the Mediator. He was perfectly obedient to the Old Covenant while here on earth and then could willingly become the sacrifice for laws broken under the Old Covenant. He could forgive sins and cleanse from sin, not just cover them temporarily. In Him, God would remember our sins no more! We would be adopted into God’s family as sons and daughters. We receive the gift of eternal life and a full inheritance in God’s family.
Jesus’ sacrifice was better because His body and blood were without sin. He offered it once for all to put away sin. (Hebrews 9:14) His blood was offered in heaven on the heavenly mercy seat when He rose from the dead. He lives forever and is able to be a perfect High Priest. (Hebrews 6:20) He can identify with us because He is a man and has lived on earth, experiencing our temptations. (Hebrews 4:15-16)
When we trust in Christ and His sacrifice for us, God gives us a new heart and sends His Spirit to live in us. (Hebrews 8:10-12) We become priests of the New Covenant here on earth! Our sins are forgiven and erased from God’s memory. We become the new dwelling place of God, living stones in His new body the church. We become children of our Father and can approach Him boldly without fear to find help in times of need or just to worship and have fellowship.
New Covenant people love to gather together and encourage each other. We know Jesus Christ is coming soon! We want to be ready and reach as many as possible before the full reality is unveiled when He appears! (Hebrews 10:19-25)
Ask and Receive!
Scripture reading for August 10: Jeremiah 30-33
“The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3
“While Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard of the guard, the Word of the Lord came to him a second time: “This is what the Lord says, He who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it–The Lord is His name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ “ Jeremiah 33:2-3
God loves His people! He always has and always will love them! He draws His people to enter into a love relationship with Him by cords of loving-kindness. He knows that love must be freely given by His people and that they must be drawn back to Him from the world and it’s enticements. God’s love will ransom them from the hand of the enemy. (Jeremiah 31:11) He will cause them to take up the tambourine and dance with the joyful! (Jeremiah 31:4, 13)
God declared to Jeremiah a time that was coming when He would make a new covenant with Israel and Judah. This covenant would include God writing His law on the human heart and mind. God would personally be their God and each person would personally know God. His forgiveness of sin would be experienced by all and God Himself would remember it no more. (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
These visions of restoration came to Jeremiah at a most unlikely time in the history of the nation. The nation was surrounded by the Babylonians and Jeremiah was confined to the courtyard of the guard under house arrest. In the natural, it did not look good. But in the midst of the troubling time, God’s Word brought hope and encouragement to Jeremiah and His people. God would allow the destruction of the temple and send His people into captivity. He promised restoration and the coming of the New Covenant.
The amazing promises of great things given to Jeremiah included the promise of the righteous “Branch” that would sprout from David’s line. (Jeremiah 33:14-16) This “Branch” would bring salvation to Judah and peace and safety to Jerusalem. His Name would be “The Lord our Righteousness”. This “Branch” is none other than Jesus Christ! He brought the “New Covenant” in His own blood that would enable eternal forgiveness of sins and the law written on hearts. He was the embodiment of the everlasting love of God in human flesh and draws us with His loving-kindness! These are great and unsearchable things revealed to those who call on Him!
A new and better covenant!
Scripture reading for March 14th: Hebrews 8, Psalm 52, Proverbs 21
Hebrews 8:10-13 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord. I will put My laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” In speaking of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”
God deals justly and righteously with His people through covenant relationship. Covenants spell out clearly the responsibilities of each party. There are blessings for those who joyfully fulfill their responsibilities and curses for those who willfully disregard their obligations. Under the Old Covenant of Law, God’s mercy and instruction offered through His laws brought resistance and rebellion in the human heart. The law was written on tablets of stone, reflecting the unredeemed human heart. But in the New Covenant, made through the Son of God and His sacrifice of blood and body, God made new promises to write His law on the tables of our hearts and give us understanding in our minds by grace through faith. He would forgive our sins and be our God, taking us as His own people! God is faithful to His Covenant!
Psalm 52:8-9 “For I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever. I will thank You forever, for You have done it. I will wait for Your Name, for it is good, in the presence of the godly.”
Prayer: Father God, thank You for this New Covenant of grace through faith in Jesus Christ. I have come to trust in Your steadfast love and grace through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I now have Your laws of love written on my heart and mind and delight to do Your will. I will praise Your Name forever and ever, and live as a green olive tree, full of sap and life through Your Holy Spirit!
Proverbs 21:21 “Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness and honor.”
Obsolete and passing away
Scripture reading for February 25th: Leviticus 21-23, Hebrews 8
Hebrews 8:6-7 “But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant He mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.”
The old covenant of Law mediated by the Aaronic priesthood was made obsolete when God sent His Son, Jesus Christ to mediate a new covenant. The old covenant was written on tablets of stone and every violation required a blood sacrifice. The priests had to offer sacrifices for their own sins as well as the sins of the people. These sacrifices could not remove sin, but only cover it temporarily. The new covenant through Jesus Christ was enacted on better promises. The appointed Priest would live forever and be seated at God’s right hand. He would forgive their sins and remember them no more through the sacrifice of His own blood. The law would be written on tablets of human hearts and each person would personally know God and have access through Jesus Christ, their High Priest. Lay hold of the new today, and let the obsolete pass away!
Hebrews 8:10-13 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. In speaking of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”
Prayer: Father God, thank You for the new covenant through the sacrifice, once for all, of Jesus’ body and blood. Thank You for the gift of the Holy Spirit Who writes Your laws and Word on my heart and causes me to want to obey and love You and others. Empower me to proclaim the powerful message of freedom through the new covenant to those still living in the obsolete and vanishing dead religion.
Leviticus 22:1-2 “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons so that they abstain from the holy things of the people of Israel, which they dedicate to Me, so that they do not profane My Holy Name; I am the Lord.”
Who wants something obsolete?
Scripture reading for August 17th: Hebrews 8
Key Scriptures: Hebrews 8:10-13 “”For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,” for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. In speaking of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.””
No one wants something for daily use that is obsolete. I purchased an Apple ll c computer as my first personal computer. It was quite the in thing in the late 70’s! In fact, today’s technology systems would not support it and it would be unusable. God was telling the Hebrew Christians that the old covenant of the Law and its sacrifices for sin was obsolete. Something new and better had come in Jesus Christ. Now the Law of God would be written on the tablets of human hearts and not on tablets of stone. God would not be distant and fearful to know, but all will be able to freely come before Him and know Him no matter who they are. God would not just cover their sins with the blood of an animal sacrifice, but would cleanse believers of all sins and remember them no more! It’s a better covenant with better promises, the old is obsolete!
Hebrews 8:6 “But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant He mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.”
Faith confession and prayer: Father, Thank You for Your great mercy to me and all who believe. Your mercy and forgiveness has enabled us to know You and receive this new covenant and by faith claim the better promises of cleansing and new creation and eternal life in Christ Jesus. Today, let me proclaim the excellencies of the New Covenant in Jesus Christ our Lord. Yes! Amen!
2nd Corinthians 1:18-20 “As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, Whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in Him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him. . .”
The New Covenant of Grace!
Scripture reading for October 23rd: Hebrews 8, Psalm 62, Proverbs 27
Key Scriptures: Hebrews 8:6-7, 13 “But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant He mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. . . . In speaking of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”
Christ’s ministry was far superior to that of Moses. Moses was the mediator of the old covenant of law. Those who obeyed would live, an impossibility because of our sin nature. Christ’s covenant was one of grace through faith. If we repent of trusting in our own good works and believe on Jesus, we will be saved. The old covenant is obsolete–out of date! It has been replaced by something new and better–forever!
Faith Confession: I thank God for the new covenant based on grace through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I live by faith in the gift of eternal life and receive grace to stand forgiven before God in Christ Jesus my Lord. Keep me from the danger of self-righteousness.
Proverbs 27:12 “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.”
Our sufficiency is in Christ!
Scripture reading for July 31st: 2nd Corinthians 3, Psalm 2, Proverbs 28-29 (two chapters of Proverbs today to enable going to odd Psalms every other day)
Key Scriptures: 2nd Corinthians 3:3-6 “And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
Paul, writing again to the Church in Corinth, contrasted his own ministry with those who boasted of their own sufficiency. His ministry had produced the fruit of changed lives through the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit had written God’s law of love on human hearts to bring about the change. Effort to keep the letter of the law produced only death but the Spirit gave life. The only boast Paul had was in God’s faithfulness and work by the Holy Spirit.
Faith Confession: I thank God that He has declared me sufficient as a minister of the new covenant of the Holy Spirit. He works through me by the Holy Spirit and God’s Word to bring about heart change in those who believe.
Proverbs 29:25 “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.”
Thankful for God’s Dwelling with Us!
Scripture reading for September 14th: Ezekiel 34-38
Key Scriptures: Ezekiel 37:26-28 “‘I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put My sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be My people. Then the nations will know that I the Lord make Israel holy, when My sanctuary is among them forever.'”
God spoke to His people concerning a new covenant of peace that would last forever. God promised to make the covenant and dwell with His people in His sanctuary that would be in their midst, never to be taken away again! All nations would know that it is the Lord that makes His people, Israel, holy! Under this new covenant, Gentiles would also experience God dwelling with them as their God and they would be His people!
God’s dwelling with us: “What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the Living God. As God has said, “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” 2nd Corinthians 6:16