Do you want to really experience God in your life like
you see of Jesus? Do you know that it possible to enjoy more of God’s blessings
and goodness without placing more demands on yourself? Many have labored and
struggled to please God and failed, some are discouraged and some have given
up.
The main problem is that we are trying to please Him with
our performance and activities. God wants us to come to a place where we trust
more in His grace than we do in self-effort. Ask yourself if you really trust
the way of grace, or do you always fall back on self-effort? We must trust in
the grace of God all the way, all time the time.
The Bible tells us that this Jewish law never gave life
to anybody, or made anybody righteous
Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His
sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Romans 3:20
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith
in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be
justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works
of the law no flesh shall be justified.
Galatians 2:16
Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there
had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would
have been by the law.
Galatians 3:21
The Old Covenant was Jewish law that God gave to Israel. It
did not begin in the book of Genesis but the at the foot of Mount Sinai. The
Law of Moses was not given to Gentiles and it did not consist of only Ten
Commandments, but 613 laws. The Ten Commandments comprises just 1.6% of the
Law. It was really a lot to keep everyday to present a man perfect. But God
also gave them a system offerings and sacrifices because He knew they could not
keep them. So the offerings and sacrifices represented redemption in shadow
form.
The scriptures say
the Law was intended only as a shadow, or picture of the Christ to come.
So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or
a new moon or sabbaths,17 which are a shadow
of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
Colossians 2:16, 17;
For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with
these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those
who approach perfect.
Hebrews 10:1
When we build our lives on the shadows we will never get
satisfied and be at peace with ourselves. The voice of condemnation keeps
speaking to us and pointing us to our failures and inadequacies. The law became
the ministry of death. The Law doesn’t encourage or praise us. It makes us
aware of our problems and issues and not the Saviour. If you break one aspect
of it, you break the whole thing.
For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.
James 2:10
The law brought us to a conclusion that within ourselves
we have no adequate response to heaven’s perfect standard; the Law’s strict
demands make it quite clear that we fall short (Galatians 3:21, 22). You must realize
that you cannot fulfill a divine mandate with human resources. That is Israel
continued to break the Law time and time again because it was not designed to
bring success (Exodus 24:7). We cannot achieve righteousness through
self-effort (Romans 5:20, 21).
Under the new covenant, God puts His faithfulness on
display (Hebrews 6:13-18). Abraham did not get blessed because he was faithful;
He got blessed because He trusted God’s faithfulness. This new covenant is
based on the faithfulness of God the father and Jesus the man. This covenant is
surely failure-proof.
C. There
are four areas where God committed in the new covenant:
1. God
swore by Himself to make sure that we would always have a perfect Priest who
would be a guarantor of a better covenant (Hebrews 7:21, 22).
2. God
promised to never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
3. God
promised to be faithful to Himself.
4. God
became a guarantor of a better covenant.
D. God
will never again make a covenant like the old covenant. The new covenant is
completely based on His faithfulness
6 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.
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been
sought for a second.8 Because finding fault with
them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 9 not according to the covenant that I made with
their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the
land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded
them, says the Lord.10 For this is the covenant that I will make
with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind
and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My
people.
Hebrews 8:6-10
The new covenant is heaven’s solution to man’s
faithlessness. Islam is an attempt by man to correct Judaism. Christianity is
God’s answer to sin and death. God rigged the system by downloading His
thoughts and guidelines into our hearts when we accept Christ.
What is our response in this new covenant? Do we have to
serve God because He has redeemed us? Do stop living our lives in order to
repay? No, a thousand times No! We must understand that we cannot repay Him and
He has not demanded that we repay Him. We cannot possibly pay back His worth and
redemption. There are only two ways to
respond to the new covenant: belief and thanksgiving. God wants us to enter
into His rest and by accepting His love daily and reflecting praise in response
of what redemption means in our hearts.
I know it seems that God doesn’t require much from you.
His full demands have been met by one man Jesus and that is why the scriptures
says that “You are accepted in the beloved”. God’s love for you can never be
taken from you, no matter what.
