I ask the question not to provide a “how to” answer. I am really interested in knowing if a relationship with God is something people truly desire.
Peter wrote this: “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God…” (1 Peter 3:18).
The Gospel is an invitation to enjoy a personal and intimate relationship with God.
There is nothing standing in the way. Christ’s death removed all obstacles.
But is relationship what we really want?
I’ve talked to many believers who love the forgiveness aspect of the Gospel, that God does not condemn them. They really enjoy knowing they stand in the righteousness of Christ, holy and blameless.
I do too. But these truths are not the end. These truths free us to enjoy Him.
Consider this promise of the New Covenant – “No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest” (Hebrews 8:11).
New Covenant living is all about relationship. Eternal life is all about knowing Jesus Christ (John 17:3).
But is this what people want?
What are your thoughts?
Tag: New Covenant
Do this in Remembrance
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is My body.”
Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.
This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
Matthew 26:26-28
Tonight and tomorrow many churches will host services to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Metro Bible fellowship, our local church, will meet tonight to remember the Lord’s death. It is my favorite service of the year. The music, the Scriptures that tell the story of Jesus is final hours and participation in the Lord’s Supper provides an experience of the love of God that is deeply moving.
I know many of you will be participating in services either tonight or tomorrow which is Good Friday. No doubt that you will share in the Lord’s Supper as well. As you do, remember all that Christ has accomplished for you.
When you eat of the bread, remember the day you first trusted Jesus as Savior and Lord. That was the day you were added to the body of Christ. When Jesus was alive, the body of Christ was in singular form. He occupied the body God had prepared for him as a sin offering. Today, His body has a new form. It is made up you believers throughout the world. As Paul wrote, “Now you are the body of Christ and each one of you is a part of it.” Remember that you belong to Christ.
When you drink of the cup, you remember that this cup represents the New Covenant in which you live today. Jesus’s death brought an end to the old covenant, fulfilling it in every detail. His death also ushered in the New Covenant. In this new covenant, God remembers your sins no more and where these have been forgiven there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. Remember that you are a forgiven person.
These are the truths that will help you celebrate the Lord’s Supper with a heart full of joy and thankfulness.
Seven Reasons to be New Covenant
To the fence sitters, here are seven reasons to get off the fence and boldly declare that you are a New Covenant believer.
Paul stated the reasons plainly in his letter to the Corinthians. The passage is 2 Corinthians 3. Read through it. I think you will find the seven reasons to be compelling.
- Life — As Paul wrote, “the law kills, but the Spirit gives life.” The end of the law is death. That is the wages of sin. In the New Covenant, you receive life, Christ’s life.
- Righteousness — The law is a ministry of condemnation. No way to feel close to God or even know that He truly loves you when you keep failing to live up to His commands. In the New, God makes you righteous in Jesus. You are accepted.
- Eternal Security — The Old Covenant was temporary. It had a limited purpose – to show you your need for Christ. The New is eternal. Jesus’ promises and provisions last forever, which means that you are saved completely and eternally.
- Hope — The weight of the law squeezes out all measure of hope. As the writer of Hebrews stated, apart from Christ, you live in the fearful expectation of God’s punishment . In this New Covenant, your sins have been taken away once and for all. You are forgiven. You have Jesus and He is your hope of glory.
- Freedom — Under the law, you were in bondage to sin and death. Sin was your master, as Paul wrote. But in this New Covenant, the Spirit of Life sets you free from the law of sin and death. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
- Transformation — Self-effort keeps you stuck in the Romans 7 trap: the things I want to do, I don’t, and the things I don’t want to do, I do. But in the New Covenant you are transformed into the likeness of Christ, from glory to glory.
- Jesus — Under law, it is all about you and your ability to live up to the standards. In the New, Jesus lives His life through you. He was the One who was revealed when the curtain in the temple was torn. He is God’s gift to you.
It is time to get off the fence. Make the declaration: “I am a New Covenant believer!”
What If…
What if the Old Covenant was God’s final word to man?
What if the Ten Commandments were the only means available to us to gain entry into heaven, or to earn God’s love and acceptance?
Where would this leave us?
What would our eternal fate be?
How would this affect our lives here and now?
The Old Covenant was God’s word to Israel. Not His first word to Israel, nor was it His last. But it did define Israel’s way of life as a nation from Moses until Jesus. The teachers of the Law believed Israel’s role in the world was to live out the righteous requirements of the Law, and in so doing, become a blessing to all other nations.
Where did this leave them? The same place it leaves anyone who attempts to gain God’s acceptance through obedience to Law – judged, condemned, fearful and dead in sin.
That’s the Old Covenant, a ministry of condemnation and death.
When read correctly, the Law is God’s word about man, the plain, stark truth. It answers these questions: What is the destiny of a people caught in the throes of a lie? What will be their end? According to the Law, the final stop is death, but only if the Old Covenant is God’s final word.
The denouement of this story has a twist. It is revealed on a hill called Calvary, outside the walls of Jerusalem. A man hung there on a cross, suspended between heaven and earth. He was no ordinary man, and the death he died was no ordinary death.
The man whose hands and feet were pierced was the Lord Himself, the unblemished Lamb of God. His death was in place of ours. Live out the full story of the Law and it ends at the foot of this cross. Look up and see God’s final word to man – Jesus.
Death is not God’s end for man, it is Jesus. In Him we have forgiveness of sins, righteousness and a new way of life defined by the New Covenant. That leads to several questions.
What if we truly believed that Jesus was and is God’s final word to man?
Where would this leave us?
How would it affect us here and now?
The New Covenant answers – in Jesus totally forgiven, completely loved and fully alive!