04/06/2021
God made covenant with Israel when he led them out of Egypt, and it was written by His finger on stone, and recorded by the scribes on paper, but this covenant was broken repeatedly by them, because they were unable to live up to all that was given them. However, thanks be to God for His mercy, and the fullness of His grace that was to come.
Now, through Jesus Christ, we have God’s law written on our hearts, and governed by our love for Him, and in this way our obedience to His will has become our greatest desire. No longer do we see God from afar, but we carry Him within us as He abides there with Jesus, and His Holy Spirit... always.
““Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
Jeremiah 31:31, 33 ESV
In the book of Jeremiah, God gives His people new hope. He tells them of a new covenant that is coming, and how it won’t be a legal document, but rather a covenant He will make with them... heart to heart.
So what happens to the first covenant when we come to abide by the second one? Well, I have dealt with many leases, purchases, and promissory notes during my career, and all of them are binding, and in force, even when amendments are made to them and agreed upon. A document only becomes null and void when one of two things occurs... the terms are met, or the two parties agree to dissolve it. The first covenant that God made with Israel was not negated by an agreement to dissolve, but by having its terms fulfilled. Listen to Jesus...
““Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:17-20 ESV
So in His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus was working to fulfill the terms of the first covenant, and was preparing a new one that would govern our relationship with God. Point by point Jesus completed the terms of the first agreement; listen to what Paul writes to the Hebrews...
“Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”
Hebrews 9:15 ESV
Paul tells us that Jesus has become the death required to resolve our sin, just as the first agreement calls for. Then as we watch, and listen to all that Jesus did, and said, during His life, we see Him not only fulfilling what had been prophesied regarding Him, but completing all those stipulations that were part of the old covenant. So in the book of Hebrews Paul repeats what had been written of the coming new covenant, and then he says this...
“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 8:13 ESV
So as Jesus fulfilled the first covenant the second became effective, and our relationship with God was changed from a legalistic one into one that is governed by our love for Him, and His love for us.
In Jeremiah we hear God refer to Himself as the husband...
“not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.”
Jeremiah 31:32 ESV
Have you ever considered this scripture before, and wondered why God thought of Himself as the husband of Israel? Well, I recommend that each of us reread the description that Paul gives us in Ephesians 5 regarding the relationship between husband and wife, but think about this while substituting God for the husband and ourselves as the wife...
“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”
Ephesians 5:22-23, 33 ESV
These terms, like the others of the new covenant, are not legal terms, but terms of endearment. The details of which reside in our heart, and that by loving God we desire, and long, to fulfill. So now Jesus has ushered in a new covenant that has fulfilled the first, and we are living under it. The old covenant, like our old selves has passed away, and a new agreement, and a new man stands in their place. Are we prepared to live out our faith governed by the love we carry in our heart, and to bask in the grace of God, or do we cling to an outdated document, even though it has been superseded by a new one... the covenant of love, and grace? You see, God has not done away with His desires that were written into the first covenant, He has simply reestablished them by couching them in new language, and made them such that we can obey them, being free of sin, death, and righteous in His eyes.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Son Jesus who brought us a new covenant, and fulfilled the terms of the first one. Thank you for loving us, and providing not only mercy, but your amazing grace to cover our shortcomings. Help us Lord to respect you as a wife should respect her husband, and to love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Teach us to live our lives within your will, not by fearfully obeying laws, but by a loving desire to please you... as revealed to us by Jesus Christ, and your Holy Spirit. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who is with us always, and calls us by name. Great are you who has mercy, and pours out your grace upon us. Wonderful are you who has loved us enough to send your Son Jesus to die that we might have life. Hear our prayers Father, and know the love we have for you in our hearts. Witness our worship as we do so in Sprit snd Truth... giving you the glory for all things, and our commitment to your new covenant for all eternity. This is the new person we have become, and the new life we lead.
“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
Hebrews 13:20-21 ESV
Rich Forbes