All tagged covenant
Yesterday we contemplated the parable of the sower and the importance of preparing the ground for God's word. Interestingly, that parable ends not only with words regarding those seeds, but how we should hear and use the parable. Today let’s look at how this parable can lead us to places in our lives that we never expected.
Are you in a covenant relationship with God? Have you accepted the blood of Jesus Christ as the offering that sealed your covenant with the Lord? Has God’s forgiveness of the world’s sin through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus become your covenant? Many of us see the cross and say “this is the covenant”, but it is only a sign. We see the rending of the temple curtain and say “this is the covenant”, but it is also a sign. Then we see the empty tomb and say “this is the covenant”, but it too is only a sign. The covenant is forgiveness, and the blood of Jesus is the offering that seals it. Is His blood upon you? Are you forgiven?
How deep is our faith in Jesus Christ? Have we believed all our lives that Jesus is the Son of God, and yet never been intimate with Him? Have we walked down the aisle weeping and confessing that He is the Lord of our lives, and then continued along with the reins of our lives held tight in our hands? Maybe we spend a lot of time trying to make ourselves righteous by doing those things Jesus taught, but do them without ever having met our living Savior. In faith, true faith, we are meant to allow Him to transform us by making us righteous, and holy.
Marriage, it is more than a simple ceremony, it is a Holy covenant that was first established between Adam and Eve in Genesis, continues throughout scripture as the model for all men and women to follow, and is the same covenant by which we see Jesus coming to claim His Church in the book of Revelation. When we marry we are entering into this covenant before God, and for us it is meant to be a lifelong promise of love, respect, and the creation of a new creature as we become one flesh. Each time we witness a marriage it is not only the establishment of a promise between those two people, but a reminder to all of us who have made this pledge, of the covenant we entered into with our own spouses. For every Christian it is also a very real reminder of the coming Christ. How healthy are our marriages? How true are we to our covenant?
It is one thing to acknowledge God, and recognize Jesus as His Son, but unless we give ourselves over to them, becoming transformed into new men and women, and longing for the return of Christ, then the job of faith, and righteousness, has not been completed in us. Newborn babies can feel the air about them, but until they take the first breath into their lungs, then life is not fully established in them. We may say that we have been born again, but have we breathed in Christ, and established the life of His New Covenant within us? Have we been transformed from certain death, and given an ever increasing, and joyous, life?
The New Covenant was prophesied time and time again in the Old Testament, sometimes boldly, but at other times in less straightforward fashion, but the prophesy was believed nonetheless. So why is it that so many Christians today can’t see that this covenant has arrived, and that we are living under it? Why can’t we see that this prophesy has been fulfilled by God through Christ, and is ours to be followed today, and every day.
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.
If you are living without Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, do you believe your life is the best that it can possibly be? Well my friend, the covenant that is made with us through Jesus Christ far exceeds any that we might concoct for ourselves, and is even better than God’s previous covenant made with Moses. Jesus was sent to redeem us because we are unable to live righteously on our own, even with the guidance of the law given to Moses we fall short.