A New & Better Covenant!

Wednesday morning, March 12, 2008
This is what God said through Jeremiah, the prophet: “The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. . . . For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (Jeremiah 31:31-34; NIV).
It is unmistakable: God entered into a NEW covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, a covenant UNLIKE the first covenant He entered into with their forefathers, when He led them out of Egypt. What is it about this that is so difficult to understand? Why does the church insist on its members living in the Old Covenant, when God has provided a new and better covenant?
Listen to what the writer of the letter to the Hebrews has to say about this: “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted with better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. . . . When He said, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is read to disappear” (Hebrews 8:6-7; 13). [vss. 8-12 are his quote of Jeremiah 31!]
These are two very distinct covenants—one the covenant of Law and the other the covenant of grace—yet, the church for the most part refuses even to acknowledge the existence of the latter—the covenant of grace—even though the first has become obsolete. In spite of the fact that the Scriptures plainly teach that the second covenant, the Covenant of Grace is a much better covenant, with better promises, the church does everything in its power to keep its people living under the tyranny of the Covenant of Law. The reasons are several—
First, most church leaders do not understand the nature of the New Covenant and they do not because their eyes have been blinded to truth.
Second, because their eyes have been blinded, their understanding of the New Covenant is distorted; consequently, they do not to trust their congregants to live in the freedom the New Covenant provides. In their minds, if the congregants should be released from the Law, which is what the New Covenant does, they would sin all the more, licentiousness becoming the norm of the day. Somehow, they fail to recognize that the Law gives sin it power (see Romans 7:5-8).
Third, most church leaders honestly believe that obedience to the Law, especially the Ten Commandments, is equated with Godly living; consequently, most church leaders, insist on requiring obedience to those commandments. Somehow, they have failed to see that the Law was given, not to make us righteous, but to lead us to Jesus, who is our righteousness. The obvious fact being overlooked: we cannot keep the commandments, certainly not to the standard required, which is perfection. Anything less than perfection is total failure. Go figure!
Fourth, most church leaders seem to have failed to realize that Christianity is NOT a religion, whose success is measured by how perfectly its participants obey the Ten Commandments, but a relationship with Jesus, whose success is measured by how perfectly He met the Law’s requirement in our behalf.
Now, I have a question: Why don’t you take this to your pastor and ask him to read it and to give you his opinion of it. Doing so, just might open your eyes to something that will forever change your life.
Finally, I do have one more question: Are you living in the Old Covenant of Law or in the New and Better Covenant of Grace?
Feel free to let me know, as I really am interested—