The Bible contains two Testaments or Covenants. The first is called the Covenant of the Law and defines what we need to do if we want to save ourselves. The fault with the Covenant of the Law is that it is faultless!!! Its standard is perfections; the problem is we are not. Paul summarises it as follows: Gal. 3:10, 11 “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them. But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident …” Praise God that He has provided another testament/Covenant.. The Covenant of the law failed, because it {or rather we} was {were} weak through the flesh [Rom. 8:3]. Indeed all it could do is to condemn us for that weakness [Gal. 3:10]. While the Law itself was perfect, it had no capability to make anything else perfect [Heb. 7:19]. So this New Covenant is not like the covenant of the Law, which demands obedience in us. Rather it describes what God will do for us: Jer. 31:33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. The Lord, through His prophet Ezekiel, informs us that the Spirit He will give us will be His Spirit [Ezek. 36:27]. This New Covenant of grace makes the old Covenant of the Law obsolete [Heb. 13]. Does that mean that we can now ignore the Law and live as we want to? Well the fact that the above can appear to lead to that conclusion, shows that the above message resembles what Paul teaches, for he too anticipated the question: Rom. 6:1 “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? The answer of course is: Rom. 6:2 “Certainly not!. Although salvation is of the Lord and is a work of grace; not only has it removed us from the consequence of sin, it has also removed us from the power of sin. As Augustus Montague Toplady (1740-78) wrote: //ROCK of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee; let the water and the blood, from Thy riven side which flowed, be of sin the double cure, cleanse me from its guilt and power.\\ The promise of the New Covenant is that God will write the Law in our minds and on our hearts. When we find ourselves in Christ, we have also found that we are a new creation [2 Cor. 5:17]. God has delivered us from the bondage of sin, thus freeing us and enabling us to become the slaves of righteousness instead [Rom. 6:17, 18]. It is grace from beginning to end, but a Grace that still commits us to follow Him.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 11:19:38 +0000
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