The New Covenant

As we read through the Old Testament in the Bible we are introduced to the covenants that God established with His servants. We read of the covenants that God established with Noah, Abraham, Moses and David. Every one of these covenants were initiated by God, in other words, He brought them into being, He declared them and He swore by Himself that what He declared in them, would indeed, come to pass.

And through these covenants we can see the progressive revealing of God’s redemptive plan for His creation, with the ultimate conclusion of the New Covenant, that would bring together His expressed will, for the forgiveness of our sins or transgressions of His holy nature, which ultimately separates us from Him, through faith in the obedient sacrifice and death of His own Son, Jesus, the Anointed One, the Messiah, on the cross, for you and for me, with the promise of eternal life because of the resurrection of Jesus (John 14:19).

And what was the reason for these progressive covenants? To bring us to the awareness or realization that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9) and that which separates us from God’s love and communion with Him (our thoughts and ways) can only be corrected by God. In short, we need a Saviour to do for us what we, in and of ourselves cannot do and that Saviour must originate from God and be God. Mankind, either individually or collectively, in it’s current state of brokenness with God, simply cannot make it right again.

It’s really a beautiful unfolding of God’s redeeming intent, where He refines each covenant, using imperfect servants to accomplish His goals, leading to His perfect servant, Jesus, His Son. These servants of God that we’re introduced to, whose strengths and weaknesses are clearly shown with their triumphs and their failures declared. And one can’t help but feel connected to them and admire their strengths and their faith. And yet, with the exception of Jesus, in spite of their faithful obedience, each one of them, fell a little short, at one point or another, along the way. And we’re deliberately shown that in God’s Word, it’s not avoided or hidden. We’re supposed to see and understand this and if we read and look closely, we do.

We can also see this reiterated when Jesus corrects the young ruler for calling Him good (Luke 18:19 NIV) where Jesus indicates that God the Father is the source of all goodness and we can see this in the scripture that affirms that there is not one who seeks goodness in all of it’s purity (Psalm 14:3 NIV).

Noah, Abraham, Moses and David were all real people like you and me, we’re talking real flesh and blood. Jesus directly mentioned each one of them individually by name. All were undoubtedly dedicated servants of God but they were all still imperfect humanity. Yet God did indeed declare a covenant with each one of them, forwarding His plan of redemptive mercy and justice, towards a new covenant, unlike those covenants that have gone before as He states in Jeremiah 31:31-34.

And when Jesus appears it’s like a bright flashlight shining in a dark room. It’s what everything before has been pointing to. Like the old saying, all roads lead to Rome, everything that we’re given in the Bible, points to Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

And then, as Jesus Himself tells us in Luke 22:20 NIV “In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

When you stop to think about it, there could be no other way.

“Behold the lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)

Sometimes we forget that we’re talking about real people in the Bible that lived and died. Sometimes we forget that Jesus actually walked on this earth and breathed the same air that we breath. That’s God our Creator identifying with His creation, that’s God coming down to us, as one of us, so that we might appreciate and comprehend some of His understanding.

Hebrews 4:14-16 NIV “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.“

The New Covenant is different from all of the previous covenants, because in the New Covenant, we have God Himself dealing with the just consequences of sin and He destroys its power through our trust and faith in the shed blood of Jesus and the assurance of His resurrected Son.

1 Corinthians 15:55-57 NIV

“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.“

Matthew 5:17 NIV ““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.“

Worthy is the Lamb! Blessings!