Monday, April 10, 2017

Old Vs. New Covenant

God told Jeremiah that he would make a new covenant with his children. The first covenant was made on Sinai, when God gave the Law to Moses. The covenant was based on an agreement between God and the people. God would bless the people, as long as they obeyed the Law. And God would permit circumstances that would punish the people, when they disobeyed. And they continually broke the covenant. The Bible narrative contains a series of waves. The people ride high on the crest of obedience. Then, the crash on the beach of disobedience.

It was a choice to surrender to weakness, and expedience. To want to be like others. To stop following the Lord. Israel chose to follow other gods, almost from the very first day God delivered them from Egypt.

So, a new covenant is needed. One that is not based on men following the Law in their own strength and will. Because that is never going to happen.

This new covenant is also based on an agreement with God and people. The people choose to follow God. God chooses to make a fundamental change in the person’s spiritual DNA. The change occurs deep in a person’s inner man. Thought processes, motivations, and imagination are all fundamentally changed.

And Jesus came to bring this new covenant into being. And many Jews realized something extraordinary was happening. But what many did not seem to see was that a change in covenant also meant a change in practice. It’s like when a person gets a new item of clothing, because an old item has a hole in it. One does not get the new item to use it as patch material for the old item. One begins using the new item, and gets rid of the old one.

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