2020-10-16
Good Morning Dear Ones,
An early covenant between God and His people Israel was the Abrahamic Covenant, found in GN 12: 2-3 [God speaking to Abram], “I will give you many descendants, and they will be a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you but, I will curse those who curse you. And, through you I will bless all the nations.” Our God was establishing a Jewish nation that would believe in Him and Him alone, that would place Him at the center of their lives, and that would be set apart from all the nations around her by this monotheism. This covenant was also the beginning of God’s hope for a lawful (rather than lawless) group of people bound together in Him. God would show His people what pleases and what doesn’t please Him. Later, His people took their faith, demonstrating legalism and lock step thinking.
That is why much later, He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to serve a 3-yr. ministry and then sacrifice His life on the cross, in an effort to show people how to live in the Spirit and not in just the written law [RO 7: 6]. During His earthly ministry, Christ discussed the importance of taking vows only after careful thought and taking them seriously [MT 5: 33-37]. The Father had instructed the Son to give His physical life for the sake of atonement for the sins of the people [LK 22: 42]. In obeying this command, Christ opened the way for believing mankind to gain eternal life [salvation-JN 3: 16], be justified [RO 4: 3], and be eternally forgiven [1 JN 1: 9]. Those things had not been available before. Christ’s life was the establishment of the new covenant, the Covenant of Grace, which replaced the Covenant of the Law. Grace is unmerited favor [EPH 2: 8-10].
Each covenant made with God has far-reaching ramifications on the lives of believers. Let’s look at this Covenant of Grace. Covenants are two-way promises. God is the more powerful Partner to this covenant. We promise faithfully obey God, look within to discover our sins, even the most subtle ones, and make Him the Center of our lives. In exchange, God gives us even more blessings than we could ever deserve-protection, direction, intervention when needed, healing, etc. We must agree to confess our sins before Him with honesty and openness and to stop the behavior once and for all. I know from personal experience that He will give us peace of mind for doing that. Following His teaching is good for us and helps us avoid trouble [2 TIM 3: 16-17]. These principles can be put together with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which will be discussed at length in this series of messages. GA 5: 22-23, “But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control. There is no law against such things as these.”
The story of Peter’s visit to Cornelius in AC 10:9-16, demonstrates God’s preparation in putting together the new covenant --to lift some of the dietary laws that had been practiced by traditional Jews. Acceptance of the changes this vision would bring didn’t come easily to Peter, but they were God’s commands just the same. Remember, when God makes a promise, He keeps it. He was making His covenant promises in making a better covenant than the Covenant of the Law. God is the Creator, Who brings the dead to life, as He did with the Lord Jesus in His resurrection. As far as justification goes, God put the law to an end, so that all who believe in Jesus Christ are deemed acceptable to Him [RO 10: 4]. Once we are a part of the Covenant of Grace, we need not worry that God will stop loving us. Nothing can separate us from the love of God [RO 8: 38-39]. He treats us, His adopted children, like a parent, Who sometimes must discipline us but never stops loving us. God made His promises to Abraham and to His Seed [sometimes expressed as “Descendant”]. You’ll notice He has used the singular and not pleural here. That is because His “Seed” means Jesus Christ [GA 3: 15-16]. We must remember Paul’s words in RO 1: 16-17, “I have complete confidence in the Gospel : It is God’s power to save all who believe, first the Jews and also the Gentiles. For the Gospel reveals how God put people right with Himself; it is through faith from beginning to end. As the Scriptures [Hb 2: 4] says, ‘The person who is put right with God through faith shall live.’”
PRAYER: O Lord, we express our belief and confidence in Jesus Christ. Moreover, we pledge to do all we can to live according to Your teaching and to make You the Centerpiece of our lives. You are there to hear our prayers any time-day or night. You never stop loving us or wanting us to live lives that bring us ever closer to You. We are connected to You through our obedient faithfulness, just as grapes must be connected to the vine and cared for to grow. On our own, there is little we can do, but with the Holy Spirit, Who inhabits our spirit, we can mature, in a way which pleases You. We are grateful for all the many blessings You bestow upon us. We pledge to watch You at work in our lives and those of others around us. As the Holy Spirit gradually unpacks what He wants me to write this series, we will learn to watch for His gifts in our lives and learn more about them. The greatest gift to us has been Christ’s Atonement for our sins. Although we are still sinners in need of Christ’s intervention and God’s wisdom, which He makes available to us through Christ in us, we desire to please You and to make You see You have not wasted Your Son on us. We thank and praise You forever, for the efforts You continue to make to help us be more like our Lord Jesus. In utter reverence and awe of You, we offer this prayer in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: How God gradually reveals His plan of salvation to us will be the subject of next week’s devotion. My life has not been typical, because I was raised as a traditionally Conservative Jew and went through a God-driven series of experiences that led me to accept the Lord Jesus as my personal Savior. I’m still Jewish but am now a Messianic Jew. There are many ways that believers in Jesus come to that state within the Jewish and Gentile communities. For example, some gradually come to the faith their parents taught them. Some have war experiences that bring them to the end of faith in only themselves or other humans. There are as many ways as there are personalities for God to impact. I have stuck to using myself as an example in these devotions out of respect for the privacy of others. There is nothing special about me. I’m an ordinary person with a life that isn’t unique. My skill set might have never been discovered or used had God not felt it necessary for my salvation. I am filled with joy to use it to do God’s bidding and His work. That is why He has the power to overcome my initial foolishness, lack of self-confidence, and, at times, poor judgment. As with others, God has the power to change a life of misery and lack of direction to the way I feel now. It’s my prayer that each person He invites to have faith in Christ has a similar revelation of His constant presence and love that I have. Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2020. All Rights Reserved.
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