2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Readers,
I have not said for awhile how very precious each one of you is to me. Your self-discipline in reading my messages each morning and beginning your days with God on your mind is very much appreciated. My pledge is to try to bring you the best messages that I can each and every day, ones that reflect what God directs me to write.
Today, I am once again brought face to face with the most often repeated statement of God’s will for that I’ve yet to find in the Scriptures. This time it’s repeated in HE 8: 8-12. Our great Covenant Partner wants the same thing for us that He has always wanted. “But God finds fault with His people when He says, ‘The days are coming when I will draw up a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. They were not faithful to the covenant I made with them, and so I paid no attention to them. Now, this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel in the day to come. I will put My laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. None of them will have to teach his fellow citizen or tell his fellow countryman, ‘Know the Lord.’ For they will all know Me, from least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and will no longer remember their wrongs.” By now, all of us recognize that the author of Hebrews (who I believe to be Paul) is citing JER 31: 31-34. We must all get the message not only the from the content of this statement of God’s will but also from the number of times [at least nine that I have found] that this statement is repeated. [See also JER 32: 38; DT 6: 4-5; EZK 36: 28 & 37:23; EX 6: 7; 2 COR 11: 19-20; REV 21: 3].
The Greek word used in HE 8: 8-12 for the new covenant is “kainos” [pronounced: kahee-nos with the accent on the last syllable]. It is translated to mean “new freshness.” I find it a wonderful manifestation of God’s compassion that He recognized the need for people to have a second chance at being a righteous and diligent covenant partners with God, particularly in this way. It’s a fresh start that we are given with the Covenant of Grace, that covenant which replaces the old Covenant of Law and is an improvement over the latter. How can we not love the fact that God not only grants His human partners in the Covenant of Grace eternal forgiveness, but He also forgets their sin of the past? HE 10: 3-7, “As it is, however, the sacrifices [of the old covenant] serve year after year to remind people of their sins. For the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins. For this reason, when Christ was about to come into the world, He said to God: ‘You do not want sacrifices and offerings, but you have prepared a body for Me. You are not pleased with animals burned whole on the altar or with sacrifices to take away sins. Then I said, ‘Here I am to do Your will, O God, just as it is written of Me in the book of the Law.’” Verses 5-7 are a citation of PS 40: 6-8.
We can all take a lesson from Christ’s attitude toward obeying God’s commands. Have we ever been given a command by God and responded, “Here I am, Lord, to do Your will?” This isn’t always easy to do, because often God asks us to do things that take us out of our comfortable place in life. The mental pictures arises of our president and the leaders who work under him finding themselves thrust into the challenges of a war. Or, the people in the military who we know would be more comfortable at home with their families, instead of off in the Middle East or Afghanistan in harm’s way. I also think of the police and fire-fighters who have been digging through the rubble of Ground Zero doing one of the most unpleasant jobs on earth. God’s offer of partnership in the new covenant is for them and every person who is willing to repent and have faith in Christ. Our prayers for these people and all the others who say, “Here I am, Lord, to do Your will,” are both powerful and urgently needed. We too, must be willing to take this same attitude toward our Creator’s commands no matter what they are.
GA 3: 24-25, “And so the Law was in charge of us until Christ came, in order that we might then be put right with God through faith. Now that the time for faith is here, the Law is no longer in charge of us.” We no longer have to worry about the curse [GA 3: 10] that the Law as traditional Jews see it are under. Instead, we are given a chance to grow in our faith, to conform to the model set before us by the Son, to take comfort in knowing that we really are forgiven eternally and our sins are forgotten. That is the improvement that the new covenant is over the old one. Even if we don’t have to serve in the ways the country’s leaders, soldiers, police, and fire-fighters mentioned above do, there are still ways that we must answer God’s commands in our own individual lives. These commands have to with the circumstances of our lives. God has told us to love one another, as Christ loves us. That can be demonstrated in a myriad of ways. We might spread the Gospel to others who haven’t heard this wonderful message. We might serve in ministries of prayers of intercession, nurture, service of various kinds, and evangelism. We might answer God’s commands by being wonderful parents who raise faithful children, or care for the ill. It might be the example we set for others in the workplace. Whatever God calls us to, we need to say, “Here I am, Lord, to do Your will.”
PRAYER: O Lord, You offer mankind a fresh start, a chance to be “new creations” when we are in union with Christ. Eternal forgiveness is ours when we repent and come to faith, becoming Your partners in the Covenant of Grace. Only Your compassion, patience, and love for us has motivated You to replace the old Covenant of the Law which wasn’t working with this new and much-improved Covenant of Grace. Isaiah, Christ, and others have said, “Here I am, Lord, to do Your will.” They established the model of what You want for us, and we are here to dedicate ourselves to following it. We know that You might take us out of our comfort habit patterns to a place where we will have to mature spiritually, recognize our dependence on You, look to You for leadership, and do things that we don’t always understand. Sometimes, Your commands will come at times we deem to be inconvenient. But, Dearest Abba, we recognize that Your will must be our first priority. Those of us who know You well, take comfort in knowing that You never ask us to do anything or go anywhere that You haven’t equipped us to do or go. When we put You first in our lives, You protect, guide, encourage, and care for all those who depend on us too. We are proud to be Your covenant partners and, in humility, pledge You our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, trust, obedience, glory, honor, praise, and thanks. We are eternally grateful for the new covenant, which You have given us. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will look at some of the truths of the new covenant, which apply to all believers whether Jewish or Gentile. In the meanwhile, we can feel joy at knowing the our Abba loves us beyond imagination-enough to offer us eternal forgiveness, His continual presence in our lives, and the hope of everlasting proximity and fellowship with Him when His Kingdom is finally established. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn