Jeremiah 31:31–34
NKJV
31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—
32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.
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.
34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
Oh my goodness, did anyone else get chills after reading that? The new law is not like the old law in the sense that we have to do do do do do in order to be right with God. Instead, Jesus did and now it's done. Don't get me wrong, we still have commandments to follow, but this time, the consequences are different if we mess up. When we fall short and make mistakes, God won't tear apart our country; He will forgive us and forget our sins.
One of the strongest examples that we see right away of the new covenant is when a woman is caught in an act of adultery in John 8. The Pharisees brought the woman to Jesus to tell him that this woman was caught in adultery, and Moses' law says she should be stoned to death. What will He do about it?
Jesus responds by saying (pay attention; this is the good part), "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." Of course, none of the Pharisees were without sin, so they all walked away, one by one, until no one was left but Jesus and the adulteress. Then, Jesus asks the woman (as if he didn't already know) where they all went. Did no one condemn her? After she informs him that no one condemned her, Jesus said, "Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin."
That is the new covenant. Not that we shall disregard God's commandments, but that when we mess up, God forgives us and allows us to walk away from sin. When Jesus came to this earth, he fulfilled the old law (Matthew 5:17) because we weren't strong enough to follow the old law perfectly ourselves.
Romans 8:1-4 states "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. "
The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, but when Christ came to us, we no longer needed a tutor (Ga 3:24-26). The fact that we are under a new law, however, does not mean we have no rules to follow. In fact, when Jesus came to fulfill the law, he raised the bar in many ways by giving us new rules to follow. Now, instead of trying to get away with loving our friends and hating our enemies, we have to try to love our enemies as well (Matthew 5:44). Instead of not committing adultery, we are instructed to not even look lustfully at a person (Matthew 5:28). We still have rules and standards for our lives; the difference is that when we fall short, Jesus can bring us the rest of the way. To look deeper into this subject, I really recommend reading Matthew chapter five.
Therefore, let us thank God for sending His son to fulfill the old law, and providing us with a more forgiving, new law. In what ways does the "new law" affect your life? As you ponder this, please feel free to leave any insight or questions in the comments box below. I'd love to hear from you.
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I love grace. And we are most certainly in the Age of Grace. Jesus died for our sins to be wiped away from us. Unlike the Old Testament Jews - who could have their sins removed by sacrificing - our sins were removed FOR US by Christ.
ReplyDeleteEven so, it's not only that Jesus can bring us into His fold, that we don't HAVE to sins, because the power of sin is broke in our lives. What makes us so miraculously different from Old Testament believers is that we actually get to have a RELATIONSHIP with our Saviour.
The Old Testament Jews only knew Yahweh as the One who brought them out of Egypt, the One who judged them for their sins and the One who had made abstract promises about a Messiah. They didn't really KNOW God and who He was. We have Jesus, who was a real flesh and blood person. We got to know Him through the 33 years he spent on Earth, and we get to read about His everyday life in the Bible. It's this beautiful relationship with our Savior that makes us different and that should keep us from sinning. When you have a deep relationship with someone, you don't want to hurt them. In the same vein, our relationship with Christ should be such that we would hate to hurt Him, thus we don't sin.
It's a beautiful thing, but just like any human relationship, it takes work.