In the Edenic covenant Adam and Eve were not supposed to eat from the tree of good and evil. Among lakhs of trees, eating from one tree was forbidden. The day you eat from this tree you will certainly die.
Under the Law, Israelites had to obey the law to be blessed. disobedience led to curses.
It is based on God’s unmerited favor. Christ carried the human sins to the cross and paid the penalty for it. The wages of sin is death. Christ paid it all and said “It is finished”. Jesus has finished his part. Does the believer have a role to play in the new covenant?
(Hebrews 8:10 NIV)
This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them in their hearts.
I will be their God, and they will be my people.
This is the new covenant that God makes with us. In the old covenant the people had to obey the commandments to be blessed. The law was written in the stone tablets. There was no connection between hearts and minds. It was frustrating for Israelites to follow the commandments. But God here turns the hearts and minds of people first to Himself. Then He writes laws in the hearts and minds. In the old covenant it was seeing the stone tablets they had to follow a set of rules. It was outside and inside . In the new covenant, God works inside out.
(Matthew 15:18-20 NIV)
But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”
In the law it is what people should do. In the new covenant of Grace, it is what the Lord does. Look at the I’s the Lord is mentioning about. Five times it is all about God is mentioned in this verse. Nothing is mentioned that people should do in this verse.
(John 13:34 NIV)
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
Our love for one another is based on how Christ loved us all and gave His life for us.
(Romans 3:27 NIV)
Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith.
A Very Beautiful Hand
John Wesley and a preacher of his acquaintance were once invited to lunch with a gentleman after the service. Wesley’s preacher friend was a man of very blunt speech. This well-meaning man, while talking with their host’s beautiful daughter, who had been profoundly impressed by Wesley’s preaching, noticed that she wore several rings. During a pause in the meal he took hold of the young lady’s hand and, raising it, called Wesley’s attention to the sparkling gems. “What do you think of this, sir,” he asked, “for a Methodist hand?” The girl turned crimson. The question was extremely awkward for Wesley whose aversion to all displays of jewellery was well known. With a quiet, benevolent smile he looked up and simply said, “The hand is very beautiful.” He had not denied the implied rebuke but had taken the sting out of it. The young lady appeared at evening worship without her jewels and became a firm and dedicated Christian.
(Matthew 22:37-40 NIV)
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Paul summarises the entire law into one word. It is “LOVE”. When you are filled with the love of Jesus, it influences your spouse, children and brothers and sisters you meet.
(Ephesians 5:25 NIV) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…
Men do you realise it is not that you go and love your wives. First you be filled with the love of Christ for us. We can love only because He first loved us. When you are filled with the love of Jesus, you don’t get angry against those who have wronged you but forgive as Christ did.
(Romans 13:9-10 NIV)
The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law.
In fact, when you receive God’s love, you will not just fulfil the law effortlessly, but you will also exceed it. The law deals purely with the superficial, but grace goes much deeper. The law will not tell you how to save your marriage. But today, when God puts His laws into your heart, you can run to Him saying, “Lord, I can feel my wife growing further away from me. Teach me how to love her,” and God will lead you because He has promised that “all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.”1 If you feel the urge to say some words of encouragement and affirmation to her, do it. If you feel the prompting to give her a hug, do it! Follow those promptings in your heart because the Lord will lead you to love your spouse!
He fills you with His love. Then you see the difficulties children face in life. The love of Christ gives you a desire and love for children. You do children ministry. You have a love for young people. You pray for them. Then God gives you word and counsel to speak to them. Every ministry flows out of love.
Some people dress up with a sob story and don’t work. Don’t give them money. Let those who do not work not eat. But you see people dressed modestly and neatly but in big financial need. The Lord will prompt you to help them. This is God’s heart of love.
Grace in Temptation
A Korean Christian showed that he had grasped the meaning of the injury caused by anger when he got up in prayer meeting and said, “I heard the missionary say that every burst of anger pierced the heart of Jesus. So I hung a picture of the Lord Jesus on my wall, and every time I lost my temper, I put a thorn on that picture. The picture was soon covered with thorns. A great love welled up in me that He should suffer because of my temper; now He gives me grace in temptation. I say, ‘Not I, but Christ within me,’ and His sweetness comes instead of my bad temper.”
New Covenant at work:
Now, you know that the old covenant was contingent on the works and obedience of the Israelites to the law. So what does the new covenant
hinge on? Beloved, God is so good. The new covenant that God has made is not dependent on anything that you and I must do because He knows that we will always fail.
(Hebrews 8:12 NIV) For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.
This is the climax of the New Covenant of Grace.
Note the word “For.” It means “because.” The new covenant works because God says that He will be merciful to our unrighteousness, and our sins and lawless deeds He will remember no more! “No more” means that there was a time God remembered our sins, even to punish them to the third and fourth generations.3 This is found in the Ten Commandments. However, today, God says emphatically, “No more!” (Double negative in the Greek.) “No more” means that God will never again remember our sins against us because He remembered (to punish) all our sins in the body of His Son. Jesus bore God’s punishment of our sins on the cross. Now, we can walk in the new covenant and hear God say, “Your sins and lawless deeds I remember no more.”
Our Part in Grace:
Our part is to simply believe. Believe in Jesus that all your sins are forgiven and God has forgotten them.
Do you remember the sins that you committed one month ago? Remember what you committed two years ago? God says what you have confessed I have forgiven and forgotten.
(Micah 7:19 NIV) You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
The highest mountain in the world is Mt. Everest at 29,000 feet. But the depth of the deepest ocean is 35,000 feet. You want to remember that and bring it to the surface. See the God who has forgiven and forgotten your sins. In the eyes of God, you are perfectly righteous by Jesus’ finished work on the cross. He has put all your sins on the body of Jesus. You say you remember your sins. God says I have forgotten your sins. God is not a liar.
(Numbers 23:19 NIV) God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
(Hebrews 8:12 NIV)
For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.