Originally posted on September 10, 2016
Table of Contents
Old Covenant vs New Covenant Reading
If at anytime you are reading scripture from the starting point, ” If I will….then God will….”then you are starting from the viewpoint of the Old Covenant and trying to fulfill the law. I used to do this all the time, but not any more, thank God. When Jesus came, He died on the Cross and He rose again, this changed history and created a New Covenant free gift offered to all people. This covenant is similar to what He did for Abraham, but a million times better, in that it is a covenant of faith where God did and Abraham received because Abraham simply believed in Who God is and this belief was accounted to him as RIGHTEOUSNESS. Today, in the New Covenant, we, as believers, are under GRACE not law. So, when we read scripture it is imperative we start at the right starting point. In the New Covenant we start with: Jesus did it all for all time. Jesus bore all my sin, shame, sickness, disease on the Cross. He fully took my place and the whole worlds place on the Cross. He took the entire bulk of punishment upon His own body for all time and for all people. As believers in Jesus, we have the astounding privilege to be part of His family and fully understand that God, through His Son has done everything for us and all we do is receive. There are no strings attached to this. As a believer in Christ there is absolutely nothing you could ever do to lose it (except deny Who Jesus is; but then He is chasing after you). There is absolutely nothing you have to do; but just believe in Who God is and what Jesus did for you.
As it says in 1 John 1:5-10:
“This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from ALL sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” NASB
New Eyes in the New Covenant
Let’s look at this through New Covenant eyes: If we declare that we are sinners, that we truly need a Savior we are immediately walking in the Light with Jesus, we are cleansed from ALL sin. We just need to confess which means: “to acknowledge belief in”. What are we acknowledging belief in? The fact that we were all born into sin because of Adam and we are in need of saving. Once we acknowledge this and believe that Christ died for us to be free from this sin nature, we are forgiven and cleansed from ALL unrighteousness. Which means we are a new creation and fully righteous in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17&21). The New Covenant is that simple.
What This Means Personally
You do not need to perform for God to stay in the Kingdom of Heaven because Jesus already has performed it all. Do you need to keep confessing your “sin” so you can stay in good terms with God???–No, because we have already acknowledged that fact when we had faith or believed in Who Jesus was and Christ’s act with our faith, acknowledgement and acceptance of that free gift is what makes us on good terms with God; because the payment was paid in full by His Son for us. All of our iniquity, transgressions, and sin was nailed to the Cross for ALL time and were are righteous in Christ Jesus. So, I challenge you to read the scripture above with the realization: this was written for non-believers to help them enter into the Truth of Who Jesus is and all that He did for them. Next I also challenge you to read it from the right starting point: God through His Son finished it all for you and has done everything for you…now receive the Holy Spirit and enter into His rest as Hebrews 4:10 says:
“For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.” NASB.
This is the message of the New Covenant, the message of Grace. The true gospel of Jesus Christ
