Much More Than New And Improved!

Click Here to Listen to or Read the One Year Bible Daily Lessons

"But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already. 12 And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.” Hebrews 8:10-12

We often hear the words when a company is marketing a new product, "New and improved". While there may be some improvement in the product, in the end the product is not much different, though it might have boosted sales.  You could say it is, "New and barely improved!" 

But the new covenant Jeremiah prophesied some 600 years before Jesus came, is new in the truest sense of the word. It completely replaced and was immeasurably better than the Old Covenant. There was no comparison because it was a completely different kind of covenant. Most importantly, the new covenant changed the way God related to his most prized possession, human beings. 

The New Covenant also features a greater intimacy with God than what was available under the Old Covenant. - Guzik

“The best way to make a man keep a law is to make him love the law-giver.” (Spurgeon)

The Lord made it clear that this covenant would originate with God, and not with man. At Sinai under the Old Covenant the key words were if you (Exodus 19:5), but in the New Covenant, the key words are I will. - Guzik

The Old Covenant came from the outside, it was external. It was written on stone tablets. It had no power to effect real change. The new covenant does its work on the inside as it is etched on the heart. 

Importantly the author of Hebrews says, "They all will know me from the greatest to the least!" In the Old Covenant the priests dispensed God's grace through performing various sacrifices. The priest was a mediator between God and man. They were a go-between connecting a holy God with unholy human beings. But now God sent His Son to mediate between man and God once and for all. And the new relationship became available where we could KNOW God in the truest sense of the word.  To know means to "experience intimately".  

It is hard to overestimate the truth that we can KNOW God. Think about it, we can have a relationship with the One who created the heavens and the earth. The One that created every human in His image, but every one of us completely different and unique. The One who created the sun, moon, and stars. This caused King David to say,

 "Who is man that you are mindful of him." Psalm 8:4

Do you know God? Or, do you hope by doing religious things that you will pass God's morality test? The scale where we hope our good deeds will outweigh our bad deeds. God made us with a God shaped hole that only can be filled by Him. Our deepest desire as human beings is to know who made us, why are we here, and where will be go when we die!

God wants us to know the answer to all of those questions and He sent Jesus to invite us into a forever friendship with Him! Do you know him? 

"And to all who received him and believed in His name, he gave the right to become children of God!" John 1:12

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Acts 22 - Paul Sees the Light

Image
6  “About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me.   7  I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me,  ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’  8  “‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.  “  ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth,  whom you are persecuting,’  he replied.   9  My companions saw the light,  but they did not understand the voice  of him who was speaking to me.  10  “‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked. “  ‘Get up,’  the Lord said,  ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do. This is the famous story of the apostle Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus.  Paul was going there to persecute Jewish Christians and throw them into prison and he meets Jesus is a spectacular way.  Not only is he blinded by a briliant light, but he hears the Lord's voice audibly.  And the Lord asks him, "Lord, Lord why are you persecuting me!"  Paul thought he was serving the Lord, but he was persecuting him b
Read more

2 Timothy 4 - Fight the Good Fight! Finish the Race!

Click Here to Read or Listen to 2 Timothy 4 4 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. Paul gives a closing charge to Timothy. First of all, he is to preach the word. God's Word speaks to all situations and seasons. The Word of God will sometimes correct us. Our lives can get of out alignment with God's will as outlined in
Read more

Hebrews 6 - Have You Graduated From Elementary School of Faith Yet?

Click Here to Read or Listen to Hebrews 6 6 Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, 2 instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so. The author once again picks up with the theme of moving on to Christian maturity.  He teaches them to move on from the "elementary" teachings about Christ. What does he mean by that?  He gives clues by citing repentance, faith, cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, and teaching on the judgment and resurrection from the dead. We might call these the basics of the Christian faith. If you read through the Apostle's Creed, which our church confesses in our 8am service, it contains many of these core doctrines.  Click here to see the Apostle's Creed Written Around “When we consider the
Read more