““The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord. “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 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,” says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.””
Jeremiah 31:31-34 NLT
The promise of a new covenant is one of the greatest blessings given to those in relationship with God. It highlights the fact that one can have relationship with God a different way. This “old” way was a true relationship but it requirements were too difficult to keep. It created a relationship that highlighted sin, more than a greenlit healthy relationship. But the promise of a new covenant opens the door to salvation of more than our simple being, but also of our eternal being. It allows for us to live with God and each other in a meaningful way across time and space. It’s not contractual, but I rather it is relational. Many Christians, out of fear of the unknown would rather hold on to the “arms length blessings” of the Old Covenant, but Jesus brings so much more than rules and evidence into a relationship with him. Instead there is grace and faith produces love and the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives. There is true communion with God, not seen since Eden. But we must want it and accept it. And for some believers, accepting the idea of these blessings will be the hardest journey of their lives.
JOSH McGARY. COM 