Many Christians do not know what makes the New Covenant new and as a result they are working to get what they already have!
How do you know if you are walking in the N.C?
Just ask, am I Gods servant or Gods Son?
Is God your master or Father???
If you don’t see God as your loving Father and yourself as his dearly –beloved child, you have not fully apprehended all that Christ accomplished on your behalf! You are yet to know the New Covenant and your positions and blessing on it!
In order for you to know the same you need to first know what makes the new covenant as New or what’s the specialty in the New Covenant pertaining to you and to God!
As we have gone through the blessings of the N.C which were the total and complete forgiveness of Sins and free gift of Righteousness, it makes you understand that the new Covenant is purely based on God’s Grace! Let us study some of the major distinguishing factors of New Covenant from old covenant!
Let us go through one by one!
1.It’s a Covenant that reveals God as Our Father!
Before Jesus no one called God Father! After Jesus, every New Testament writer did and told you also!
Jesus came to reveal your father!
Through the New Covenant Jesus Restored the Human race to God the Father by revealing Him as your father!
God gave grace to the first man Adam and called him a son [Luke 3:38] , but Adam ran and hid. God gave grace to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but the children of Israel said, “No thanks…We would rather go our own way.”
At Mount Sinai the children of Israel swapped a covenant based on Gods faithfulness for one based on their own!
“We will do whatever you command us”[Ex-19:8]
It was the forbidden tree all over again and it broke our Fathers heart!
We know the O.C. emphasis on rules which will cause you to view God as a bookkeeper recording all your sins, and judge condemning your failures! But Jesus came and shows “God is not interested in your performance! He is not like that! He is a compassionate and gracious God! Who forgives your Sins and remember it no more! Take! This is the New Covenant in my Blood! He is your heavenly father who loves you and holds nothing against you! He yearns for his prodigals to come home!
Yes it’s a final and eternal Covenant which reveals your Fathers Heart! A Covenant of liberty, where you can call God your Father as “Abba Father”..The fear of slavery is removed by the Spirit of Sonship!
For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,…[Rom 8:15-16]
2.New Covenant is a Covenant of God’s Grace!In the Old covenant –Law – it was like, you reap what you saw! But in the new covenant we reap, what Christ has sown! We are blessed on the basis of someone else performance, obedience or effort. That is none but Jesus Christ and His finished work! In the Old you did to get, but in the new we get because Christ has done it all. That’s why it’s called grace covenant! Unmerited, undeserved, unearned blessings! A gift!
Every spiritual blessing is OURS in Jesus Christ!
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,1 who has blessed us in the heavenly realms2 with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”[ Eph 1:3]
3.It’s a Covenant of Rest & Security!The old covenant was characterized by ceaseless work in the pursuit of holy demands that could never be met perfectly by anyone who try. But the new covenant is a covenant which gives you perfect rest and peace in Holy Spirit. It’s a labor to only enter in this rest! Not a labor to perform!
In the New covenant faith is a rest, not a work. Only when we rest in the finished work of Calvary can God begin His good work in us. In the NC, His grace will empower us to produce fruits and good works.
Here obedience is not the root….Its a fruit! Sprouted from the Grace of God which is working in you!
4.It’s a Covenant of Relationship with Jesus Christ!The Old covenant was based on a religious performance system, where in the new Covenant is all about a relationship with Jesus Christ! Where you can relate yourself as a child, a brother and friend to God! Always! Forever! You are an heir with Jesus Christ!
You have a position and family place in the new Covenant. You are not a servant like in O.C
It’s a covenant where your life is with the God! Emmanuel! The God is with you, in you!
“Christ is in you! The Hope of Glory!”
5.It’s a Covenant of New Life!The more and more your hear about Jesus Christ – the very essence of the new Covenant – it removes the veil from your eyes, and your heart and reveals you the real Glory of God. As you behold Him you become like Him, transformed by the Holy Spirit! Effortlessly!
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
It’s a covenant which will make you a new person –in the image of Christ! By the work of Holy Spirit!
Under the O.C., the best you could hope was for self-improvement that never lasts. But in the new you become a Brand New person with a Brand new heart and Spirit! Born of the Spirit you are no more prisoner of sin, but a co-heir with Christ!
“if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”[2 Cor 5:17]
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law [O.C], but under grace [N.C].”[Rom 6:14]
6.It’s Covenant of Union with God!In the O.C God lived in a temple you could never enter, but in the N.C “You Are The Temple Of The Holy Spirit”[1Cor 3:16]
You are the One with the Lord as He is
Holy-Righteous-Perfect- Forever!
….. as He is, so also are we in this world[1John 4:17]
It’s a promise that at present, in this world, you are like Him …God Sees you and treat you as you are His beloved Son! Jesus!
7.It’s a Covenant God will never break but keep it!
The new covenant was planned , initiated & accomplished by God the father in Son Jesus Christ! He is the author and perfector this covenant and we are the beneficiary in it. God promises it with and oath that He will never break it nor forsake His covenant!“No, I will not break my covenant; I will not take back a single word I said.[Psalm 89:34]
8.It’s a Covenant you can never break!
As we know the O.C. was between God and Israel. But the N.C is between God the Father and the Son Jesus Christ! In the N.C. God holds up both the ends of this arrangements , he swears by himself , and gives us His Spirit as guarantee of what is to come [2Cor 1:22]
The O.C. was written in the stone. It was written by your frail promises to God. But the N.C rests on the “Better Promises “of God Himself! In the O.C. you loved God and forgave others because it was commanded of you, but in the N.C. you love and forgive others because God first loved you and His love empowers you to love others!
“We love because he first loved us”. [ I john 4:19]
In the O.C. you were blessed, when you obeyed Gods commandments! But in the N.C. you are blessed because Christ Obeyed! Your salvation is eternally secure because it is Jesus saves and keeps it!
“The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”[I Thes 5:24]
