Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
How can you learn to understand and believe the New Covenant? Your happiness for now and forever depends on it. Yes! Didn't Jesus say, "God so loved that He gave, ... that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish ..."? To believe in Him means to believe that He Himself is Good News--the essence of the New Covenant.
Confusion about the Two Covenants is cleared up as sunshine clears away fog by noting one question: WHO MAKES THE PROMISE?
(1) If you or I make the promise to God, immediately it's Old Covenant. It's Peter promising that he will never deny Christ, and then doing it before the rooster crowed next morning. It's "all the people" promising at Mt. Sinai, "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do!" and then bowing down to a golden calf in a few days. The problem is simple: we humans don't keep our promises; in fact, we can't, because we have no righteousness of our own.
Someone may say, "What's wrong with making good promises to God even if you do break them?" Several things: God Himself has never asked you to do so; and further, Paul says that making and breaking promises to God brings you into spiritual "bondage" (Gal. 4:24). It was the beginning of centuries of sad Israelite history that finally led them into the "bondage" of foreign captivity and then at the end, to crucify their Messiah. Those who think that the Old and New Covenants are the same thing are confusing liberty with slavery!
(2) When God makes the promise, there you have the New Covenant. And believing the promise is liberty, not slavery. He always keeps His promise. "Delight thy self in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart" (Psalm 37:4). You may say, "That's such Good News--I can hardly believe He will ever do that for me!" Sarah couldn't believe it either, until she repented of her unbelief (Heb. 11:11). You can repent, too. That's the Good News!
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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Daily Bread - Readings about life and the Word of God.
