Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Every beautiful truth that God teaches us in His Bible has been twisted and distorted by the master enemy, Satan. His clever deceptions have even been injected into the teaching of God's New Covenant.
The truth as the Bible teaches it is so simple that a child can easily grasp it. When God Himself makes a "covenant," it is always a simple, straightforward promise on His part. No gimmicks, no small print, no "bargains" struck, no "ifs" that can be used to get Him off the hook so He can wriggle out of keeping His promise. In fact, when God makes a "covenant," He goes the second mile and swears an oath that puts His own life and His throne in pawn if He doesn't do what He promises (see Gen. 15:7-18; Heb. 6:13-20). That promise of God was made to Abraham, and confirmed by His solemn oath. God would give him the whole earth for "an everlasting possession" together with the righteousness necessary to inherit it.
When the Lord promised Abraham, He stipulated no "bargain" or "transaction" terms. It was a give-and-take relationship--God would do all the giving, and Abraham would do all the taking. And how did he "take" the blessing? Totally by faith. "[Abraham] believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness" (Gen 15:6; remember, we are Abraham's "children").
But for nearly 4000 years both Abraham and his descendants have twisted and distorted this simple good news. Abraham proposed to God that he help Him out of His difficulty by adopting Eliezer, a slave, to be his "heir" (15:2-4). God said No! Then Sarah, embittered because she couldn't get pregnant, proposed that she help God out of His difficulty by adopting a slave-girl's son from Abraham as her own (16:1-4). Again God said No! (17:1-19). The Lord insisted that everything would be His doing--100 percent.
And here is where the battle has raged these four millennia. We are all "born in sin," inheriting a sinful nature (Psalm 51:5; Rom. 7:14-17). It's easy NOT to believe. Faith humbles our hearts! The result? We ourselves have invented the "old covenant," our promises to God. Somehow we feel that we MUST help save ourselves!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 3, 2003.
Copyright © 2012 by "Dial Daily Bread."
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