A Covenant Keeping God…

What Knowing A Covenant Keeping God Means For Us

Christians are at peace, free from sin, and able to rest in the Lord because we have a “covenant keeping” God.

Know therefore that the LORD (YHWH) your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations…Deuteronomy 7:9

Solomon, the king to whom YHWH, the Great I AM, imparted wisdom recognized that our God is a God who “keeps covenant” with mankind.

GOD’S LOVE EXTENDS TO ALL CREATION 

When God began to establish a relationship with men,  right away He established a covenant. He keeps the Covenants He makes. The first covenant was with Noah.

But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. Genesis 6:18

Noah and his family were saved by faith in God and this covenant that He established. This was followed by a covenant with all mankind. This covenant has a sign for us to see and remember. We have nothing to do with it. God established it and He  keeps it.

Afterward came God’s covenant with Abraham and the descendants of Abraham, a covenant that was conditional.  Mankind had to meet God’s conditions for this covenant to be effective. The condition was that men were to obey God and keep His commandments.

We all know how this turned out.  Not so good. The Bible says:

Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. Ecclesiastes 7:20

Yet, God, in His infinite love, mercy and grace did not allow punishment to be the end of His relationship with mankind. He had a better plan for us all along.He planned to take our punishment and pay the sin-debt we owe by shedding His own blood for our sins.

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which He obtained with His own blood. Acts 20:28

In His great love, He covers all people who put their faith in Christ and the Name above all names.

For God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all. Romans 11:32 

Galatians 3:22 teaches:

But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

ONLY IN THE NEW COVENANT IS THERE REDEMPTION!

In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you. Luke 22:20

There are several places in the Bible where the NEW covenant is taught very clearly!

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD (YHWH), when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD (YHWH). For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD (YHWH): I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD (YHWH),’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD (YHWH). For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31:31-34

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant He mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For He finds fault with them when He says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” In speaking of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. Hebrews 8:6-13

The first or old covenant involved the keeping of the Mosaic Law. The second or new covenant did not. This covenant involved the shedding of blood for remission of sin by the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Luke 22:14 When the hour had come, He (Jesus) sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. 15 Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16 for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; 18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 20 Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.

so that

He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 1 John 5:12

The NEW covenant, written in blood is dependent upon God. He took responsibility for providing forgiveness. The only part mankind has in this New covenant is to accept the sacrifice, the blood sacrifice, made by the Son of God on Calvary. When we do this, we are accepted by Christ, sealed by the Holy Spirit of God and placed “in Christ.”

 

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