April 2013

A NEW COVENANT

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Ezekiel 36:26-27

Interesting enough, though God created all the people in the world but chose and seems to love the descendants of Abraham alone. Many found it very difficult to explain why God showed preference to only the descendants of Abraham while He was the one that created all the people in the world. For us to understand this we need to take the bible holistically and try to see the plan of God for humanity.
Though God chose Abraham and seem to love his descendants alone, but this is not exactly the case. Man had failed God incessantly right from the Garden of Eden as the case of Adam, so God decided to perfect (to make in his final state) man once and for all. Though man was perfect at creation but was not perfected (that is at his final state), but his perfection was supposed to be in process which was the reason for the trees at the middle of the Garden of Eden (both the tree of life and that of the knowledge of good and evil). Man was created to fellowship and worship God in his most sincere form, but the eating of the forbidden fruit cause a setback. The setback was such that man can no longer fulfill purpose as was intended so something needed to be done fast, for man was almost doomed for all eternity as a result of the opening of door to sin and the devil. It was as if man was lost forever and nothing more can be done, because God seem to try to bring man back to Himself and he was just going farther away from Him. His last attempt was the destruction of the world and sparing a man Noah who seem to be the most upright in his generation in order to start afresh. But the said righteous and faithful man soon drifted away, and there was the buildings of the infamous tower of Babel were man entirely went off the hook.

As a result of the incessant failures of man God had to come into the picture, what He intended doing was to put an end to this and perfect His original plan for man, though this was going to take several thousand of years. The plan still remain that man was going to have a perfect fellowship and worship the father even with his freewill, but would take several years and be in process. God intended to kick the plan rolling by choosing a man (Abraham) and from him chose a nation (Israel) and from them reach out to the entire world, because His will is not for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. He has always had His eyes on the world because He created it and loves us all equally. The choice of Abraham was as a result of what God intended doing and not because of him being a better man or He loves him more than all. There is a bigger picture in place, though we only see a fraction and as such many at times work and walk with that.
God chose the people of Israel out of all the people in the world to be His own special people, to love and show His work in the world. To accomplish this, He gave them His law to live by for all to know that they are His people and He is their God. Though it happened that the people of Israel could not keep the law of God and failed Him repeatedly, but for the love God has for them He sent prophets to them again and again that they might return to Him and do His bidding. Even with the constant warning the people of Israel were a constant failure and impossible to deal with, though God bear long with them. He told them that those that obey the law will live and be saved by the said same law, but they seem not to be able to keep the law despite all.

The interesting thing about the law was that no one can keep all the law no matter how hard he tries, funny enough the law was not made to be kept but broken. The reason for the law was to keep the children of Israel and the people who intended to seek God till the time His original plan be revealed. God gave the Israelites the law knowing full well that they would not be able to keep it provided a way out under the law in which their sins would be continually covered (that is the different sacrifices they were to perform continually). God provided a way of atonement for their sins by the sacrificing of animals, this was meant to be temporary because God had a bigger plan in mind which is to take away the sin once and for all and not just cover it. The law was a temporary thing which was meant to pass away for if we would look closely to what was being done we would see that, this is the reason the Israelites at a point in time got tired of those sacrifices and tend to modernize it.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
Hebrews 8:7-11

As a result of Israel constant failure and not being able to represent God on earth as they ought, Jesus had to come. The coming of Jesus establishes a new covenant and made the old obsolete. The death and resurrection of Jesus brought about a new covenant; actually this was a fulfillment of the old.

During the Old Testament dispensation the Spirit only come upon a selected few and leave depending on the said assignment and was not in them perpetually, this was also the reason they could not fulfill the law. But in the new covenant we are now privileged to have the spirit not just upon us but also within us. As a result of the spirit within us in the new covenant we can now carry out the requirements of the Lord and represent Him as we ought to on this side of eternity which was His original plan. The spirit gives us the needed ability and empowerment to be able to carry out the will of the Lord, fellowship and worship Him in the most sincere form.
Jesus has paid the full price for the new covenant, so we cannot but fulfill purpose, live our lives to the fullest and fully represent Him on this side of eternity John 10:10b.

Though Jesus had come and restored us back to the perfect fellowship and worship we enjoyed with the father in the Garden of Eden and better, but the final perfection is only going to take place at the end of all things in the dispensation of forever and ever.
The covenants itself are not as important as that which was intended for man which was that he will worship and fellowship with God in his most sincere form with his freewill. The covenants are just guides in the fulfillments of the process till the original plan of God be revealed, and we are restored back to the Garden of Eden so to say at the end of all things. This is also the reason the last covenant was better that the first, because we are moving closer to the perfect will of God, and if you are a bible student you will understand that the coming of Jesus was not the final fulfillment of the plan of God but also a process. And the reason Christ will come again and also for the millennium reign and the New Jerusalem, and most importantly to note which is why we have different dispensations right from the time of the creation to the forever and ever.

Is there anyway you could say no to the MAN (JESUS)?

The devil ain't scared of you because you can pray, fast and speak in tongues, or probably because you go to church and abide with all the religious activities. The devil is only scared of those who have submitted to God, those who have been crucified with Christ who longer live but the life they live in the world Christ live in them by faith.

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flew from you.

James 4:7

Stay blessed and remain rapturable

Are you prepared for the second coming of Jesus?

Spending unique quality time in the presence of the Father daily to pray and read the bible, will keep one spiritually inclined and alert!

Stay blessed and remain rapturable