EXPERIENCING THE FREEDOM OF GRACE

God wants us to come to a place where we trust more in His grace than we do in self-effort. Ask yourself if you really trust the way of grace, or do you always fall back on self-effort? We must trust in the grace of God all the way. When we understand the new covenant, we will see what grace means to us and to God.

The Old Covenant was Jewish law that God gave to Israel. The Law of Moses was not given to Gentiles and it did not consist of only Ten Commandments, but 613 laws. Moses was known to be custodian of those laws to the Jews alone. Romans 3:19 says “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.           

The Bible tells us that this Jewish law never gave life to anybody, or made anybody righteous (Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16; Galatians 3:21). With the best efforts that were made to keep the law by the best of them none of them ever life from it. The stones did not impact life. The Law was intended only as a shadow, or picture of the Christ to come (Colossians 2:16, 17; Hebrews 10:1).

The Law is still tutoring unsaved people to get them to a point of understanding, through their guilt and shame, that they need a Savior.   The Law makes humans aware of our problem (Romans 3:19, 20). The law shows our inadequacy and imperfections and the devil uses it as a tool to bring guilt and condemnation on people. This makes feel them feel that they can’t be loved by God because He is holy and wants nothing with sinners.

Within ourselves we have no adequate response to heaven’s perfect standard; the Law’s strict demands make it quite clear that we fall short (Galatians 3:21, 22). The law demands righteousness and does not impart it. The Law doesn’t encourage or praise us. If you break one aspect of it, you break the whole thing (James 2:10). Living under the Law is like living under the curse (Galatians 3:10). This is so because you have signed yourself to blessings and curses depending on your performance.

Under the old covenant, man couldn’t be faithful to God. But under the new covenant, God puts His faithfulness on display (Hebrews 6:13-18). Abraham did not get blessed because he was faithful; He got blessed because He trusted God’s faithfulness. God’s faithfulness to covenant cannot be shaken.

In the new covenant There are four areas God swore to us as per its terms:

1.            God swore by Himself to make sure that we would always have a perfect Priest who would be a guarantor of a better covenant (Hebrews 7:21, 22).

2.            God promised to never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

3.            God promised to be faithful to Himself.

4.            God became a guarantor of a better covenant.

God will never again make a covenant like the old covenant. The new covenant is completely based on His faithfulness (Hebrews 8:6-10). The new covenant is heaven’s solution to man’s faithlessness. This covenant is not between man and God. It is between The Father and the Son. We are now in the son as partakers of this new arrangement. All that is due to Jesus is due to us. We are blessed not because we are faithful but because Jesus is faithful. Scriptures call “The Faithful”. God’s commitment to be our God is for all eternity under grace. There are only two ways to respond to the new covenant: belief and thanksgiving. Now can have freedom because grace imparts righteousness without demanding it from us. We are loved in the Beloved, God is on your side.