This week, we continued in the “Oil and Water” series. We
find in Galatians 3:19-20 that Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant. A
mediator is one who is supposed to impartially represent both parties in a
matter; seeking the best possible outcome for both. Jesus is the ONLY one
qualified to mediate this covenant as He is 100% God and 100% man. In the Old Testament, under the old covenant,
the High Priest was the mediator between God and His people. He offered
sacrifices before God on behalf of the people, but because the atonement was
only temporary, his work never ceased.
In
Hebrews 8:3 and following, we learn that Jesus has done the completed work of
the High Priest. He is now seated at God’s right hand. There was no chair in
the tabernacle. The Priest was never done with the work, but Jesus competed the
work. Man’s sin has been not only atoned for, but forgiven. All we must do to be
forgiven is to choose to receive what Jesus did. Then, we must rest from the
work of gaining righteousness. We do not
rest from all work, though. God has a lot of work for us to do. We can never
get to what He needs us to do if we are consumed with continually working for
our righteousness. That work has been done by Jesus. Stop trying in vain to
earn something that you could never earn; something that has already been
earned for you! We are back to the
promises made to Abraham, which had no strings attached. This is hard for us to swallow, but it really
is the covenant we are under. The New
Covenant is superior, according to Hebrews, and founded on “better promises.”
We
looked at some stark contrasts between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.
The more we know about them, the more clear it will become that we cannot mix
the two. They are incompatible. The
first thing to remember about covenants is that it involves 2 parties
fulfilling their side. The Old Covenant
depended on us fulfilling our side. It
was doomed to be broken. The New
Covenant depends on God and Jesus fulfilling their end, and not on us, so it is
truly eternal.
1)
OLD COVENANT: God demanded righteousness from men.
NEW
COVENANT: God imparts righteousness to men through the finished work of Jesus
(Romans 4:5-7).
Under
the old covenant, the Law placed the demands on man to work to earn
righteousness. It was a futile task. Even under this law, God had mercy. He
provided the sin offering instructions so that man could have an annual
atonement for the places where he fell short of the law.
2)
OLD COVENANT: God visited your sin to the third and fourth generations (Exodus
20:5-6).
NEW
COVENANT: God will by no means remember your sins (Hebrews 8:12-13 and
10:17-18).
You
can actually read the stories of people in the Old Testament who had
sin-related curses on their lives that passed to three and four generations
later and then seem to disappear. Under
the New Covenant, God has promised to forgive your sins and remember them no
more. God chooses to forget, and so must we. The enemy likes to remind you of
your sins, and we need to remind him that God has already forgiven that!
3)
OLD COVENANT: You could be blessed only for full obedience (Deuteronomy
28:1-2).
NEW
COVENANT: Jesus fulfilled all of the righteous requirements of the law for us,
qualifying us for the blessing of God (Colossians 2:13-14).
No
one was capable of fully obeying everything God commanded. Therefore, no one
could truly live in God’s blessing. Jesus
fulfilled the law for us. He became the curse for us. We are now blessed not
because we fully obey, but because He did!
4)
OLD COVENANT: Attempts to change behavior without heart transformation.
NEW
COVENANT: Beholding Jesus and His finished work brings heart transformation (2
Corinthians 3:18).
The
law (and rules in general) do not change the heart of anyone. The best that
rules can do is to create an appearance of holiness, but the heart still
desires to sin. It is actually not possible to change someone’s heart using
rules and regulations. That is what the law was incapable of doing and, for
whatever reason, what much of the church today still tries to do. The ONLY way
a man’s heart can change is by the Spirit. Until Jesus completed His work, the
Holy Spirit could not be in the heart of men. In the Old Testament, the Holy
Spirit was frequently ON someone, but never IN them. Until Jesus cleansed us
and provided the way for us to be born of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit could not
reside in us, but now he does! The Spirit in you will transform you from the
inside out. Our spiritual growth and victory over sin is a slow but sure
process, but as soon as we get impatient and try to speed things up by putting
ourselves under law to bring change, we go back to the fruitless means of
bringing change. Let grace do its work in you and in others!
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee,
visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
