God’s Side of the Covenant

Jesus came to give himself as a sacrificial sin-offering for us.  He voluntarily and deliberately died and shed his blood so that all our sins could be forgiven.  God raised him from the dead and made him Lord and Christ with “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18).  Because he did not cling to his rights as deity in the heavenly world, but humbled himself as a servant, and died on a cross for us sinners, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:8-12). 

 In and through Jesus, God calls on us to believe, trust and obey him in everything.  This life of commitment begins when we repent of our sins and are baptized in his name (Acts 2:38).  God forgives our sins and gives us his Holy Spirit. Then we live for him who died for us.  We confess “Jesus is Lord” in being saved and we continue to confess him as Lord daily in all that we do (Romans 10:9-10; 1 Corinthians 12:3; Colossians 3:17).     

As believers, Christ dwells in us spiritually and we in him (Colossians 1:27-28).  Christ is our life (3:4).  We remain in him and he remains in us.  Without him we can do nothing (John 15:1-5).   This means that we obey his words and his commandments (15:7, 10).  When we do so, we “walk in the Spirit” and the Spirit of God produces in us “the fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16-26).  We do not live any longer in old, fleshly appetites such as lust, sensuality, greed, drunkenness, envy and dissensions.  Instead, our lives are characterized by the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.   By focusing our minds and hearts on Jesus, we become more and more transformed into his image (2 Corinthians 3:18).  Because we have been re-made spiritually by the new birth, our bodies are living sacrifices glorifying him (John 3:3-5; Romans 8:29; 12:1-2).   We are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19).  This requires us to “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit” and bring “holiness to completion in the fear (or respect) of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1).  

The writer of the book of Hebrews contrasts the covenant given by Moses at Sinai with the new covenant Jesus offers that was secured by the shedding of his blood on the cross (Hebrews 8:6-13; 9:11-15).  We celebrate that covenant when we partake of the communion Jesus instituted.  He said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:25).  Partaking of the bread and the wine of the communion means that we have fellowship with Christ and with one another and commit ourselves solely to the Lord (1 Cor. 10:17-18, 21-22).  Participation in communion pledges our allegiance to Jesus.  

The new covenant required the shedding of Jesus’ blood and his death on the cross.  The new covenant requires our total faithfulness to God in everything.  We were separated from God because of our sins and without help or hope in this world.  But what we could not do for ourselves, and no one else could do either, God did for us.  “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  God established a covenant with us through the blood of Jesus.