The New and Everlasting Covenant (Daily Devotional)

Greetings and welcome to Living Supernaturally, thank you so much for giving us this wonderful opportunity to spend time in God's word and in prayer as well. This week, we've been talking about covenants and we looked at various covenants that God has established in His word and today, we look at the new and the everlasting covenant. Genesis chapter 3, verses 21 and 22, ‘is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have been which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ may be given to those who believe.’ The most important thing to understand about the old covenant is that it always pointed to Christ, it was never intended to be permanent. It was also not just tossed aside but was instead fulfilled by Jesus. He became our prophet, priest and king, fulfilling the demands of the law on our behalf becoming the one sacrifice to cover all the sins of people and imputing righteousness to us. We can see the clear reference of the promise being made and showing us that the promise to Abraham was Christ. The preceding verse of Galatians chapter 3 shows us that it was never works that saved but it was always faith. The new covenant is a better covenant and in turn it is more inclusive. Circumcision has been replaced with baptism. As we see immediately after Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, verse 38, ‘and Peter said to them repent and be baptized everyone, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’ A covenant requires two parties, God and each one of us and both need to be committed to the agreement. As human beings, we are prone to sin and don't always keep our end of the bargain, that's why Jesus bore our sins on the cross and died in our place. He established a new covenant between God and us. Jesus Christ is the mediator of the new covenant. He has redeemed us from our sins, so that we may receive the promised eternal inheritance. He inaugurated, ratified, fulfilled and permanently established the new covenant. Jesus Christ is Himself the covenant sacrifice because of whom the new covenant came into effect. Jesus Christ is the ratifier or testator of the new covenant. Jesus Christ sealed the new covenant with His own blood. Our relationship with God is wrapped in this blood covenant. You are a son and a daughter of God and God is your covenant Father. A covenant of grace is not asking you to do things but is inviting you and I to receive by faith. Now as people who've been bought by a price, we cannot take this gift of grace lightly. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we learn to love God and love people around us. We strive to glorify God in whatever we do and above all, we live as ambassadors in this world, shining His light in the darkness, sharing His word to all those who haven't received it. You and I are part of a new and everlasting covenant established by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Let's pray, Father, we thank you for what you have done through your Son, Jesus Christ on the cross that you paid the price, that He bore every sickness, every shame, every guilt that by your blood we find forgiveness of sins. We thank you that this new covenant is an everlasting covenant and you are faithful to keep your promise. Each one of us can enter, not by any works but by faith in Jesus Christ. We thank you for teaching us throughout this week. We pray that we will continue to remind ourselves that you are a God who keeps his covenant and we are part of your covenant, in Jesus’s name we pray, Amen.

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Daily devotions to strengthen your faith each day. Daily Devotional for Spirit filled living. Each daily devotion is about five minutes in duration. These daily devotionals are centered around a weekly theme. So there are seven daily devotions that focus on the theme and bring you insight, understanding and revelation from the Bible. Each week’s theme is listed as a series. So you can listen to the current week’s devotions or go to any previous theme/series that speaks to your present need (https://apcwo.org/resources/daily-devotions ). Also available free sermons (https://apcwo.org/sermons), and free Christian books (https://apcwo.org/books) to nourish and strengthen your faith.