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Posts Tagged ‘covenant’

Two Ways of Life

Posted in christian living, tagged covenant, grace, law, love on March 26, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Galatians 3:10-13: For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.” Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “The righteous man shall live by faith.” However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “He who practices them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”.

Today’s Christian seems to live in two worlds. Not only the spiritual world and the earthly world, but the Old Covenant and New Covenant world. The problem with the Old and New Covenant combination is that if we don’t live by and obey all things written in the Law, we are living under a curse.

The Law was given to the ungodly as a tutor and guide to show us that on our own, we can’t measure up. We can’t live a life acceptable to God and the perfection He demands. Righteousness doesn’t come through the Law, and if it did, then Christ died needlessly. Jesus came into this world born under the Law. He lived and taught it for the first 33 years of His life. When He died, the Old Covenant came to an end because Jesus lived a perfect life and fulfilled the Old Covenant. When He rose from the grave, the New Covenant began.

By accepting the grace He provided, we can live a life pleasing to God. God sees Christ in us, and we are now counted as holy and righteous in His sight. The Law is no longer needed for those saved by grace. We are free, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law. We now live under the New Covenant, one that is a free gift provided to us by Christ. We now live by Christ’s commands to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and love others as ourselves.

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The Old and the New

Posted in christian living, tagged Bible, Christ, covenant, freedom, law on March 15, 2012| Leave a Comment »

When does the Old Covenant end and the New Covenant begin? We tend to forget that the Old Covenant does not end with Malachi and the New Covenant does not start with Matthew.

For the 33 years that Jesus walked the earth, He was still under the Old Covenant, which required following all its rules and regulations.

The New Covenant began when Jesus was crucified. When He said ‘It is finished’, He was talking about the Law, the Old Covenant. Upon His resurrection the New Covenant began and we are no longer required to try and live under the Law, and the way of the Old Covenant.

The old agreement was basically a tutor. A way God used to show humans that we were unable to live a perfect life on our own. It was a way to show us that we needed someone to save us from our sin. Once Jesus came and lived a perfect life on earth, He was able to be the sacrifice that fulfilled the Law and save each of us from our sinful nature (Matthew 5:17).

Now that the Law has been fulfilled in Christ, we are no longer required to try to live by the ten commandments, and the rules and regulations of the Old Covenant (Galatians 5:1-6). To many times we seem to forget that because of grace we now live by faith in Christ. We are no longer slaves to sin, we are no longer just a poor sinner saved by grace, although we were sinners and we are saved by grace. We are now the righteousness of God, through Christ. God no longer calls us slaves, but He calls us Sons (John 15:15). We are seated in heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 2:6). This isn’t to say that we should go out and do what ever we want, right or wrong (Galatians 5:13). We do have freedom in Christ to do what we choose, but of course there are consequences if we choose things that God has warned us to stay away from.

Today we choose to live a life pleasing to God because of love (Matthew 22:37-40). Godly love is the fulfillment of the Law (Galatians 5:14, Romans 13:8 and 10, 1 John 3:23). We love God, we’ve been made righteous through Christ, and we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who guides us, teaches us, and gives us strength. We do what is pleasing to God because we choose to out of love for Him, not out of obligation or because we are trying to fulfill a set of rules and Old Testament laws that we couldn’t live up to anyway.

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Law or Faith

Posted in christian living, tagged covenant, faith, God, grace, law, love, rules, salvation cross on January 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Galatians 3:24, 25

The Law very clearly was used under the Old Covenant as a tutor, a set of rules to basically keep us in line. The Law was there for us to follow, and if we kept it entirely, we would be perfect and could obtain salvation.

Unfortunately, due to the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, evil had control over the earth and we mere men could not live up to the standards of the Law. We kept falling short and were unable to obtain perfect living by the Law.

The Law showed us that we were in need of someone to save us. We were unable to do it ourselves. The Law, through its rules and regulations were ineffective to bring us to salvation.

Fortunately, Jesus came and lived on this earth and was able to fulfill the Law. He lived a perfect life and fulfilled every part of the Law up through His death on the cross.

At that point, He said ‘It is finished’, meaning that fulfillment of the Law was complete in Him and He was now the perfect sacrifice for us. The Old Covenant was a thing of the past and a New Covenant began at His resurrection.

Now we live through love. We love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and we love others as ourselves (Galatians 5:14).

Jesus lives in us and He has fulfilled the Law. We now live by faith in Christ and are saved through His grace. We no longer need to worry about trying to fulfill the Law or any part of the Old Covenant.

Jesus fulfilled all that was needed to provide for our salvation. We live through faith in Christ and depend on Him solely for our salvation. We are no longer slaves to the Law, but we are sons of God (John 15:15). We are righteousness in God’s eyes because He sees Jesus in us.

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Love

Posted in christian living, tagged Christ, covenant, God, grace, heart, law, love, marriage, mind, New Covenant, old testament, salvation on July 19, 2011| Leave a Comment »

1 John 4:7 NASB
For us Christ followers, love is the name of the game so to speak. God is love. If we know God and are born again, we live in love. We will love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and we will love others as ourselves. This is how they will know we are disciples of Christ, by our love for one another.

In the Old Testament the law was given as a standard to measure up to, a way to earn salvation. Basically to fulfill the law we had to be perfect. Of course, none of us could or can be perfect so the law was given to lead us to Christ. When Christ came, died and rose again, He conquered the law, sin and death and bought our salvation for us through His grace.

Now we no longer have to live trying to fulfill the law. This isn’t to say that we necessarily have to ignore what is written in the Old Testament, but we no longer have to try to live up to the law to earn God’s love and our salvation. We are no longer obligated to obey the law because we now live in love.

Just as a husband stays faithful to his wife because he loves her, not because it is wrong to commit adultery, so now we live our lives pleasing to God because we love Him and He loves us, not because we are afraid of the consequences if we break a law.