The New Covenant in Hebrews: by Andrew Murray

 

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
—Hebrews 8:12

In the book of Hebrews, Christ is called the “Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises” (verse 6). In Him the two parts of the covenant find their fulfillment.

First of all, He came to atone for sin, so that its power over man was destroyed and free access to God’s presence and favor was secured. With that came the fuller blessing: the new heart, freed from the power of sin, with God’s Holy Spirit breathing into it the delight in God’s law and the power to obey it.

These two parts of the covenant can never be separated. And yet, unfortunately, many people put their trust in Christ for the forgiveness of sin but never think of claiming the fullness of the promise of being God’s people and knowing Him as their God. They do not allow God to bring into their experience a new heart cleansed from sin, with the Holy Spirit breathing into it such love and delight in God’s law, and such power to obey, that they have access to the full blessing of the new covenant.

Jesus is “the Mediator of the new testament” (Hebrews 9:15), in which the forgiveness of sin is in the power of His blood, and in which the law is written in hearts by the power of His Spirit. Oh, if only we could understand that, just as surely as the complete pardon of sin is assured, so the complete fulfillment of the promises may be expected, too: “I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me” (Jeremiah 32:40); “I will…cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments” (Ezekiel 36:27).

But God has said, “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for Me?” (Jeremiah 32:27). He spoke these words to Jeremiah in regard to the new covenant. The new covenant requires strong, wholehearted desire for a life wholly given up to God. It means we must set aside all our preconceived opinions, and in faith believe in the mighty power of God. It means a surrender to Jesus Christ, a willingness to accept our place with Him, crucified to the world, to sin, and to self. It means a readiness to follow Him at any cost. Succinctly, the new covenant means wholehearted acceptance of Christ as Lord—heart and life wholly His. “I, the LORD, have spoken it, and will do it” (Ezekiel 22:14).

The New Covenant in Ezekiel: by Andrew Murray

 

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness…I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments.
—Ezekiel 36:25, 27

Here we find the same promise as in Jeremiah, the promise of being so cleansed from sin, and so renewed in the heart, that there would be no doubt of walking in God’s statutes and keeping His law. In Jeremiah God had said, “I will put My law in their inward parts” (Jeremiah 31:33), and “I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me” (Jeremiah 32:40). In Ezekiel He said, “I will…cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments.” In contrast to the old covenant, in which there was no power to enable them to continue in God’s law, the great mark of the new covenant would be a divine power enabling them to walk in His statutes and keep His judgments.

“Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans 5:20), bringing about wholehearted obedience. Why is this so seldom experienced? The answer is very simple: the promise is not believed, is not preached; its fulfillment is not expected. Yet how clearly it is laid out for us in a passage like Romans 8:1–4! In this passage, the man who had complained of the power “bringing [him] into captivity to the law of sin” (Romans 7:23) thanks God that he is now “in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1) and that the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made [him] free from the law of sin and death” (verse 2), so that the requirement of the law is fulfilled in all who walk after the Spirit. (See verse 4.)

Once again, why are there so few who can give such testimony, and what is to be done to attain it? Just one thing is needed: faith in an omnipotent God who will, by His wonderful power, do what He has promised. “I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it” (Ezekiel 22:14). Oh, let us begin to believe that the promise will come true: “Ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness…I will…cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments.” Let us believe all that God promises here, and God will do it. Beyond all power of thought, God has made His great and glorious promises dependent on our faith. And the promises will bring about more of that faith as we believe them. “According to your faith be it unto you” (Matthew 9:29). Let us put this truth to the test even now.

The New Covenant in Jeremiah 31: by Andrew Murray

 

I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel…I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.
—Jeremiah 31:31, 33

When God made the first covenant with Israel at Sinai, He said, “If ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people” (Exodus 19:5). But Israel, unfortunately, did not have the power to obey. Their whole nature was carnal and sinful. There was no provision in the covenant for the grace that would make them obedient. The law only served to show them their sin.

In Jeremiah 31, God promised to make a new covenant in which provision would be made to enable men to live a life of obedience. In this new covenant, the law was to be put in their minds and written in their hearts, “not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God” (2 Corinthians 3:3), so that they could say with David, “I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8). Through the Holy Spirit, the law and the people’s delight in it would take pos­session of their inner lives. Or, as we see in Jeremiah 32:40, God would put His fear in their hearts so that they would not depart from Him.

In contrast to the Old Testament covenant, which made it impossible to remain faithful, this promise ensures a continual, wholehearted obedience as the mark of the believer who takes God at His Word and fully claims what the promise secures.

Learn the lesson well. In the new covenant, God’s mighty power is shown in the heart of everyone who believes the promise, “They shall not depart from me” (Jeremiah 32:40). Bow in deep stillness before God, and believe what He says. The measure of our experience of this power of God, which will keep us from departing from Him, will always be in harmony with the law: “According to your faith be it unto you” (Matthew 9:29).

We need to make a great effort to keep the contrast between the Old and New Testaments very clear. The Old had a wonderful measure of grace, but not enough for continually abiding in the faith of obedience. But that is the definite promise of the New Testament: the power of the Holy Spirit leading the soul and revealing the fullness of grace to keep us “unblameable in holiness” (1 Thessalonians 3:13).

BEHOLDING: by TA Sparks

 We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

The word 'beholding' is a strong word; it is not just taking a look, it is 'fixing our gaze.' That is what the New Testament means by beholding, behold. We all, fixing our gaze upon Christ, as He mirrors in His own Person the glory of God, the satisfaction of God, the mind of God in perfection. The point is that you and I must contemplate the Lord Jesus in spirit, and be much occupied with Him. We must have our Holy of Holies where we retire with Him. We must have a secret place where we spend time with Him. And not only in certain special seasons, but we must seek, as we move about, ever to keep Him before us. Looking at the Lord Jesus, contemplating Him, we shall be changed into the same image. The Holy Spirit will operate upon our occupation.

You become like that which obsesses you, which occupies you. Is that not true? You see what people are occupied with, and you can see their character changing by their obsessions. They are becoming like the thing which is obsessing them; they are changing; they are becoming different. Something has got a grip on them; they can never think about anything else, talk about anything else; and it is changing their character. Now Paul said, "For me to live is Christ – being occupied with Him." It is the wrong word to use, but nevertheless it would be a good thing if He became our "obsession," our continuous occupation. As we steadfastly fix our gaze upon Him, the Spirit changes us into the same image.

The Collision of God and Sin: by Oswald Chambers

 

…who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree… —1 Peter 2:24

The Cross of Christ is the revealed truth of God’s judgment on sin. Never associate the idea of martyrdom with the Cross of Christ. It was the supreme triumph, and it shook the very foundations of hell. There is nothing in time or eternity more absolutely certain and irrefutable than what Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross— He made it possible for the entire human race to be brought back into a right-standing relationship with God. He made redemption the foundation of human life; that is, He made a way for every person to have fellowship with God.

The Cross was not something that happened to Jesus— He came to die; the Cross was His purpose in coming. He is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). The incarnation of Christ would have no meaning without the Cross. Beware of separating “God was manifested in the flesh…” from “…He made Him…to be sin for us…” (1 Timothy 3:16 ; 2 Corinthians 5:21). The purpose of the incarnation was redemption. God came in the flesh to take sin away, not to accomplish something for Himself. The Cross is the central event in time and eternity, and the answer to all the problems of both.

The Cross is not the cross of a man, but the Cross of God, and it can never be fully comprehended through human experience. The Cross is God exhibiting His nature. It is the gate through which any and every individual can enter into oneness with God. But it is not a gate we pass right through; it is one where we abide in the life that is found there.

The heart of salvation is the Cross of Christ. The reason salvation is so easy to obtain is that it cost God so much. The Cross was the place where God and sinful man merged with a tremendous collision and where the way to life was opened. But all the cost and pain of the collision was absorbed by the heart of God.

The Cross & LIFE: by TA Sparks

 

I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of His resurrection and participation in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death. (Philippians 3:10 NIV)

Do recognize that the Cross is the end of the risen life, and not only the beginning. If you forget everything else, remember that. The Cross is the end of the risen life, as well as the beginning: "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto His death." People have been to me with Philippians 3 and have asked: "Why did Paul put death at the end? Surely it ought to be right the other way round – 'That I may be conformed to His death, and know Him in the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings.'" No, there is no mistake. The order is of the Holy Spirit. The power of His resurrection presupposes that there has been a death, but the very resurrection-life leads to the Cross. The Holy Spirit in the power of the risen life is always leading you back to the Cross, to conformity to His death. It is the very property of Life to rule out all that belongs to death. It is the very power of resurrection to bring us back to the place where death is constantly overcome.

That place is none other than the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ where the natural life is put aside. So Paul says: "...becoming conformed unto His death," which means: to have the ground of death continuously and progressively removed; and that, again, as we have said, is the fruit of living union with Him. It would be a poor look-out for you and for me were we to be conformed to His death in entirety apart from the power of resurrection in us, apart from our already knowing the Life of the Lord. Where would be our hope? What is it that is the power of our survival when the Cross is made more real in our experience? There would be no survival were it not that His risen Life is in us. So Paul prays: "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection..." and that means conformity to His death without utter destruction. The end of the risen life is the Cross. The Holy Spirit is always working in relation to the Cross, in order that the power of His resurrection may be increasingly manifested in us.

The Fear of God: by Andrew Murray

 

Psalm 112:1
 Praise the LORD. Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who finds great delight in his commands.

The fear of God—these words characterize the religion of the Old Testament and the foundation that it laid for the more abundant life of the New Testament. The gift of holy fear is still the great desire of each child of God, and it is an essential part of a life that is to make a real impression on the world. It is one of the great promises of the new covenant in Jeremiah: “And I will make an everlasting covenant with them…[and] I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me” (Jeremiah 32:40).

We find the perfect combination of the two in Acts 9:31: “Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.” More than once, Paul gave the fear of God a high place in the Christian life: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you” (Philippians 2:12–13); “Perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1).

It has often been said that the lack of the fear of God is one of the areas where our modern times cannot compare favorably with the times of the Puritans. It is no wonder that there is so much cause of complaint in regard to the reading of God’s Word, the worship of His house, and the absence of the spirit of continuous prayer that marked the early church. We need texts like the one at the beginning of this devotion to be expounded, and new converts must be fully instructed in the need for and the blessedness of a deep fear of God, leading to an unceasing prayerfulness as one of the essential elements of the life of faith.

Let us earnestly cultivate this grace in the inner chamber. Let us hear these words coming out of the very heavens: “Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art holy” (Revelation 15:4).

“Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Hebrews 12:28).

“Blessed is the man that fears the Lord.” As we take these words into our hearts and believe that this is one of the deepest secrets of blessedness, we will seek to worship Him in holy fear.

“Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling” (Psalm 2:11).