This week Jesus gave me a new perspective of what He has done for me and I will never be the same.
A covenant is an establishment; it is to be knitted together with the covenant partner. It brings you into a family and is a unity of relationship. Once two people are in covenant they are bound together for life. Covenants cannot be broken. With this new unity comes the exchange of oneself to the other. What’s mine is yours and vice versa. I am in you and you in I. In the Old Testament or old covenant, people would exchange belts which were used for weapons. The exchange of belts represented the covenant partner sharing in the other’s strength; inheriting all that they have – family, power, protection, and destiny. Through other rituals, the partners would promise eternal faithfulness to each other. There is also a covenant scar that continuously reminds them that they are in covenant and oath with each other.
THIS is the relationship we have with God. We are knitted together as one with Him. It is how we are adopted into sonship as His sons and daughters. (Galatians 4:5) This commitment is lifelong and it cannot be broken. God is a faithful covenant partner. He is not a covenant breaker, He cannot be. Because of this covenant relationship all that we are is God’s and all that He is, is ours. He is in us, as we are hidden in Him. We share in his family, power, protection, and destiny- this is our inheritance. However this inheritance did not come at a free price. Jesus’ scarred hands/wrist are the covenant scars constantly reminding everyone in this covenant of the promises and commitment. Before Jesus saved me, I was bound in sin, law, and darkness. My life was purposeless and joyless as I was just waiting for my death sentence. It was no life at all. I was waiting in a jail cell for my turn on death row, with cement walls that could not be broken by my own strength-and I was completely deserving of all of it. I cannot meet the standards the law:
“Be perfect, therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect” Matthew 5:48
“For all have fallen short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23
So I am in need of a Savior. The law is not here to scare me or so that I can try to get out of my death trap by striving to work and obey it, but it is simply there to show me my sin and make me aware of my desperate need for help, and my help is Jesus. He came to this earth to save me from the destruction my sins would have caused me. Jesus drank the cup meant for me and the rest of mankind- filled with my sin along with the whole earth’s sin, sickness, abuse, and darkness.
“Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.” Romans 3:20
He became sin and a curse. He took my place and became separated from God for short while. He did not die from the physical pain, but from my sins.
“Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering.” Isaiah 53:4
He conquered death, sin, and satan as He rose on that third day, crushing the walls of sin and shame that separate me from Him. I had been held prisoner by law and sin but Jesus came to the rescue and took it all on so that I could be free and have a relationship with Him, so that I could be in covenant with Him.
Jesus said “It is finished” John 19:30
Jesus taught me many things through this new revelation, but here are the two that hit me hardest.
I needed to repent and ask for forgiveness for not properly recognizing the intense beauty of the cross. Its been such normality in my life that I became so used to the idea of it and used it more as a ticket to heaven rather than acknowledging what my King went through to rescue me and be with me. This new yet old message of the cross broke me this week and I am learning that it should break me every day. I am in covenant with God because of this sacrifice. It’s everything and I have abused its meaning and lessened its value.
Something else God really broke me with this week was that after being freed of every burden, sin, and shame, I need to keep it off and take on Jesus.
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with yoke of bondage” Galatians 5:2
I need to stay free and not get bound up again by things of this world. Jesus went to such great lengths for me to be free, how could I not walk in this freedom? How could I not walk in love and grace that was bought at such a great price but freely given to me. How could I not walk in the joy of the Lord continuously? How could I not serve wholeheartedly? How could I not live the fullest life that Jesus died to give me? Jesus went through too much for me not to live fully in Him.