The Covenant

Sunday, March 10, 2013 | Fourth Sunday of Lent

Jeremiah 31:31-34 | Psalm 76 | Hebrews 5:7-9 | John 12:20-33

“THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT” (Matthew 26:28)

“The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant.” - Jeremiah 31:31

God, who is Love (I John 4:16), wants to love us in a permanent, faithful relationship, which is similar to marriage, only better. As married couples make a covenant with each other by exchanging marriage vows, so the Lord made covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and all His chosen people. The problem with these covenants was that God’s people broke them all (Jeremiah 31:32). Human beings seem incapable of keeping a covenant with God, incapable of loving God faithfully. Therefore, God promised to make a new covenant. He said: “I will place My law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jeremiah 31:33). We will be able to keep this covenant because God will place it inside us and write it on our hearts. This means that God will give us a new nature, one capable of love and faithfulness.

Jesus gave us this new nature and new covenant by His death on the cross (see Matthew 26:28). We receive our new nature and covenant by being born again of water and the Spirit (John 3:5), by being baptized into Jesus and into His death and resurrection (Romans 6:3). We are made right with God (justified) by faith.

Prayer: Father, may my life be like a grain of wheat which falls to the earth and dies to bear much fruit (John 12:24).