Heard at the local US Postal post office today:
Customer: “yeah…we got to obey God to be blessed”
Sales assistant: “absolutely…we have got to do what God says so we will be blessed instead of cursed”
Customer: “I hear people say I can’t afford to tithe, and I say to them that they can’t afford NOT to tithe”
Sales assistant: “Absolutely!”
Thus enlightened by their theological insights, I couldn’t help but thinking why it is that so many Christians still talk about and believe in the God of the Old Covenant? What the two ladies described was true. At a point in history it was true. It just isn’t true anymore. We as Christians live under the New Covenant! Read the book of Hebrews, if you want to look at all the differences between the two Covenants, and why the New Covenant is superior to the Old Covenant, and why it’s sad when Christians still relate to God from the basis of the Old Covenant. In the Old Covenant it was all about what you did. It was established between God and Israel. It was simple and easy to understand: do this and this, and you’ll be blessed. Do that and that and you’ll be cursed (just like the two people at the post office were saying!). The Old Covenant was about asking for forgiveness through sacrifices and other practices. In the Old Covenant you could never feel fully safe, for what if you had committed a sin that you hadn’t done the appropriate sacrifice to cover…?
The New Covenant is established between God the Father and God the Son, Jesus on behalf of mankind. It’s a Covenant that cannot be broken. It’s a perfect Covenant! It’s a Covenant I’m placed into when I accept Jesus as my Savior and my only, perfect sacrifice. I’m safe here. Absolutely safe. The New Covenant is about love, trust, joy and faith. The Holy Spirit is now residing in me (Ezekiel 36:25-27). God is in me! I’m joined spirit to spirit with God himself! (1. Corinthians 6:17). I can give according to what the Holy Spirit impresses on me. I know of people who give more than 50% of their income to the work of the Kingdom of God, and I know others who give 2% – and both sets of people are doing what God wants them to do!
I’ve often thought about writing a book titled “New Covenant for Dummies” or maybe “The New Covenant Made Simple“. There is so much richness in God showing us the beauty of the New Covenant. And I wish to experience more myself and I wish the same for the two ladies from the post office!
“Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16)
Blessings, Torben
Broken I run to You 