1. "Now Christ has been appointed to serve as a priest in a much better way, and he has given us much assurance of a better agreement. If the first agreement with God had been all right, there would not have been any need for another one. But the Lord found fault with it and said, "I tell you the time will come, when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and the people of Judah. It won't be like the agreement that I made with their ancestors, when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. They broke their agreement with me, and I stopped caring about them! "But now I tell the people of Israel this is my new agreement: 'The time will come when I, the Lord, will write my laws on their minds and hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. Not one of them will have to teach another to know me, their Lord.' "All of them will know me, no matter who they are. I will treat them with kindness, even though they are wicked. I will forget their sins." (Hebrews 8:6-12 CEV)
2. "You have come to Jesus, who arranged the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that promises much better things than does the blood of Abel." (Hebrews 12:24 GNB)
3. "Since this is true, how much more is accomplished by the blood of Christ! Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself as a perfect sacrifice to God. His blood will purify our consciences from useless rituals, so that we may serve the living God. For this reason Christ is the one who arranges a new covenant, so that those who have been called by God may receive the eternal blessings that God has promised. This can be done because there has been a death which sets people free from the wrongs they did while the first covenant was in effect. In the case of a will it is necessary to prove that the person who made it has died, for a will means nothing while the person who made it is alive; it goes into effect only after his death. That is why even the first covenant went into effect only with the use of blood. First, Moses proclaimed to the people all the commandments as set forth in the Law. Then he took the blood of bulls and goats, mixed it with water, and sprinkled it on the book of the Law and all the people, using a sprig of hyssop and some red wool. He said, "This is the blood which seals the covenant that God has commanded you to obey."
(Hebrews 9:14-20 GNB)
The death and resurrection of Christ marked the end of the old and ushered in the new. The old is truly finished and the new is in place. God has forever changed the way He deals with mankind. Now God could begin executing His eternal purpose.
1. "Jesus..said, "It is finished!" Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit." (John 19:30 GNB)
2. "God did this according to his eternal plan. And he was able to do what he had planned because of all that Christ Jesus our Lord had done." (Ephesians 3:11 CEV)
3. So I said, "I'm here to do it your way, O God, the way it's described in your Book." When he said, "You don't want sacrifices and offerings," he was referring to practices according to the old plan. When he added, "I'm here to do it your way," he set aside the first in order to enact the new plan-- God's way--by which we are made fit for God by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus..As a priest, Christ made a single sacrifice for sins, and that was it!..By that single offering, he did everything that needed to be done..The Holy Spirit confirms this: This new plan I'm making with Israel isn't going to be written on paper, isn't going to be chiseled in stone; This time "I'm writing out the plan in them, carving it on the lining of their hearts." He concludes, I'll forever wipe the slate clean of their sins. Once sins are taken care of for good, there's no longer any need to offer sacrifices for them. So, friends, we can now--without hesitation--walk right up to God, into "the Holy Place." Jesus has cleared the way by the blood of his sacrifice, acting as our priest before God. The "curtain" into God's presence is his body." (Hebrews 10:7-19 MSG)
4. ".. My friends, you surely understand enough about law to know that laws only have power over people who are alive. For example, the Law says that a man's wife must remain his wife as long as he lives. But once her husband is dead, she is free to marry someone else. However, if she goes off with another man while her husband is still alive, she is said to be unfaithful. That is how it is with you, my friends. You are now part of the body of Christ and are dead to the power of the Law. You are free to belong to Christ, who was raised to life so that we could serve God. When we thought only of ourselves, the Law made us have sinful desires. It made every part of our bodies into slaves who are doomed to die. But the Law no longer rules over us. We are like dead people, and it cannot have any power over us. Now we can serve God in a new way by obeying his Spirit, and not in the old way by obeying the written Law." (Romans 7:1-6 CEV)
Couldn't understand the funny looks
When I handed it over
Surely, that should be enough
I know it's real currency
I checked it myself
I need what I'm paying for
Imagine my surprise to discover
New currency was now in circulation
Alas my needs I could not obtain
Thinking that was strange
I was even more taken aback
When what I needed
Was handed to me
I tried to explain
"I don't have any other currency"
"I can't afford to pay"
He whipped out the new contract
And showed me, it had all been paid
It was becoming very clear
A major shift had occurred
A new dispensation was in place
The old is outdated
The choice is mine
Change or do without
The new has come to stay
Selah
In part 9 we will begin exploring the core element of our salvation.
(To be continued..)
click here to read part 9
To view others instalments in the series, click here
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