8.4 The New Covenant is dependant on the finished work of Jesus

The Old Covenant of law spanned a period of 1,500 years from Mt Sinai (Exodus 20) till Jesus’ crucifixion. This means that for 2,500 years prior to Mt Sinai, people like Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph lived before the Covenant of law. They lived on the basis of faith rather than law.

But the people who came out of Egypt under the mighty hand of God were a presumptuous group of people. So God gave them the law to let them prove if they were righteous. They boasted that they could keep it. So God gave them a covenant that depended wholly on their performance to keep God’s law. God wanted them to realize through their failure that they were sick (sinners) so that they could come to the physician (Jesus) for help.

Then Jesus came as Savior of the world. When Israel failed to keep God’s laws, Jesus came to fulfill them on their behalf. He came to fulfill all righteousness and then He gave His righteousness to those who believed in Him. So our standing with God is based on Jesus performance – not ours.

Jesus also had to pay the penalty for our sins. He had to take our place in order to redeem us. So He suffered on the cross on our behalf. He did it all for us – His performance.

And because we have been made righteous by His blood, He is able to live in us. He is still performing in us and through us to accomplish His will. This is why Christianity is all about His performance, not ours. Since His performance is perfect, we are standing on solid ground. We can depend on Him and we can believe in Him. He never fails.

The Old Covenant says, “Thou shall”. It focuses on our performance. The new covenant says, “I will”. It focuses on His performance. This is a fundamental difference. This is the paradigm shift that many Christians need. The following is a beautiful passage that tells us what He would do under the New Covenant. Try to see if it focuses on “Thou shall” or “I will”?

(Hebrews 8:10-12)
For this is the covenant that I WILL make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I WILL put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I WILL be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I WILL be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

Today, all we need to do is to trust Him and respond to His power within you. This is called faith. When we come to the end of self-ability and start to depend on His ability, Christianity comes alive.