14.3 Knowing what Jesus accomplished is the quest of the New Covenant believer

Under the Old Covenant, the quest of the believer is to attain to something through his self-effort. For 1,500 years under the Old Covenant, they were under the system of Deuteronomy 28. They had to perform all the works of the law in order to attain to righteousness, and to qualify for the blessings of God.

They desired to attain to righteousness and blessings. They struggled and strived to qualify. They had to earn all the blessings of Deuteronomy 28. The wonderful blessings include healing, promotion, provisions, blessings, etc. It was not theirs yet. It was conditional upon their ability to attain to it.

I have been a Christian some 28 years and have met a lot of Christians. The majority do try in one way or another to earn their righteousness and blessings through their actions. Maybe when they fall short, they depend on God’s mercy. But most of the time, they depend on their good works, fasting, praying, tithing, doing their quiet time, and winning souls. How many of you can identify with me.

It is commonly said that if you prayed hard enough, God will heal you. If you are not getting the results, you need to pray harder and fast. If you obey God, He will bless you. If you are faithful to God, He will be faithful to you. If you forgive others, then God will forgive you. As a student, I was told that if you go to church faithfully, God will give you good grades.

How many of you recognize that in all the statements above, the blessings of God are still a distance away, and they are conditional upon you fulfilling some requirements. I grew up under that system, so I know it well. But the Holy Spirit has led me to the land of the New Covenant.

If you read the New Covenant Epistles, you will find that it does not talk in that manner. The book of Ephesians tells you as a statement of fact – “who you are in Christ”, “what you have in Christ” and “what you can accomplish in Christ”.

Let us study two of the greatest prayers in the Bible. In both prayers, Paul does not ask God for anything. Paul knows that Jesus has accomplished everything on the cross. Instead, he prays for the New Covenant Christians that “THEY MAY KNOW WHAT THEY HAVE…” He did not pray for them to “TRY TO GET SOMETHING”.

In fact, he acknowledges that it does not come naturally for Christians to have this paradigm shift. He knows that if left to our own, we will drift back under the old paradigm. He knows that we need help. So he prays for the Holy Spirit to help us “that we may know…” We will share the powerful verse tomorrow.