On the one hand, Christ is the Mediator and the Executor of the new and better covenant, and on the other hand Christ Himself was given by God as a covenant to His people!
In at least one place in Isaiah Jehovah says that He has “set” Christ as a covenant to His people – in Isaiah 42:6-7, which says
6. I am Jehovah; I have called You in righteousness; I have held You by the hand; I have kept You and I have given You As a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations;
7. To open the eyes of the blind, To bring the prisoner out from the prison, Those who dwell in darkness from the prison house.
God gave Christ as a covenant to His people and as a light to the nations! As a covenant, Christ brings to us all that God is – all the fullness of the Godhead is embodied in Christ, and Christ today as the Spirit is available for us to enjoy. Firstly, in the new covenant, God justifies us and makes us righteous so that we may be in the right position to enjoy God.
After we have been justified and Christ became our righteousness, we can enjoy all that God is! Love, peace, life, joy, light, holiness, righteousness, forbearance, calmness – it is all ours in Christ as the covenant given to us by God! God even “bound” Himself by a covenant that He would give Himself to us as an inheritance through His covenant!
All we need to do is just open to Him and spend time with Him to enjoy all His riches until we as the church, the Body of Christ, become His fullness!
Also, God gave Christ as a light to the nations. Christ is the light of life, Christ is the true light, Christ is the light that shines over the world and enlightens every man (John 1:4, 9; 8:12; 9:5). Christ as the light of life regenerates us – He enlivens us with the divine life (1 Pet. 1:23).
He as the light delivers us out of the authority of darkness (the authority of Satan, the death-realm) into the realm of life and light (God’s realm of life and light) (1 Pet. 2:9b; Acts 26:18a). When we hear the Word of God, Christ as the light shines on us and exposes us of our sins and shortcomings; at the same time, if we stay under His light, we are being enlivened and regenerated by God!
This is a life-bringing-light, a life-generating-light, that shines on us whenever we come to God! The more we are under the divine light, the more the divine life is generated in us and grows in us. On the one hand, Christ as the covenant is for God’s people to gain God with His riches as their inheritance; on the other hand, Christ as the light is for God’s people to receive God as life for their new germination!
We are enjoying Christ as our inheritance AND we are germinated and enlivened by God through His light to be sons of God and enjoyers of Christ!
How do we enjoy and enter into this? They key is in Isa. 42:5 – the previous verse – which says that God is the One,
who created the heavens and stretched them out, / Who spread forth the earth and what springs up from it, / Who gives breath to the people upon it / And spirit to those who walk on it.
The key to our enjoying all God’s riches and to receiving more life-generating-light is our spirit! To God our spirit is so important that He puts it on the same level as the heavens and the earth(see also Zech. 12:1). God formed a spirit in man so that man could have a recipient, a receiver, to receive God who is the Spirit as his inheritance and his life!
Just as we need a stomach to contain and digest the food we enjoy, so we need a spirit as a “spiritual stomach” to receive all the riches of God embodied in Christ! When we exercise our spirit, we enjoy Christ as the reality of the new covenant and we are under His shining which brings in life! Hallelujah! [sharing inspired by the life-study of Isaiah msg. 53 and 22, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning revival on the Crystallization-study of Isaiah(2)]
Praise You Lord for our spirit! Thank You for the key to our Christian life and our church life – our mingled spirit! We come to You to enjoy You as the reality of the new covenant! Thank You Lord that all God is and has can be enjoyed by us as a covenant! All we need, God is, and all God is, is ours! Lord, keep us enjoying You in many ways in all our situations. May we just open to You and turn to our spirit to enjoy You more in all Your riches! Continue to shine on us as the light of life! Bring more life into us! Lord, how we love You!
