Praise the Lord for the new covenant! We need to see and appropriate the contents of the new covenant as God’s bequests to us, from the forgiveness of our sins to the imparting of the law of life, having God as our God and being His people, and knowing God inwardly in the way of life! Hallelujah!
This week is our final week in our deeper study of the book of Jeremiah, and our focus is on the new covenant. The topic we are enjoying this week is, Experiencing and Enjoying the Contents of the New Covenant according to Our Spiritual Experience for the Accomplishment of God’s Economy.
In the Old Testament, God made an old covenant with His people Israel, and they had to go through certain procedures in order to be His people and have Him as their God; God wants to enter into a covenant with His people so that He may dispense all that He is into them.
Even though there was an old covenant with Israel, in Jeremiah God promised a new covenant – he prophesies that God will make a new covenant with man!
Hallelujah, we as believers in Christ are under the new covenant – we are covenanted people – and we can enjoy all the bequests of God according to this covenant!
May we not be like those who forget about the new covenant and live in a poor, loose, and pitiful way; may we know the contents of the new covenant, may we enjoy these contents, may we appropriate them, and may we enjoy all of God’s bequests to us.
A covenant is more than a promise; a promise is made and then later may be forgotten, or something may happen and the promise cannot be kept.
But a covenant is something that is written down and signed; even more, in the New Testament age we have the new covenant becoming the New Testament, and all that God has promised to us is ours by faith!
What God promises in His covenant is not something outward, physical, or material; He has many spiritual blessings, and we can enjoy them in the spiritual realm by faith.
The enemy, however, is clever in distracting us with many things – either with problems, trials, tribulations, or with things of this world like entertainment and lusts, or with being busy, having a career, caring for our family, etc.
There are so many things that fight for our being; they want to occupy us.
The real things, however, the genuine and true things, are the things of the new covenant, which stand for eternity; we do well to know the contents of the new covenant, see and appropriate them, and enjoy and experience God’s bequests to us as believers in Christ in the New Testament.
We need to See and Appropriate the Contents of the New Covenant as God’s Bequests to us today
The book of Jeremiah is in the Old Testament, but based on the fact that he speaks concerning the new covenant, we can consider this book as being also a New Testament book.
We need to see and appropriate the contents of the new covenant as God’s bequests to us in our daily Christian experience (Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:8-12).
In Jer. 31 Jeremiah prophesies concerning the new covenant, and in Hebrews, this new covenant is quoted; one distinction between the record in these two books is that in Hebrews it says “I will impart My laws” into their mind, while “law” is mentioned in Jeremiah.
In the new covenant there are four main blessings that are promised, and these need to become our enjoyment and experience in our Christian life.
First, we see the propitiation for our unrighteousness and the forgetting (the forgiveness) of our sins (Heb. 8:12); this is mentioned last, but in our experience, it is the first thing that occurs.
Based on the fact that God forgives our sins, we can come forward to Him and enjoy all His riches, all His bequests, and all that He is and has to us.
We only need to repent, confess our sins, call on the name of the Lord, and the Lord forgives our sins and forgets them. Wow, it is as simple as that – and if we think it is too easy or simple, we better believe it, for it is part of the new covenant!
In 1 John 1:7-9 we see that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Forgiveness of sins is bequeathed to us in the new covenant; we just need to believe it, claim it, and experience it!
The second blessing of the new covenant is the imparting of the law of life by the imparting of the divine life into us (Heb. 12:10).
In the old covenant, the law of God was outside of man, written on scrolls or tablets of stone; in the new covenant God promises to write His law, even His laws, on the tablets of our heart, and this law is thus being imparted into us.
Actually, when we receive the divine life, we receive the law of life, the law of the divine life; this law operates in us to conform us to the image of Christ, to shape us into the God-men who are the duplication of the Firstborn Son of God. Hallelujah!
The third blessing of the new covenant is the privilege of having God as our God and of being His people; the divine life we have received through regeneration enables us to participate in the enjoyment of God in fellowship with Him (Heb. 12:10).
God promises to be our God and make us His people; by means of the divine life that we have, as born again people, we can participate in the enjoyment of God in fellowship with Him.
Hallelujah, a bequest of the new covenant is that we can fellowship with God simply because and by means of the divine life!
We can exercise our spirit, contact the Lord, and fellowship with God, for the divine life within us enables us to fellowship with Him; in this way, He is our God and we are His people in the way of life.
The fourth blessing of the new covenant is that the function of the divine life we receive through regeneration enables us to know God in the inward way of life (Heb. 8:11).
No one needs to teach us and tell us to know God; we have an inner knowledge of God, and we can know God not merely according to some words on a paper but in the inward way of life.
We know God because He is our God and we are His people; we know Him because we have His life, and as we contact Him and live by His life, we know Him subjectively, intimately, and inwardly.
Amen, what a blessing to know God in the way of life! May we see and appropriate the contents of the new covenant as God’s bequests to us, and may we experience the blessings of the new covenant in our daily Christian life!
Thank You, Lord, for the new covenant which You made with us, Your people. Thank You for making propitiation for our unrighteousnesses and promising to forgive and forget our sins whenever we confess them. Amen, Lord, we confess whatever Your light exposes, and we believe that You forgive us and forget our iniquities! Thank You for the imparting of the law of life by the imparting of the divine life into us. Amen, Lord, the law of life within us delivers us from the law of sin and of death and shapes us to be conformed to the image of Christ! Thank You for the privilege of having God as our God and of being His people. Amen, Lord, Your divine life enables us to participate in the enjoyment of God in fellowship with Him! Thank You for the function of life that enables us to know God in the inward way of life. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit to see, know, and appropriate the contents of the new covenant as God’s bequests to us so that we may experience and enjoy these blessings in our daily Christian life!
In our Christian Experience, we First enjoy Forgiveness of Sins from God and are Cleansed by Him!
According to Hebrews 8, the contents of the new covenant include three major parts: first His life and power is imparted into us, then He becomes our God in the law of life that we may be His people, and lastly we have an inner deeper knowledge of God so that we may live Him out.
All these takes place because of the last bequest of the new covenant, which is forgiveness of sins.
The Bible puts forgiveness of sins at the end, for it is only a procedure by which God achieves His purpose; however, according to our Christian experience, the first thing we experience and enjoy is forgiveness of sins.
According to our spiritual experience, we first obtain the cleansing that comes from the forgiveness of our sins, then we become God’s people in the law of life, and then we possess a deeper knowledge of God in an inward way.
Heb. 8:10-11 speaks of the new covenant with its blessings, and v. 12 says, For I will be propitious to their unrighteousnesses, and their sins I will by no means remember anymore.
This word “for” shows us that all the previous bequests of the new covenant are based on this; based on the forgiveness of our sins, we can enjoy all the bequests of the new covenant. Hallelujah!
And the way God forgives our sins is very important: He forgives and forgets our sins!
According to the new covenant, our sins are forgiven, cleansed, and forgotten! How regrettable it is for us to remember what God forgets and forget what God remembers!
Regarding our sins, God has divine amnesia – He forgives them and He forgets them. This is actually the real forgiveness of sins – forgive and forget.
In our experience, however, many times we tend to remember what God has forgotten; we may remember the sins we committed, and we may have a feeling of being so sinful because we did this and committed that…but God has blotted out our sins, and there’s not even a trace of this blotting – all our sins are gone!
May the Lord enlighten us to realize that, as soon as we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness!
This is what He promises, and this is the very first item of the new covenant. God’s forgiveness of our sins and no longer remembering our sins is the fulfillment of the first item of the new covenant.
We confess: He forgives; we confess, the blood of Jesus cleanses us, and God sees us covered in this blood, so He forgives our sins and by no means remembers them anymore. Wow!
When others wrong us and then apologize, even with tears, we may forgive them, but we may still remember what they did to us; there may be scars on our being that show us what this or that one did to us. But this is not so with God; He forgives and forgets!
How we thank and praise God for His divine and mystical forgiving and forgetting! We would not be here if it were not for His forgiveness and His forgetting of our sins.
Thank You Lord for Your promise to forgive us of our sins according to the new covenant. Hallelujah, when God forgives our sins, He no longer remembers them! Praise the Lord, God’s forgiveness of our sins and no longer remembering them is the fulfillment of the very first item of the new covenant! Lord, may we remain under Your divine light and confess anything that Your light exposes, so that the blood of Jesus may cleanse us and You may forgive our sins and no longer remember them! Grant us also to no longer remember the sins that we have confessed. We praise and thank You, dear Lord, that You covenanted to forgive our sins and forget them as soon as we confess them and apply the precious blood of Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, The New Covenant, ch. 6 (by Watchman Nee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations, week 12, Experiencing and Enjoying the Contents of the New Covenant according to Our Spiritual Experience for the Accomplishment of God’s Economy.
- What is the new covenant? Read more via LSM radio here.
- Hymns on this topic:
– “I will impart My laws into their mind,” / Our covenanting God revealed to mankind; / “I will inscribe My laws upon their heart,” / God’s highest law of life in us to impart. / Christ is the title deed of all God is; / Christ is a testament with all its bequests; / Now the New Testament is ours to claim, / As we, in spirit, call upon His name. (Song on, The New Covenant Blessings)
– In His blood forgiveness shines; / Oh, ’tis glorious to find! / Israel just atonement knew, / We have that and cleansing too. / Heart and mind are now at peace / Rest! Our conscience has been reached. / Never more we blush in shame, / We are washed from every stain. (Hymns #1124)
– By the blood of Christ the Victor / God’s sure faithfulness believe; / Thru the blood of your Redeemer / God’s forgiveness now receive. (Hymns #889)
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