Speaking of Covenants

The Old Testament prophets, where I have been reading lately, foretold calamity, surely, but were also given glimpses, some ever so small, of future redemption.  And we, most blessed, know what those glimpses looked forward to.  


Consider Jeremiah 31, where God describes through the prophet the new covenant that he was going to make with His people:  "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts."  And while the old covenant was always meant to be more about a relationship than about following rules, the fact that the Israelites found it impossible to keep pointed to the need for a new covenant, a covenant that would deal once and for all with sin.


We now know that covenant to which the prophets were pointing:  the new covenant in Christ's blood, the sacrifice of the final Paschal Lamb to take away the sins of the world, the last high priest offering Himself as the last sacrifice. (For a fuller discussion of this concept, see Michael Williams' Far as the Curse is Found, p. 218.)


What Jeremiah saw through a fog we see in reality--the Holy Spirit given to write God's law on our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Christ is the fulfillment of the entire old covenant--all God's promises to us are 'yes' in Christ (see 2 Corinthians 1:20) and our obedience now is possible because Christ by His Spirit lives in us.  Law is not now obsolete as much as fulfilled! and alive in us! because of Jesus.  


So the old covenant pointed forward to Christ, and the new covenant flows out from the perfect life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, which He performed on our behalf. 

And we are able, finally, to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves.  Praise God from whom this very blessing flows.