Covenants With God
Notes
Transcript
Continuing through 2 Corinthians
2 Cor 3:6-18 today. Last week we read how Paul was emphasizing the fact that God equips us to be ministers of the Gospel. Our qualification/our sufficiency does not come from ourselves, it come from God through the Spirit working in and through us.
ended with verse 6 where Paul begins a comparison of the “New Covenant” with God and the “Old Covenant”.
We will take a look at what he says and talk a bit about what those two “covenants” are and then consider what all this means for us today.
First what is a covenant?
A agreement. From bibleproject.com “A relationship between two partners who make binding promises to each other and work together to read a common goal.”
different from a “contract” because they are relational and personal. Marriage as God designed it is a covenant agreement between a man and woman to be bound together as one for life-providing mutual benefit and working as partners for common goals.
The covenant that Paul refers to as one of the “letter” that brings death is the covenant between God and the Israelites. Theologians call the Mosaic covenant. Many of you familiar, but good to remind ourselves and set foundation for what we are considering today.
God first made a covenant with Abraham to make him the father of a great nation.
Generations later, his descendents had grown into a great multitude of people living in slavery in Egypt. God worked through Moses to release them from slavery; leading them through desert to a land he promised them. While in desert established this covenant with them.
Read details of all this in Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy.
Can read an overall declaration of this covenant from God in Exo 6:6-8 “Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’ ”
In 2 Cor. there are 3 important distinctions about this covenant that Paul highlights:
Letter: rooted in the letter of the law.
The basis of this covenant was the law God gave them to live by. They agreed to live by God’s commands that set them apart from other people both in the moral code they agreed to live by and in the way they interacted with God. God also provided them with ceremonial, sacrificial laws that provided ways for them to be purified from their sin as well as to express gratitude and worship of the Lord.
In agreement for living by this Law, God agreed to be their Lord..their protector and provider. And to show the world through them that there is one true God & creator who loves and wants the best for mankind.
Law was written on stone tablets.
In Exodus 24 we read that God called Moses to meet with him on a mountain-Mount Sinai-where God would give him stone tablets with all the law and commandments of their covenant written on them.
side note-we have a video - Bob Cornuke bible archaeologist.
We actually get a glimpse in this section of Scripture about the difficulty the people were going to have keeping this covenant. Moses was gone for a while..people had a golden calf statue made started worshpping this idol…God grew angry, Moses went down-smashed tablets. Moses asked God to forgive them and then carved a new set of tablets.
Much more you can read about all this in Exo 24-34.
but this is the letter Paul referred to. And the fact that the people so readily turned away from God leads to the next point Paul made about this covenant.
Death: He called it the ministry of death. There are a couple of reasons we can point to for why Paul gave it that title.
Sacrifices: built into the covenant law. God established sacrifices for the forgiveness of sin. Because the people did sin-disobeyed God, they had to constantly offer sacrifices. Incomplete/imperfect-only covering past sin.
Because they did not stop sinning, they could never be free from the guilt of their sin. Became slaves to sin and ultimately death apart from from God. Paul explains in other parts of NT that the law of the Old Covenant did not set people free by showing them the path of life and freedom with God instead it only showed them just how sinful they were…how sinful we all are. The law exposes our weakness…our willingness to disregard what god our creator desires for in and instead pursue our own selfish desires.
so the covenant of the Letter has proven to leave people trapped in guilt and shame. Living by law did not help them break free from sinning.
Finally, one more point Paul highlights.
God’s glory: In spite of the fact that this covenant exposed mankind’s sinfulness, it did also reveal God’s glory!
Glory = God’s goodness…majesty…splendor…display of all that is wonderful about God.
The law also showed God’s good desires for mankind…his desire to bring people together…to have them live in fellowship with one another…and in fellowship with Him. This covenant had a purpose in showing all mankind the Glory of God and inviting ALL people into a restored relationship with their creator; it brought them near to God.
But again the sinfulness of man limited the display of god’s glory..but God’s glory is so much greater than our sin that it did shine through in a limited way.
One of the fascinating parts of the account in Exodus about Moses communing with God is that when he came down from the mountaintop, his face would be shining with the glory of God’s presence.
Exodus 34:29-35 “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him”
This is what Paul was referring to when he wrote about the veil over Moses’ face so the Israelites would not see it any longer. They had fear and kept themselves distant from the glory of God.
Paul makes the point that this glory of God would fade. Disappeared from Moses’ face until the next time he was with God; and we don’t read about it in later generations of Isreal.
In the Old Covenant the glory of God was limited. People’s minds were closed to seeing; knowing the fullness of God at that time.
Paul says even to the days when he wrote 2 Cor, the minds of the people were veiled when they read the Old Covenant Scriptures…could not see fullness of God. Even today people’s minds can be veiled against knowing/understanding what the Word says about God. We will read in 2 Cor 4:4 - Satan blinds the minds of unbelievers.
Point is that in the Old Covenant, the revealing of the glory of God was limited and fading away.
Old Covenant: Letter - Death - Limited Glory
Paul contrasts that with the New Covenant - Covenant in Christ Jesus!
Spirit: This covenant is not founded on the letter of the Law, but on the very presence of God with those who have agreed with this covenant. The Holy Spirit himself dwells with every person who lives in Christ. And the Spirit directly speaks to each one-providing direction, providing conviction to recognize and overcome sin; providing comfort; encouragement and freedom. And He is available at all times. In the New Covenant we are no longer bound to laws. The guilt and shame of sin have been taken away....giving us full and complete access to God’s presence!
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
This is a really important point about what it means to live as a Christian. We will come back to it in a bit.
2. New covenant is a covenant of life and freedom! This is all because of Jesus! Jesus - who lived as a Jew under the Old Covenant, fulfilled the Law. He was without sin! Because of that, he could have claimed the rewards of that life for himself. Instead he gave up his life for us..for all people…and took the penalty of our sin upon himself and died, but paid for ALL sin in full, overcame death and came back from the grave. The is the central truth of the New Covenant that we hold to!
so through His life, death, and resurrection, those who agree to the covenant through faith that Jesus IS the Son of god and accomplished all these things for us; and who desire forgiveness for ALL there sin, once for all; can be set free from death-eternal separation from God; and set free from the burden of their guilt forever; and free from having to prove their worth through obedience to the letter.
As Paul says, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is FREEDOM.
3. and not only is there freedom, there is a radiant and eternal glory of God.
When you come to know the truth of the Gospel and receive forgiveness through Jesus…the veil clouding your mind is removed.
2 Cor 3:18 “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
Paul is saying that as you continue in the New Covenant life, you are transformed more and more by the Spirit into the likeness of Jesus.
This happens as you submit yourself to him..listen to Him…trust Him.
the more you do it, you grow from one degree of the glory of God in your life to another…you experience more and more of Him…and you radiate more and more of Him to those around you!
this glory of God is his presence in your life…and through Jesus is it permanent. and far surpasses the glory revealed in the Old Covenant.
In Christ you have the honor of knowing God in a personal way…much more than was possible for people through the Old Covenant!
That is the hope Paul clings to and rejoices in when he says
2 cor 3:12 “Since we have such a hope, we are very bold,”
We are free in the New Covenant to let that glory shine in and through us!
Summary: New covenant: Spirit … Life/Freedom…Eternal, radiant glory!
Now, with these two covenants from God in mind, the question we need to wrestle with is this: Which one are you choosing for your life? which one do you embrace?
It is possible, even today when we’ve been offered the New, life, giving, glorious covenant of the Spirit to live by the Old, limited covenant of the letter of the law.
Paul saw it in his own time. One of the reason I love Paul’s letter to the Galatians is that he confronted this very issue. He had preached Christ to the people there, but others came along insisting they follow the letter of the law and Paul called the Galatian Christians out of that bondage and back into freedom.
He wrote
Gal 5:1 “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
READ Gal 5:2-4.
Now people read that and object..they say sin matters. we need to obey God.
Yes sin does matter…and jesus paid the penalty we deserve. He paid for it in ways I don’t think we can fully understand..as he experienced separation from the Father.
and life in Christ is NOT about trying to live up to the law…or some variation of the Law that we have been taught to uphold.
our focus is to be living by the Spirit of God…living in the abundance of God’s love and grace…living with gratitude that we are eternally FREE and able to be filled with the fullness of God’s glory!
We are called to trust the HS’s guidance…knowing that the HS is not going to lead us in opposition to God’s will.
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
there are a LOT of in-depth conversations to be had about what that looks like practically. How do we know we are living by the spirit and not just following our own will…and along with can we accept and understand that maybe the Spirit is guiding and speaking to us much more clearly that our doubts allow us to believe?
Encourage: discuss these things in small groups! Ask questions! I would LOVE to get together and talk more.. I am sure others would love to as well. Let’s dig into these things together! That’s all part of being a church together.
For today I want to challenge you to consider your focus…your state of mind about living out life in Christ. I know from experience that there are plenty of people who have heard through one church or another that being a good Christian means living up to a set of standards…a list of god’s laws. They go through life feeling as though they are letting god down or that God is going to punish them.
And I hope you can see from God’s Word directly that those ideas are from the Old Covenant…not the new.
The central focus of the Christian life is NOT about making yourself be a “good” person…That is going to be the the fruit or the outcome of the Life in Christ…not the goal.
The focus is to live in the Spirit…to dwell in the fact that God loves you just as you are…that Jesus has taken all the guilt of your sin on himself to set you free…go through your life expressing LOVE for God and sharing that love with those around you. knowing that the spirit will transform you and allow you to go from one degree of the glory of god to another…filling you with more and more of His life.
The focus of the life in Christ is to embrace and enjoy and express the fullness of Gods love in your life.
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