Epaggelia

Key Text: Jeremiah 31:31-34

The new covenant of Christ is not an after-thought from God.  He has planned and desired this since before the foundation of our world. Even after he established older covenants with Abraham & Moses, he declared that our heart was and is at the center of his covenant. Read Dueteronomy 10:16, 30:6, Jeremiah 4:4 & 9:26, Romans 2:28-29 & Philippians 3:3, Colossians 2:11-12.

Jeremiah’s prophecy centered on the fact that God would write his law on human hearts, Jer. 31:33. The apostle Paul declared this was fulfilled and happening to Christians, 2nd Corinthians 3:3-8. The law of God is very powerful, his words created the world and his message or instructions written upon our heart can make a new creation, 2nd Corinthians 5:17 & Galatians 6:15. Since Jesus is the very word of God incarnate, it makes sense to expect him to enact the law of God in our hearts by His Spirit of Christ, Jn. 1:1,14 & Rom. 8:9. His Spirit writes His law upon our hearts. Do you believe this?

The better & superior covenant of Jesus is offered to all races, sexes and classes of people.  The necessary & authoritative command of baptism is not an option, it is a mandatory requirement in the new covenant of Jesus, offered and made available to us by God’s grace, so that we can be included in the covenant by faith when we are born again by water and the Spirit, John 3:3-5.  We are either inside the covenant of God’s grace or we are outside.  We all need to submit to God’s operating venue in baptism and be circumcised with the circumcision of Christ, made without hands, a spiritual cutting away, an inner cleansing of our heart or soul. Colossians 2:11-12, 1st Peter 3:21. There is a link between God’s intention in circumcision under the old covenant and God’s intention in baptism under the new covenant, offered to us today.  Baptism as immersion into the death & resurrection of Christ, is an act that God uses to cut away sin from your heart and add you to the list of souls being saved in the church, the Lamb’s book of life, Acts 2:38-47 & Romans 6:1-8 & Revelation 20:12-15 & 21:27.  Whether or not we have a real working fellowship in Christ with other Christians is entirely up to the new Christian after baptism. It is our own individual responsibility to continue steadfastly in the apostle’s teaching, the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers of the church, Acts 2:42.  Will we live out this law of faith in Christ with each other in the same church we have been baptised into, the body of Christ? Romans 3:27 & Colossians 1:18.

Covenants have consequences, the new covenant is consequential in a better way. The word “new” is in the Greek as, “Kainos”, meaning a newness which is in “form or quality, of different nature from what is contrasted as old” –  from Vines Dictionary of New Testament Words.  This implies a unique prototype covenant. What is so special about it? The love from which it is made. It is a promise coming from and based on the love of God, now ours, but his love. To reject His covenant is to reject his love. Do you know what consequence that has? To reject God’s love, covenant, word and promise, is to reject him.  What is he promising? Forgiveness, Life and His Spirit, Acts 2:37-39. How can he make this covenant?  By His blood, Mt. 26:27-29.