Many who call themselves Christian today have not realised that God wants to make a personal covenant or contract with them individually. It is massive oversimplification of the gospel to simply say God will forgive your sins if you believe in Jesus. What God is offering to you is far deeper than that.
The Old Testament (covenant/contract) that God made with Abraham and later with the children of Israel through Moses, can be summarised as that if they loved and obeyed Him this would put them under His protection and they would be established and blessed as a nation but if they played the whore and disobeyed and worshipped other gods they would be beyond his protection so that they may be overcome by their enemies.
Now God through Jesus has replaced the Old Testament/Covenant with a superior New Testament/Covenant that any individual of any nation can personally make with Him. God will forgive and bless you personally if you love and obey Him but you will remain overcome by the enemy of your soul (Satan) if you do not obey God and turn from sin and stop loving the ungodly things of this world.
And for this cause he (Jesus) is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption (taking away) of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
[Heb 9:15]
The covenant God is offering to you is far greater and deeper than even a marriage covenant. He loves you and wants you to love Him. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth:
For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused (covenanted) you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
[2Co 11:2]
Several verses talk of the church being the bride of the Lamb (Jesus).
And there came unto me one of the seven angels ... and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. [Rev 21:9]
To love Him means you will obey Him. To obey Him you need to repent of everything God calls sin and to let your old selfish life style die and see His godly life style rise up within you through the power of a new life source He will put within you, Himself.
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
[Heb 10:16-17][quoting Jer 31:33-34]
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
[Eze 36:25-27]
Many sins open spiritual doors that enable evil spirits to become attached to you and they can cause destructive attitudes, behaviours, addictions and illnesses. The purification process of the believer may require the casting out of demons.
And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. [Joh 9:2-3]
Jesus did not like where this sin focussed question was going and He did one of His awesome redirects so that God got glory for the healing. This corrected the poor focus and attitude of His disciples not their poor doctrine.
The route to true freedom is to follow Jesus, repent of our sin and receive the Holy Spirit. Then through the power of the gospel any evil spirits can be commanded to leave. The help of a mature disciple is likely to be needed to achieve this. This process is frequently referred to as deliverance.
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. [Joh 8:31-32]
| Discipleship > |
| God's Covenant |
The Covenant Law of Love YT(6m)
| Biblical Roots |
The Law & the Story of God YT(35m)