Sunday November 15th, 2020
« For this is My blood, said Jesus, which confirms the covenant between God and His people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many »
20 Now a mediator is helpful if more than one party must reach an agreement. But God, who is one, did not use a mediator when He gave His promise to Abraham.
21 Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it.
22 But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.
23 Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed.
24 Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith.
25 And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.
26 For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
Many Christians think the law (the Old Testament) is no longer of any effect and thus behave carelessly, claiming that, that, because they are born again, grace covers all their sins.
Paul clarifies this in the following in Galatians 3:20-26 CEV
22 But the Scriptures say that sin controls everyone, so that God’s promises will be for anyone who has faith in Jesus Christ.
23 The Law controlled us and kept us under its power until the time came when we would have faith.
24 In fact, the Law was our teacher. It was supposed to teach us until we had faith and were acceptable to God.
25 But once a person has learned to have faith, there is no more need to have the Law as a teacher.
26 All of you are God’s children because of your faith in Christ Jesus »
The old covenant protected the people against temporal death, poverty, all forms of suffering and bondage but the new delivers eternally (Matthew 1:21; 26:28).
Your ability to overcome sin is proof that you are a child of God, John the Beloved corroborated this when he said in 1 John 3:9GNT that
« Those who are children of God do not continue to sin, for God’s very nature is in them; and because God is their Father, they cannot continue to sin »
Are we really children of God?
If we still wallow in sin, we remain in the old dispensation and the letter of the law will punish us here and in the afterlife.
The superiority of the new covenant over the old however is that, while the latter puts constraints to prevent sin, the new gives power over it.
« For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace »
We therefore have the assurance that grace will work for us.
Romans 6:1 however cautions that we cannot remain in sin, expecting grace to abound.
Rather, grace empowers us to conquer sin.
You do not have any excuse to abide in sin.
Application – Tap into the power of the new covenant to overcome sin.
Author – Bishop Enoch. A. Adeboye.
Edited by Naomie
Freely you received, freely you must give (Math 10:8) , kindly share this devotion, and the Lord will bless you for it .
Spread the love of Christ by clicking on the ♥
copingwords@gmail.com
