Our Covenant of Faith, Part 3

Our Covenant of Faith, Part 3

            When I speak of a covenant of faith, I’m not speaking of some abstract way of religion.  Everything in our New Covenant is based on our faith in the fact that Jesus provided everything needed to return us to our Father in the way our Father intended us to be at the very beginning.  In Romans 3:25-27 Amp, “when God put Jesus before the eyes of all” as a mercy seat and propitiation by His blood (the cleansing and life giving sacrifice of atonement and reconciliation to be received through faith).  This was to show God’s righteousness because in His divine forbearance he had passed over and ignored former sins without punishment.  Vs26 says it was to demonstrate and prove at the present time (in the new season) that He Himself is righteous as that He justifies and accepts as righteous he who has true faith in Jesus.  It goes on to say in Vs27 that our works to obtain righteousness without faith in Jesus would be boasting and only on the principle of faith are we accepted.

            Romans 1:17 Amp states that by faith for salvation (Romans 10:8-10) will bring us into a place that our faith will go on to more perfect faith.  It is stated this way because in the Gospel, a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith (disclosing the way of faith that arouses more faith).  It is written that the man who, through faith, is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith (Hab 2:4).

            Because of our faith in Jesus, we have been accepted by God completely by faith in His finished work.  Romans 5:1-2 Amp, therefore, since we are justified (acquitted, declared righteous and given a right standing with God) through faith (let us grasp the fact that) we have the peace of reconciliation to hold and enjoy peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (the Messiah, the anointed one).  Vs2, through Him also we have our access (entrance, introduction) by faith into His grace (state of God’s favor) in which we (firmly and safely) stand.  And let us rejoice and exalt in our hope of experiencing and enjoying the Glory of God.  

            According to these scriptures, our faith in Jesus (as it grows: Romans 1:17) will bring us to a place of experiencing and enjoying the very Glory of God here in this life, by faith. 

We sometimes put off almost everything in our covenant “until we get to heaven”.  According to the scriptures, we can walk in a whole new realm of the favor and blessing of our Father right now.  It is ALL obtained by faith in what Jesus has done.  Romans 8:1-4 Amp opens a whole new way of life.  “We have (in Jesus) a new covenant that is called the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.  This new covenant has set me free (by faith) from the law of sin and death.  Vs4 Amp, sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, (God) condemned sin in the flesh (He became sin with my sin, that I would be made the righteousness of God in Him).  IICor 5:17-21 Amp, subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who will accept that sacrifice (by faith).  In Lev 7:37 Amp, you find a very interesting fact about the sacrifice.  The sacrifice that God spoke of accepting in Romans 8:4 is the one that in Lev 7:37 covers all the other sacrifices.

We sometimes want to believe that we still lack something to be pleasing unto God, but the truth is that Jesus did everything needed to present us to the Father “without spot or blemish”.

I hear teachings about how to obtain favor with God.  By faith in the sacrifice of Jesus, I have favor.  Now it’s not about God granting me a favor, but about me having faith in the favor He gave me through Jesus and to walk in it.  It’s not about whether or not I walk in guilt and condemnation, but through the sacrifice of Jesus (by faith) I walk above it.  You see, it’s not about me having to do anything to obtain it.  My part is to ACCEPT BY FAITH what Jesus has done.  HE, being the perfect sacrifice, left no more sacrifice to be offered up.  The sin offering, the trespass offering, the consecration offering, the burnt offering, the cereal offering, the peace offer – all of these things the law demanded of us were met in one offering (by faith) in Jesus.

Read ICor 2:1-16, especially Vs7, we are setting forth a wisdom of God once hidden (from the human understanding) and now revealed to us by God (that wisdom) which God devised and decreed before the ages for our glorification (to lift us into the glory of His presence).