Our Covenant of Faith, Part 2

Our Covenant of Faith, Part 2

            In Hebrews 11:6, without faith, it is impossible to please God.  To try and come unto God by any other means that faith in Jesus would be to try and reach your own way to Him by works.  Works have never been the way to reach Him.  Romans 3:20-21, the righteousness of God by believing and reliance on Jesus “by faith”.  Romans 3:23-24, since all have sinned and fallen short of the honor and glory which God bestows and receives.  Vs24, all are justified and made upright and in right standing with God through faith in what Jesus has done.

            Many Christians still are condemned over their past life instead of walking out from under condemnation by the blood.  It seems that our faith in the ability to take it all away doesn’t seem to work in this area.  Hebrews 10:16-23, vs18 Amp, absolute remission (forgiveness, cancellation of the penalty of sin), vs22 Amp, be able to not be afraid of rejection by God but draw near with “unqualified assurance and absolute conviction engendered by faith”.  Sometimes we think of conviction only when it comes to sin, but here it speaks on being convicted of righteousness and acceptance. 

            When I speak of our covenant of faith, I speak of everything our covenant has promised and provided.  According to the words of our covenant, everything that could ever plague God’s people was under the blood of our sacrificial Lamb.  Jesus prayed just hours before going to the cross in John 17:14-26 that His sacrifice would restore us back to that, but would actually put us in the same relationship with the father that He had.

            We find part of our covenant in Luke 4:18-21.  This statement was part of our New Covenant, but you have to receive it by faith in Him.  I wonder, do we believe this part of what He said or do we put it off until heaven?  Vs 19 Amp, “to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (the day when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound)”.

            We find in Matthew 8:17 Amp, thus He fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, He Himself took (in order to carry away) our weaknesses and infirmities and bore away our diseases.  This, too, is part of our faith covenant that must be received only by faith.  We are still trying to be healed instead of putting our faith in the Lamb that has already provided it.  We find in Romans 3:26-27 that the only way to become righteous is not by works, good deeds or any works if the flesh, but by faith in our sacrifice.  Justification can only come by faith.  In this same scripture, vs26 Amp, “He justifies and accepts as righteous he who has faith in Jesus.

            We find in Romans 12:1-3 that we are not to be conformed to the world’s way of thinking, but to renew our minds by what our sacrifice has done for us.  Vs 3 Amp, Paul warns not to think of ourselves more highly than we should.  We seem to always think of pride as something that exalts one’s self, by lording over others by our high standards.  Did we ever think that by excluding ourselves by making statements such as, “I know Jesus died for our sins, but you don’t know what I have done”, that this is a sense of pride that is saying to God, “thanks for Jesus, but that wasn’t enough to cleanse me”?  That is thinking pretty highly of yourself, don’t you think?

            Did you ever think that you weren’t good enough or that you don’t deserve to be healed or blessed?  That is also thinking more highly of yourself than it is the strength of the sacrifice.  According to the book of Isaiah 53:1-12, it was for you and me that He did what He did.  Did we deserve to be healed and set free?  NO!  But by HIS GRACE, we were and by FAITH in that sacrifice we should reach out to believe as we said in Romans 1:17, going from saving grace by faith to the sacrifice which provided my healing, redemption, justification, deliverance, cleansing of my conscience from sin, righteousness and acceptance into the presence of my Father!