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Under the Old Covenant, every
year the Jews would go to the temple to offer a sacrifice of goats and
sheep to God for the covering of their sins. The priest of the temple
would offer up to God the blood of the sacrifice first for his own sins
and then for the people’s.
Two thousand years ago, there
was one sacrifice that was made for all mankind's’ sin, the sacrifice of
Jesus Christ our Lord. Who willingly gave himself to be the sacrifice
for all mankind, so we can receive redemption from our sins once and for
all. There was no need to do a yearly sacrifice any longer.
A sacrifice that was the
beginning of a New Covenant for those whom the sacrifice was made. Well,
who’s the new covenant made for? All those who believe in Jesus as their
Lord, and confession was made unto salvation. (John 3:16)
Why has the Old covenant been
replaced? Because God found fault with the house of Israel and Judah.
The Lord says "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will
make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of
Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in
the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of
Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded
them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the
house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in
their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and
they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none
his brother, saying, "Know the Lord", for all shall know Me, from the
least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember
no more." In that He says, "A new covenant," He has made the first
obsolete Now, what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to
vanish away (Heb. 8:7-13).
A covenant that is no longer
a covering for man’s sins, but the remission of their sins. Sin is
finally defeated and wiped out by the blood of Jesus Christ. What does
this all mean? We have been freed from the bondage of sin, curse of the
law, and death’s sting. We can live a new life that flows from God
Himself having our consciences cleansed, so we can serve the Living God.
The new covenant has been established, so we may be sanctified through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. (Heb. 10:8) |
