Author: Sis Mhay

God deals with His people based on the covenant He makes with them. There are two covenants which God has made with His people : The Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

What is the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant?

The Old Covenant is the covenant which God made with His people, the children of Israel. This covenant is the Law, written on two tablets of stone and in the book of the law. If the people of God continue to live according to the Law, they will be blessed. But, if they break the Law, they will be cursed. The apostle Paul wrote about the Law, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” (Gal 3:10) and, “the man who does them shall live by them.”

(Gal 3:12) The New Covenant is the covenant which God made with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for the sake of His people. It is a covenant in which God deals with His people in a better way than in the Old Covenant. The writer of the book of Hebrews wrote, “by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.”  (Heb 7:22)  This better covenant is the New Covenant.

What makes the New Covenant better than the Old Covenant?

First, the New Covenant was established on better promises than those of the Old Covenant (Heb 8:6). What are these better promises? God will put His laws in the mind of His people and write them on their hearts; not on the tablets of stone and in the book anymore. And, He will be their God, and they shall be His people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Him, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For God will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds He will remember no more. (Heb 8:10-12) How does God put His laws in the mind of His people and write them on their hearts? How does all of His people know the Lord without being taught to know Him? By the Holy Spirit who is given in Christ to abide in them (Gal 3:14).

Second, in the New Covenant the surety of the promises is not based on the obedience of the people of God, but on the obedience of the Son of God, Jesus. That is not how it worked in the Old Covenant. In the Old Covenant, the surety of the promises was based on the obedience of God’s people. If they obeyed, they would receive the promises. If they did not obey, they would not receive the promises. In the New covenant, the surety of the promises is no longer in the obedience of God’s people, but in the name of Jesus, because He has obeyed. They will not receive the promises because they do. They will only receive them because of what Jesus did.

Scripture: I Corinthians 13:13

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

The apostle Paul wrote, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor 13:13) Faith, hope and love are the three most important things that we must keep in our lives as Christians. We must always believe, we must never lose hope and we must always live in love. Love is the greatest of the three because love abides forever.

Love, faith and hope are the works of the Triune God in our lives. God pours out His love in our hearts (Rom 5:5). Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith (Heb 12:2) and the Holy Spirit makes us abound in hope by His power (Rom 15:13). Just like God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are one; love, faith and love agree as one.

Love is greater than faith and hope because love is the source of faith and hope. The apostle Paul wrote, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.” (Gal 5:6) and “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Rom 5:5) Just like the sun produces light and heat, love produces faith and hope.

The apostle John wrote, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear.” (1 John 4:18) When we have love, we will have no fear in our lives. And when we have no fear, we will believe that all things are possible for us (1 Cor 13:7). If our love is not perfect, we will believe that some things are possible for us but some things are impossible for us. However, if our love is perfect, we will believe that nothing is impossible for us.

The apostle Paul wrote, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Rom 5:5) When we have the love of God in our heart, we will have hope and that hope will not disappoint us. We will have hope for things that we do not see and we will eagerly wait for it with perseverance because they will surely come to pass (Rom 8:25).

Love is the source of hope and faith. But, is there any relationship between hope and faith? In the book of Hebrews it is written that faith is the substance of things hoped for (Heb 11:1). To have faith, we must first have hope. We can only believe if we have a positive outlook of the future. Before we know that a certain thing will surely happen, we must first know that it is possible to happen.

We can see love, hope and faith in action in the following incident :

“When they (Jesus Peter, James and John) had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying,  “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me. And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.” (Mat 17:14-18)

A certain son an epileptic and was demon possessed. He did not feel love in his life. His father was in a hopeless situation because no one could cure him, including Jesus’ disciples. Jesus’ disciples had no faith to cure the epileptic although they had been given power to heal the sick and to cast out demons. So, it was a loveless, hopeless and faithless situation. Then Jesus came, showing love for the son, giving hope to his father and exercising faith to cast out the demon. He displayed all the three together in that situation.

What is Christianity? Is it a religion just like any other religion? Religion is man’s work to reach God. Christianity is not men’s work, but God’s work. It is God’s work to reach men. What God wants from men is a relationship with Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. That is true Christianity.

Everyone who is truly born again (a true believer) is justified by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God. He is saved from the punishment of sin. Besides, he is also sanctified by the Holy Spirit so that he can live a righteous and holy life. He is saved from the power of sin. Having been born again, this believer is called into the fellowship (relationship) of God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor 1:9). What is the purpose of this fellowship? To keep his sanctified life, to keep him from falling into sin. Even, if he falls into sin, he will be able to immediately repent from his sin.

However, if a believer continues to live in sin, he will lose his zeal for God. When he loses his zeal, he will stop having a relationship with God. He will still probably go to church, and even serve in the church, but he has moved into works; having a form of godliness but denying its power(2 Tim 3:5). What he has is no longer a relationship, but a religion.

To prevent a believer from moving into religion because of his continual sinning, first, he must know and believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross not only to save him from the punishment of sin but to set him free from the power of sin as well. The grace of the cross is the deliverance from sin as well as the forgiveness of sin. Second, he must understand that being a Christian does not mean that he cannot sin. He still can sin if he chooses to. Therefore, he must choose not to sin to experience the grace of deliverance from sin.

Scripture: John 14:6

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) The way, the truth and the life are the three stages of experiencing God. As we follow the way, we shall know the truth; and as we know the truth, we shall have life. The way to God is Jesus, the truth of God is Jesus and the life from God is Jesus.

Without Jesus we will never be able to come to God, have relationship with God and be like God. We will be lost, in error and dead. If we want to come to God, we must follow God’s way. If we want to have relationship with God, we must know God’s truth. If we want to be like God, we must have God’s life. Jesus is God’s way, God’s truth and God’s life.

The way, the truth and the life are the three stages of experiencing God. The way is coming to God and connecting with Him. The truth is having relationship with God and knowing Him. The life is having God’s nature and becoming like Him. We start by coming to God, then we have relationship with Him until we finally become like Him.

Before we can come to God, God must come to us first because we are lost. Jesus becoming a man is God coming to us. Before we can have relationship with God, God must justify us first because we are sinners. Jesus dying on the cross is God justifying us. Before we can become like God, God must give the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of life to us because we are dead. Jesus rising from the dead and ascending to heaven is God giving the Holy Spirit to us.

Jesus said, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luk 19:10) Because of sin we had turned aside from God’s way and were lost. We could not find the way back to God. So, Jesus came to seek us and when He had found us, He showed us the way back to God. He said, “Follow Me!” Jesus is the way.

Jesus said, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32) Because of sin we had erred from the truth and lived in the lies of the devil. Our lives were in bondage. As we followed Jesus and had relationship with Him, He showed us the truth and the truth made us free. Jesus is the truth.

Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) Because of sin we had been separated from God and were dead. We were perishing. When we knew the truth in our relationship with Jesus we were delivered from death and received eternal life. Having eternal does not only mean that we will be with Jesus forever, but it also means that we will be like Jesus forever. Jesus is the life.

Jesus as the way gives us direction to God so that we are not lost anymore, Jesus as the truth gives us freedom in God so that we are not in bondage to errors and lies anymore, and Jesus as the life gives us the nature of God so that we are not weak, powerless and dead anymore. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) Hallelujah!

Scriptures : Romans 14:17, 1 Corinthians 4:20

“For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17)

“For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.” (1 Corinthians 4:20)

If we want to experience the kingdom of heaven in our lives, then we should always pray the Lord’s prayer. However, when we pray the Lord’s prayer, we should not do it as a quick recitation but as the expression of our heart. We should pause from time to time to feel every word that we say and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the truths hidden in the Lord’s prayer to us.

Our experience of the kingdom of heaven through the Lord’s prayer depends on the revelation we have received from it. In the beginning, we may receive no or just a little revelation when we pray the Lord’s prayer. So, we don’t experience the kingdom of heaven much. But as we keep on praying the Lord’s prayer consistently, we shall begin to receive more revelations from it. As a result, the experience of the kingdom of heaven in our lives will increase.

As believers, we should pray the Lord’s prayer as often as possible, individually and together as a church. As we do that, the kingdom of God will become real inside us and in the midst of us.