THREE LAWS
Part two of three devotions in God’s Covenant of Grace series
Hebrews
8:10: “This is the [new] covenant I will
make with Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their minds and write
them on their hearts. I will be their
God, and they will be My people.”
God
created people in His own image so He could have a relationship with us.
Had
there been nothing wrong with God’s first covenant, there would be no need to
replace it with a new covenant. A
covenant [COV-en-ant] is an agreement.
It’s a promise of “I’ll do this if you do that.” God still wanted to be their God even after
people refused to obey Him.
We
know that we STILL cannot obey God’s laws perfectly, even if they are written
on our hearts and put inside our minds.
And so does our heavenly Father.
The laws He writes on our hearts and puts in our minds are not the Ten
Commandments. He saw to what extent people
go to dodge safe living under His divine protection.
Soooo,
the Father sent His Son Jesus to redeem people.
Jesus’ birth, earthly ministry, suffering, horrific death and subsequent
resurrection proves—to what extreme measure—that our heavenly Father goes for
that personal relationship with His people.
His
new covenant of grace has only three laws.
The
laws in God’s new covenant of grace are:
1) the royal law of love, 2) the perfect law of liberty and 3) the law
of faith. Jesus taught the royal law of
love in Matthew 22:37, 40:
“Love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all our soul and with all your mind. …And the second is like it:
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
The
perfect law of liberty is found in James 1:25, and paraphrased here: Anyone who believes in Jesus, follows His
teachings to live righteously by the power of the indwelt Holy Spirit. This person is blessed in all he does. Righteous living demonstrates Christian
truths, based on Old Testament morality (honor, virtue)—and rooted in the Ten Commandments—all
of which were fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Unbeliever
are slaves to sin. Their afterlife is
eternal death. But Believers in Christ live
in joyous freedom. We’re sure of eternal
life. We cooperate with God’s Spirit to
grow into people we were created to be.
Take Home Nugget
The law of faith is found in Romans
3:27-28 and summed up here. Apostle Paul
declares that God justifies (or claims) as His whoever comes to Him through
faith in His Son Jesus. See the lesson
linked below for greater detail.
“For we maintain that a man is
justified by faith, apart from observing the law.”
Adapted from “Life Under the
New Covenant” from Joseph Prince. www.josephprinceministries@josephprince.org. October 05,
2015.
J.D. Griffith
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