(Back to Home)

Try to sit quietly for 40 seconds.

Now, imagine 400 years of silence when God didn’t speak to His people. No prophets or personal visits from God occurred. Just silence. Well, just before God went silent, He promised through the prophet Jeremiah to establish a new agreement or covenant with His prodigal people.

It consisted of three promises that God would fulfill through a future redeemer who would buy back His prized creation. 1. He promised to make Himself known to them in an up close, personal way. He’s a God you can know and believe in personally. 2. God promised to forgive their sins permanently. He’s a God you can turn to with your moral messes.

3. God promised to direct their lives by writing His principles on their heart, rather than on stone tablets. He’s a God who orchestrates your obedience. This future agreement would be directed at the hearts of people and their personal relationship with God. It was a covenant based on God’s grace and not on rules, laws and performance. It was all about God’s brand new way of relating to us individually, not as a people or nation.

People in that day had no clue what Jeremiah was talking about, nor were they really interested. But when Jesus showed up 600 years later, He reintroduced this agreement and explained how He would be the fulfillment of it and the implementer of it.

1. God promised to make Himself known, so He sent His very only Son—the perfect God/man into the world—God with skin on—to reveal God’s character. Jesus said in John 14:7, "'If you had known who I [Jesus] am, then you would have known who my Father is. From now on you know him and have seen him!'"

2. God promised to forgive sin permanently. So He sent His Son into the world to save us, not condemn us. 1 John 2:2 says, "He [Jesus] is the sacrifice for our sins. He takes away not only our sins but the sins of all the world."

3. God also promised to guide people to truth through an internal compass. He fulfilled this promise by sending God, the Holy Spirit, to indwell Christ followers who had experienced God’s forgiveness through Christ. Jesus said in John 14:16–17, "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth."

God made a covenant—an agreement—2,600 years ago, promising to make Himself known to you; to forgive your moral messes; and to guide you to His truth. He is a God you can know and believe in; turn to when your life is a mess; and depend on for moral decisions. And it’s all based on a promise God made to His prophet Jeremiah and fulfilled through His Son, Jesus.

Who would have guessed that God would show up after being silent for 400 years and that He would show up in an obscure stable in Bethlehem as a Jewish baby who was named Jesus, which means "the Lord saves." For 30 years, He was a tiny blip on the radar screen—just the kid of an ordinary carpenter. That is until John the Baptist, the last of the prophets, introduced Jesus one day: John 1:29 says, "'Look! There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!'"

Following that introduction, Jesus launched His public ministry, teaching and performing miracles throughout the land of Israel. It was His words and works that proved that He was more than a prophet or religious leader, but the Son of God—Immanuel, God with us.

Remember back to the promise God made to King David that someone from His family tree would be king forever? Guess what? That promise was fulfilled in Jesus as well. Listen to the question Pilate, the governor of Israel asked Jesus before His crucifixion. "Are you the King of the Jews?" the governor asked Him. Jesus replied, "Yes, it is as you say."

What a fascinating picture! John the Baptist called Jesus the Lamb of God. Pilate called Him a king. You can imagine how these two pictures created real confusion for the people as Jesus explained how His ascension to king would not be the normal path that kings take. Instead, He’d die like a slaughtered lamb before being exalted to a king. Over and over again Jesus tried to explain that the road to His kingdom was through a cross, not a crown.

Of course everyone ignored the lamb part. They wanted a king who would rid them of their physical oppressor—the Romans—so God’s kingdom could be established forever on earth. What they didn’t understand was that the greatest problem or inhibitor to God establishing His kingdom on earth was not Rome, but their sinful hearts. The people of earth had racked up such a moral debt against God they had no chance on their own to earn a right standing with God.

Even God’s Old Testament sacrificial system—where animals were killed on a repetitive basis to remind the people that sin had become a barrier between them and God—wasn’t enough to fix the problem on a permanent basis. Eventually, God decided to step in and make a once-for-all-debt repayment for sin. He did so through His Son.

So on the night before Jesus’ death, He gathered His closest followers together for a meal. It happened to be the night before the people celebrated Passover. Etched in His followers' minds was the picture of a spotless lamb being sacrificed in Moses day, so the blood could be painted on the doorposts in Egypt to provide them protection when the death angel passed over.

At the meal, Jesus gave new significance to Passover by identifying Himself as the spotless lamb that would take away the sins of the world once for all. He took bread and wine and gave new meaning to it by integrating the Passover with the new covenant.

Luke 22:19-20 says, "And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.'"

People had wondered since Jeremiah’s day about how God was going to forgive people of their sins permanently. Jesus explained to them that through His death on the cross, this new agreement or covenant would be established forever. The next day Jesus was hung on a cruel Roman cross to die—giving Himself willingly as the once for all payment for our sins.

As Jesus hung on the cross, He invited everyone to accept His payment for their sins. By doing so, their new relationship with God would be based on a payment rather than their performance. Jesus’ death became the basis for a right relationship with God, not some treadmill of performance or good works. Romans 3:25 says, "For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God's anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us."

That’s the message of the new covenant. The spotless Lamb of God gave His life on the cross to pay your moral debt. All you have to do is to place your trust in Jesus as your Savior, and God will apply Jesus’ payment to your moral account and make you right with Him.

Here’s what happens when you trust Christ as your Savior and experience the benefits of the God’s new agreement or covenant with us. Colossians 1:21-22 says "You who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now he has brought you back as his friends. He has done this through his death on the cross in his own human body. As a result, he has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault."

How incredible is that if you have trusted Jesus as your Savior? I know if you did pastor cam on me, you’d find that I still cause my share of moral messes. Ask me about my four trips to Lowe’s for a couple of window shades. My demeanor was less than stellar. Or check with me about my battle with the new answering/fax machine at home. Yet in spite of my moral screw-ups, God sees me as holy and blameless because of my relationship to Christ.

The new covenant is all about payment, not performance. Do you believe that? If you are a Christ follower, God sees you as holy and blameless. Your picture is next to Jesus’ picture and His stats are your stats and your value in God’s eyes is sky high.

Maybe you’re a pre-Christian. You’re investigating Christianity. Let me say, it’s impossible to get right with God based on your performance or stats. Your stats aren’t good enough. The problem is not your good or bad deeds. It’s your debt to God that’s too great for you to repay.

Imagine for a moment you have a $15,000 credit card debt. One day the credit card company calls and says, "Your total balance is due."

You respond by promising to treat your kids better, to stop smoking and drinking, and to start attending church. You’re even going to stop cheating on your income taxes. The operator responds, "Listen, that’s very noble of you, but I’m not interested in your lifestyle changes. I need your $15,000 payment."

You see, a change of lifestyle isn’t going to fix your debt problem. If you are here today and you haven’t trusted Jesus as your Savior, the issue is about payment, not performance.

You need to respond to God this way: "God, I admit I have accumulated a moral sin debt with you that I can’t repay. Right now, I trust in Jesus and His death as the payment for my sin debt so I can be made right with you." If you are a Christ follower, God’s no longer your enemy. He’s your friend and you stand before Him holy, blameless and without fault.