October 21st Reflection - Covenant - by Bill Lynch

Jeremiah 31:31-34
A New Covenant

 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Reflection
A covenant is the way that God will save and preserve us for himself. God makes a promise to his people. God promises to save us in a new way. Looking back from the New Testament, we know of this new covenant. We know of Jesus. We know of the graceful salvation that God planned for all people. We know and see Jesus even in today's history, we know that Jesus came and lived and died for all people so that God could save us from sin, death and the devil. We know that new life is present in Jesus. We know that Jesus has brought the world together and we know how he proclaimed this new covenant. Jesus lived this new covenant. Jesus fulfilled this new covenant.

The old covenant was broken by the people. The people turned from the covenant and could not uphold their end of the agreement. The new covenant cannot be broken. Jesus has fulfilled and upheld the agreement for us and in place of us. God in Jesus kept his part of the agreement and our part of the agreement as well. The new covenant cannot be broken.

So, what about today? In the old covenant we had the law. We break the law. In the new covenant the law is written upon our hearts. We know that we break the law. However, the law is fulfilled in the flesh of Jesus. The law is our inner being, changed and moved by God to be what God desires for us to be. God is changing us through the law and through the grace of Jesus action in our place.

In the old covenant, access to God was through the priest. In the new covenant we all have access to God. Jesus is our God. Jesus is flesh. Jesus is our access to God. Through Jesus' actions we now go directly to God and God comes directly to us. God comes to us in the intimacy of a personal relationship. God comes to us in the corporate relationship of all the disciples. God comes to us and changes us, one and all, to what God desires. We don't need to find God or seek God through the priest. God comes to us in the flesh of Jesus and God comes to us in the spirit of the Holy Spirit. God comes to us.

In God's coming to us we receive forgiveness. Forgiveness of our sin. We receive the victory that Jesus has won for each and for all. Victory over sin, death and the devil. We receive the victory not because we uphold the law but rather because God has upheld the law through the flesh and spirit of Jesus.

Prayer
Lord, thank you for the old and the new covenant. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for opening my heart and writing your will and your way upon it. Thank you for coming. Lord, thank you... today... tomorrow... and forever. --- Amen