Oct. 19 | Pentecost 19, 12 months C
Jer. 31:27-34 or Gen. 32:22-31
Ps. 119:97-104 or Ps. 121
2 Tim. 3:14-4:5
Luke 18:1-8
Our Bibles are divided into Previous and New Testaments, the tales of the folks of God in Israel and the folks of God within the Church. The division of the Bible is predicated on the testimonies of the folks of God to the 2 covenants by means of which God revealed his will over time. The dividing line between them is Jesus Christ.
On condition that God is identical yesterday, at the moment, and tomorrow, it’s odd that we regularly regard them as radically totally different. Maybe the results of the 2 covenants are extra radical than the covenants. We worship on totally different days of the week. Our liturgies are fairly totally different. The non secular holidays don’t repeatedly align on the calendar or by content material. Traditionally, we have now even turned to persecution. However that each one has nothing to say in regards to the covenants.
The covenants are the expression of God’s will for us. Since each are primarily based on his will, there isn’t a doctrinal distinction between the covenants. Particularly, they clarify the connection we’re to have with God. Within the Previous Testomony, we’re given the revelation of who God is and the way we’re to dwell as his folks. God’s will is conveyed to his folks by means of the exterior regulation.
Within the New Testomony, God’s will turns into out there to us as an inside precept of life. The Previous Testomony presents us with a regular by which we’re measured. As a result of it’s a matter of command and requirement, it’s a take a look at that, like a carpenter’s plumbline, measures us on a move/fail foundation. In contrast, the New Testomony is predicated on grace and giving. It’s not by our effort that we dwell as much as God’s will, however moderately our success is a present from God. Earlier than Christ, human beings have been accountable for making the precepts of the regulation the property of their hearts. With Christ and the sending of the Holy Spirit, God locations the regulation straight in believers’ hearts.
We want two covenants due to our existential downside. We have no idea get hold of the guarantees of God as sinners with out having a relationship with him. God addresses our downside by grace by means of an instrument of relationship. The covenants present the constructing blocks needed to revive our sin-broken relationship with him. The Previous Covenant, within the type of the Regulation given by means of Moses, revealed the character of God and delivered the human necessities for reconciliation. It demonstrated that the necessities essential to be in relationship with an ideal and holy God amounted to an unattainable customary for sinners.
The New Covenant acknowledges God’s nature and the impossibility of our reconciling ourselves to him. It offers the treatment, nonetheless, in Jesus Christ. He lived a sinless life, turned the right sacrifice for human sin, and gave us entry to God by means of the forgiveness of sin. On the cross he died to satisfy the curse for our sins, and thereby fulfilled the Regulation’s position in salvation. As well as, he supplied assist by means of the booster pictures of repentance and the Eucharist, in addition to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Not like the folks of Jeremiah’s time, we have now seen God’s plan unfold in historical past. We don’t have to be taught about God’s plan of salvation by prophets and monks as a result of it has already been performed out. We learn about Divine grace primarily based on the inward expertise of the center—the reassurance of the Holy Spirit.
Look It Up: Psalm 119:102-104
Assume About It: God affords himself as our Mentor and Grasp within the artwork of dwelling.
The Rev. Dr. Chuck Alley, former rector of St. Matthew’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, teaches anatomy at Virginia Commonwealth College Medical College.
