Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at The New Covenant P3 (05-31-21)
Synopsis
The book of Hebrews, particularly chapters 7-10, explains this New Covenant, as the scriptures testify in 2 Corinthians 3:6, that we are made ministers of. The New Testament is the testament, covenant, or will that God replaced the Old Covenant with because the old one could make no one perfect, because it was weak and useless. The problem was not with the law, being holy, right and good, but with us, because we could not keep it. Under an Old Covenant, the man who sins shall surely die. Under the New Covenant, the man who believes shall surely live. The belief is in a person who can fulfill the law for us and did, and that person is Jesus Christ.
Jesus did something for us we could never do. He fulfilled the just requirements of the law for us, paid the punishment of death for sin for us in full, and then was raised to new life, to give us His resurrected life to be received as a gift. So then He was able to set aside the Old Covenant of the law of sin and death in order to usher in a New Covenant of grace, of liberty in Christ Jesus. How? Through His death, burial and resurrection for me. In summary, God made me a forgiven, complete, perfect and holy person. I did not deserve it. I cannot earn it. I just step back and say, “Thank you, Jesus.” It is all of Him and none of me.
Under the old, we are told we must keep all of the law, with the ten commandments and all its associated rules and regulations. But we cannot keep it. And if you fail to keep it, you shall surely die, for if you fail at just one point, according to James (James 2:10), you are guilty of breaking all of it. Only perfection will do. Only Jesus could fulfill the requirements of the Old Covenant, and He did. How? By living in love, in who He is, for God is love, where love does His neighbor no wrong and love is the fulfillment of the law.
As you read Hebrews, you will read more details about this contrast between the Old Covenant that you read about in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. As you read Romans, you will read about the problem of mankind, that he is dead in sin, a wretched man, continuing to do things he hates to do and failing to do the things he ought to do, and the conclusion of the matter, which is thanks be to God through Jesus Christ my Lord. As you read Galatians, you will read about the problem the apostle Paul addressed to the people in Galatia, trying to commingle law and grace, an impossibility.
So what do people today fail to understand? What do people fail to understand about this new life God has given, this New Covenant God has allowed us to be under when we become born again, made into a new creation in Christ Jesus?
People fail to understand that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Yet, scripture tells us that in Romans 8. Every time you sin, do you think there is condemnation? If you do then you have not grabbed a hold of truth that there is now no condemnation? The bible tells you that there is no condemnation. The preacher tells you there is condemnation. Which one are you going to believe?
The biggest mistake people make is not realizing that the New Covenant went into effect, not at the birth of Christ, but at the death of Christ. So when people read things in the gospels, in Matthew, Mark Luke or John, such as that if you do not forgive a brother when he sins against you, neither will God forgive you, they misapply it, thinking it is spoken to you under a New Covenant. Jesus had not yet died to usher in the New Covenant. It is necessary, as Hebrews explains, to prove the death of a person before a will, a new covenant will, goes into effect. Jesus lived under an Old Covenant that had not yet been replaced, and so He spoke under that framework, but also spoke, at times, of the new one to come. So scripture must be understood in the context in which it was written.
Without that context, without understanding the New Covenant we are under today, preachers today will often commingle law and grace, as in the teaching of the tithe for today. They will often quote that Abraham tithed to Melchizedek and, therefore, if it was good enough for him then it should be good enough for us. Yet, Abraham also believed in circumcision, yet somehow that is not also preached as something to be done for today. There is an inconsistency even with their logic.
Also, Malachi will also be quoted out of its context as justification for tithing for today. But upon reading Malachi in its context, it is written to the descendants of Jacob. Are you a descendant of Jacob? Are you under a Levitical priesthood today? No, that system no longer exists, of sacrificing bulls and goats to cover sin. With the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70, there is not even a temple any more for such sacrifices. But more importantly, as you read in Hebrews, Jesus shed His blood, once and for all, and will never shed His blood again, in order to take away, not cover sin, but take them away forever from the eyes of God, never to be remembered any more.
So without a proper understanding of what the New Covenant of grace is, which is closely tied to what Jesus accomplished by His death, burial and resurrection for us, error abounds in modern Christendom, whether Catholic, Protestant or Jewish or any other myriad of denominations out there. People are placed under the law, under guilt trips to tithe, that if you do this God will bless you and if you do not, God will not. People are told to go to a confessional booth to get their sins forgiven. People are told salvation is getting your sins forgiven rather than salvation being the receiving of new life in Christ Jesus.
Forgiveness of sins has already been done, once and for all, not by a continual so-called unbloody sacrifice of a mass, whereby someone supposedly receives Christ Jesus in a wafer. People are told to keep short accounts with God, from an improper understanding and application of 1 John 1:9, out of context. The Jews want to go back to the day of atonement, as the apostle John addressed, in the book of 1 John. People are told to confess their sins to God, making a mockery of the cross, of what Jesus said when He cried out on the cross, “It is finished”, meaning “Paid in full”
There is no longer a continual sacrifice of bulls and goats, requiring blood, or any sacrifice, whether bloody or not. For as scripture says, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Jesus already shed His blood and He will not do it again. His sacrifice is all sufficient, called propitiation, completely satisfying the wrath of God against all sin, by the sacrifice of the perfect Son of God. There is no longer any repeat or continual ongoing sacrifice necessary. Atonement, under an Old Covenant, required the continual shedding the blood of animals, and that only covered sin, until the next time man sins. Even that system was only to last until the time of Christ. Propitiation, under a New Covenant, took away sins, once, not twice or multiple times, but once, and for all mankind, by the shed blood of the perfect and eternal Son of God, Christ Jesus.
What is the meaning of His death, burial and resurrection for you? Jesus shed His blood for the sins of the entire world, once and for all, for all mankind, never to shed again. He did this as a necessary preparation, to set aside the old system, for if we are still under that system, the next time we sin we would die. His burial proved His death so that a new will could be ushered in. That new will is the New Covenant He made with mankind, as explained in Hebrews. He fulfilled the just requirements of the law for us, death for sins, and perfectly fulfilled the law by love, in order to set aside that impossible old system, by which no man could ever be made right before God. He imputed to us His righteousness, His perfection, to us, to be received by faith, which He offers to us, because He has risen from the dead for us. Are you in Him? Have you received new spiritual life, His resurrected life, so you can be set apart, made holy, made perfect forever in the sight of God, by His works on your behalf? Under a New Covenant, you have the very life of God living in you. You now have the ability to participate in the divine nature, of allowing Him to live His life in and through you, to continue in the same faith that allowed you to be made into a new creation, a child of God.
Transcript
We started this study of the New Covenant. It is one of those deals that I personally have never heard come from the pulpit, a dissertation on the book of Hebrews in regard to this New Covenant in which we live today. It is the most important subject in the scriptures to realize that God has now accomplished through Christ Jesus, the completeness of the Old Covenant, which was the covenant of law, the covenant of law in which man could not keep, but a covenant of law which one man, Christ Jesus did keep. He walked in perfect love and, therefore, was the fulfilment of the law. Having fulfilled the law by His life, He was now in a position of ushering in a New Covenant, a covenant of grace, a totally different covenant altogether.
Hebrews 8:13
13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.
Hebrews 7:18-19
18 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 19 (for the law made nothing perfect)
Why was the law given to us by God, the ten commandments and all of the law? Weak and useless is how the author of Hebrews described it. Why? Because it could not make anything complete, or perfect. Only a perfect person is going to go into the presence of a perfect God. God had to intervene, and do for us what we were totally incapable of doing on our own through the law, which we just read that could make nothing perfect.
Hebrews 7:19
and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
God, in essence, is saying this. “I am not going to give up. I am going to introduce a better hope to enable you, man, to draw near to God.” This new hope was not without an oath.
Hebrews 7:20-21
20 And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, 21 but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him:“The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You [Jesus] are a priest forever [not temporal].’”[Psalm 110:4]
Scripture tells us that such priests cannot continue in office. Death does that to you. It prohibits you from continuing in office. But this priest lives forever.
Hebrews 7:23-24
22 Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant.23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood.
He is the guarantor of a better covenant because He is an everlasting eternal priest. A new hope was introduced. Under the law, the law was given to man. Here is the law, so keep it. A priestly system had to be put into effect to deal with man stealing from God in violation of the law. That is the reason we have priests, to represent man to God in the midst of his sins, to provide sacrifice for sins.
Hebrews 9:22
22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
That was all a part of the priestly duties. He is saying that duty is over. We have a better sacrifice. We have a new priest. It is not Levi. It is Christ Jesus. Under the Old Covenant, it is over and done. Man, you could not keep it. Paul wrapped up this whole deal in Romans 7 when it deals with the law in its entirety and its fullness. Here is the conclusion you come to. When you have been under the law your whole life, here is the conclusion you come to.
Romans 7:14-20
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
The things I want to do I do not do. The things I do not want to do, these I do anyway. If I do not do what I want to do then sin has a grasp on me. Sin living in me is the problem. His only solution to that sin issue was then carried out, as we read later.
Romans 7:24-25
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Wretched man that I am. There is a time in life that man has to recognize his condition of wretchedness before he is ever going to appreciate his new position of holiness. Who will get me out from underneath this law, that the man who sins shall surely die. As long as that law is in existence, that a man who sins shall surely die, I am under a continual ongoing death sentence.
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
That is precisely why Jesus announced, “I came that you might have life.”
John 10:10b
10 I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
What do you need life for? Because you are dead. What kind of life was He talking about? Physical life? No. Spiritual life. You were born dead in Adam, dead spiritually. You had nothing to do with it. You were born that way. When people talk about sins, that they were born that way, that is one thing you can count on. You were born a sinner and you were born under the consequence of sin called death. But the gift of God is life, eternal life, that is spiritual life available to us.
So under the Old Covenant, man was under that covenant that ultimately Paul identified in Romans 7, as the things I do not want to do, I do anyway. Wretched man that I am. Who will free me from this bondage of sin and death? The answer back was thanks be to God through Jesus Christ my Lord. He has set me free.
Romans 8:1
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
There is now no condemnation. Do you know that? Or, are you still living under the condemnation of sin? Every time you sin, do you think there is condemnation? If you do then you have not grabbed a hold of truth that there is now no condemnation? The bible tells you that there is no condemnation. The preacher tells you there is condemnation. Which one are you going to believe? God says there is now no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus. Why?
Romans 8:2-4
2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Weakened by my sinful nature, God did for me what I could never do. He did it all. No condemnation. Grab a hold of that. This is New Covenant. That is not the Old Covenant. Under an Old Covenant, the man who sins shall surely die. Under the New Covenant, man who believes shall surely live. Which one are you under? Or, are you under both? Are you straddling down the fence at the same time? If so, the only person who does that is a drunk. So you are called a double-minded person, unstable in all ways. That is a description of much of Christianity today. Why? Trying to live under both covenants at the same time.
When something is replaced, it is obsolete and must soon disappear. What does that mean? It is no longer effective. It has to age. It must disappear. To a Jew under a sacrificial system, it is saying that this sacrificial system is no longer in existence. It has been replaced by a New Covenant of grace, which took place by one living sacrifice, not by multitude animal sacrifices, which could never take away sins. To cover sin, yes. To take it away? No.
So the Old Testament must become obsolete to you. You must recognize it as no longer applicable. It is no longer something to flow. It is no longer something to teach. It has to age. Let it disappear. When something disappears, it means it is no longer there any more. It is gone. That is what he is saying. Let it disappear.
You are saying, “Bob, you are going to let the law disappear?” Absolutely. “Why?”
2 Corinthians 3:6
6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Why does it say that we have been called to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the old that kills, but of the new that gives life? He would not say that if he wants us to hold onto both the old and the new.
The Old Covenant of law is still applicable to the lost. To the lost, man is still under the death penalty. Under the New Covenant, you have been freed from the death penalty and you have been freed by the consequence of the resurrected life. Now, leave the old behind and let it disappear.
I do not know about you, but that is good news to me. We have to understand the good news of that, but what people do is hold onto both. That is commingling the two. Paul addressed the Galatians as foolish for doing so.
Galatians 3:1-3
1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?
Did you come alive spiritually by obeying the law or by believing what you heard? What is the answer to that? I became born again by believing what I heard. So why are you trying to perfect yourself with human effort? Did you start by faith and are now trying to perfect yourself by human effort. That cannot be done.
Colossians 2:6
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him
How did you receive Him? By faith. How do I walk in Him? By faith. How do I remain in Him? By faith. The whole thing from that point on is by faith.
Hebrews 11:6
6 And without faith it is impossible to please God
Because there is a total misunderstanding of the old and the new, of letting go of the old and letting it disappear, people have gone over and played spiritual hopscotch through the Old Testament and pulled out passages that are applicable to our building campaign and teach tithing. Tithing is not New Covenant teaching. Tithing is in the Old Covenant in support of the Levitical priesthood. Preachers go back and talk about Abraham, “If good enough for Abraham, then good enough for me.” Abraham taught circumcision and I do not hear much talk about circumcision coming out of the pulpits today. That is nonsensical teaching. You are no longer under the law. You are under grace. It is called the grace of giving, not the law of tithing. It is called the grace of giving. People do not like that. Why? Because if you never trusted Jesus with your life, how are you going to trust Jesus with your life? If I function best with guilt, I guess you function best by guilt. So I am sure to keep the guilt on you. With that thinking, that is what I do, I keep you under a guilt trip, saying, “If you give, God will bless.” The truth is God has already blessed.
2 Peter 1:3 (NASB)
3 for His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
If that is a true statement, and I assume if you believe the bible, then you believe that is a true statement, then how is God going to bless if He has already given you everything you need for life and godliness? It appears to me He is going to do all the blessings He is going to do. But people say, “No. No. If you give, God will bless, and if you do not, He won’t.”
A couple that visited us from Phoenix, AZ, as a relatively new Christian, got involved in a legalistic church. They used to meet on Wednesdays. They had their Sunday service and met in homes on Wednesday. Wednesday, he said, was the day you brought your tithe. You had to bring your tithe on Wednesday to be ready for Sunday. When you get in your small group, because that is where you have to be accountable. Where is your tithe? So you bring your tithe and they present that on Sunday.
For one week, the people responsible for collection had been slow. He showed up on Wednesday and said, “I do not have my tithe today, but I will show up this Sunday.” They said, “Can you borrow the money?” “No, but I will have it by Sunday.” “Can you put it on a credit card? Can you write a check that will not go into effect until next week.” “No. I will have the money on Sunday.” That was not good enough.
Ultimately, it goes back to the leader of the church. Are you telling me that I do not have my tithe ready on Wednesday and so I am not welcome in this church? He said that is exactly what he was telling me. So you better have another place to go. Thank God he got out of there and found another place.
2 Corinthians 9:7
7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
All that is, in that place, is legalistic gobbly-gook. The bible tells us to give freely, joyfully, to be a hilarious giver, as someone who loves to give, in accordance with what you do have, not in accordance with what you do not have. Do not borrow in order to tithe. You give in accordance with what you do have. If I never trusted God with that, I do not know what it is talking about.
2 Corinthians 8:12
12 For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.
We just recently, after six years, paid off a two million dollar building. Did we ever tell people to tithe? No. Never did. Did we ever manipulate people? No. What did we tell people? We had people who used to give $30,0000 / year and had to quit giving. What did we say? Somebody else will make that up. Thank you for the years you were able to give to us. We appreciate that a bunch, out of the bottom of our heart. We never manipulated people and the building was paid off. How? By trusting the Lord. That is what He wants us to do, to trust Him. If I can trust God with my life, why can’t I trust God with our ministry.
You do not have to do that. People just do not know you do not have to do it. People have neve been taught how to depend on the living Christ who lives in them.
John 5:19
19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
John 8:28
28 So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.
Jesus, in essence said, “I do not do anything unless the Father tells me to do it. I live in total dependency upon my Father. I only say what He tells me to say. As the Father sends me, so I send you. Go and do likewise.”
John 20:21
21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
He wants us to learn how to walk by faith. You cannot walk by faith when you are walking under the law. Law is performance. So Jesus ushered in a New Covenant. He became a guarantee of a better covenant. He did so with a better sacrifice. It talks about the sacrifices of the Old Covenant. They were sacrifices that had to be repeated endlessly year after year.
Hebrews 10:1-4
1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming – not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. 4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
There is a difference between taking away and covering sin. Atonement was a covering for sin. People use atonement in regard to Jesus’ sacrifice. That is an insult to the blood of Jesus. He did not come to atone for sin. He came to take it away. The blood of bulls and goats atoned for sin. The blood of Jesus took it away. Two different things. One is atonement, a covering. The other is propitiation.
Why do people put them in the same category? In our minds, we see it as the same thing. You kill the blood of a bull and a goat to cover sin. So a person incorrectly thinks, “Jesus died for it and He covered sin and so the next time He dies again. He covers sin. The next time we sin, He dies again.” That is an erroneous mindset. That is the opposite of what He really did. It is finished. It is final. It is over.
Hebrews 10:5-10
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. 7 Then I said, ‘Here I am – it is written about me in the scroll – I have come to do your will, my God.’”[Psalm 40:6-8]
8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” – though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
That 1 John 1:9, confessional booths and sacrificial systems, God did not desire those things, for they could never take away sin.
Hebrews 10:9
9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second.
What is the first? The Old Covenant. That covenant is now obsolete and aging and is supposed to disappear. He sets it aside. How? By this will, by this New Covenant. A covenant, a will and a testament are all inter-changeable words. You have a new testament. You have an old testament. You have a new will. You have an old will. You have a new covenant. You have an old covenant. When does a will go into effect? When you die. The biggest mistake people make is not realizing that the New Covenant went into effect, not at the birth of Christ, but at the death of Christ.
Hebrews 9:16-18
16 In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, 17 because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. 18 This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood.
Jesus taught under the law. In regard to tithing, Jesus blessed those who tithed. When Jesus was here, he was still under the Levitical priesthood. Under the Levitical priesthood, in order to support them, you have to tithe food stuff. But when He died, He ushered in a New Covenant of grace, whereby giving and living are by a totally different way altogether.
Hebrews 10:9-10
9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
How many of you know right now that in the sight of God that you are holy, that you have been set apart? How many of you know right now that you are as holy as the apostle Paul was? How many of you know right now, that in the sight of God you are as holy as the living Christ? “Come on Bob, that is presumption.” “No, that is truth.” Who made you holy? Jesus. So how holy are you? As holy as the one who made me holy. Is that as holy as the apostle Paul? Yes, for He is the one who made the apostle Paul holy. How about Jesus? Who made Jesus holy? The Father. Who made you holy? The same one. How holy are you? As set apart as God Himself. Do you believe that, folks, or are you out trying to improve upon what He has already accomplished for you?
That is what religion is, saying “No, it is not finished, Bob. We are not under the New Covenant. We are still under the Old Covenant. Get busy. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. We have to do something for God.” Under the New Covenant system, Jesus has already done everything for God. The only thing Jesus is asking of you is to walk by faith that expresses itself through love.
Galatians 5:6
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Hebrews 11:6
6 And without faith it is impossible to please God
We have been made holy. What do you do with that? You are always in it. “Thank you, Lord. I could not set myself apart. You had to do it for me.” Why? “Because the things I wanted to do I did not do and the things I did not want to do I did them anyway. I came to realize what a wretched man I am. Who will free me from this bondage of sin and death? You came along. Thanks be to God, and you did it all. I put my faith in you and I thank you.”
Hebrews 10:11
11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties;
Why does he stand? Because it was prohibited to have a piece of furniture in the temple. He stands because his work was never done.
Hebrews 10:11-12
again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
What did we read in Hebrews 10:1-4? Sacrifices are a reminder of sin. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Hebrews 10:12
12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
By one sacrifice, not two, He, Jesus, sat down. Why did He sit down? His work was over. A chair was a prohibited piece of furniture. He sat down. Why? It is finished. What did He cry out on the cross? It is finished. What does it mean? Sins were paid in full. There is no other payment attributable to man. He did it all.
John 19:30
30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Hebrews 10:13-14
13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
Not only did Jesus do it all, but since that time, when Jesus went to the cross and took away the sins of the world, from this very day to today, He waits for His enemies to be made His footstool. Why? By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who have been made holy.
We talked about how we have been made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus. Now, we are talking about the fact He has made us complete. How did He make us complete, where we have been told He had given us everything we need for life and godliness? Have I been given everything I need for life and godliness? Yes. Then, I have been made complete. I have been set apart from the world. I have a new heart and a new soul. I am a new creation.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
I am now under the New Covenant. It is called a covenant of grace. It is a covenant of finality. It is a reality of finality. The reality is that God made me a forgiven, complete, perfect and holy person. I did not deserve it. I cannot earn it. I just step back and say, “Thank you, Jesus.”
