Time and again throughout the Bible, we have been shown that we have a merciful God who has continually forgiven us and given us grace in the midst of mountains of sin. From the Old Testament to the New Testament, God is unchanging and steadfast in His love for His people. We see in the Old Testament, He is continually trying to provide new opportunities for the people of Israel to redeem themselves, and show their love for God. The people always fall short of the glory of God and fall into deep sin. He shows the people of Israel His deep commitment to them through each of the covenants, Abrahamic, Mosaic and Davidic, which come together to be called the Old Covenant.  The Old Covenant required Israelites to obey the Law (Deut 28) and in return God would protect and bless them (Deut 30:15-18). God unconditionally promised land, lineage, and a future world wide blessing, which is the prophesy of Jesus. In the New Testament we see a change in the narrative, where our Heavenly Father has decided to take it upon Himself to forgive His children of all of their horrendous deeds by sacrificing Himself, through His Son,  Jesus Christ. The sacrificial death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus becomes our New Covenant, a worldwide blessing to all who believe in the Savior of our sins, Jesus, who asks us to follow Him and love all of God’s people. People are now no longer expected to somehow live up to the glory of God, but are instead called to walk like Jesus, the Son of God, living a sacrificial life for the glory of a Heavenly Father who deeply loves us. 

Our God is a Creator and the grand Designer of all we know and see around us every day. He designed each of us and the world around us and has intention for each of us as unique individuals (Gen 1-2). God calls us to be a Holy people from day one, through the end of time, and the Bible is God’s grand design to show us how and why. Adam and Eve start us all off with their fall from God, by thinking they know better than Him, acting in rebellion, and sin enters the world (Gen 3). The continual downfall of people has officially begun for God’s children, we see throughout the first five books of the Bible people chasing God, and falling from God in cycle continually repeated. The world of the Old Testament became so deep in sin and idol worship God brought about the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants to show His people He was present, invested, and would bring wrath to those who disobeyed His commands. Despite the insane amount of sin, God wanted to redeem His people. The Mosaic covenant refers to the 10 commandments Moses was given, and with this God would either bless or curse the people based on their adherence to the Law. He wanted to give His people a choice to love Him and follow Him. With the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants, God was pouring blessing upon the nation of Israel, without asking anything of them. He promised them permanent fruitful land, plentiful lineage of people, and an eternal blessing. Yet none of these covenants were enough to satisfy God or make the people of Israel righteous in the eyes of God. Israel and Judah had fallen so far, that they lost the blessings of the Mosaic covenant and lost the presence of God. God foreknew this, because in the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants He continually promised this worldwide, eternal blessing. God knew His people could never measure up, so we see prophets of the Old Testament speaking of the coming of a Messiah, a Savior, a son of David, someone who will redeem the people of God before His eyes. 

Jeremiah was a prophet of the Old Testament and lived through the downfall of Israel. In 31:1-39 Jeremiah tells us of God redeeming His people, loving His people, rebuilding His people, staying faithful to His people, and all of His people will be one people again under His name. Jeremiah goes on to speak of the New Covenant, how it will be like no other, because the Old Covenant is broken by the people continuously, but the New Covenant can not be broken by anyone. The New Covenant is an everlasting and eternal covenant that will be written on the heart of every person. God declares that every person will know Him and will be forgiven of their sin for all time. Jeremiah is given this word by a Heavenly Father who loves every single one of His people, that He is willing to sacrifice Himself for us. 

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares 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. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Jeremiah 31:31-34

The covenant is said to be written on our hearts, and that a Messiah is coming, and we will be saved from ourselves, our flesh. We will have the opportunity to once again have eternal life and close relationship with the Father like we were originally created to be. Here enters the New Testament and the one and only Son of God, Jesus, who chooses to die so that we may have eternal life and relation with our Father. God created Adam and Eve to be in community with people, His creation, made in the likeness of Him. He wanted to enjoy His creation in a very unique and special way, that is why after creating everything else on earth, God decided He needed people. His creation of earth and all that filled it was not complete without us and when we fell from God into sin, He once again felt  His creation was imperfect and incomplete. God painted an artwork of beauty and ashes throughout the Old Testament to provide proof that He has been with us even in our darkest shame and horror, but still wants us to step into the light with Him. The only way for us to rise to to the perfection of God, the perfection in which He created each of us, so we could stand in the light with Him, is to have His Son die in sinless sacrificial perfection at the hands of His people. God brought Himself to the lowest of all low to show just how humble He is and how perfect He is before His people. God allowed Jesus to die, Jesus allowed Himself to be murdered by the people He so desperately loves. Jesus comes into the world in the complete and perfect image of God. While here for a short thirty two years, He lived a completely sinless life and died at the hands of sinners. While here, Jesus preached the word of God, told the world He was the Son of God, performed miracles, and discipled twelve men who would later spread the Good News after Jesus’ death. Jesus made a massive impact on the Jewish and Gentile community, some believed He was the prophesied Messiah, others say He was a liar and that it was blasphemy. Despite utter persecution, Jesus walked the walk and talked the talk of God. He embodied every aspect of our Heavenly Father in all of His perfection, only in human form. Why, did our Father do this? God did this so we would have a literal physical image of a Man who we can imitate and emulate in every aspect of our lives. God saw and knew that just words, blessings, and curses weren’t enough to hold our attention or help us understand the perfection we were created in. No, He knew we needed a Man, God Himself to walk among the people and show them the way. Jesus walked in love, kindness, generosity, hope, faith, love, forgiveness, prayer, worship, community, mercy, and grace. He embodied everything God originally created us to be and knew that if He abided in the Father and died on the cross, people would understand and know the love of the Father. 

The love of our Father is so massive that He knew the only way to reach us was to die for us. We needed to understand that no greater sacrifice could be given, other than what God could give us, which is eternal life through the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice, and in three days He rose from the dead and walked the earth for another forty days teaching His disciples and performing miracles. At the end of His time, He rose to heaven to be seated with our Heavenly Father. When Jesus left, He left the Holy Spirit with us. This is what Jeremiah means, by the law will be written on our hearts and we will know Him. Jesus made such an impact there was no way that His name wouldn’t spread across the nations, and through His ascension we are left with the Spirit of God, our daily guide, living in us. God no longer has to come running to earth to give authority to the people of God to act in power, God gave us His Spirit so we have authority to act on His word every day. We have the honor and blessing of knowing Jesus’ life in deep detailed writings of the unique authors of the Bible, but more than that, we carry His Spirit every day of our lives. The Holy Spirit calls on our souls to be cultivated in the image of Christ.

Our access to eternity with our Heavenly Father is based solely on the actions and mercy of Jesus, who died for us. All we are asked to do is to accept Him as our Savior, repent of our sins, and walk in the image of Christ spreading the good news. The New Covenant is love, walk in love, love believers and non believers, love God, love Jesus for all He did, and find a special intimate love for the Holy Spirit, who is our daily guide. God made everything so simple for us, just love Him, and worship Him, and call others to do the same. Be like Jesus, no excuse, be like our God who we were created in the image of. So simple, be love and honor God. Then we will be found in an eternity with a Father who will say, job well done my child. 

God is on our side, will always be on our side, and we will always have the choice to be on His. God loves us enough to give us that choice. We can choose to chase the life Jesus lived or we can choose to chase the life of the world. One ends in eternity with our Creator who loves us, the other leads to death. There is a choice to be made every minute of every day, walking with Jesus or walking with the world. We can’t have both, expect Jesus to stand in front of the Father when we are judged, and say He knows us, and that we lived a sacrificial life for Him who gave everything.