The New Testament is about God’s new relationship with us through Jesus’ death for our sins and his resurrection. It is the story of Jesus’ life among us and His establishment of a new agreement between God and man. The 4 Gospels are the story of Jesus life on earth as told by 4 different people. Acts is the story of how Jesus’ church started through the work of the Holy Spirit. The remaining books of the New Testament are letters written to help us understand and live out the new agreement that Jesus established.
The New Testament is really all about how God loved us so much that He was not willing to let us die in our failure to keep the old agreement which depended on keeping the law. It is the story of someone who came and bore our guilt for our sins so we could go free and have a relationship with God. It is a story of hope, and freedom, and love, and mercy. It gives us life and helps us understand how God can be alive in us through faith, and hope and trust in Jesus.
The Old Covenant shows us how sin dooms us to death. The New Covenant is about how Jesus died for us so we could live through His resurrection. The Old Covenant was an agreement of rules and rituals and it failed completely. The New Covenant is about being humble enough to accept that someone had to die for you, and then living in a relationship with that person – Jesus. The Old Covenant was the type of salvation plan proud men would have designed, and it was a failure. The New Covenant God’s plan designed to bring humble people into an incredible relationship with him through acceptance of our need for Jesus to die in our place.
- So where are you in your life? Do you still think you “aren’t that bad”? Do you think you can follow the rules close enough?
- Or have you given up on your own goodness, decided you really are “bad”, and decided to cling to a bloody Jesus on a bloody cross that should have been you?
- Are you ready to live a new, “resurrection life” with Jesus? Are you living it now, but want to live it more fully?
Jesus is ready for you wherever you are, and soon we will open the book Jesus uses to open our hearts.
Beginner’s Online Bible Study *obbs*
Psalm 116:1-9 Alleluia. I love the Lord because he has heard my voice in supplication, Because he has inclined his ear to me the day I called. The cords of death encompassed me; the snares of the nether world seized upon me, I fell into distress and sorrow, And I called upon the name of the Lord, “O Lord, save my life!” Gracious is the Lord and just; yes, our God is merciful. The Lord keeps the little ones; I was brought low, and he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your tranquillity, for the Lord has been good to you. For he has freed my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I shall walk before the Lord in the hands of the living.