Transitioned
Our leadership team just took our church through a 4-week sermon series titled “Transitioned.” It’s a conversation around understanding the covenant relationship that God has with different people and nations. If you don’t understand the 5 major covenants recorded in the Bible, you will misread and misapply Scriptures to your life. If you’ve ever been confused about how to read your Bible, uncertain about how God feels towards you, or not able to understand difficult texts written about God in the Old Testament, then I would encourage you to spend time listening and soaking in the messages below.
If you’d rather have the cliff notes, here’s a brief review…
The 5 major covenants in Scripture are with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus. The only covenant that is based on behavior is the covenant God made with Moses and the Israelites. It’s based on the 10 commandments and the 603 laws the Israelites added (613 laws). This was a covenant God never wanted to have with the Israelites because this covenant misrepresented the heart of God. Instead of everyone having relationship with God as a royal priesthood (like it is today), they chose to operate in a system with only one man who could have a relationship with God (the priest). Instead of knowing God as a Father, the Israelites knew God as a judge. According to Deuteronomy 27 & 28, they received blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. This unfortunately, is how a lot of Christians still operate today.
But it’s not our covenant…
Jesus transitioned everything. We’re no longer defined by our behavior but rather, by our belief. This is why David can commit adultery and murder, and still be known as a man after God’s own heart. This is why Abraham can lie to Pharaoh and Pharaoh gets cursed. Just so we’re clear - God does not honor sin. He does however, honor people in spite of their sin because honor speaks more of Him than it does of us. Again, your behavior doesn’t dictate your position in the Kingdom of God, but it does dictate how much of the Kingdom flows through you today! This is why we obey: not to receive blessings or out of fear of punishment but because the Kingdom is alive and it represents righteousness, peace, and joy! Three things you can have today because you are already as blessed as you’ll ever be.
The bottom line is we’re not bound to the law given in the Old Testament, we belong to Jesus…and if you think those two are similar, you’ve missed the point of Jesus. This is not about picking and choosing which verses you like and don’t like. It’s about understanding which verses belong to which covenant. Jesus fulfills the law…it’s no longer relevant. We now operate under the royal law or the law of love. As Jesus says in John 13:34, “Love as I have loved you.” When we operate like that, it changes everything.
We are the new heavens and the new earth. Jesus reigns, the Kingdom is here, and it’s our responsibility to expand the Kingdom with hope and love now. We actually become ineffective when we’re watching and waiting for God to come back. We have God in us now! Because of Jesus we have a better High Priest and we are a better temple!
You can watch the series below…Or you can find us on the podcast app!
Week 1 - Click Here
Week 2 - Click Here
Week 3 - Click Here
Week 4 - Click Here