38 Covenant or Testament

A covenant is an agreement between living people and a testament is a legacy of a deceased person.

The New Testament is about the legacy of Jesus so cannot be called the New Covenant.  We do however enter into a covenant with God when we follow Jesus – He will be our God (looking after us) and we will be His people (serving Him).  Which it was also in the Old Testament so the principle is not new.

It is what God promised would happen and was said to Israel to show that God was going to enter into new state of relationship with people where His presence would be in them now and not external as in the Temple (Heb 10: 6-7, 1 Cor 6:18, Rom 12:!, Col 3:1-3).  This is one reason the temple was removed as it was no longer necessary for man to be used to relate to God as He cold no directly relate to God as God’s presence was in them and they were to be the temple.

They were now God’s Temple and their bodies should be treated as if it was holy to God!  Not to look after it si in a sense to defile something God has made holy to Him by virtue f His Sprfesence being in our spirit which the body contains.

The relationship would now be more personal and intimate.

However, it is more than that.

We are now adopted spiritual children of The Father and Jesus is our spiritual step brother.

We do not obey now to avoid going to hell!  Jesus is our Love so we serve Him because He is family and we love Him because of what He has done and the legacy (Testament) He has left us.

The Christian life should be the expression of our love for Jesus and The Father guided by The Holy Spirit (Jn 17:3).  Any other reason for serving Him is legalism or selfishness.

This is why we greet The Father, Lord Jesus and The Holy Spirit each morning because we are family and thank them at night when we go to bed for all they have done for us as their adopted child.

If Christians see their relationship to God and service as the result of a love relationship then they will then begin to live the Christian life as they should.

If they look upon it as the ‘temple’ of God then they will treat it differently and look after it properly and use it only for His service!

Our focus on things will be different as will our purposes and objectives as they will all be aimed at preserving our relationship with God as His ‘temple’.