In Nehemiah 9, we read how Israel engaged in corporate confession of sin, and in my last post based on that confession, I asked: Are we separating ourselves and confessing our sins?
Right after Israel confessed their sins and iniquities, they made a covenant with the Lord (Neh. 9:38-10:39).
Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing; on the sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests.
We read how Israel specifically entered
into a curse and an oath to walk in God's Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord and his rules and his statutes.
Specifically, this promise fell into three main areas: Israel made a covenant not to intermarry, to keep the Sabbath day and the Sabbath year holy and to bring offerings for the support of the house of God.
Then, sadly, several years later (Nehemiah 13), we see how Israel failed miserably to keep that covenant.
Any covenant sinful men ever make with a holy God is bound to eventually fail. Even the best of men. So too with us.
For all who have received Christ and believed on His Name, we can give praise and thanks to God that when we are faithless, our God remains faithful to us for Christ's sake! Praise God for His infallible covenant mercies to us in Christ! (No, this does not mean we are free to sin that grace may abound...God forbid! See Romans 6:1ff.)
Thanks be to God that His covenant with us in Jesus Christ is a unilateral commandment; in other words, it does not depend on us. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Those who are God's adopted children have been born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. Jesus tells us we did not choose Him, but He chose us.
Thanks be to God that He loved us first! Thanks be to God that we have been saved from the curse and from His just wrath and condemnation through His unmerited favor shown us in Jesus Christ:
Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
I John 4:10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Romans 5:6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
We see such a unilateral covenant portrayed Genesis 15. There we find God and Abram, and the animals have been cut and laid out, and the covenant is about to be cut. But then look and see what Abram is doing when the covenant is actually being cut. Abram is in a deep sleep, while God Himself, in the form of the smoking firepot and flaming torch, walks through the cut animals, meaning that He Himself was making the promise to be put to death for Abram's inability to keep the covenant.
What a wonderful picture of God's perfect provision for our salvation through Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God! Our Lord suffered and died for our sin in our place because we could never keep the law, because we could never fulfill our promises to be good, because even our most noble resolutions would eventually fail. No matter how hard we tried! We would fail as Israel did after she had made her covenant with the Lord.
Let us remember that even if we were to keep the whole law but offend in one point, we would be guilty of all. We have all sinned and we have all fallen short of the glory of God. We were all under a curse, we were all children of disobedience, all under wrath, all under condemnation, all declared guilty, and yet God sent His only begotten Son to become a curse, to bear the punishment for our sin and die for in our place while we were yet sinners! For all who are in Christ, we who once did not know mercy are now objects of God's mercy, even though we should have known wrath!
O, bless the Lord, the author and finisher of our faith, He who did for us what we could never do for ourselves!
O, bless the Lord, the author and finisher of our faith, He who does for us what we could never do for ourselves!
We boast in You alone, O great God, the author and finisher of our faith! We give thanks and praise and blessing and honor and glory for Your infallible covenant mercies freely given to us in Jesus Christ!
II Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Ephesians 2:1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Jesus Christ took the just punishment for our sin and He fulfilled the law perfectly in our place. For all who believe, all our sins have been forgiven and Christ's perfect righteousness has been credited to us by faith. The curse has been lifted once for all! It is finished! Alleluia! Amen!
Today I would like us to reflect on Christ's wondrous work for us and render thanksgiving, praise, blessing, honor and glory to our infallible God for His infallible covenant mercies to us in Jesus Christ through Augustus Toplady's hymn "A Debtor to Mercy Alone" (1771).
A debtor to mercy alone, of covenant mercy I sing;
Nor fear, with Thy righteousness on, my person and off’ring to bring.
The terrors of law and of God with me can have nothing to do;
My Savior’s obedience and blood hide all my transgressions from view.
The work which His goodness began, the arm of His strength will complete;
His promise is Yea and Amen, and never was forfeited yet.
Things future, nor things that are now, nor all things below or above,
Can make Him His purpose forgo, or sever my soul from His love.
My name from the palms of His hands eternity will not erase;
Impressed on His heart it remains, in marks of indelible grace.
Yes, I to the end shall endure, as sure as the earnest is giv’n;
More happy, but not more secure, the glorified spirits in Heav’n.
Let us bow before God and give Him thanks and praise for His covenant mercies in Jesus Christ.
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