Common Sense Reborn

The Righteous One Pt. 2

³¹“The day is coming,” says the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. ³²This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the LORD.

³³“But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the LORD. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ³⁴And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the LORD.; For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the LORD. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

The new covenant that God refers to is the one established when the Righteous One, Jesus Christ, came to earth and established His everlasting dominion over this world. From Jesus came the promise of eternal life through our belief in Jesus being the Son of God. The new covenant is clear and has become engrained in all Christians: believe in Jesus, give your life to Jesus, turn from your wicked ways in true repentance, live a good life, spread the Good News, and fulfill your obligations for the new covenant by loving God, and loving your neighbor as yourself.

What the ancient Israelites forgot when they broke the old covenant was that there were two sides to this promise. God promised the Israelites that He would always be with them, protecting them and lifting them up above all other nations, but that promise came with the promise from them that they would have no other Gods except the one true God. The Israelites adopted many of the rituals of the pagan nations that surrounded them, they worshipped Asherah poles (poles set up for the Canaanite goddess Asherah), and another example came when King Mannaseh of Judah even placed an altar to Baal in the Temple of Judah (2 Kings 21).

Idol worship has changed over the last two millenia. Christians may not bow down to altars of gods from different religions, but they surely bow down to idols in politics, allow money to be their master, and let any little thing distract them from their following of Jesus Christ. We have steamrolled the Sabbath by our insatiable drive of success and work. We fail to sit down and read the Bible because of our endless distractions that take precedence over reading the most important book in history. And we forgo our calling to help those in need due to our lust for material possessions.

Though God has promised to forgive our wickedness and never remember our sins, the final covenant He made with His people comes with conditions on both sides. How are you doing upholding your part of this promise? Take an honest survey of your life and see where you can improve.