To get the most out of life, we need to understand how the blood Jesus shed put us back into God’s favor. Before Jesus went to the cross, people had to work hard to earn blessings from God. After His death and resurrection, “doing” changed to “believing.” Most people still live as if Jesus never went to the cross; consequently, they perform but see no breakthrough in their lives.

We most likely learned to read the Bible from an old-covenant perspective, which focuses on self-effort. The Old Testament has valuable lessons to teach us, but we no longer need to live under the old-covenant Law of Moses. Correctly dividing and analyzing the Word of truth sheds light on what God says to us now, under the new covenant of grace. His message to us is that faith in the finished works of Jesus accomplishes what our own works can’t. 

Before the cross, the truth was that people lived in sin and condemnation. Now, the truth is that we’ve been forgiven of our sins and given the chance to break free of our less-than-perfect pasts. We do that by accepting Jesus Christ and being born again, which gives us a new start in life. Being in Christ makes us new creatures; the old things have passed away.

We’ve become so accustomed to slogging along depending on our own works that we forget about what grace has already made available to us. If something is by grace, then it’s no more of works, but if it’s by works, then it’s no more by grace. This free gift of grace is by Jesus, who brought us out from under the law so our sins wouldn’t have dominion over us anymore. Learning the unforced rhythms of grace gives us results we could never achieve on our own.

Prayer:

Lord, Your Word gives us the knowledge and the wisdom to see the differences between the old and the new covenants. We no longer have to strive to see good things happen in our lives, because grace has made them available to us through faith. Thank You for this. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Scriptures:

2 Timothy 2:15

2 Corinthians 5:17

Romans 11:6

Romans 5:15

Romans 6:14

Matthew 11:28-30, MSG

To learn more about the covenant of grace Jesus established through His blood, click on the link for the two-message series, Living Under the Correct Covenant.