Without shame or guilt

The Old Testament consists of a set of rules that say : "If you do this or that, God will give you life, but if you do not, you will miss out on God's blessings." Obviously, people do not never managed to live up to God's standard, because His law was holy. As a result, their lives were chased by guilt and despair. But when God gave us His New Covenant, He did not establish a new system with a new set of rules. Instead, He sent us a person.

The Old Covenant of God did not need to be changed because Jesus Himself came as an alliance - as a blessing of grace! As personification of the New Covenant, He showed us our inability to keep the law of God. In fact, the first action of His ministry on earth was to make the law of God even more difficult for us. He did it to show us that we will never be able to observe him without his grace and power.

In what we commonly call the Sermon of the Mountain, Jesus spoke of the commandment not to commit murder : "But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother deserves to be punished by the judges" (Matthew 5:22). He said the same thing about adultery : "But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (5:28). But in this same sermon, He explains how it feels to walk as one of His disciples and live a life of blessings and victory.

Under the New Covenant, the law of God is no longer an external standard that we must seek to attain. His law is now written on our hearts, by the Holy Spirit : "The love of God is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us" (Romans 5: 5). We are filled with the Holy Spirit - the life of God Himself - and because of this wonderful gift we are able to live for Him without shame or guilt.

Gary Wilkerson