Open Heaven 13 June
MEMORISE: “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” – (Matthew 26:28)
READ: Galatians 3:20-26 (KJV)
Many Christians think the law (the Old Testament) is no longer of any effect and thus behave carelessly, claiming that, because they are born again, grace covers all their sins. Paul clarifies this in the following Scripture:
“But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” – Galatians 3:23-26 Open Heaven 13 June
Read yesterday’s Open Heaven here
The old covenant protected the people against temporal death, poverty, all forms of suffering and bondage but the new delivers eternally (Matthew 1:21, Matthew 26:28 ). Your ability to overcome sin is proof that you are a child of God. John the Beloved corroborated this when he said in (1 John 3:9) that “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
Are we really children of God? If we still wallow in sin, we remain in the old dispensation and the letter of the law will punish us here and in the afterlife.
The superiority of the new covenant over the old however is that, while the latter puts constraints to prevent sin, the new gives power over it. Romans 6:14 says: “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” We therefore have the assurance that grace will work for us. Romans 6:1 however cautions that we cannot remain in sin, expecting grace to abound. Rather, grace empowers us to conquer sin.
You do not have any excuse to abide in sin.
ACTION POINT: Tap into the power of the new covenant to overcome sin.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 2 Chronicles 6-7, Psalm 136
