100 Days Of Favor (17 page)

Y
OU ARE UNDER
the new covenant of unmerited favor through Jesus’ finished work. The old covenant based on your works is now obsolete. Look at what the New International Version of Hebrews 8:13 says: “By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.”

Under the law, even the best failed. Under grace, even the worst can be saved!

Read this verse in your Bible carefully. It is not Joseph Prince who said that the old covenant is obsolete. I am just reiterating what I read in my Bible. God’s Word tells us in no uncertain terms that the covenant of Moses is antiquated and obsolete. It is no longer relevant for the new covenant believer who is in Christ today! So it is not me who found fault with the old covenant of the law.
God Himself
found fault with the old covenant of law.

Let’s look at another verse:

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.

—
H
EBREWS
8:7

The Living Bible captures the apostle Paul’s exasperation with the old covenant of law: “The old agreement didn’t even work. If it had, there would have been no need for another to replace it. But God himself found fault with the old one…” (Hebrews 8:7–8,
TLB
).

Think about this objectively for a moment. Just for a second, put aside all the traditional teachings that you have heard or read. Let’s reason together, not based on what man says, but based completely on what God has said in His Word. His Word is our only unshakable premise. Based on this portion of the Scripture that we have just read together, if there was nothing wrong with the old covenant of law, why would God give up His one and only precious Son to be brutally crucified on the cross, so that He could cut a new covenant with us? Why would He be willing to pay such a heavy price, allowing Jesus to be publicly humiliated, and to suffer inhumane violence, if there wasn’t something fundamentally wrong with the old covenant of law?

The cross demonstrated that God found fault with the old covenant and was determined to make it obsolete. He was determined to rescue us from our sins by cutting a new covenant with His Son Jesus. That’s the amazing unconditional love that God has for you and me. He knew that no man could be justified and made righteous by the law. Only the blood of His Son would be able to justify us and make us righteous in Christ.

In all of Israel’s 1,500 years under the covenant of law, not a single person was made righteous by the law. Even the best of them, such as David, failed. The Bible describes him as a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22). But even he failed—he committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah killed. What hope then do you and I have under the law?

Thank God that under the new covenant of His unmerited favor, even the worst of us can call upon the name of Jesus and receive Him as our personal Lord and Savior. In an instant, we can be made righteous by faith in Jesus’ mighty name! Under the law, even the best failed. Under grace, even the worst can be saved!

What does all this mean for us? It means that we no longer have to depend on our own works to earn God’s blessings, approval and favor. Today, my friend, we can depend on His unmerited favor for our peace, wholeness and success through Jesus Christ’s perfect sacrifice.

Today’s Prayer

Father, I thank You that I am not under the old covenant of law today, where even the best of us will fail, but I’m under the new covenant of Your unmerited favor. Thank You for putting me under this new covenant where I don’t have to work to earn Your blessings and favor. Instead, I can simply rest, knowing that I have Your blessings, approval and favor because Jesus secured them for me by His sacrifice at the cross. Today, I rest in Your unmerited favor for every success.

Today’s Thought

The law condemns me at my best. Grace saves me at my worst and gives me God’s unmerited favor for my peace, wholeness and success.

Today’s Reflection On Favor

DAY 38

Know Your Covenant Rights In Christ

Today’s Scripture

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge… —Hosea 4:6

I
CANNOT EMPHASIZE
enough how vitally important it is for a believer today to know that he is under the new covenant of God’s unmerited favor and no longer under the law. Many good, well-meaning and sincere believers today are defeated by their lack of knowledge of the new covenant and all the benefits that Jesus has purchased for them at the cross.

What we need is a greater revelation and appreciation of Jesus and everything that He has done for us!

’But Pastor Prince, we should not be looking at benefits when we believe in Jesus.
”

I am glad that you brought up this point. Let’s look at what the psalmist thinks about this: “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Psalm 103:1–5)

Beloved, this is the heart of God. He wants you to remember
all
the benefits that Jesus has purchased for you with His blood! It is His heart to see you enjoying every single benefit, every single blessing and every single favor from Him in the new covenant of His grace. Forgiveness of sin is yours. Health is yours. Divine protection is yours. Favor is yours. Good things and the renewal of youth are yours! These are all precious gifts from the Lord to you, and it brings Him unspeakable joy when He sees you enjoying these gifts and succeeding in life. But it is the
lack of knowledge
of what Jesus has accomplished at the cross that has robbed many believers of enjoying these good gifts and benefits.

This reminds me of a story I read of a man who visited an impoverished old lady who was dying. As he sat next to her bed in the cramped confines of her dilapidated home, a single frame hanging on her spartan wall caught his attention.

Instead of a picture, the frame held a yellowed piece of paper with some writing on it. He asked the lady about that piece of paper and she replied, “Well, I can’t read, so I don’t know what it says. But a long time ago, I used to work for a very wealthy man who had no family. Just before he died, he gave me this piece of paper and I’ve kept it in remembrance of him for the past 40 or 50 years now.” The man took a closer look at the framed contents, hesitated for a moment, then said, “Do you know that this is actually the will and testament of that man? It names you as the sole beneficiary of all his wealth and property!”

For close to 50 years, that lady had lived in abject poverty, working day and night to eke out a meager existence for herself. During all this time, she was actually the owner of a sprawling estate and enviable riches. However, her own ignorance had utterly robbed her of a life of wealth and luxury that she could have enjoyed. It is a sad story, but what is even sadder is that this tragedy is played out every day in the lives of believers who do not realize the inheritance that Jesus bequeathed them when He gave up His life at the cross.

What we need today are not more laws to govern believers. What we need is a greater revelation and appreciation of Jesus and everything that He has done for us! In Hosea 4:6, God lamented, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” Let’s not be numbered among these people. Instead, let us be a people who are full of the knowledge of Jesus, His person, His love and His finished work. Don’t allow your ignorance to rob you any more. Find out all about your covenant rights in Christ today!

Today’s Prayer

Father, I thank You that You forgive all my iniquities and heal all my diseases. Thank You for redeeming my life from destruction, crowning me with lovingkindness and tender mercies, and satisfying my mouth with good things, so that my youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Help me remember all these benefits every day, and show me more of Jesus, His finished work and my covenant rights in Him.

Today’s Thought

I will bless the Lord and forget not all His benefits.

Today’s Reflection On Favor

DAY 39

What The New Covenant Hinges On

Today’s Scripture

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. —Hebrews 8:12

T
ODAY, BECAUSE OF
the cross, you are under the new covenant of grace. Now, what does the new covenant hinge on? Beloved, God is so good. The new covenant that God has made is not dependent on anything that you and I must do because He knows that we will always fail. Listen carefully. The new covenant works because of one thing only, and it is the last clause of the new covenant—“
For
I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” To the measure that you have a revelation of this clause and all its blessings, to that measure you will walk in it.

The new covenant works
because
God says that He will be merciful to our unrighteousness, and our sins and lawless deeds He will remember no more!

Note the word “For.” It means “because.” The new covenant works
because
God says that He will be merciful to our unrighteousness, and our sins and lawless deeds He will remember no more! “No more” means that there was a time God remembered our sins, even to punish them to the third and fourth generations (Exodus 20:5). This is found in the Ten Commandments. However, today, God says emphatically, “No more!” (It is the double negative that is used in the Greek.) “No more” means that God will never again remember our sins against us because He remembered (to punish) all our sins in the body of His Son. Jesus bore God’s punishment of our sins on the cross. Now, we can walk in the new covenant and hear God say, “Your sins and lawless deeds I remember no more.”