Part 3 of Chap. 3 in FOR HIS GLORY
Always
This chapter’s main text connects us with God’s actions in the Old Testament, and with His eternal purposes, and Paul confirms it for today in Titus.**
God wants His people to know that they are His, and are to live for Him. In Ezekiel He says, “And you will know that I am the Lord,” over 40 times!
In Ezek. 36:22-32, God tells Israel that even though they had defiled themselves among the nations, He would redeem them for the sake of His holy name. Jer. 33:9 is outright goose bumpy! Think “Church!”
Nothing about that has changed, but some things are delightfully different under the New Covenant.
Something New
Before, God’s word came through prophets, but it has now come in the person of Jesus, as we can read in Heb. 1:1-4 and John 1:1-14.
Before, they were born physically as an Israelite, by the will of man (John 1:13), but now we are born again, into the Kingdom of God. (John 3:5-7). Our spirit is quickened. Made alive by His Spirit!
Before, they obeyed out of fear of the Law, or like living with an overbearing wife, but now we please God out the desire of a new heart. I John 2:3-9 is powerful. John starts with the seriousness of obeying God, and says it is an old commandment, but then he says it is a new commandment.
The point is – it is “old” because it has always been His will, but it is “new” because we have a new heart that is freed and empowered to want to obey. It is now from inside of us. Absolutely powerful!
It is what God had said in Deut. 30:6. We would now be marked as His people by circumcision of the heart, not of the flesh. See Rom. 2:28-29, Phil. 3:3, Col. 2:11.
Before, God was only “with” His people, but in John 14:17 Jesus said that His Spirit would now also be“in” them. Rom. 8:9-11 and I Cor. 3:16 also speak of His Spirit being in us.
Ken Stoltzfus
Kidron, Ohio USA
April 4, 2022
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