Thank God for the second covenant

Hebrews 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. In chapter 8 of Hebrews, the author contrasted two covenants. There was the first covenant God established based on the Law and man’s keeping it. Then Jesus came to establish a second covenant, which is exponentially better. Why would God seek a second covenant with man if the first one was faultless? Of course, He wouldn’t need a second covenant if the first one accomplished God’s pleasure.  The apostle Paul wrote of these two covenants to the Romans in 8:1-4. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. The first covenant promised life if the Law was kept perfectly. We can all see the problem, can’t we? The fault with the first covenant wasn’t with God or with the commandments. They were both good. The fault lay with humans in the flesh. From the beginning, before the foundation of the world, God assigned weakness and fruitlessness to the flesh. He never intended for the flesh to be able to please Him. The first covenant merely established the fact that man was in sin and could not please God. That highlighted the fact that we all need a savior.  Enter Jesus Christ, God’s Son. From the beginning of time, the plan was always that He alone would produce fruit that pleases God. He was the only vine God planted in the world, God’s vineyard. He had the Spirit of life in Him, and therefore was able to produce fruit for God, for His glory. What the first covenant could not produce because of the weakness of the flesh, God did produce the fruit He desired through His Son, Jesus Christ, and the second covenant He inaugurated. Living to love with Jesus is the fruit of the second and better covenant. I hope we’ll take some time today to celebrate this second covenant of grace by drawing near to God through Jesus so we can glorify God by living His love.