Passage: Luke 22:20; 2 Corinthians 3:5-6; Galatians 2:20-3:3
The Big Idea
What is the New Covenant of grace? It’s the whole point of Jesus’ life and death. The old covenant was a list of rules written on stone, and “the letter kills.” The New Covenant is new life written on the heart by the Spirit, and “the Spirit gives life.” Religion is about what I do; the gospel is about what Jesus did. We don’t just begin the Christian life by faith; we grow by faith too. We access grace through faith and humility, and we live by abiding in Christ, the way a branch draws life from the vine.
What Is the New Covenant?
If you don’t know right now, that’s okay. You will soon. And if you don’t yet know what the New Covenant is, your life is about to be transformed by some game-changing gospel truth!
Did Jesus talk about it? Yes.
At the Last Supper, after the meal, Jesus took the cup and said it was the new covenant in His blood, poured out for them (Luke 22:20).
- It’s the whole point of Jesus’ life and death.
- Why did Jesus die? What does it mean that He died for me? The New Covenant is the answer.
- And how do we take part in this covenant? We drink it in!
- It isn’t a work. It’s faith.
- He did all the work. There’s no more work for us to do!
Why Do We Need to Learn This?
“Can’t I just keep living my Christian life by trying as hard as I can?” (How’s that going?)
Paul says we aren’t sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Corinthians 3:5-6).
- Why do we need the New Covenant? Because we’re not sufficient.
- Not in anything, no matter how hard we try or how much we want to be.
- But God gives sufficiency. He makes us sufficient through the New Covenant.
- Not a list of rules like the old covenant, but a new Spirit, new inner life.
- Internal, not external.
- Life-giving, not life-draining.
Religion kills spiritual life. Jesus gives it.
When Jesus gives us something, it’s called grace. In a real sense, “grace” and “New Covenant” go together. This is the New Covenant of grace. It’s always free. It’s always sufficient.
The Letter Kills
The letter of the Law kills. That’s religion. Religion, as a way of earning God’s favor, kills spiritual life. So we call it dead religion. Even the Ten Commandments, good and holy as they are, can only show us our failure; they can’t give us life (Romans 7:10-12).
Religion is about what I do. The gospel of grace is about what Jesus did.
Many people today think they’re Christians but are really caught up in dead religion: things I’ve got to do to please God, earn His favor, or find life. Their focus is on themselves, not on Jesus. That’s why they don’t see His grace in their lives.
Jesus said the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy, but He came so that we may have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10).
- Do you have an abundant life? Are you experiencing it?
- If not, the enemy may have stolen your birthright as a child of God.
- How? By tricking you into living by law instead of grace.
So many Christians never learn to walk in the freedom of the New Covenant. They get saved, and then no one tells them what’s next. So they hang a picture of the Ten Commandments on the wall and commit to try their best to keep them.
That’s foolish. And it’s not the gospel of grace. It’s not the New Covenant. It’s the old covenant: the Law.
The enemy loves it when we go back to trying our best to keep the Law, because that isn’t the source of life or grace. Trying to live by the Law leads to burnout, frustration, shame and anger.
But we’re not going to choose foolishness.
Begun by the Spirit, Finished by the Flesh? (Galatians 3:2-3)
Paul asks the Galatians: did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
This is where the New Covenant of grace rocks our world. It changes everything.
Everyone knows we begin our relationship with God by faith, not works. But the amazing truth here is that our transformation is also by faith in Jesus alone, through the power of grace.
“Being perfected” refers to our growth, our sanctification: the daily relationship with God that transforms us over time.
Paul says it’s foolish to think we can change ourselves when we couldn’t save ourselves in the first place. Yet we keep going back to dead religion instead of living by faith in the risen, living Jesus.
The whole book of Galatians is Paul demolishing legalism, because legalism destroys Christians.
So What Do We Do?
If we’re not supposed to try to keep the Law to live as Christians, what are we supposed to do?
You die. And let Christ live through you, because He loves you more than you love yourself.
Paul says he has been crucified with Christ. It’s no longer he who lives, but Christ who lives in him. The life he now lives in his body, he lives by trusting the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him. He refuses to set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness could come through the Law, Christ died for nothing (Galatians 2:20-21).
What happened to Him happened to you too (Romans 6:3-6). How? By faith.
How Do I Get This Grace?
How do I walk in the Spirit? How do I have a real relationship with God instead of dead religion?
The answer is extremely simple: a life of faith and humility. Here’s the proof.
Faith
Paul says that since we’ve been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we’ve also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:1-2).
- Faith is the key that opens the door of grace.
- That’s how the New Covenant works.
- Faith is confidence in Jesus instead of myself.
Humility
James says God gives more grace. That’s why it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).
- God’s desire is to give grace. He isn’t bothered by your needs or brokenness.
- His only requirement is humility.
- God asks us to acknowledge our need for His help. That’s His deal, His New Covenant.
- God gives grace, like a gift, to anyone who humbles himself.
- The opposite is also true: God actively opposes the proud heart. Instead of receiving His help, the proud person finds God’s hand against him, until he learns to humble himself.
Faith and humility receive grace. Grace is that simple.
Why Does God Do It This Way?
What’s the point of learning a humble, dependent relationship with our Heavenly Father?
Paul says God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8).
- Read that again and stress every “all.”
- Good works matter. But how will we ever do them? Only by accessing God’s grace and drawing on the resources of Jesus’ life.
- Grace is an all-sufficient resource to do God’s will.
- It isn’t a license to sin (Romans 6:1-2). It’s the power to live like Jesus.
Some object that grace sounds too passive. “What’s my part? What do I do?”
Do God’s will, by grace. It’s the only way to do good works, and it’s the only way to be truly free from sin.
Paul says sin will have no dominion over you, since you’re not under law but under grace (Romans 6:14).
- Grace is the only solution for life-dominating sin, any sin.
- Freedom is found in the grace of Jesus alone.
- Not in law, effort, desire, formulas, systems, or even accountability.
Dead religion says: try harder, do more, follow the rules.
Jesus gives us a living relationship with Him through faith and humility.
Christ in Us
The New Covenant is a covenant of relationship: a living, real relationship.
God is in us, and we are in Him. It’s a union, a covenant bond more real and powerful than any other relationship in this life.
There are hundreds of verses about being “in Christ” and all the promises and blessings that come with it. I encourage you to search the Scriptures for that phrase.
But let’s look at what it means that Christ is in us.
Jesus said that whoever feeds on His flesh and drinks His blood remains in Him, and He in them (John 6:56).
That sounds strange, until you remember what He said earlier: He is the bread of life; whoever comes to Him will never go hungry, and whoever believes in Him will never be thirsty (John 6:35).
- Coming to Jesus by faith is like eating this meal.
- His flesh: His sacrifice for us.
- His blood: His life given to us.
- Believing these things is how we “eat” them.
- And Jesus says He lives in that person.
Abide
Jesus told His disciples to remain in Him as He remains in them. A branch can’t produce fruit on its own; it has to stay connected to the vine, and neither can we unless we stay connected to Him. He is the vine, we are the branches. Whoever remains in Him, and He in them, bears much fruit, because apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:4-5).
- If Jesus didn’t live in us, we’d be completely unable to do what He wants.
- Picture a sponge in the ocean: it’s in the ocean, and the ocean is in it.
- A relationship isn’t as simple and tidy as a list of rules. It’s deeper, more foundational, relational.
- Where do you get your life each day?
Religion kills. Jesus gives life and fruit.
Religion is a withered, dry tree, because we were in charge of it. Its source is our effort. Its only life is what we can produce. Its fruit is terrible.
But the grace of Jesus produces His own life through us as we abide in Him.
How do we abide? Faith and humility.
God, I need You. God, I trust You.
What does it look like? Think of the difference between a factory and a garden. A factory runs on effort and output. A garden grows because life is flowing through it.
The old covenant or the New Covenant. A factory or a garden. Choose the right one.
Grace Takeaway
Jesus poured out His blood to establish a New Covenant, not a better list of rules but a new heart and His own Spirit living within us. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. You were saved by faith, and you’ll grow by faith: humbly admitting your need, confidently trusting Christ in you. Stop running the factory. Abide in the Vine, and let His life bear fruit through you.
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