| “…he is the faithful God…” |
| —Deuteronomy 7:9b |
In the Old Testament, God entered into a covenant with His chosen people, Israel. He gave them many rules and regulations to follow as evidence of their obedience. Time after time, the Israelites failed to follow God’s commands. Time after time, when they got into trouble, God would have to rescue them. Their all too feeble efforts to strive for obedience could never seem to overcome their bent toward sin.
Ultimately, God had to send His one and only Son, Jesus, to stand in the place of all humans and bear the punishment for their sins. In Jesus, God found the only one capable of true obedience. He alone was the one who could fulfill these words in Deuteronomy 7:9:
Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.
Through Jesus, and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we can finally strive for and achieve obedience to God’s will and to His written Word. That's because God has given us a new covenant, written in the shed blood of His Son. Let us rejoice this new day that God’s provision has enabled us to love Him, to follow Him and to serve Him with the kind of obedience that only He can give us.
Based on a blog originally posted on Monday, February 22, 2016
