MAKING IT REAL FOR HIS PEOPLE
Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. —Hebrews 8:6
Hebrews 8:6. What does that mean? It means that his
blood—the blood of the covenant (Luke 22:20; Hebrews
13:20)—purchased the fulfillment of God’s promises for us.
It means that God brings about our inner transformation by the Spirit of Christ.
And it means that God works all his transformation in
us through faith in all that God is for us in Christ.
The new covenant is purchased by the blood of Christ,
effected by the Spirit of Christ, and appropriated by faith
in Christ.
The best place to see Christ working as the Mediator of
the new covenant is in Hebrews 13:20–21:
Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead
the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of
the eternal covenant [this is the purchase of the new
covenant], even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every
good thing to do His will, working in us that which is
pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom
be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
The words “working in us that which is pleasing in his
sight” describe what happens when God writes the law on
our hearts in the new covenant. And the words “through
Jesus Christ” describe Jesus as the Mediator of this glorious work of sovereign grace.
So the meaning of Christmas is not only that God
replaces shadows with Reality, but also that he takes the
reality and makes it real to his people. He writes it on our
hearts. He does not lay his Christmas gift of salvation
and transformation down for you to pick up in your own
strength. He picks it up and puts in your heart and in your
mind, and seals to you that you are a child of God.
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