Forgiven (Dec 6)

“”Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”” Isaiah 31:31-34
The birth of Jesus on the first Christmas marked the start of a new covenant between God and man. A covenant that would ultimately be fully established by Jesus’ death on the cross. This was a covenant that was always God’s plan. Through the prophets He had told the people to expect and anticipate it. In advent we remember the Israelites’ wait for this new covenant as they waited for the Messiah to be born. For centuries they waited. From the first bite of forbidden fruit they waited for this new, better covenant. Life under the Law covenant showed them how short we fall of God’s standards, and how we can’t achieve right standing with God by our own efforts.
But through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus a new covenant was established. One that results in the forgiveness of our iniquity when we put our faith in Jesus and God remembering our sin no more. An unbreakable covenant, for unlike the old covenant it doesn’t rely on us doing anything. It has all be done for us by Jesus, the King who left the throne and was born as a baby into the world He created, the King who was rejected by the world He came to save, the King who died in our place, the King who showed us amazing grace. Each year at Christmas as we come to adore Jesus the baby born to establish that new covenant we can rejoice for we come forgiven to worship Him, forgiven by the blood He shed for us, forgiven with our sin remembered no more!