10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 8: 10-12)
This New Covenant is all about what Jesus has done for us at the Cross, and when He rose from dead, He became our priest forever by the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5: 6).
All our sins are paid forever at the Cross, and in Christ you are perfected (Hebrews 10: 14)
We do not need more rules and regulations, we do not need more regimentations in our lives. We need righteousness, and righteousness is a gift (Romans 5: 17)
God does not remember our sins anymore, and because He does not remember our sins anymore, since all of them have been paid for forever, the Old Covenant is put away, because He has fulfilled the law:
"In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." (Hebrews 8: 13)
and
"And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it." (Colossians 2: 13-15)
Jesus died for our sins, put away the law, the ministry of condemnation which was against us (2 Corinthians 3: 6-7), and thus disarmed the devil and his minions, who go out of their way to shame us and condemn us.
Because I did not understand this New Covenant, because I was living by own efforts, in my own ideas, I was convinced that I had to do everything, that I had to conjure up feelings and thoughts, and figure out everything myself.
Because I was so caught up in feelings and thoughts, and because I was under condemnation trying to be righteousness in my efforts, I was convinced that I was OK or not OK depending on how I felt. When other people said or did something, anything, which offended me, automatically I fell into great bondage, convinced that I had to "do something" about the sense of offence. The upset would drive me to distraction, and I would enter into this world convinced that other people could make me angry.
And I never understood why I felt this way.
Today, I know why -- the Twelve Steps and the AA cult, which forced me to look at my thoughts, deeds, actions etc. and have to live up to a standard, which everyone else seemed to be ignoring.
How that used to make me mad. I was upset because I was so easily offended, and that people seemed to have this power over me.
Yet the never really did, and the very program which was designed to break me and others free of resentment was actually inducing the resentment.
We will be easily set off by other people as long as we feel compelled to pay for our own failings, and then we find other people not doing the same, we get angry, and we have no rest.
In Christ, when we see that He has paid for our sins and the sins of the entire world (1 John 2: 1-2), that bitter sense of "Someone has to pay!" has been paid for, along with the rules and regulations attached to it, whether from the Old Testament or the manmade ones, like the insipid Twelve Steps.
I am so glad to learn about the New Covenant, in which Jesus has set me free from the curse of the law (Galatians 3: 13) and has also granted me permission to be still, to let go and know that He is God (Psalm 46: 10).
Awesome!
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