Q & A.

What does it mean that God is with us?

Question

Answer
It is good to know that God is omnipresent (everywhere at one time)—it is one of His attributes. Coinciding with His omnipresence are the attributes of omniscience (all knowledge) and omnipotence (all power). These concepts are a bit much for us humans to comprehend, but God knows that, too (Isaiah 55:8). God fills His creation and is universally present in person, in understanding, and in power at all times. “He is not far from any one of us” (Acts 17:27).

On a more personal level, God is with all believers today in that His Holy Spirit indwells us. This indwelling can only happen if one is born again (John 3:3). First John 5:11-12tells us it is Jesus who indwells us: “This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” And Jesus said the Father comes to abide with us: “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23).

In Galatians 2:20 Paul says, “Christ lives in me.” Then in 3:5 he says that God has given us His Spirit. In verses 26-27, he says that believers are “baptized into Christ” and are “clothed” with Christ. (God is as close as our clothing!) Galatians 5 then discusses the fruit of the Spirit and states in verse 25, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” With many such verses as these, it is clear that God is in three Persons and that all Three dwell in all born-again believers—at all times (Matthew 28:20).

One of Jesus’ titles is “Immanuel,” which means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). When Jesus came into this world, He was truly, literally “God with us.” Because God is with us, we know that we will never be separated from His love (Romans 8:38-39). God’s presence assures us that we can accomplish His will for us (1 Chronicles 22:17-19). God’s presence overcomes our fear, worry, and dissatisfaction (Hebrews 13:5).

The Holy Spirit in us is always praying for us (Romans 8:26). We are told to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17), which means we should maintain an attitude of prayer and receptiveness in order to verbalize prayer to God whenever He leads. He is near to His children, attentive to their cry (Psalm 34:15).

We should verify that we are indeed walking with the Lord our God by often consulting His Word, fellowshipping with other believers, and seeking godly counsel from pastors, Christian counselors, and Christian friends. We should have the attitude that we are at all times in ministry with the Lord. The Holy Spirit will lead us. We will see God at work. God is alive, and He is near. He wants to communicate and commune with us. That is the joy of the Christian life.

Cain & Abel.

Why Did God Reject Cain?

Why did God reject Cain? Why was his offering and worship not accepted while Abel’s pleased the Eternal?

First, let us examine the scriptures concerning your question about why Cain was rejected by God. We are first informed that Abel (the younger of the two men) was a shepherd of sheep while his brother was a farmer (Genesis 4:2).

When the time came to make an offering to God, Abel chooses to bring and kill a firstborn animal from his flock. His brother, however, offered some of his crops toward his worship of God (verses 3 and 4). The response both received clearly conveyed whether what they did was pleasing or not.

“And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but he DID NOT RESPECT CAIN AND HIS OFFERING . . .” (Genesis 4:2 – 5).

Three factors

Many have speculated as to why the offerings were not respected. Three factors, however, can be safely assumed as contributing to the displeasure of God. The first is the attitude of mind in regard to the offerings. The second is the quality of the offerings. The third is the worship that was not done in
faith.

Cain and Abel

Cain and Abel

John Cheere, 1755

When one considers the jealousy of Cain toward his brother that drove him to murder him, a poor attitude in giving offerings to God is very plausible. This attitude was likely a factor in offering to him poor quality products rather than the very best.

The Bible does reveal God’s response, in general, to offerings that are not of the quality He commands.

You offer defiled bread upon My altar. And you say, ‘In what way do we defile You?’ . . . And if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? (Malachi 1:7, HBFV).

The mental attitude of Cain was a key factor in displeasing God. Our Father knows man’s inner thoughts. The Apostle Paul’s writings attest to the fact that while He may like a person who is generous, he loves those who do so out of a heart of cheerfulness and not grudgingly (2Corinthians 9:7).

Faith in God

In the well-known faith chapter of the New Testament, Hebrews 11, the apostle Paul makes it abundantly clear that Abel had faith in God but that, by implication, his brother lacked it. 

By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it, though he died, he is yet speaking (Hebrews 11:4, HBFV).

Our human nature not only can think evil and hinder us to do good works, but it can also dispose us toward those who reject evil and are doers of good works like Abel. Jesus himself attested to his righteousness when he was roundly chastising the Pharisees for their attitude and behavior.

You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how shall you escape the judgment of Gehenna? Because of this, behold, I send to you prophets . . . So that upon you may come all the righteous blood poured out upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous . . . (Matthew 23:33 – 35).

We can acquire more of the mind of Christ, and not have our heavenly Father reject us like Cain, by constantly studying His word. If we do not do this, our minds can easily be led to being deceived by the devil who is “the god of this age . . .” (2Corinthians 4:4).

Jeremiah.

Why Is Jeremiah Known as ‘The Weeping Prophet’?

More than once, Jeremiah was tempted to hang up his prophet’s hat and go home. He wept over his nation’s self-destructive rebellion against God and cried out to the Lord. The Lord’s promise of protection didn’t exclude the possibility of having to endure great pain.

David Sanford

Why Is Jeremiah Known as ‘The Weeping Prophet’?

Claims to fame: Jesus, some said, was Jeremiah back from the dead (Matthew 16:14). The Book of Jeremiah has more words than any other book of the Bible. Jeremiah described God’s inspiration of Scripture in far more detail than any other prophet.

Jeremiah spoke more about repentance (turning from sin back to God) than the other prophets. Jeremiah also wrote Lamentations and may have contributed other writings (2 Kings; Psalms).

He has often been called “the weeping prophet.” He frequently felt despondent, saw no visible fruit after decades of ministry, and (almost but) never quit.

Jeremiah never had the joy and comfort of being married. Jeremiah predicted the Babylonian captivity and its length, 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12; Jeremiah 29:10).

Jeremiah’s Relevance

Like thousands of army recruits, Jeremiah was drafted into a vocation where ongoing enemy assaults were all but guaranteed. But unlike other soldiers, Jeremiah had the Lord’s assurance that he would survive.

The Lord enlisted young Jeremiah for life. His only mission? To proclaim the Lord’s message without fear.

Sure enough, those who did not want to hear God’s truth attacked Jeremiah repeatedly and from every angle. Over the years, his fellow citizens fanned rumors into flame and hoped to watch him burn.

Jeremiah’s enemies imprisoned him, flogged him, put him in stocks, and made preparations for his execution. Later, they threw him into a muddy cistern and left him to die. Even former friends sought to take their revenge against the man from Anathoth.

Each time, the Lord rescued Jeremiah — but not always before he was scarred. His foes definitely couldn’t kill him — but they could wound him. The Lord’s promise of protection didn’t exclude the possibility of having to endure great pain.

More than once, Jeremiah was tempted to hang up his prophet’s hat and go home. He agonized over the prosperity of the wicked while he suffered miserably.

He felt so miserable he wished he’d never been born. He wept over his nation’s self-destructive rebellion against God and cried out to the Lord because of his own incurable wound.

Like Jeremiah, we are promised persecution (John 15:18-21; 2 Timothy 3:12). Like him, we can also hold onto the promise of the Lord’s protecting presence (Matthew 28:20; John 16:33).

And we can rest assured that while pain and problems are inevitable, they cannot stop us from fulfilling God’s will in this generation (Romans 8:35-39).

The Book of Jeremiah

This second of four “major” Old Testament prophets urges readers to come back to the Lord.

The theme of returning or coming back recurs nearly 50 times in Jeremiah. The prophet urges his fellow citizens in the kingdom of Judah to repent and turn back to the Lord — before it’s too late.

The Lord calls Jeremiah to prophesy when he is still a very young man (chapter 1). More than a century has passed since Isaiah began prophesying. The kingdom of Israel had fallen three generations ago.

Now, the Lord says, it’s Judah’s turn because of its pride, idolatry, and oppression of the poor. For more than 40 years, Jeremiah warns of impending judgment against Judah (chapters 2-38), but virtually no one heeds his warnings to repent.

As predicted, the kingdom of Judah is finally crushed (chapter 39). The surviving remnant refuses to repent and continues to rebel against the Lord (chapters 40-44).

Toward the end of the book, Jeremiah includes a brief warning to his assistant, Baruch (chapter 45), and a series of prophecies against other nations (chapters 46-51).

A historical appendix (chapter 52) adds more details about the utter destruction of Judah’s capital, Jerusalem.

Scriptures about Jeremiah

If you’re going to read only three Bible chapters about Jeremiah’s calling and prophetic ministry, take 10 minutes and read Jeremiah 1 and Jeremiah 32-33. Or take three minutes and read the beginning of the story, Jeremiah 1.

Most of Jeremiah’s story is told in the Book of Jeremiah itself. His calling and persecutions were intense, memorable, and more autobiographical than any other prophet.

What’s more, his prophecies about the Babylonian captivity and its length, and about the New Covenant, continue to be cited daily 2,500 years later.

He’s also well known for buying a piece of property as a sign that the Jewish people would return and dwell in the land 70 years later.

That isn’t all that we read about Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s name appears in 2 Chronicles 35:25, which says, “Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah, and to this day all the male and female singers commemorate Josiah in the laments. These became a tradition in Israel and are written in the Laments.”

His name also appears in 2 Chronicles 36:12, which says the last king of Judah, Zedekiah, “did evil in the eyes of the Lord his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke the word of the Lord.”

His name appears yet again in 2 Chronicles 36:21, which says, “The land [of Judah] enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.”

What’s more, 2 Chronicles 36:22 and Ezra 1:1 both say, “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing.”

Jeremiah’s name comes up again in Daniel 9:2, which says, “in the first year of his [Darius’s] reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.”

Quotations and allusions to Jeremiah’s writings appear repeatedly in the New Testament. Jeremiah 6:16 says, “And you will find rest for your souls,” which Jesus echoes in Matthew 11:29.

Jeremiah 7:11 says, “Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers,” which Jesus echoes in Matthew 21:13, Mark 11:17, and Luke 19:46.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 says, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord.” Paul echoes these verses in 1 Corinthians 1:31 and 1 Corinthians 10:17.

Jeremiah 31:15 says, “Rachel is weeping for her children; She refuses to be comforted for her children, Because they are no more,” which is quoted verbatim in Matthew 2:17-18.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 talks at length about the New Covenant, which is reiterated both in Hebrews 8:8-12 and Hebrews 10:16-17.

The Holy Bible.

What is the New Covenant?

Holy Branches May 28, 2024

This post contains affiliate links. I only advertise items I personally recommend and may receive a small commission from qualifying purchases. For more information, visit our Affiliate Information Page. 

Do you know what the New Covenant is?

As often as we talk about the New Covenant as Believers, we should have a concise answer to this question. But if you search for the answer on the internet, you’ll come up with varying results that sometimes even conflict! 

The concept of the New Covenant is pivotal to our faith, so we need to understand it. We need to search for the answer in the source of ultimate truth, the one that never conflicts and is always correct – the Bible.

A covenant

A covenant is an agreement, a promise, between two parties. The difference between a covenant and other agreements is that a covenant is binding. It’s a serious agreement to enter into, and the consequences for breaking it are devastating. 

Paul reveals that it was understood that covenants, even those between humans, were permanent (Gal. 3:15). We even have a permanent covenant in our culture today—marriage. It’s understood that marriage is (ideally, anyway) a permanent covenant that should never be broken.  

What is the Old Covenant?

To begin a discussion on the New Covenant, we must first clearly understand what the Old Covenant is. 

What we call the Old Covenant is the set of laws God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. These laws were written on stone tablets, and the Hebrew people agreed to follow them (Exodus 24). God said there would be blessings if the people upheld their side of this covenant and curses if they didn’t (Deut. 11:26). God’s side of the covenant was the blessing, and the people’s side was to obey the laws. 

What was wrong with the Old Covenant?

Why did the Old Covenant need to be replaced? Did God make a faulty covenant? What was wrong with it?

We know there was nothing wrong with the Old Covenant because God made it. The Bible tells us that the covenant, the Laws God gave His people, were flawless (Ps. 19:7) and that they never change (Ps. 19:9, 89:34). So, why did a New Covenant need to be made?

Jeremiah 3 tells a heartbreaking story of God’s people breaking the covenant. They agreed to it in Exodus but didn’t keep their end of the bargain, and they broke the promise, the covenant God made with them. Notice that God didn’t make changes to the covenant. It was the other side – the people – that made the change. They didn’t keep it. 

For a covenant to stay in place, both parties need to keep their side of it. Think about marriage, for example. If the husband stays fully committed, but the wife decides she’s instead going to see other people, the whole covenant has fallen apart. One spouse’s commitment isn’t enough to keep a marriage covenant together. 

A total commitment from both parties is necessary for a covenant to stay in place, and it’s the same with the Old Covenant. God remained fully committed to the covenant terms, but the people did not (Jeremiah 31:34), so the covenant became faulty.

The New Covenant

In His grace, our God decided to solve this tragedy by making a new covenant. Isn’t it incredible that we have a patient and loving God providing a second chance to His people, even though they break their promises? What incredibly blessed people we are!

The New Covenant is described in Jeremiah 31.

“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”Jeremiah 31:34, (NASB)

In the verse above, God explains that the New Covenant is when He will write His Law on Israel’s hearts. That’s the definition of the New Covenant—the Law written on our hearts. He also says that He will forgive them for breaking the first covenant.

Notice God did not say He would change the Law or do away with it. All He changed was the location of the same Law He had given in the Old Covenant. He expected Israel (see what Gentile Believers have to do with Israel here) to obey the Old Covenant laws, but this time, these laws would be part of them! 

This lack of abolishing the Law is confirmed in Ezekiel 11 when God explains that we will be given a new heart so that we will walk in His statutes and keep His ordinances and do them (Eze. 11:19-21). Again, the New Covenant includes us keeping the laws of the Old Covenant. 

Jesus as the New Covenant

Often, when people explain the New Covenant, they say that it’s Jesus’s death for our sins. Because of his sacrifice, we now live under grace and are no longer under the Law. 

This explanation is partially correct. Here’s what Jesus has to do with the New Covenant. 

  1. It is his blood on which the New Covenant is based. 
  2. He’s the guarantor (representation, mediator) of our side of the New Covenant.

A covenant based on blood

The New Covenant is based on Jesus’s blood, but did you know that the Old Covenant was also legitimized by blood? 

So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”Exodus 24:8, (NASB)

When a New Covenant was to be made, blood was also needed. Jesus provided this necessary blood. Because of his sacrifice, we enter into the New Covenant. We accept the gift of God’s Spirit, and with that, we accept the Law written on our hearts. 

Notice again that there was no change to the Law between these two covenants. Now that Jesus’s blood was spilled, the New Covenant could go into effect; as Jesus says in Acts 1:4-8, the Spirit would come after he left Earth. Along with the Spirit would come the Law, now written on our hearts instead of stone tablets. 

Jesus as our representation

The New Covenant is made between God and us, but Jesus shows up to represent Believers in this covenant. Although we may break God’s Law, Jesus never did. We would have destroyed the New Covenant as well, even after the Law was written on our hearts, but we’re represented by Jesus in the New Covenant instead of ourselves. Because of his representation, we’re technically keeping our side of the New Covenant. 

Does this mean we abandon God’s commands? If Jesus covers us and keeps our side of the covenant for us, why should we concern ourselves with God’s Laws? 

When we recognize what Jesus has done for us, it should encourage us to follow him. We have been given an incredible gift, and we would be like spoiled rotten children if we were to accept the gift of forgiveness and then turn our backs on what Jesus and God instruct us to do with our lives!   

Once we realize the mercy we’ve been given in forgiveness for not keeping God’s Law, we need to change our lives to follow Jesus and align our lives with the way God instructed us to live. Jesus taught us that we’re to obey God’s commands. Here are some of his quotes.

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.Matt. 5:17-19, (NASB)

And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”Matt. 19:16-17, (NASB)

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” John 14:21, (NASB)

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.John 15:10, (NASB)

So, what is the New Covenant? It’s the Law, now written on our hearts. To help us keep our side of this covenant, we have Jesus, whose blood seals it. We are blessed to have a God who loves us enough to give us a second chance and make communion with Him accessible even to us mortals! Hallelujah!  

Q & A.

What does the Bible say about humility?

Answer.
The Bible describes humility as meekness, lowliness, and absence of self. The Greek word translated “humility” in Colossians 3:12 and elsewhere literally means “lowliness of mind,” so we see that humility is a heart attitude, not merely an outward demeanor. One may put on an outward show of humility but still have a heart full of pride and arrogance. Jesus said that those who are “poor in spirit” would have the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3). Being poor in spirit means that only those who admit to an absolute bankruptcy of spiritual worth will inherit eternal life. Therefore, humility is a prerequisite for the Christian. 

When we come to Christ as sinners, we must come in humility. We acknowledge that we are paupers and beggars who come with nothing to offer Him but our sin and our need for salvation. We recognize our lack of merit and our complete inability to save ourselves. Then when He offers the grace and mercy of God, we accept it in humble gratitude and commit our lives to Him and to others. We “die to self” so that we can live as new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). We never forget that He has exchanged our worthlessness for His infinite worth, and our sin for His righteousness. The life we now live, we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20). That is true humility. 

Biblical humility is not only necessary to enter the kingdom, it is also necessary to be great in the kingdom (Matthew 20:26-27). Here Jesus is our model. Just as He did not come to be served, but to serve, so must we commit ourselves to serving others, considering their interests above our own (Philippians 2:3). This attitude precludes selfish ambition, conceit, and the strife that comes with self-justification and self-defense. Jesus was not ashamed to humble Himself as a servant (John 13:1-16), even to death on the cross (Philippians 2:8). In His humility, He was always obedient to the Father and so should the humble Christian be willing to put aside all selfishness and submit in obedience to God and His Word. True humility produces godliness, contentment, and security. 

God has promised to give grace to the humble, while He opposes the proud (Proverbs 3:34; 1 Peter 5:5). Therefore, we must confess and put away pride. If we exalt ourselves, we place ourselves in opposition to God who will, in His grace and for our own good, humble us. But if we humble ourselves, God gives us more grace and exalts us (Luke 14:11). Along with Jesus, Paul is also to be our example of humility. In spite of the great gifts and understanding he had received, Paul saw himself as the “least of the apostles” and the “chief of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15; 1 Corinthians 15:9). Like Paul, the truly humble will glory in the grace of God and in the cross, not in self-righteousness (Philippians 3:3-9).