Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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Renewal of Covenant
2 Cor 5: 1-19

“For we live by faith, not by sight.  We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” (7, 8)

This is a signal passage. To use the computer language, the old life is deleted and a new one is established in Christ. It is the essence of Christian transformation. Once we were enemies and now friends of God. We have the fervor of a sense of chosenness.   Maybe it is under special providence or as someone referred to it as “because of uncovenanted mercies” that we are here. As churches we do not commonly admit our error and devious ways and do not repent. Repentance is the change of mind and heart by which God once more becomes the Lord. It was through the death and resurrection that the New Israel was created; and it is by such repentance that is perpetually renewed.

Nothing is able to separate us from the love of God or frustrate the chief purpose of our lives. In all the catastrophies we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Rom 8:26, 38,39. Those last words are important. St. Paul knew that it is that what destroys our faith; not our suffering, but our separation from God’s purposes. God’s purpose is clearly outlined in the Scriptures. That is our new covenant. Faith in providence and the forgiveness of sins are not two different things; they are one and the same thing. In Christ we have all things. Literally. That clearly is not a promise to be assumed. It is a proposition to be tested.

The crisis question for our culture is can we make bad people good? Can the springs of human character be transformed? “For the love of God constrains us. Or controls us.”  Our grateful longing must be that I might live for one who gave His life for me. God authors every chapter of our lives. He either causes or allows every tide that rises and falls. That is reality. What we most often want to do is to change our circumstances. But God wants to change us. The Christian life is to be lived in the will by faith. At the end of the day, faith is more important than rationality and faith always triumphs over circumstances. A successful Christian life doesn’t need the rationality of sight, but it needs the faith of surrender.

Prayer: Gracious God we are grateful to you for the privilege to have faith in you. Give us courage to live by faith and not by sight. Amen
Thought for the day: ‘Walk by faith and not by sight; sight is important but faith is more important

George K. Zachariah, MTC, Washington

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