“ . . . I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel . . . not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers . . . I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people . . . For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
Hebrews 8:8–10, 12
Do you sometimes think God is happy with you, and then at other times think He is angry with you? Or that He forgives all your sins today, but that tomorrow He may not be as forgiving? That’s what a lot of Christians believe. “It’s simple,” they tell me. “God is happy with me when I do right, and He is angry with me when I do wrong.” Really? I call this “schizophrenic Christianity”!
My friend, if you find yourself in this unhappy camp, I believe it is because you are living between two covenants—the old covenant of law and the new covenant of grace. As a result, you believe in a mixed message that tells you there are times when God is happy with you and times when He is angry with you.
Let me show you something that will clear up this erroneous belief. While the old covenant of law is based on “you shall not . . . you shall not . . . you shall not,” I want you to notice in today’s scripture that the new covenant of grace is the Lord saying, “I will . . . I will . . . I will . . . ” It is clear that the emphasis and demand of the covenant of law is on you performing, while the emphasis and demand of the covenant of grace is on God Himself performing!
He will do everything on our behalf. In fact, because Jesus has already died on the cross for us, He has already done everything on our behalf. Remember, Christianity is “done, done, done,” not “do, do, do.” Jesus came to establish the new covenant of grace and under this new covenant, God is no longer angry with you because His anger and wrath have already been exhausted on the body of Jesus on the cross.
Pay close attention to this for it will radically transform your life: the only reason Jesus could cry out “It is finished!” (John 19:30) on the cross was that the full anger of God against sin had been totally exhausted on His body. Jesus cannot lie! And if the anger of God against all your sins has already been completely exhausted, how can God be angry with you today when you fail? How can God be angry with you when He has already declared, “Your sins and your lawless deeds I will remember no more”?
Many Christians have been robbed of fellowship and intimacy with God because they believe the lie that God is still angry with them because of their sins. They avoid having contact with Him, thinking that He gets angry with them whenever they fail. So instead of going to God when they fail, they run in the opposite direction. Instead of running to the solution, they run away from it.
Stop being robbed of true intimacy and a relationship with your gracious heavenly Father. Instead of avoiding Him when you fail, know that He has the answer to all your problems. This is why you can always run to Him and receive grace for your failures. His grace is greater than all your failures. He loves you perfectly and wants you to reign in life, so go to Him with all your imperfections. He is your God, and He will love and transform you into wholeness!
This devotional is taken from the book Reign in Life—90 Powerful Inspirations for Extraordinary Breakthroughs. Joseph Prince