Covenants, covenants and covenants

At the end of last week's blog post I'd said that this week we would look more closely at what Jesus and The Bible have to say about becoming a Spirit filled member of God's everlasting family. 

Well, I've had a great time trawling through The Bible, but failed (for this week at least), in trying to provide us with a crisp, succinct and digestible summary of why being filled with the Holy Spirit is so vital in our New Covenant relationship with God.

I started in Genesis 1 with the Edenic Covenant between God and Adam; then to Genesis 3 and the Adamic Covenant between God and Adam & the human race.

Next stop being in Genesis 9, the Noahic Covenant; then Genesis 12 for the Abrahamic Covenant to Exodus 19 and the Mosaic Covenant between God and his people, Israel.  

The Mosaic Covenant (or Law) was 'sealed' through the ritual of sprinkling of blood from animal sacrifices:

Exodus 24: 4 - 8;  ''And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.  And sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD.  And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins;  and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.  And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD said, we will do, and be obedient.  And 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 concerning all these words.''

Because Israel failed to keep this conditional covenant of works God promised through Jeremiah the institution of an unconditional covenant of grace. 

So, to the book of Jeremiah who foresees the new covenant that God will make with mankind:

Jeremiah 31: 31 - 34;  ''Behold the days come saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the LORD.  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward [mind] parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.''

So I am ashamed to say that I have failed  to cover my intended topic for this week - the in filling of the Holy Spirit; this is mainly due to mismanagement of my time due to a range of unusual and competing priorities. But more - much, much, much more next week!!
 
One final thought to leave you with in the mean time regarding the vital role, function and properties that the Holy Spirit confers on us in our New Covenant relationship with our God:

Ephesians 1: 13b & 14;  ''... after that ye heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom after that ye believe, ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise,  Which is the earnest [down payment] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.''