“By saying a new covenant, God has declared that the first is obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old is about to pass away.” (Hebrews 8:13)
There is one thing that I can confidently say that most, if not all, of humanity, cannot truly comprehend and appreciate: the free gift of salvation—the grace, that has been offered to us through Christ dying in our place on the cross. We certainly can receive this miraculous gift, and live confidently in the knowledge that our eternity is secured by Jesus, because it is. But the reason why we can’t fully appreciate or embrace its power is because it was an act that is absolutely unfathomable—a self-sacrifice, in which Jesus wholly relied on his Father until his last breath purely for our sake and to bring glory and honor to the God of the universe. Perhaps if we could more deeply understand his death, our lives would be even more God-glorifying than we could imagine.
Christ fulfilled the law through his death, bringing about the New Covenant, the one that is fueled by grace. It is not earthly like the old covenant, but eternal and cannot be broken. This grace we have been given is because of Christ’s blood he shed for us. And yet, why do so many of us live our lives as if this were not true? Or lives that more closely reflect that truth? We cannot let the knowledge of this free gift of grace become a license for continuing in a life that is not transformed and continually transforming. Or a life that is not spirit-filled and in clear reliance on God. In devaluing his sacrifice, we are contented with so much less of him and so much less for our lives.
Christian, I charge you to reflect on Christ’s death on the cross. Meditate on Christ’s sufferings in the garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:44). Dwell continually on his words, “It is finished!” (John 19:28-30). And remind yourself of his promise of return (John 14:1-3). In The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes about this costly grace and the gift we have, “It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: ‘ye were bought at a price,’ and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.” Ask God to deepen your understanding of the grace that has been given to us and to live more and more a grace-filled life that reflects its cost.