The Spirit of Covenant

Day 7: The Spirit of Covenant

To me this is the most important characteristic of the Holy Spirit; the covenant life in Christ. If it hadn't been for Jesus and His atonement on the cross, I would have no hope in this life or the next. The Spirit of the covenant constantly reminds me of this and thus confirms and renews my relationship with God. His blood cleanses me from all my sin and inequity.

Whenever we share in the sacred sacrament of communion, we are renewing our covenant with God. The true meaning of the bread and the wine as His body and His blood is too often lost on us. When we eat the bread, as a symbol of the body of Christ, it feeds us and when we drink the wine (or juice) as the symbol of His blood, it quenches our thirst. For Jesus says in John 6:55, 56: "For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him."

This is my blood covenant with God: because Jesus took my sin upon Him I may escape punishment and receive life in abundance instead.

Every time when I eat the bread, I choose to die to myself; to give up control of my life, and every time I drink the wine, I choose to live a new life in Christ. The Spirit of Covenant reminds me that He has already paid the highest price for me so that I can have life eternal.

The table of communion is also the place where I search my heart to see if I'm still in rightstanding with God. It is the place where I confess my sin, obtain forgiveness and healing. In short, communion restores me in God's sight as I'm again covered by the blood of the Lamb.

But living in a covenant relationship doesn't only pertain to communion or what will happen to me after I die. It also determines how I conduct myself on Earth during the time I have left. If you are truly living a covenant-bound life, you cannot separate any aspect of your life from your covenant with God. It is impossible to accept or pay a bribe in business if you're living in covenant with God. Likewise you cannot be unfaithful in your marriage, and claim to live in covenant with God!

This is serious stuff! Look at what God says in Heb. 10:29-31 about those who disregard the covenant: "How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that has sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay' and again, 'The Lord will judge his people.' It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."