GOD IS!

God’s Promises Of A New Covenant And Law32THINGS TO LEARN1. God has established a new covenant with His people, which covenant has anew law, the law of liberty.2. One cannot save himself from sin, and thus, we must depend on the grace ofGod by being obedient to God’s conditions for accepting His grace.3. Recognition of God’s grace must move us to respond to His conditions foraccepting His grace.4. God’s grace gives us freedom from the binding religious traditions that menforce on the consciences of sincere people.GOD’S PROMISESOF A NEW COVENANT AND LAWBefore God gave any written lawto man on earth, He spoke directly tothe fathers of tribal families. He gaveHis spoken laws to these fathers in orderthat His will be taught to the entireextended family (Hb 1:1). One of theseextended family fathers was Abraham.Of all the fathers of faith in the world atthe time, Abraham was God’s choicethrough whom He would bring into theworld the Seed, which promise was firstmade to Adam and Eve (Gn 3:15). Thefulfillment of this promise would resultin the spiritual blessing of all humanity.God chose Abraham in order toprepare the way for the Seed whowould come into the world through himand the nation of Israel. God promisedAbraham, “I will bless those whobless you, and I will curse him whocurses you; and in you all the familiesof the earth shall be blessed” (Gn12:3).God thus established a personalcovenant with Abraham concerning theStudy 13promise that He wouldABRAHAMfulfill in Abraham’s descendants.The fulfillmentof the promiseIsaacwould come almost Jacob2,000 years after thepromise was made.In order to preserve a ISRAELpart of humanitythrough whom the Seed of blessingwould come, God chose the descendantsof Abraham through Isaac andJacob to build a nation, the nation of Israel(Gn 12:1-3; 15:5).Many years after Abraham died,and after God brought the children ofIsrael out of Egyptian captivity, He establisheda covenant with Israel as anation. The law of this covenant wasgiven as a condition for keeping thecovenant. Therefore, the Old Testamentlaw was given specifically tothe nation of Israel to be their conditionfor keeping the covenant (Ex 24:1-4). Moses said to Israel, “The Lord