Good News of Great Joy: Daily Readings for Advent by John Piper

Author:John Piper [Piper, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christian, Religion & Spirituality
ISBN: 9780983916475
Amazon: 0983916470
Publisher: Desiring God
Published: 2013-11-14T22:00:00+00:00

December 14

MAKING IT REAL FOR HIS PEOPLE

Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more

excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is

better, since it is enacted on better promises.

—Hebrews 8:6

Christ is the Mediator of a new covenant, according to Hebrews 8:6. What does that mean? It means that his blood—the blood of the covenant (Luke 22:20; Hebrews 13:20)—purchased the fulfillment of God’s promises for us.

It means that God brings about our inner transformation by the Spirit of Christ.

And it means that God works all his transformation in us through faith in all that God is for us in Christ.

The new covenant is purchased by the blood of Christ, effected by the Spirit of Christ, and appropriated by faith in Christ.

The best place to see Christ working as the Mediator of the new covenant is in Hebrews 13:20–21:

Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead

the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of

the eternal covenant [this is the purchase of the new

covenant], even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every

good thing to do His will, working in us that which is

pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom

be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

The words “working in us that which is pleasing in his sight” describe what happens when God writes the law on our hearts in the new covenant. And the words “through Jesus Christ” describe Jesus as the Mediator of this glorious work of sovereign grace.

So the meaning of Christmas is not only that God replaces shadows with Reality, but also that he takes the reality and makes it real to his people. He writes it on our hearts. He does not lay his Christmas gift of salvation and transformation down for you to pick up in your own strength. He picks it up and puts in your heart and in your mind, and seals to you that you are a child of God.

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