When you understand the idea of covenant, you will approach your relationship with the Father and your relationship with Christ differently. Hebrews 8:10 says, “FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT WHICH I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL.”[1] Remember, this was a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob or Israel. It was not a covenant with the Gentile nations. So ask yourself, “Do I have a covenant with God?”
Christianity emphasizes salvation. Yet the entirety of the Hebrew Scriptures includes this idea of covenant. When Yeshua talked about a new covenant, He said, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood” (Luke 22:20). Christ was referring to the initiation of the new covenant that had been promised to Israel: “I will write My word upon their hearts, and they will be My people” (see Jeremiah 31:31, 33–34).
If you understand this concept of a personal covenant with God, it will totally change the way you approach the Father. Christians relate the term salvation to receiving Christ by virtue of Him going to the cross. We accept the sacrifice of His blood that takes away our sin (1 John 3:5). That is usually what we emphasize when we talk about salvation, and we make salvation in Yeshua an end in itself.
But in the Hebraic understanding, salvation is different; it is all about the help you receive in order for something else to happen. First-century Judaism believed that the Messiah was a savior, but their definition of savior was not the Christian definition of savior. Israel was anticipating and waiting for a person whom God would anoint to come and deliver them from the Roman government. They believed when that happened, it would open the door for the covenant to be fulfilled.
When Christians say, “Jesus is my Savior,” we tend to think we have everything. We say, “When I die and go to heaven, I will have eternal life.” But there is usually not the anticipation for something new to happen now that I have Yeshua’s help. Do you see the difference? It is more than saying, “I have salvation because the blood of Yeshua covers my sin.” It is saying, “Salvation is the help I need so that the covenant can be fulfilled.” We are to know the Lord, have His Word written on our hearts, and see our iniquity completely removed. When Yeshua said, “This is My blood of the covenant,” that is what He was talking about (Matthew 26:28). The impartation of the cross is the provision for us to receive the full inheritance of the covenant.
Your salvation experience is not the end; it is the beginning. The Hebrew word yeshuah means “help or deliverance.” God said, “In a day of salvation I have helped you” (Isaiah 49:8). Yeshua Himself went through the same experience of being saved: “He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death” (Hebrews 5:7). God enabled Yeshua to go to the cross. But the Father had to save Him from death so that our High Priest could take the blood of His sacrifice into the presence of the Father and be our Mediator of a new covenant (Hebrews 12:24).
Something new will happen when we relate to God by covenant. This does not take away from your salvation experience; it gives greater meaning to it. Your salvation experience is the help you need from God to see His covenant fulfilled in your life.
[1] All Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995).
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