EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/23/2026
7:08 PM
My
Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “Zachariahs’s Song of
Salvation –Part 3 The New Covenant”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Focus: Luke
1:76-80
Message of the verses: “And you, child, will be called the
prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare His
ways; to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of
their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from
on high will visit us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow
of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” And the child continued to grow and to become
strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public
appearance to Israel.” (NASB)
It is my practice to quote from the introduction of
John MacArthur’s commentary as I begin a new chapter from his commentary.
“Of the several covenants God has
given for the outworking of redemptive history, the New covenant is
unique. As noted in previous chapters of
this volume, three of those covenants, the Noahic, Priestly, and Mosaic, are
non-salvific; that is, they are not promises associated with salvation. The Noahic covenant is God’s pledge not to
destroy the world again by water, while the Priestly covenant is a ‘covenant
of a perpetual priesthood’ (Num. 25:13) promising that all legitimate high
priests would come from the family line of Phinehas. Nor is salvation in view in the Mosaic
covenant, because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His
sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin’ (Rom. 3:20; cf. v. 28;
Gal. 2:16; 3:11; 5:4). And though
the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants require salvation for their blessings to be
realized, nothing in them provides it.
“There is a barrier, insurmountable
by any human effort, which prevents everyone, including Israelites, from
experiencing the benefits of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants—sin. For those covenants blessings to be realized
requires a new, different, and superior covenant—one that provides total
forgiveness of sin (Heb. 7:22; 8:6).
That is precisely the point the writer of Hebrews makes in Hebrews
8:7-13:
“7 For if that first covenant had been
faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. 8 For he finds fault with them when he says:
"Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a
new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 9 not like the covenant that I made with their
fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land
of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern
for them, declares the Lord. 10 For this
is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,
declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their
hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his
neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all
know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their
iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." 13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the
first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to
vanish away.” (ESV)
“Commenting
on the significance of God’s making a new covenant the Puritan theologian John
Owen wrote, “Had it not been of the greatest importance to the glory of God and
the good of the souls of men, God would not, for the sake of it, have laid
aside one covenant and made another…All this was done that we might be pardoned
(The Forgiveness of sin [Reprint; Grand Rapids; Baker, 1977], 179).
“The most basic problem people face
is not psychological or social. It is
not how they act, think, or speak. Those
things merely reflect (cf. Luke 6:45) the true problem; that is, that all are
sinners (Rom. 3:23), with evil, sin-defiled hearts (Jer. 17:9). The apostle Paul gave a comprehensive description
(drawn from Old Testament passages) of mankind’s endemic, systemic sinfulness
when he wrote to the Romans,
“10 as it is written,: "None is righteous,
no, not one; 11 no one understands; no
one seeks for God. 12 All have turned
aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even
one." 13 “Their throat is an open
grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their
lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses
and bitterness.” 15 "Their feet are
swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths
are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of
peace they have not known." 18
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:10-18 ESV)
“Paul referred to sin’s pervasive presence as the ‘law
of sin’ (Rom. 7:23, 25), graphically expressing the power, authority,
constraint, and influence that sin exerts.
The apostle’s use of the term ‘law’ was metaphorical; he was not
speaking of a standard to be lived up to, but of a force to be reckoned
with. Sin is an operative reality in man’s
nature that has the power to drive and compel behavior, much like hunger,
thirst, sexual desire, fear, anger, and sorrow do. Indwelling sin manipulates and controls
behavior from the inside, unlike external standards or rules.
“Since neither the promised
blessings of the Davidic and Abrahamic covenants, nor the threatened curses for
violating the Mosaic law can change the heart, they cannot overpower the law of
sin. No amount of willpower or
determination to obey can enable a sinner to keep the Ten Commandments (or even
Jesus’ summary of the Law [Mark 12:28-31]).”
I will stop here to quote these verses from Mark’s gospel” (Mark
12:28-31) “28 ¶ And one of the
scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he
answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of
all?” 29 Jesus answered, "The most
important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your
strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You
shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater
than these." (EST). The law
both demonstrates to sinners their inability to obey and their need for mercy,
grace, and forgiveness, and even exacerbates sin and leads to death (Rom. 7:8-11).”
“8 But sin, seizing an opportunity
through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart
from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was
once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive
and I died. 10 The very commandment that
promised life proved to be death to me. 11
For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and
through it killed me.” (ESV). “It
displays our sin and helplessness in order, as Paul wrote, to become ‘our
tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith’ (Gal. 3:24).
“Israel’s experience illustrates that truth. The people had the best intentions, vowing
obedience to God’s law and sealing their commitment with blood as recorded in
Exodus 24:4-8:
“4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the
LORD. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the
mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the people of
Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to
the LORD. 6 And Moses took half of the
blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar.
7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant
and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, "All that the
LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient." 8 And Moses took the blood and threw it on the
people and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made
with you in accordance with all these words." (ESV)
But it
proved impossible for them to overcome their sinful natures and soon they were
breaking the commandments with a level of idolatry and immorality that led to
divine judgment (Ex. 32).”
I will end here and Lord willing
pick up the rest in tomorrow morning’s SD.
3/23/2026
7:48 PM
