It is important for us to understand what changed between the Old Covenant and the New. God’s plan has been unfolding since he first revealed it to Abraham. The step into the New Covenant after Christ came was the biggest ‘covenant upgrade’. I say ‘upgrade’ because it is not that the New Covenant cancels out the Old Covenant. Rather, the New Covenant fulfils and subsumes the Old Covenant. Paul illustrates the nature of the New Covenant upgrade here in Galatians 4. He likens it to an heir who comes of age so that he is able to receive his estate. He was still a son and heir before, and the estate still was marked out for him. But, until he came of age, he could not receive full rights to the estate. Paul says that, since Christ has come, we now have the full rights of ‘sonship’. He uses this gender specific word (vs. 26 – although it has been changed in some translations) because in those days the eldest son always inherited the family estate. But, in Christ, he then says, there is no male or female (vs.28). We are all heirs in Christ. The greatest blessing of ‘sonship’ is the right to receive the Spirit of God, to bear God’s Spirit in our own hearts, and to exercise God’s authority as his children on earth. Don’t take on another day without the Spirit-empowerment that is available to you as a child of God. God gives his Spirit to those who seek him earnestly..
Seek God for greater strength and clarity for today.
Read Galatians 3:26-4:11
