New Covenant

The Lord’s Supper

The Lord’s Supper is about Jesus reassuring us of his love and his grace by the repetition of these simple words and actions. “This is my body, which is for you.” Do not forget this! This is at the center. This is at the core of our spiritual wellbeing. This is what Jesus wants us to be reminded of again and again and again. This is what we are prone to forget. This is what the devil wants us to forget. The natural drift of our hearts is to forget this truth and to begin to think in terms of earning God’s favor.
— Rev. Jerry Hamstra

Hebrews 8

Read: Hebrews 8

That is what is promised to us in the new covenant and sealed to us in our baptism. Our baptism reminds us and confirms to us that through faith our sins are actually dealt with once and for all time. The forgiveness that is signified and sealed to us in our baptism is based on the reality of Jesus fully and finally paying the penalty for our sins. Because God’s justice has been served by Jesus’s death, that same justice requires that our sins can never be counted against us. And that registers in our own consciences so that the peace that we experience is much deeper and more profound than what was possible under the old covenant relationship between God and his people.
— Rev. Jerry Hamstra

Christ the End of the Law

Read: Romans 10

But what Paul is emphasizing here is the fact that one of the key purposes of God’s law is to lead us to Christ and Paul expresses that here by saying that Christ is the end of the law. God’s law shows us how sinful we are so that we will see that we need Christ’s righteousness in order to be saved. And if we understand that clearly and we are trusting in Christ, we can sing, “It is well with my soul.” That is a wonderful practical result of understanding the different ways the law is intended to function in the lives of believers.
— Rev. Jerry Hamstra