The Christmas Covenant Broken?

Psalm 89

Last week's sermon looked at the birth of Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of a covenant (rather than as a gift or a promise). In this way, we saw that there was some kind of a requirement associated with the Christmas covenant. The lingering question has been: were we (or Israel) able to keep our end of the covenant?

This week's sermon will reflect on Psalm 89 for that answer. We, like Israel, unfortunately failed miserably to uphold the covenant. Even though God has been unwaveringly faithful to us and his holiness demands our utmost loyalty, we forsook and violated the law, love, and faithfulness of God. As a result, the Christmas covenant was severely challenged and almost broken because of our sin.

Praise God, however, that he nevertheless upholds this covenant! He did so by sending his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to fulfill our part of the covenant. Jesus Christ intervened in the midst of our hopelessness by living in perfect obedience to do what we repeatedly failed to do. Though we still struggle with sin, we can have confidence and assurance that God will be faithful to us because of what Christ has done, is currently doing, and will ultimately do for our salvation!

Questions:

1. What would our lives be like if our covenant with God were based solely on our abilities?

2. As we know later in Scripture and as we reflect upon this Christmas season, we see that Jesus Christ fulfills the covenant on our behalf. Even though we repeatedly fail, he intervened and lived the perfect life of obedience for us, ultimately dying for our sins and resurrecting to give us his Spirit. What are some specific ways that this grace should impact our lives?

3. The gospel of Jesus Christ emphasizes that salvation is outside of ourselves: from the moment we have been conceived in our mother's womb to when we breathe our last breath, we are an utterly hopeless people who are desperately in need of God's grace. Is this more humbling or reassuring for you?