God has always wanted a people to call His own. Grace is approaching the living God, in purity of heart and mind, drawing near to Him, to fellowship with Him, as friends. Adam and Eve were the first people to have grace from God, as He walked with them in the Garden. Eve gave this grace up for knowledge, and Adam gave this up for Eve. Enoch walked with God, and then he was no more, for God had taken him. Noah walked with God, and God saved him and his family from the destruction of the world. Abraham walked with God, and God gave him very great promises. Issac and Jacob and Joseph walked with God. Moses walked with God, and God heard the cries of the people in their captivity, the children of Israel, and sent Moses to deliver them out of their bondage. And He chose them to be His people, and made a covenant with them, but they did not want to walk with God. They were afraid. They could see the holy mountain, and the lightnings and the thunders and the shaking of the ground. They wanted nothing to do with God, just like Adam and Eve in the garden after they came aware of the knowledge of good and evil. They knew that they were naked, sinful, and that God had just reason to slay them. They told Moses to not let God speak to them lest they die. All of these are examples of grace with God, both successful and failed.
Along comes Jesus. He turns everything upside down. Why? Because the people had developed a religion, with a Law given by God, to identify them as God's people. Were they under grace? No, because they could not draw near to God, only the high priest, once a year, and only with the shedding of blood. And if the high priest went into the holy place with doubt or unrighteousness, then he died in that holy place. They were God's people, but they had a very strained relationship with Him, not really grace. Jesus upset things so bad because He claimed to have comunnication with God, actually said that God spoke to Him and through Him, and even worse, that He was God's Son. Well, that not only made Him a false prophet, but a heretic, a liar, because everyone knew that to be God's Son made one God. And that just could not be. And so, Jesus was crucified, not because these men crucified Him, but because He gave Himself up to be our sacrifice, in order that we could have grace with God. Yes, that is right, so that we could become the people of God, those whom He could commumicate with, we would hear His voice, and not be afraid and close our hearts against Him. What God has wanted all along, a people who love Him, like the Father that He is.
That old covenant was a picture of what those who would be God's people would look like. I believe that if the people, upon hearing the first words of the covenant had said in their hearts, sure, lets do it, then God would have made it possible for them to try. But they turned away from God, and hardened their hearts, and rejected Him, His voice to them, and God made the covenant impossible to keep, because the people had already rejected the reason for the covenant in the first place.
Now God has put into place a new covenant, not like the first covenant, but much better, because the completion of the work of the covenant has already been accomplished, by Jesus. And we have been placed in fact, in His completion of the covenant, and He is the strength and the power of the works of the covenant, in us. And our place in these things? To draw near to our heavenly Father, to live with Him and in Him through Christ Jesus, to love Him and be with Him, as His people. Grace.
simply doing what he has called me to do God bless you all. In Christ, Brother Travis.