“Christ is the Mediator of a new covenant… It means that God brings about our inner transformation by the Spirit of Christ.” – John Piper (pg. 29)
The birth of Christ is the full revelation of the glory of God. This revelation comes to us, as a real concrete reality – that we can live, breath, and be. Once, our forefathers struggled with the shadow of this reality, in rituals, forms and ‘types of Christ’. But Jesus Christ, in His incarnation, death and resurrection, replaced these shadows with Himself, and established the ‘Kingdom come’ – the real thing.
What this revelation ultimately means is that – this real thing, is made real for you and me. And we partake in this reality, by the transformation, or more appropriately – regeneration, the Holy Spirit does in us. This is the new covenant purchased by the blood of Christ.
“Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant [this is the purchase of the new covenant], even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Heb 13:20-21, ESV)
God has raised a great Shepherd, and through Him, we are no longer in the condition where we have to wrestle with a superimposed law. No. YHWH declared, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jer 31:33, ESV) And in the book of Hebrews we find, “I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds” (Heb 10:16, ESV) And so, in this new covenant we find, “Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will… which is pleasing in His sight”. In other words, Christ is not only the one who makes salvation a reality for us. But He makes, salvation a reality in us. Christ makes our transformation real, not by our own strength, but by the grace of God.
Piper writes, “So the meaning of Christmas is not only that God replaces shadows with Reality, but also that he takes the reality and makes it real to his people. He writes it on our hearts. He does not lay… salvation and transformation down for you to pick up in your own strength. He picks it up and puts in your heart and in your mind, and seals to you that you are a child of God.” (pg. 30) Praise YHWH! How amazing is that? And that is the literal transformation, He makes it real in the lives of His chosen ones. Have you experience such real transformation yet? Let us pray and seek such glorious ends to our lives.
Note: All of Piper’s quotations are from “Good News of Great Joy”
Read previous entries in this Series:
(i) Introduction: What Christ wants this Christmas (ii) December 1: Prepare the Way (iii) December 2: Mary’s Magnificent God (iv) December 3: The Confidence of Redeeming Hope (v) December 4: A Big God for Little People (vi) December 5: What He Willed to do (vii) December 6: Peace to those with whom He is pleased (viii) December 7: Messiah of all (ix) December 8: Christ is Central in Christmas(x) December 9: Two Kinds of Oppositions (xi) December 10: Our Treasure (xii) December 11: Why Jesus came (xiii) December 12: Replacing the Shadows (xiv) December 13: Christ, the Real Thing, the Perfect Priest
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