Troublesome Topic: Faith

Once again the New Covenant instructs us on how to approach a holy and powerful God. We must do so with a sincere and genuine faith, not something put on so others can see it.

Matthew 6:6

Translation

But you, when you pray, enter

into your room and, having shut the door, pray to your Father, to the one who is hidden from sight, and your Father, who sees in the places that are hidden from sight, will reward you.

Paraphrase

But you should be different. When you pray, go deep into the most secluded room of your house, shut the door so no one can see you, then pray to your Father, to the one who is also hidden from sight, and then your Father, the one who sees what happens even in places that are hidden from the sight of others, will reward you.

Matthew 6:16

Translation

Whenever you fast, do not be gloomy like the hypocrites, they make their faces become unsightly

so that they will appear to men as fasting. Let me tell you, they have their reward.

Paraphrase

When you fast, do not put a gloomy look on your face like the hypocrites do; they purposefully don’t take care of their faces in order to make their faces something that should be hidden from sight; they do this so that people will know they are fasting. I’ll tell you what, they have already received all the reward they are going to get.

He gave other examples, such as the admonition to not worry.

Matthew 6:25

Translation

For this I say to you, Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?

Paraphrase

Here is what I have to say to you, Do not worry about the cares of life, for instance, don’t worry about whether you will have enough food to eat or something to drink; also don’t worry about having enough clothes to cover your body. Don’t you realize that there is more to life than food, and more to your body than the clothes you put on it?

After this Jesus gave the example of the little birds and how well God takes care of them. If God provides for the little birds, surely He will provide us with what He knows we need, although not what we want or think we need.

Just like the Former Covenant, the New Covenant has conditions that must be followed by those who are subject to His covenant.

Too many times we have been led to believe that the New Covenant is simply God’s promise to us, or God’s provision of salvation (only a Royal Grant covenant). To the contrary, be assured that this was indeed a combination of a Royal Grant and a covenant between a suzerain (God) and many vassals (us). Therefore, in order to receive the blessings of the covenant, we must follow the covenant conditions. The teaching of the New Covenant is not just joy and inspiration; it also includes aspects that make us say “ouch.”

The next lesson in all three series on Covenants is: Jesus Had the Authority to Cut a New Covenant

Footnotes

1

This verb and it prefix mean “go into” but it is followed by the word “into,” so “enter into” is used to convey the meaning in English. The use of the word “into” twice in a row was a form of emphasis, Go as far away from the eyes of others as possible.

2

The verb I have rendered as “Make (it) something that should be hidden from sight,” comes from the verb “To make unseen, to make disappear, to deprive of luster, to destroy, to render unsightly.”