The New Covenant—the very foundation of our salvation—is not a series of individual covenants that God has with each of us. Instead, it’s a single, unbreakable covenant made between God and Jesus, who serves as our representative. As Galatians 3:16 points out, "Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, 'And to offsprings,' referring to many, but referring to one, 'And to your offspring,' who is Christ." This covenant is not dependent on our individual efforts to keep it; it’s upheld by Jesus’ perfect obedience and faithfulness.
In John 15:4, Jesus says, "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me." Here, Jesus invites us to abide in Him, to remain connected to Him like branches to a vine. The fruit of our lives—our spiritual growth, our obedience, our faith—isn’t something we produce on our own. It comes from being in Christ, from being part of the covenant that He upholds.
When we understand this, we realize that our salvation, our eternal life, isn’t something we earn or maintain through our own strength. Ephesians 2:8-9 reminds us, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Salvation is a gift, given freely by God, and it’s grounded in Jesus’ work, not ours.
But does this mean that salvation is unconditional? Not quite. While it’s true that we can’t earn our salvation, the Bible also teaches that there are conditions to being in Christ. In Romans 10:9-10, we read, "If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." The condition is clear: Jesus must be Lord of our lives before He is our Savior. To be in Christ, to be part of the covenant and have eternal life, we must repent (Acts 2:38), do His will (Matthew 7:21), and forsake all for Him (Luke 14:33).
This brings us to another profound truth: our very life, even eternal life, is found in Jesus alone. The Bible tells us that only Jesus possesses immortality in and of Himself. In 1 Timothy 6:16, we learn that He "alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light." This idea is further explained in 2 Timothy 1:10, where it’s revealed that Jesus "has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." Nowhere in Scripture does it say that we are inherently immortal or possess eternal life on our own. Instead, eternal life is always described as being in Jesus and becomes ours only as we are in Him. As 1 John 5:11 says, "And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." Likewise, Jesus declares in John 5:26, "For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself." Our immortality, therefore, is not something we possess independently; it is found only through our union with Christ.
Understanding this leads us to a deeper truth: the New Covenant is not about what we do or don’t do to secure our salvation. It’s about whether we are in Christ, who has already secured the covenant. The apostle Paul explains this in Romans 11, using the analogy of an olive tree. Some branches are broken off, and others are grafted in, but it’s not the branches that determine the tree’s life; it’s the root. Jesus is that root, and we are the branches. "If some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them... do not boast against the branches" (Romans 11:17-18).
If we turn away from Jesus, we risk being cut off, not because the covenant is broken, but because we’ve separated ourselves from the source of life. But even then, the covenant itself remains firm, upheld by Jesus. This is why it’s so important to stay connected to Him, to continue in faith and obedience, not out of fear, but out of love and trust in the One who keeps us secure.
So, what does this mean for us? It means that our focus shouldn’t be on whether we’re doing enough to keep our covenant with God, as if it all depended on our efforts. Instead, our focus should be on abiding in Christ, staying in Him, and trusting that He has already accomplished what we could never do on our own. As Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:12-13, "If we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself."
These verses remind us that while God’s faithfulness is unchanging and rooted in His very nature, this faithfulness is not a blanket assurance that excuses individual unfaithfulness. God will uphold the New Covenant in Christ, not because of our perfection, but because of His own unwavering character. Yet, this faithfulness calls us to a serious commitment: to endure, to remain in Him, and not to deny the One who has given everything for us. The covenant stands because Jesus stands. The question is, are we in Him—abiding in His life and faithfulness, knowing that in Him alone we find our true security?
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