A new covenant a new inheritance

²⁹ “In those days they will not say again,
‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
And the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

^{This passage, which again comes from the daily reading in the One Year Bible, speaks to us comparing the difference between the old covenant, the promises God made to the nation of Israel when He delivered them from Egypt , and the new covenant He would establish, the one we live under. Under the old covenant God's promises were conditional. The people were required to live according to the law. The law began with the 10 commandments, but contained a total of 613 regulations or requirements. Obviously they were not able to fulfill all of these requirements, which is what brought God to the place of promising this new covenant.}

^{Jesus fulfilled the obligation and requirement of the new covenant. We no longer have to live under the obligation to keep the 613 Levitical laws. We need only to accept Him and the finished work of the cross  as payment for our sin. Accepting Jesus though is more than merely an intellectual acknowledgement. It is making Him Lord of our lives.}

^{Verses 29 and 30 above speak of another difference between the old and the new covenant. Under the old covenant there were generational blessings and curses. The sin of one person could cause many future generations to live under the curse of that sin. In the same way God might bless the faithfulness of one person extending His blessing to future generations. Under the new covenant, the one we live under each one is responsible for themselves only.  None of us need to live under the curse of past generations. This is not to say that we are not in many ways influenced by, and have life consequences of decisions that were made by our parents or grand parents. We certainly see the generational affects of things like divorce, addictions and abuse. There is however a difference between the consequences of these poor decisions and actions and our living under a generational curse. Under a generational curse there was nothing that could be done by the new generation to lift the effects.}

^{We, because we have Jesus as the one who fulfills the obligation of the covenant can choose to accept the new inheritence we have in Him. We break off the generational things which try to remain in our lives. Spiritually we become children of God through Christ. Romans 8:16-17 says.    16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.}  

^{We need only to look at the lineage or genealogy of Christ to see  many things that are literally redeemed through the new inheritence of Christ's  bloodline.}

^{So for you today, even if you live under  some of the darkest and most dire consequences of the sins of previous generations, know that you are not doomed to continue to live under that generational curse. There is a new inheritence in Jesus Christ. He came to redeem and restore all that is lost and broken. There is one thing we need to do to receive our new inheritence though. We need to take all of the hurts and wounds we have suffered at the hands of others, all the physical and  emotional pain and suffering we have experienced, and along with our own sin lay it at the cross of Jesus. He can not redeem what we refuse to release. If we hold others under the judgment of the law we keep ourselves there also. In order to walk in the fullness of the blessing of the new covenant we need to let go of all the hurt and pain. We need to release both it and those who caused it at the cross of Christ.}

^{Unfortunately not every life circumstance changes as we receive our new inheritance. But we change. As we daily choose to walk in the fullness of the blessings we have in Christ we are changed and transformed, bit by bit, day by day we begin to look more like Christ and less like our old self.}