What Are Christians Obligated to Do in the New Covenant?

What are Christians obligated to do as part of the New Covenant? 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. You can watch us right now on YouTube and send us a message that way. And of course, you can email us with your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up, let's go to a voicemail we received from one of our listeners.

This is Lori in Michigan. And my husband and I were just looking at Genesis 6 verses 1 and 2, where the Bible refers to the sons of God, plural. And we were wondering exactly what that means. So I know you just preached on Genesis, not too long ago. So I thought you might have some insights on that. If you could please explain, we'd appreciate it. Thanks so much and have a blessed day.

Hey, thank you so much for giving us a call with that question. And I did just recently preach through Genesis chapter six, beginning of verse one, it says, Now when man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive, and they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh and his day shall be 120 years. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of man, and they bore children to them.

These were mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. And then the passage goes on to say in verse five, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now there is controversy about the identity of the sons of God here and what precisely is going on. There are some people who will say, well, the sons of God here are a reference to angels. And there are many places in the scriptures where the angelic hosts are referred to as the sons of God.

You see this in the book of Job, you see this in the Psalms as well. And so there is evidence in Bible that the sons of God refers to angelic beings. There are others who take this as the sons of God being sort of intermarrying between the two lines, the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, this sort of mixed marriages that lead to corruption in the world. The Sethite, the good line, marrying the Cainite line, and then corrupting the godly line. So there are others who view it as that's what's happening here. And then there are others who refer to the sons of God or view the sons of God as these mighty rulers. Sometimes kings we were referred to in this time as the sons of God. And so those are the three primary interpretations that are out there.

And each of them have strengths and weaknesses, frankly. Now what's helpful, and this is what I focused on when I preached through Genesis chapter six, is that regardless of which one of those we embrace, which one of those views related to the sons of God that we embrace, the end product is all the same. What's happening here on earth at this time is a corruption, in particular a corruption of marriage and proper marriage practices. Sexual immorality was growing more and more rampant. That really is what's being focused on here, and that's why verse five says God looks at this, whatever was going on there, and he sees the wickedness of man as it's growing. And this is ultimately the sort of catalyst that leads to the flood, God judging the entire world through the flood.

And so I think the best thing to do is, because there is, as I said, debate about how to identify the sons of God here, I think the best thing to do is to say, look, here's the focus of the text. Man was growing more and more sinful apart from God and turning away from the Lord. And marriage, sexuality, was being corrupted more and more, and that led to God's judgment. And that's, I think, what Moses, who wrote Genesis, is highlighting here. And the fact of the matter is Jesus in the New Testament, when he talks about the second coming, he says it's going to be like the days of Noah. And the reality is we can look around us today and we see the same kinds of sexual perversions and immoralities being embraced by society, by so many people. And so I think it's really important that we recognize that that's the focus of this text, is that sin leads to God's judgment. And what was happening there in Genesis is just a sort of progression, a steady progression downward.

And mankind was growing further and further away from the Lord. So thank you for your question and for that call. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our phone lines are open right now.

If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, we would love to hear from you. Here's the phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE, and our phone lines will be open for the next 15 minutes or so.

Again, it's 833-THE-CORE, which translates into 833-843-2673. Let's go to Mike in Kansas City, Missouri. Mike, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Hello, thank you for taking my call. I recently heard Pastor Adriel say that God alone makes the choice for who is saved and that he saves people, and it has nothing at all to do with us or our decision or everything. It's all God. And I'm kind of researching this because when I was first saved, I thought, you know, that God wanted everyone to be saved. Like 2 Peter 3-9 says that God desires all men to repent and come to the knowledge of the truth. But then I've been reading lately about other denominations that say, no, God does everything. You have nothing at all to do with it. He chooses who's going to be saved and who's going to be lost, and God does not want some people to be saved, and he deliberately passes them over so they cannot be saved.

Could you explain this to me so I can understand it better? Yeah, Mike, let me do my best, and I really appreciate your question. And of course, I want to speak the words of Holy Scripture. So when we talk about God choosing people for salvation, I don't want it to be Pastor Adriel's word. I want it to be the words of Jesus or the words of the Apostle Paul. And we can look in Scripture and see the Scriptures speak in this way.

I may have gone, I'm not sure what particular broadcast you were listening to, but I might have gone to Ephesians chapter 1, where Paul says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. See, right there, Paul's the one who says, God chose us in him in Christ before the foundation of the world. In love, he predestined us.

And this isn't a strange idea. Under the Old Covenant, in the Old Testament, God set his particular love on Israel as a nation. In Deuteronomy, he says, look, the reason you were chosen, this is what Moses says to the Israelites, is not because you were greater than any other nation. It wasn't because you were more righteous or had more numbers than the other nations. God chose to set his love on you because it was what he chose to do. It was in line with the promise he had made to our forefathers. And so this idea of God calling a people out to himself, choosing people for salvation, isn't foreign to scripture. Now, at the same time, Mike, we're wrestling to be faithful to the whole of scripture.

And scripture is also absolutely clear that each and every one of us are responsible to the Lord and before the Lord for our actions. And so you have, sometimes people will say, this is a tension. In one sense, we are free. Now, even our freedom has limitations. I'm not free to sprout wings and fly.

I can't do that. And I'm also not free to save myself. I can't, because I'm dead in sin. That's what Paul's going to say later in Ephesians 2, verse 1.

You were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked. So it's really important that I think we understand some of those things. And so we're not trying to do away with human responsibility. All people are called to repent, to turn to Christ. There is this real free offer of the gospel that goes out, that's been secured for us by the work of Jesus Christ. But then at the same time, we know that salvation is all of grace. And again, I'm just hammering away in the book of Ephesians here, what Paul says in chapter 2, verse 8, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works.

In other words, it's not because of something that you did. That's not why God set His love on you, why He chose you, why He saved you. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Now, again, to your question, brother, I know that for many people, they hear this, this idea of God choosing for salvation, and it concerns them. And they think, well, boy, what if He didn't choose me?

That kind of fear. And if I was first wrestling with this concept, and I was reading some of these passages, Ephesians chapter 1, Romans chapter 9, it was a question that I had as well. But the reality is, as we can see God working in us, if you believe in Jesus Christ, that's because the Spirit of God has worked in you.

God has given you this gift, this new birth. And so we can be confident, I think, brother, that we are and have been received into the family of God because we see God at work in our lives and because we have the promise of the gospel. And so, Mike, I appreciate, again, you calling and asking about some of these passages of scripture. What do you think about that text that I just read from Ephesians chapter 1, where Paul talks about the fact that we have been chosen in Jesus? Well, I mean, it's very clear that God did that, and God does all of that.

I agree with that. I was just wondering what you would think about, you know, how you would explain 2 Peter 3-9, not to be contentious, but just, you know, like how to answer people when they bring that specific script, or that God, 1 John 2-2, where it says Jesus died for the sins of all men, the whole world. Yeah, I appreciate it, and I just appreciate your heart, too, brother, in asking these questions. I know you're not trying to be contentious. We are just looking at the scriptures and wanting to exposit them faithfully. And so you look at a passage like 2 Peter 3-9, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

And I think in a real sense, you see this all over the place, right? God does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked. We can say that in terms of how God has revealed himself to us, that God does will, in one sense, all people to be saved, and he calls the whole world to repentance and faith. Now, the big question, you know, the rub is, well, then why aren't all people saved? And I do believe that God, 1, is not obligated to save anyone. It's his free and sovereign grace that he fets on individuals. He's not obligated to save us. If God left us to ourselves, you know, that would be totally just.

And yet he doesn't. So often he reaches down to us, in his son he reached down to us so that he might redeem us. And then related to the text that you mentioned in 1 John, you know, the way I think it's helpful to articulate this is the death of Christ is sufficient to atone, you know, for the sins of the entire world, but it's efficient only for those who belong to Jesus. That is, it's effective only for those who are redeemed. Christ's blood, because he's the eternal son of God, is of infinite value. And so I think it's helpful to make that distinction. It isn't that Jesus's death on the cross just effectively saved everyone on planet earth, regardless of whether or not they had faith.

It's of infinite value, but it's efficient only for the children of the living God. And so, again, Mike, really appreciate your calling in and your questions, brother, and may the Lord bless you as you continue to dig into the scriptures, and may he grant us all wisdom to grow in our understanding every single day. God bless. Hey, Mike, thanks so much for your call. Let's send Mike a copy of the book, Core Christianity, from our good friend Mike, who has written just really, I think, probably the seminal work on helping us understand the core tenets of the faith.

So if you'll hang on there, Mike, we'll get that off in the mail to you. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. And if you are new to the program, or if you're one of our regular listeners, we want to let you know that we are a listener-supported ministry. And that means we count on people just like you to keep this program on the air. And right now we've got something we'd love to tell you about involving the Revelation Bible study.

Yeah, just backing up a little bit there, Bill, we are a listener-supported program. Every article on our website, every resource we produce, we really want to help you grow in your understanding of the gospel, the core message of the Christian faith. And if you've benefited from Core Christianity, if you've enjoyed listening to this broadcast, would you consider sending a gift now to help us continue? This year, Core Christianity released our Bible study on the book of Revelation. And for a donation of $20 or more, we'll send you this brand new study on the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. I mean, a book that we oftentimes get questions about, a prophetic book, a book with a lot of symbolism. And so I think this Bible study, this resource will really be a blessing to you. And again, to get this gift, you can get it for a donation of $20 or more.

And thank you for your support helping to keep us on the air. This is truly a wonderful resource for helping you understand the book of Revelation. And to help us on our mission and to request a copy of that Revelation Bible study, just head over to corechristianity.com forward slash revelation.

That's corechristianity.com forward slash revelation. Or you can call us for that offer or any one of our offers at this number. It's 833-843-2673. You want to spell it out on your phone.

It is 833-THE-CORE. Well, let's go to a voicemail we received from Eddie in Monterey Park, California. Hey guys, thank you for listening to my question. Hopefully you get to answer it.

All right. Regarding in Jeremiah, verses 29 to 34, we get to speak about the new covenant that the Lord is going to make with his people. My question was, what would be the main or the specific differences between the new covenant and the old covenant? Also in verse 34, it reads, people will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. Anyways, most of my previous interpretations have been wrong, so I look forward to your response, and thank you again. Be blessed. I've been praying for you guys, and your show has been more than encouraging in my Christian walk.

Thank you so much. Man, thank you for those encouraging words, and you've brought us to a wonderful passage of scripture, a wonderful prophecy in Jeremiah chapter 31, where Jeremiah is given this word from the Lord. Verse 31, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.

Now, so the first thing I would just say is here you have this contrast between the covenant that was made with the people of God upon their departure from Egypt, the Mosaic covenant, the old covenant, and this new covenant that God is about to make. 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. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.

For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Now, there are a number of places in the Old Testament that talk about explicitly or allude to this new covenant all throughout the prophets in particular, but even in places like the book of Deuteronomy, in Deuteronomy chapter 30. You do see it also in Joel chapter 2, the promise of the Spirit to be poured out on all flesh. You see this in the book of Ezekiel, but here again, very specifically in Jeremiah chapter 31. And I think the first thing to note is, as I've already said, that it's contrasted with the old covenant that was broken. Remember the tablets of stone that Moses threw down because the people had committed idolatry? Well, here God says, here's what's going to happen in the new covenant. I'm not going to write my law on tablets of stone.

I'm going to write my law on your heart. Now, this is a really wonderful thing, and what we need to also recognize is this is something that has happened. Jesus, when he instituted the Lord's Supper in the gospels, he said, what did he say? This cup is the new covenant in my blood. That is, the new covenant was affected by Jesus, by his sacrificial death. He has inaugurated it so that now, through him, through his work, we receive the promises that are described here, namely the forgiveness of our sins, the presence, the internalization of the Holy Spirit. God says, I'm going to put my spirit in you.

I'm going to write my law on your heart. And our job, the condition, if you will, under the old covenant, there were all sorts of conditions. You've got to do this, that, and the other, and if you don't, you're going to be cast out of the land, and that's exactly what happened.

The children of Israel were exiled and spit out of the land, if you will, because of their disobedience to God's covenant. Well, here's the condition for us, brothers and sisters. This is how we receive these promises. It's by faith. It's by faith. We come before the Lord.

We come to him in faith, believing in him, and these promises belong to us. Now, you did mention, too, you get to verse 34, and he says, no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest. Now, this language of from the least to the greatest has actually been used throughout the book of Jeremiah. You see it earlier in chapter 8, verse 10, in chapter 9, verse 3. And typically, when Jeremiah would use this least to greatest language, he was talking about how everyone in Israel had basically turned away from the Lord, how they weren't following the Lord.

From the least to the greatest, they were indulging in sin. And so he's talking about this great reversal, this great revival through the work of Christ and through the gift of the Holy Spirit. And, brothers and sisters, we are the recipients of those blessings, of those new covenant blessings.

And so, really a wonderful thing. Also, if you want to see places in the New Testament where it talks about the new covenant, I mentioned Jesus, where he instituted the Lord's Supper. Also, in the book of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 8 in particular, you have this long quotation from Jeremiah 31, and it talks again about the institution of this new covenant making the old covenant obsolete.

And then also in the book of 1 John, John oftentimes in his first letter alludes to the language of the new covenant. Even that verse in verse 34 where it says, you won't need to teach your neighbor or your brother that kind of a thing, but John says, you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you don't have any need that anyone should teach you. There he's just focusing on the fact that God himself, brothers and sisters, teaches us by the grace of his Spirit. It's not a statement that means we don't need to go to church, or don't need good and faithful Bible teachers. He's talking about how the Spirit of God is at work in our hearts to teach us and to lead us. And so, really just absolutely wonderful promises that you and I are the recipients of through Jesus.

Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez. If you have a question, you can always email us. Here's the email address. It's questions at corechristianity.com questions at corechristianity.com.

Here's one from Richard. He says, I'm concerned with the politicization of the evangelical church. Do you feel that politics is forming our theology? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Yeah, absolutely it should be the other way around. I mean, God's Word is the ultimate authority for us. It's what should drive everything in terms of our thinking is the revelation that God has given to us. And so, if an individual is driven primarily by their political party, and they're trying to read the Bible in light of that and to sort of use scripture for the end of helping people to come to the truth of whatever their political convictions are, you know, that's a huge problem.

Scripture, God's Holy Word is meant to shape us and the way we think and the way we live. And even yes, the way we think about politics and engage with broader society. And so, I too am concerned with the sort of politicization of the church where, you know, oftentimes I think pastors can get into this habit of focusing too much on that. And instead of functioning as an ambassador of Christ and a messenger of God's kingdom, we can get caught up in really trying to align ourselves with one political power or another.

And at the end of the day, that's just not what the Lord calls us to do. Now, that's not to say that we ought not to engage in some of these discussions and think about how we can serve our neighbors and what kinds of policies are going to demonstrate love for the people around us, protection for the unborn, those kinds of things. I think it's really important, but you have to ask yourself the question, what's the most important thing to me? What is my identity rooted in? Is it in my political affiliation and party? Or is it in my union with Jesus Christ and being a member of a local church? We have to get our priorities straight, brothers and sisters. We are Christians and we have a primary citizenship in heaven. And we give thanks to the Lord for that and for the grace that we've received. Together.