Song (Click to listen): Love grew, where the blood fell. Flowers of hope sprang up from sin and misery. Sin died, where the blood fell. I’m so glad, his precious blood covers me.

God is a righteous God; he is morally perfect and blameless. The God of the old covenant of Abraham and Moses is the same God of the new covenant of Jesus. The God of the old covenant required righteousness and the God of the new covenant also requires righteousness. The bible provides numerous accounts of the requirements God made of his people to even approach him to offer sacrifices of any type.

Since God is a spiritual being he requires spiritual interactions such as sacrifices, praises, and offerings. In the old covenant these tributes were offered to God by priests; and they were for many reasons. Some for honoring God and giving thanks, others for forgiveness for offenses made against God. Only servants of his temple could even approach him, priests from a specific tribe would minister to God in his sanctuary on behalf of people.

In Ezekiel 44:15-16, God describes in a vision to Ezekiel what he requires, “But the Levitical priests, who are descendants of Zadok and who guarded my sanctuary when the Israelites went astray from me, are to come near to minister before me; they are to stand before me to offer sacrifices of fat and blood, declares the Sovereign Lord, they alone are to enter my sanctuary; they alone are to come near my table to minister before me and serve me as guards.”

This entire chapter of Ezekiel details the regulations required of servants consecrated to serve only God. Ezekiel 44:23 says, “They are to teach my people the difference between the holy and the common and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean.”

Priests could not have any other occupation, Ezekiel 44:28-30 says, “I am to be the only inheritance the priests have. You are to give them no possession in Israel; I will be their possession. They will eat the grain offerings, the sin offerings, and the guilt offerings; and everything in Israel devoted to the Lord will belong to them. The best of all the first fruits and of all your special gifts will belong to the priests. You are to give them the first portion of your ground meal so that a blessing may rest on your household.”

In this new covenant of God, Jesus is the great high priest that ministers to God on behalf of the new Israel, the entire body of Christ, that is: everyone in the community of believers who believe in Jesus. God has given all power and authority on earth into his (Jesus’) hands.

Jesus, as the righteousness of God, is morally perfect and blameless and has made those who believe in him blameless by his blood sacrifice that covers guilt. Where formerly only priests could stand before God or have access to the spiritual creator of all things, Jesus has now, through his sacrifice, created access. Jesus has lifted the veil that separates mankind from God to approach God’s throne boldly as sons and heirs in the kingdom of God, and what Jesus has revealed, through his biblical teachings, is that God’s throne is a place where mercy, grace and loving kindness is endless [Matthew 27:50-53; Psalms 103; Psalms 136].

Jesus teaches that God’s mercy is so great that he even eats at tables with sinners. There is a biblical account of Levi, a tax collector in Israel [Luke 5:27-32], a person not well favored then as they are unfavored in modern times, because they were notorious for cheating people out of their possessions. They were considered, immoral, wicked and sinners. The vision of Ezekiel in Ezekiel 45 offers a glimpse of how leaders had mistreated their authority to compel the people of Israel to contribute more than their share to the treasury fattening the pockets of all involved. Ezekiel 45:9-10 says, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You have gone far enough, princes of Israel! Give up your violence and oppression and do what is just and right. Stop dispossessing my people, declares the Sovereign Lord. You are to use accurate scales.”

Levi was a man whose job it was to take an account of the assets belonging to the people in the region and to require tribute from everyone in his region, to pay to the reigning king’s treasury. Jesus approaches this man and says to him, I represent a kingdom that is making a requirement of you. I am asking you to put your trust in God, alone and not in your wealth or in your job.

Jesus said to Levi, I am the king of kings, the benefits and promises of my kingdom extend to all who put their trust in me and I, maker of heaven and earth, will be their possession and I, the giver of knowledge, will give council and teach wisdom, will guide leaders in my way. Luke 5:28 says that when Jesus asks Levi to follow him, Levi left everything he had put his faith in and followed Jesus.

In the old covenant God required sacrifices and offerings for sin and for thanksgiving. In the new covenant of Jesus God is not asking people to leave their jobs, he is asking for your heart, for you to put your faith in him. If you are able to give praise to leaders and honor them, now that you have access to God, what will you offer him?

In Luke 5:29 Levi’s response was to throw Jesus it says, “a great banquet” and invited all his peers to celebrate Jesus with him. In Luke 5:30 the teachers of the law were complaining that Jesus and his disciples were at a celebration with sinners. They could not see that Levi and those they were calling sinners Jesus had approved of because their hearts and minds were willing to follow him. They came together to worship and give thanks for him.

This is why Jesus says to the teachers of the law, the self-righteous who put their faith in laws and not in Jesus, in Matthew 21:31 “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.”

The teachers of the law asked, “why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus responds that sinners are who need to repent, not the righteous. The priests wanted to know, why are you hanging out with them and not with us? Jesus says, I did not come to earth for people who put their faith in laws or believe that they are righteous because of the laws. I came for people who know they are sinners. The teachers of the law believed that they were righteous because of their works, so Jesus said, you have your own physician, in the law. But I came for everyone else who sees me as a greater physician than the law that heals and restores. I came for people who know they are sinners and want to sit, eat and drink with me (Jesus). The teachers of the law would never look to Jesus for salvation because their salvation is in the law.

Jesus says to them you have gotten your righteousness and reward already from men and laws, but my kingdom, the one that God accepts, is not through the old covenant it is through me. Sinners who look to me will not be put to shame [Romans 10:1-13]. Sinners who follow me will eat of my bread that brings life [John 6:32-40]. The living water that flows to eternal life will flow from them because they hunger and thirst for my presence and not salvation through works, sacrifices and offerings [John 7:37-38]. In this new covenant, Jesus is the only offering God accepts. Jesus is the one responsible cleansing, for turning sins white as snow before God, not our own actions, not the priesthood and not the law. Jesus is the great high priest of a new covenant [Hebrews 5:1-10].

If you are righteous in your own righteousness Jesus said I am not here for you, I didn’t come for the self-righteous; I came for those who know they are sinners and look to me to cover their sin. Who, when I say follow me, they put their hearts and minds to following me, to trusting me, they celebrate me and, like Levi, call all their friends to join in celebrating me. This is the will of God.

True followers see Jesus and then do as he does, live a life that recognizes God’s new covenant of Jesus as victor and savior, praising and celebrating him. True followers, speak about what Jesus has done, testify of his mercy and grace, and share the good news of this new covenant so that more sinners will believe and have faith.

The teachers of the law, their righteousness was through their commitment to following laws and customs, one of which is to only associate with people who follow Jewish customs. They would not sit at a table with people who they believed were sinners, but Jesus said, I sit, eat and drink with sinners because they have more faith in me than you do. They have turned from themselves to believing in me to give them access to the promises of the kingdom of God. They are willing to bring together their associates and testify of my goodness and mercy to them. I sit with sinners because they love me. I do not sit with the self-righteous because they love laws and works more than me.

The teachers of the Jewish law asked Jesus why he doesn’t follow the traditions of John the Baptist and of the Pharisees [Luke 5:33-39]. They asked him why don’t you do the things that we do? Why are you so different? Why are you celebrating when we are fasting? Why are you eating and drinking with sinners when we are told not to associate with them? Why aren’t you fasting with us?

Jesus says to them, in Luke 5:34, I am the bridegroom of a new covenant. God is making a new commitment and a new promise to the children of God. Before Jesus, the children of God made sacrifices to God for sins and offerings. Now Jesus is saying the fulfillment of the law is with you and this good news message brings a time to celebrate [Luke 5:34].

Then Jesus tells two parables to help them understand what this new covenant is like. Who he is now to the world [Luke 5:34-36]. The first is about using new cloth to patch old clothes. He says there is a common understanding that no one uses new cloth to patch old clothes. He says no one uses something new to patch the old because it won’t match. No, they replace the old with the new. Jesus’ covenant and sacrifice replaces the old covenant because he has fulfilled the requirement of the law through his death and resurrection.

The second example Jesus gives that he is the new covenant to replace the old is Luke 5:37, where he says no one puts new wine into old wine skins, because when you do the new wine destroys the old container and the wine pours out. Luke 5:38, “No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.” Jesus is the new wine come to replace the old wine, but he warns the teachers of the law, who put their faith in the traditions of fasting and the traditions of the Pharisees and the traditions of John the Baptist more than him, that you, teachers of the law, you are like the old wine and when the new wine is given, the new covenant of Jesus to set up a new way of access to God through the sacrifice of Jesus, you refuse me and my new covenant because you say, “after drinking the old wine that the old is better” than the new [Luke 5:39]. But Jesus has come to testify that the new wine, the new covenant that he represents as the great high priest, is better.

“By calling this covenant ‘new’ he (Jesus) has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear” [Hebrews 8:13]. “But in fact, the ministry Jesus has received is superior to theirs. As the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises” [Hebrews 8:6].

“What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.

For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.

Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.

But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.

Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. So, in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:17-29

Prayer: I believe that Jesus’ sacrifice was for me; and the promise of salvation is mine. Thank you, Heavenly Father, that when you see the blood stain of Jesus on my life you remember your promise, forgive my sins and make me clean; able to sit at your table and feast with you.

Song (Click to listen): What a blessing in Jesus I’ve found. Oh what peace and love all around. His great mercies unfolds. He has riches untold. What a blessing in Jesus, I’ve found.