New Dawn, New Covenant

Open to the Dawn-Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

As the sun rises in the morning, casting its golden light across creation, we are reminded that God is always doing something new. Just as the morning sun breaks the darkness of night, Jesus Christ broke the power of sin and death. Easter isn’t just about celebrating an empty tomb. It’s about a new beginning, a new way of life, a new covenant.

Lamentations 3:22-23 says, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning." God’s mercy is made incarnate through the risen Christ.

Let me take you back to the Upper Room. Jesus, sitting with His disciples, lifts a cup and says, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you" (Luke 22:20). With these words, Jesus initiates something radical — a new contract, a new relationship between God and humanity, signed not in ink, but in blood.

Under the Old Covenant, God gave Israel laws written on stone, sacrifices to atone for sin, and circumcision as a sign of their belonging. But the people struggled. They followed rules, yet their hearts wandered. Jeremiah 31:33 says, "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."

The New Covenant is the fulfillment of that promise. It isn’t about checking religious boxes or wearing outward signs. It’s about God transforming us from the inside out. Romans 2:29 says, "A person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit." The New Covenant is a heart change. It’s spiritual surgery.

That transformation is necessary because of sin. Now let’s be clear: in Hebrew, the word for sin — chatta’ah — means "to miss the mark" or "to fail." Sin isn’t just breaking the rules; it’s failing to trust God with good and bad. It’s doing what looks good to us instead of trusting what God has said is good.

This is the story from the beginning. Adam and Eve took what looked good in their own eyes. Eve looked at the fruit and saw that it was pleasing to the eye and she took it. David when he saw Bathsheba was beautiful he took her (2Samual 11:2). Abraham when he journeyed to Egypt to escape a famine he thought it was good to lie about his wife and tell the Egyptians she was his sister (Gen. 12:10). Samson, when he saw the sweet honey in the carcass of the lion he took it, even though doing so broke his Nazarite vow. On and on, examples are given in the scriptures. We do the same every time we choose selfishness over love, bitterness over forgiveness, pride over humility. But the cross confronts that failure. It shows us that God has not given up on us. In fact, Jesus stepped into our failure and turned it into victory.

Opportunities to seek God’s wisdom came many times for the people of Israel. Abraham, Samson, David, and even Solomon in the later years of his life took what he saw as pleasing and good, but did not remain faithful. They failed, they sinned. That’s what sin is, it’s failure to trust. It’s a failure to trust that God knows what is good and bad. Sin is a failure to live in that faithfulness.

Jesus however, remained faithful. Remember the night Jesus was taken, he knew what was to come and he prayed, “If there is another way, take this cup from me.” Yet unlike all the others before him Jesus was faithful. He said, “Not my will, but your will be done.” That is what it looks like to trust in God and succeed in faithfulness, faithfulness to the point of death. To us, and to all those who witnessed Christ’s death it made no sense. He would die. The Kingdom Jesus promised died with him on the Roman cross. To all who had followed him, all was lost. Even Peter, the night he was taken, drew his sword and sliced off the ear of the high priest’s slave. “Over my dead body.” Peter seemed to say. Luke tells us Jesus said, “Enough of this!” And he reached out and healed the man. Matthew picks up the story, “Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” THAT IT MUST BE SO, . . . Faithfulness. Jesus did not sin, he did not fail.

John tells us, Jesus told his disciples, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” You see God takes defeat and turns it into victory. His ways are not our ways, this is why it takes so much faith and why blessings reside in faithfulness. It will not look good to us. It will confound the wise, but God is good, he is just and we must allow him to make our paths straight. It is in God’s wisdom, that wisdom that will look like foolishness, where we will find life and blessing. It has been a long journey to find that it is God alone, in his wisdom, who makes the paths straight. The journey continues for humanity, but we have hope and are strengthened to know that he makes all things new again. We are being redeemed and participate in that redemption under a new covenant, a new promise.

The resurrection of Jesus is not just about what happened to Him — it’s about what now happens through Him. Jesus didn’t rise from the grave to start a religion. He rose to launch a Kingdom. He taught us to pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

That Kingdom is not someday, somewhere. It begins now, here. Through the New Covenant, we become agents of the Kingdom — citizens of heaven living out God's will on earth. That means our lives must reflect His design: lives of compassion, truth, justice, forgiveness, and love.

What does that mean for us today?

It can be found in Matthew 5:

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Paul puts it plainly in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"

So, I say to you this morning, the sun is rising, and so is the Kingdom. Christ’s blood didn’t just cover your past — it cut a new path for your future. You are no longer bound by sin, because failure no longer defines you. The cross and the empty tomb declare it: you are free, you are forgiven, and you are made new.

Don’t just celebrate resurrection — live resurrected.

Amen.