who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
2 Corinthians 3:6
God has blessed us to live by a new covenant (a.k.a. New Testament). An amazing gift within this new covenant is that instead of tying God’s word to our foreheads with Tefillin (Phylacteries, reminders of God’s law), and wearing the kippah (head covering), and wearing the tallit prayer shawl, and the gartel belt (a symbol of “girding one’s loins with strength”) during prayer services, we live by the Spirit of God within us.
Much More Excellent
God gave these reminders to the Jewish Children of God (Hosea 1:10), as a blessing to help His chosen people remember the letter of the Law. From my understanding, it’s okay for Jewish Christians to continue to wear these devices, but they have been replaced by a better covenant:
But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.
Hebrews 8:6
And what would be one of those better promises? One is the gift of God living inside us. God living in us is better than reminders of God being worn on us.
He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. John 14:17 NLT
God in Us
And Jesus fulfilled this promise on the day of Pentecost and at the house of Cornelius:
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2:4
* While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. Acts 10:44–45
This is just one of the better promises that the New Testament is built on. So, through this better promise, as we live each day, we remain in continual communication with God – Pray without ceasing. I’d call that Good News.
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