The short answer is, you commit to repent and you are accepting the covenant of God, and just like the Children of Israel said in Exodus 19:8 -11, “We will do everything the Lord has said.” This is something you accept by faith, and God gives you the grace to do it. You walk this out through the repentance process of making continual correction throughout your life by applying what you learn through seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. As long as you continue to study and apply what you learn, you will keep growing. You trust by faith that God will continue to work in you, and He will finish what He started. Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant, and when you accept Jesus, you have a responsibility to be a disciple and learn what that means. Here is a very good resource on the Four Responsibilities of a Disciple.
This Podcast helps someone understand the New Covenant, and the role of Messiah.
Some of the key principals to understand when you accept Jesus:
- Accept God’s domain (His Kingdom Principals). The process that God has established through His instructions from the beginning. In Luke 24:25-27 Jesus said that they were to believe all that the Prophets have spoken, and beginning with Moses, He explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself. The Bible is a roadmap to learning God’s process.
- Commit to following God’s commandments and do your part to protect the covenant in the jurisdiction you are placed here by God. Paul said if you are a Jew remain a Jew, if you are a Gentile then remain a Gentile (1 Corinthians 7:17-20). Nevertheless, there have always been individuals who followed their hearts and joined the Jewish people and go through conversion, but it is not to be done in order to be saved.
- Become a co-laborer with God to take part in the redemption of this world by living what you have come to believe as you work through repentance. (1 Corinthians 3:9, James 2:14-26)
- Accept Jesus as the King of Israel (the ruler of the world) and pledge your allegiance to King Jesus (Zechariah 14:9). One of the 13 principles of the Jewish faith is to believe in a Messiah, a.k.a. Jewish King, that will rule this world and bring peace. (Genesis 12:1-3, 2 Samuel 7:12-16, Galatians 3:16) This is why it is so important to understand the role of Messiah. You are pledging your allegiance to Him, and you should understand what to expect. Click here to learn more about the role of Messiah.
Work and Produce Fruit
We were all created to work, and you get to choose where you want to work. You can choose to work in this world and produce worldly fruit, or in the Kingdom of God and produce eternal fruit. It says in Galatians 6:7-10, you can sow to the flesh or the spirit and you will reap what you sow. As a disciple of Jesus, you have joined the battle against sin in your own life. By default, your flesh desires fruit of this world, and your spirit desires to know God. As you overcome sin, God gives you more understanding and the ability to produce more eternal fruit.
We were all created to work, and you get to choose where you want to work. You can choose to work in this world and produce worldly fruit, or in the Kingdom of God and produce eternal fruit. It says in Galatians 6:7-10, you can sow to the flesh or the spirit and you will reap what you sow. As a disciple of Jesus, you have joined the battle against sin in your own life. By default, your flesh desires fruit of this world, and your spirit desires to know God. As you overcome sin, God gives you more understanding and the ability to produce more eternal fruit.
We are to work through repentance, and the closer we work through that process, the more you will know God. The reason you accept Jesus is to know God better, and eternal life is to know God (John 17:3). I John 2:3-5 says you know God when you keep His commandments, and God gives you greater revelation of His ways as you seek Him and are obedient.
It is Important to Understand the People and the Covenant that you are Joining Yourself To
Hebrews 4:2 says, “… we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did…” As Jesus had preached, the Good News is that we can repent.
Leviticus 26:40-42 says, “but if they will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors—their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me, which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.”
Every covenant in the Bible is built on the previous covenant. Galatians 3:15-17 says the law (at Mt Sinai), that was introduced 430 years after the covenant made with Abraham, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God. There was a covenant made with David after that covenant to build a Temple, and after that covenant was the promise of Jesus through His son David.
The new covenant was made with the Children of Israel, and it says God will change their heart so that they will be obedient to God and follow His Torah (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Jesus is the mediator of that New Covenant, and everyone who wants to take part of that Convent must pledge allegiance to King Messiah. For more information on the New Covenant, a great resource is What About the New Covenant.
There are consequences for keeping the Convent, and there are consequences for being disobedient to the Covenant. Leviticus 26:23-24 says if you continue to walk against God’s wishes, then He will walk against your wishes, and He will personally smite you seven times for your sin. Jesus made reference to this in Matthew 12:43-45 when he spoke of the final condition of a person being worse than the first and seven other spirits more wicked than the first entering into a person. God also promises in Leviticus 26:40-42 that if we repent, He will remember the Covenant He made with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham. This is why Jesus and John the Baptist preached to repent, for the Kingdom of God is coming. Our responsibility is to prepare and grow through the process of repentance.
When you accept Jesus, you are joining yourself to the Covenants that God made with the Jewish people by pledging your allegiance to the King of the Jews which is Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus.
Your Job Description In Eternity Is Dependent Upon Your Level of Repentance
You are either working in this world, where the fruit is of this earth, are you are working in the Kingdom, which will produce eternal fruit. Everything is about the law of sowing and reaping, and the more you repent, the more fruit God allows you to produce.