Covenants, Brokenness, and Confession

The covenant with Abraham was unilateral. Abraham had no responsibilities to uphold. Consequently, it was impossible for him to break it.

The Mosaic covenant of the Law was bilateral. The Israelites agreed to it and had a part to play in keeping it. Consequently, it was possible for them to break it.

The Abrahamic covenant, like the new covenant under which we live, was based only upon faith, whereas the Mosaic covenant was based upon performance, obedience, works.

No one was ever saved by obedience to the Law. That's because upholding the covenant of the Law is impossible. Those like King David, who realized this, gave up on the idea that they could keep the covenant, and instead simply trusted God to do what He promised--even when they couldn't see how it would happen.

This was shutting their mouths about their own righteousness.
This was losing of their own lives in favor of finding Life in God.
This was their agreement with God that they could not uphold the covenant.
This was the broken and contrite heart spoken of by King David.
This was confessing that they were sinful.

We who have placed our faith in the Lord Jesus had that same broken and contrite heart. That's exactly why we gave up trying to make ourselves righteous and instead put our faith in Jesus to make us righteous.

So, when you hear that you must obey,
When you’re told that you must lose your life,
When you hear that you must have a broken and contrite spirit,
When it’s implied that you need to continually confess,

You can rest easy, saint.

You have already done these things by accepting what God said and trusting the Lord Jesus as your hope of righteousness.