The Old and the New

 DEVOTION

TO HEBREWS

THE OLD AND THE NEW

Heb 8:7-13

7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 8 But God found fault with the people and said: "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 9 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. 10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."   13 By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.

NIV         

There was no way they could keep that old covenant because it was based on complete and total obedience with no mistakes, no failures, but only perfection. It was a written code that laid out exact laws that were nonnegotiable. How could any human in the flesh obey them perfectly? In fact, that law included the precise sacrifice needed to atone for each type of sin or failure in obeying the code of conduct described within the law. This is the same reason we could have never fulfilled that law because we too are but weak humans unable to attain any form of perfection or righteousness by our own abilities. However, we live within this new covenant where Jesus fulfilled all the laws for us and became the perfect sacrifice for all our sins forevermore. Nothing more can or needs to be done so that we are now righteous because we are in Christ. We have the assurance that our sins will no longer be remembered.  No matter if we fail, or fall short of perfection and yield to some temptation committing a sin against God, He will not remember it, that is, He will never bring it up to us ever. He will not remind us our any of our acts of disobedience, as he did with the Israelites who lived under that old covenant. They were so disobedient to the law, that God turned away from them. But, we do not have to worry or be concerned about God ever turning away from us, because when Jesus took all our sins upon himself, God did not turn away from him because that was when He established the new covenant with his people, his creation, those He made in their own image. We can live free from the old and live holy and blameless in the new. Again, that covenant with the law is like a mirror that shows us how dirty and sinful we are, but the grace in this new covenant is the soap that cleanses us completely so that we are pure and righteous in the sight of God. We do wonder, however, why we still need to hear about the word, or about God, because he said all will know him. Perhaps all can know him if they allow him to cleanse them in the blood of Jesus. There are still people who need to hear about Jesus and who will tell them if someone is not sent to tell them. There are still believers who need to hear about their life in Christ and more about the character of God and how he interacts with his creation and who will tell them if someone is not sent. Yet, the point is that we all can know God, and know him fully because we have the Holy Spirit within us revealing all truth to our hearts and minds. Let us leave that which is obsolete behind us, and move forward with God as we live within the new covenant established by Jesus on that cross. Let us live free and clear of those rules and regulations that kill us, that need us to sacrifice, and live totally in Christ by faith and faith alone. Someday we will be perfect, but until then we have Jesus, the grace of God. Therefore, we live in his grace. Out with the old, in with the new.