Something new...

"When He said, 'A new covenant,' He has made the first obsolete.  But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear."--Hebrews 8:13.  Here the Hebrew writer makes a statement which proves that we are no longer the Old Testament law.  The Hebrew writer makes reference to something new.

Something new.  One of the primary purposes the Hebrew writer had for writing this letter was to remind these Christians that the new covenant is better than the old covenant.

Something new.  By the time we reach Hebrews 8:13, the Hebrew writer has finished quoting Jeremiah 31:31-34 and this is to show that a new covenant would come and that something new has come and the old has been made obsolete.

Something new.  So what does this mean to us? Why is this new covenant new and better as it is described in Hebrews 8:6?

Something new.  Well to answer that question, let me ask you do you really want to be accountable to a system that requires you to make sacrifices day after day and that requires you to uphold hundreds of laws without fail? I didn't think so. Something new is something better.

Something new.  But allow me to dig a little deeper.  Fact is before we obeyed the gospel, we were under such a system.  As you look throughout history, mankind has been under one of two basic systems of law: The Patriarchal and the Mosaic. But then after Christ's resurrection, there was something new to embrace.

Something new.  Most Christians here in America are coming out of a patriarchal system which was the system of the Gentiles or the non-Jews.  That's you and me (unless you are reading this and happen to be of a Jewish background).  What I mean is that all of us were sacrificing to some form of a god before we became Christians. We were like the people Paul preached to in Athens in Acts 17:16-32.  These Athenians were always looking to hear something new.  When we became Christians, many of us responded to the gospel because it was something better and something new.

Something new.  This is the point the Hebrew writer is trying to get across in Hebrews 8, that the new covenant is not only something new but it is something better than being enslaved to a system of laws and sacrifices that are nearly impossible to uphold in the way God expects.  Fact is we cannot live up to our own moral standard let alone God's moral standard which as author Lee Strobel put it, is infinitely higher than our own.  Since we can't live up to our own or God's moral standard, we desperately need something new.  We need Christ.

Something new.  So let me ask again, would you rather be enslaved to a system of sacrifices which is the system our own sin creates? Or would you rather embrace something new that can free us from the chains that our sin creates? This freedom begins with obedience to the gospel and committing ourselves to Christ who can pick us up when we fall because He has made the sacrifice.

Christ is offering something new. Will you embrace it?

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!