In much of the church world today, what we seem to have is a mixture - a hybrid - of the Old Covenant and the actual New Covenant. But are we meant to mix the two Covenants? Hebrews says that God has made the first covenant "obsolete" and that it is "vanishing away." And so questions come up such as, "If the Old Covenant is a valid part of the Bible, why then don't we keep it?" "Why is it said to be obsolete?"
The answer is quite simple: The Cross of Jesus Christ changed everything. Everything changed at the Cross. This week we discuss some more of the differences between the Old and the New, and some of the changes that took place due to the Cross.
For example, one of the differences: The Old Covenant had many priests, who offered sacrifices continually, but they were prevented by death from continuing and nothing they did could ever make us perfect or take away our sins. The New Covenant came about came about through One Person, one sacrifice for all, through a Priest who lives forever and therefore has an "unchangeable priesthood," and through this one sacrifice our sins have been taken away and we have been "perfected forever" and "saved to the uttermost."
The Old had to be taken out of the way; It had to be made obsolete. By the very nature of each covenant, it's impossible to mix them.
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Give me Melchizadek, baby!! I was just reading about this last night, Joel. The phrase that caught my attention about the better solution Jesus provided (in the mode of Melchizadek) was that it was on the "basis of the power of an indestructible life."
ReplyDeleteBecause of 'Christ in us,' we, too are now saturated with and rescued by that same "indestructible life." How cool is that?!
Great reminder, Joel.
Yep indeed, Jim... the power of an indestructible life is now the life we have because of Christ in us! One of the most common words in the book of Hebrews is "better." (Better promises, a better sacrifice, etc, etc). I'd say it's a good word, but yet it greatly under-exaggerates the life we have in Christ!
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