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Friday October 18 - New covenant superiority
This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel, after that time, declares the Lord. Hebrews 8:10
There’s an old preacher’s story which tells of a father promising his young son that when he grew up, he’d give him a horse and buggy as a present. By the time the son grew into adulthood, the world had moved on, and the father gave him a brand new motor car instead. Would the son complain that his father had broken his promise? Surely not! Like that father, God is consistent in giving us a covenant, but one which is vastly superior to the old one. So, what’s so good about it?
Hebrews headlines three advantages. First, it was internal, transforming hearts and minds. Rather than depending on external duties, it gave people new attitudes, new ambitions, new desires and above all new abilities to live according to God’s will. Secondly, it was inclusive. It didn’t depend on one group teaching another, but everyone was embraced by it and could experience God for themselves, no longer dependent on priestly intermediaries. Thirdly, it provided forgiveness. When things went wrong, there was a ready answer because the high priest, Jesus, had offered himself as the ultimate sacrifice for sin. God’s forgiveness wasn’t cheap. ‘Remembering their sins no more’ (Jeremiah 31:34) didn’t mean he’d just say sin didn’t matter. God did it because the blood Jesus shed at Calvary was the blood which signed the new covenant deal.
God of the cross, thank you for providing what I could never manage on my own: a way of forgiveness, of new beginnings and inner change. Amen.
Saturday October 19 - Old covenant obsolescence
...what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear. Hebrews 8:13
There are weeks when the machines in our house seem to gang up on us. When we try to get replacement parts, we discover we can’t because of built-in obsolescence. They were designed eventually to fail and need replacing!
Hebrews tells us that the old covenant under Moses is now obsolete. It had served a purpose for a time. It made God’s law clear, externally restrained people’s sin, attempted to create community well-being, and provided an elementary way for people to restore their relationship with God once they’d sinned. But while it modelled the real solution in an elementary way, it could not achieve it and always ended in condemnation and death. Paul spells this out in 2 Corinthians 3:4-11. Hence the need for a radical replacement – the new covenant of Jesus Christ and his Spirit.
My mother had the same vacuum cleaner and twin-tub washing machine for many decades. They just about did their job, limping their way to the end. They can now be found only in museums! That’s where the old covenant belongs. Why is it then that people are perpetually drawn back to live under it, believing that attempting to keep rules and regulations will commend them to God, when through trusting Christ we can enjoy total forgiveness and inner transformation? Like an old household machine, the old covenant is destined to disappear.
Lord, please save me from living under the old regime, when you have offered a new and wonderful solution for my sin in Christ. Amen.
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PRAYER FOR TODAY
PRAYER FOR TODAY