Tuesday, March 10, 2015

New Is Good



Tired of the “same old song and dance”? Who isn’t? Luckily, Jesus has fulfilled and abolished the Old and replaced it with the New.

It all starts with the New Covenant that Jesus made with those who place their trust in Him:

“This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” – (Luke 22:20)

Once we drink from that cup, He gets right to work making us new as well:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” – (2 Cor. 5:17)

Once we’ve been made new Jesus pours His “new wine” into us:

“Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” – (Matt. 9:17)

Filled with the “new wine” of His Holy Spirit, Jesus empowers us to follow His “new commandment”:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” – (John 13:34)

Next, Jesus opens the door wide open for us to enter into glorious fellowship with Himself and His Father:

“…. we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh…” – (Heb. 10:19-20)

Jesus even abolished the Old Law of Commandments in order to make both Jews and Non-Jews into “one new man” so that those who are in Him are united as His Chosen Ones:

 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace…” - (Eph. 2:15)


To those who continue to abide in Him, Jesus promises to keep on making things new, even giving us a new name to match our new nature and identity in Himself:

To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’” – (Rev. 2:17)

What’s more, from now until the end of time, Jesus is continually, daily, making all things new again so that, eventually, everything old is redeemed and under His final, ultimate authority:

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” – (Rev. 21:5)

Now, that’s Good New!

-kg


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NOTE: For more about the differences between the Old and New Covenant, read "Questions About The Old and The New Covenants"

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