New

Luke 22:20, "And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, 'This cup which is poured out for you is THE NEW COVENANT in My blood.'"

Here we are some 2000+ years beyond Christ proclamation of a new covenant, and yet so many believers have yet to fully grasp the implications. Turning the calendar over to 2012 I want to invite everyone to make the New Year about meditating on the New Covenant.

One of the many beautiful truths that Christ came to share with us in this New Covenant was that the old is past, done away with. Even heaven and earth as we know it will pass away just as the old covenant did.  "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer a sea." (Rev 21:1)

I think this is a major point that most Christian denominations overlook. Somehow good behavior becomes doctrine. Forgiveness of sin is accomplished the Old Way with ritual, rite, and performance becuase there is an expectation that God will restore us and creation. There is ingrained in us for some reason the thought process that says we are, or can somehow be good. Christians globally ignore Hebrews 8:13 where it says, "When He said, 'A new covenant,' He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear."

The old covenant was the law. Why do we constantly turn back to the old  in our judgments and evaluations of behavior? Why do some turn to the rituals and rites in that old law for forgiveness when those same rituals and rites were prophesying the entrance of our Christ. Oh sure you can be under the old if you would like. Galatians 5:3 tells us though that if we want to keep one part of the law, then we are under obligation to keep it all. As for me, I rely on His mercy and lovingkindness.

It is our spirit that is born again (made new), and it will not be until our flesh is gone that that same spirit will have the opportunity to fully be for Christ. Until then, new life in the spirit comes from daily surrender, daily taking up the cross and laying down everything that is not new. Until that day comes of the old completely passing away; I rely on the fact that "The Lord's lovingkindness indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness." (Lam 3:22-23)