Is anything in your life becoming old and obsolete?
I have had a rash of disintegrating jeans lately. My jeans usually wear in the same to spots. It had to do with my pockets. First is the spot where my keys are and second is the spot where the corner of my wallet is. So eventually all my jeans seem to wear holes in those two places. It's not a big deal and I can wear them for quite a while with the two holes beginning. But when they decide to go they go quickly.
I was playing broom ball about a month ago with a bunch of high school students. It's great fun really. You run around on ice in your tennis shoes with a giant rubber spatula type thing and whack little red balls at each other. Once in a while those balls end up in the goals at either end of the rink. It's a blast with 50 or so kids running around on the ice chasing 4 or 5 balls. It's chaos and a lot of good fun. Back to the jeans. I am playing broom ball and probably sliding in for the perfect shot or picking myself up off the ice when my jeans split right along the line of the my right front pocket. I wonder into the office to find some duct tape and keep playing. Even with my patch job, it's needless to say the jeans are now old and obsolete. They will no longer function in their once useful purpose of covering my legs. I will need a new pair of jeans.
In Hebrews 8 we are told Jesus is the priest for a new covenant. And if there is a new covenant we therefore know something didn't work out with the old covenant. God made a covenant with Israel but Israel didn't follow through. They could not keep the law and the law could not save them. So we need something new something better. Hebrews tells us the tabernacle Moses made was the shadow of the true one in heaven. The sacrifices made, the covenant of animal sacrifice was all just a shadow of the true. Jesus is the new priest, the new sacrifice, the new covenant. So the old forms are going to become obsolete. They are no longer needed. Even the law will change shape. It will no longer be something we must do but it will be who we are. It will be written on our hearts and minds. We will be God's people and He will be our God. For he has forgiven us through Jesus and brought us right back in communion with him.
I am glad for one the old worn out covenant is obsolete, I'm glad we aren't sacrificing animals for the rest of our lives. I am all the more glad however when I think of this old worn out earth and the life we live on it, becoming obsolete. We live in but a shadow of the existence we were meant for. The earth is filled with holes. We try to patch it up each time something rips. We rebuild, remarry, renegotiate, but it is old and worn.
The old however will pass away and the new will come. The shadow will no longer be our home and the sunlight will shine. Jesus promises to make all things new. He promises to make us new. We can get so frustrated at times as we try and try again to get things right. I know I want my gut to go away and yet I still go for the pizza and soda. So I'll patch it up, I'll exercise again, go back to the gym fill the fridge with healthy stuff and then rip...McDonalds. But we are promised to have the law written on our hearts and minds. Our desires will be transformed our thoughts will follow his thoughts. No one will have to be taught to know God because we will all know him.
Why will this be true, Hebrews 8 says it's because He will forgive our sins and remember our wickedness no more. It's not because he beats or burns it our of us. It's because he forgives us. It's your kindness Lord that leads me to repentance, not your wrath not fear of eternal punishment (which I don't believe in by the way). We are made new by his love for us...he ever forgiving grace. The new covenant! Jesus! He didn't just put a patch on it with his death like all those lambs and goats. He made it new and will make it all the more new as this old life in sin becomes old and obsolete.
I ready for a new pair of pants, aren't you?
May we find his grace today and may he continue the work of making things new in our hearts even before the world is made new.
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