What’s New?
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
“The Preacher” in Ecclesiastes, commonly taken to be Solomon, concluded that it is utter folly or emptiness for a person to attempt to find fulfillment and happiness apart from God. After exploring such avenues as power, popularity, prestige and pleasure, all with God left out, he came to the conclusion, “There is nothing new under the sun” (Eccles. 1:9). From such a dismal conviction, the Bible takes us to the opposite conclusion, voiced from heaven in a loud shout: “Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new’” (Rev. 21:5). Without God there is no real or lasting newness, but with Him there is hope for all things being made new.
The beginning of a New Year puts into focus the idea of newness — new resolves, new expectations, new pathways, new achievements. In the beginning weeks of this New Year, Theology 101 will be dealing with several wonderful things that God has, or will have, made new.
So what’s new with God? For one thing there is a New Covenant.
Anyone who picks up a Bible can notice immediately that it contains two major sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. If we know that the term “testament” is another way of translating into English the original term for “covenant,” we might say that the Bible ends with setting forth a New Covenant. Of course, something declared to be new implies something that was old. Hence, the Bible begins with the Old Covenant but ends with the new.
The Old Testament presents God as a covenant-making God. In each instance God took the initiative and set the terms. He made covenants with selected individuals such as Noah (Gen. 9:8–13) and Abraham (Gen. 15:18–21; 17:1–13). Preeminently, through Moses, God made a covenant with the nation of Israel (Ex. 24:3–8). God pledged in that covenant that He would be Israel’s God and that Israel would be His people.
We often think of the Old Covenant as a covenant of law, the terms of which were spelled out in commandments, ritual ceremonies, animal sacrifices and specifications for periodic renewal of that covenant. In the Old Testament not only is God presented as a covenant-making God but also as a covenant-promising God. Speaking through Jeremiah, God declared, “Behold, the days are coming … when I will make a new covenant … this is the covenant that I will make: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts” (Jer. 31:31–33).
Covenant of grace
The short way of describing the New Covenant is to speak of a covenant of grace in contrast to the Old Covenant of law. Hebrews 7–10 speaks to us at some length about this New Covenant. Whereas Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant that God gave at Sinai, Christ is the mediator of the New Covenant.
Thus, the New Covenant has a better mediator. It also was based on better promises. It has a better Priest (Christ) ministering at a better altar (a heavenly one), having offered a better sacrifice (Himself) that has achieved better results (once-for-all remission of sins for individuals and formation of a new community — the Church).
In summary, we might say the terms of the Old Covenant were etched in stone (the Ten Commandments), while the core of the New Covenant is etched in the hearts of believers by the Spirit of God (2 Cor. 3:3).
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