Newness

“Newness” by Romans

Good Evening, and welcome to this Installment of our regularly scheduled Thursday Evening Bible Discussion. This is the second time that I can recall conducting a Discussion on a topic based on a request. The first time was a request several years ago by Shadowlou, that I do a Bible Study on the Seven Deadly Sins. We were members of another Christian Chat Room, then. Were it not for her original request, I don’t believe that this door would have opened for me. And now, I am beginning to publish expanded versions of my Notes as Kindle eBooks. I just ePublished my posted Notes on Doubt, but not before I doubled the  length, enhanced the Notes with addition Scriptural support, and added defense strategies for combating doubt. It is now available on Amazon as my third eBook, this one titled “[i]The Bible Talks About Doubt[/i].” So I just want to say, before we begin, Thank You so much, Wendy (Shadowlou) for planting that seed.

I recently received an e-mail from Joyful  requesting that I build a Bible Study around the word, “new.” And so, the subject and title of this Evening Discussion is “Newness.”

Let me ask all of you, when you think of the word, “new” as it appears in Scripture, what comes to mind?

For centuries, and following the requirements of the Old Covenant, the children of Israel sacrificed animals as part of their worship of God. Without that background of sacrifice, the crucifixion of Jesus would be nearly impossible to understand. We read in Hebrews 9:13  For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? The New covenant, itself, has its basis in the Sacrifice of Jesus. Jesus made this clear in Mark 14:24: “And he said unto them, This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many.” Chapter 9 of Hebrews brings things into focus beginning in Verse 15: “And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.”

I would like to give share expanded background on the practice of sacrifice in the worship of God.

In spite of the fallacious claims of some books and commentaries that I have read, the tenets of Christian worship is not borrowed or based on the practices and doctrines of pagan religions. Christianity is, at once completely new, and yet the basis for what we understand and observe goes back to Adam and Eve. God's Plan of Salvation was acted out and recorded for our learning and edification very early in Genesis. When our first parents sinned, and they covered their own nakedness with aprons of fig leaves, they were still hiding in the bushes when God came to the Garden that Evening. We read, later, that God, Himself, provided clothing for them using the coats of animal skins. Notice the Account in Genesis 3:21: “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” The clothing was not made of leaves, or cotton or wool. An animal had to be sacrificed... blood needed to be shed in order for God to make the clothing that He provided Adam and Eve.

Clothing is often symbolic of righteousness. We put on the righteousness of Christ when we accept His sacrifice in our steads. This helps us to understand what the Apostle Paul's meant when he wrote beginning in Romans 13:11: “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”

Matthew Henry writes of those coats of animal skins, “The beasts, from whose skins they were clothed, it is supposed were slain, not for man's food, but for sacrifice, to typify Christ, the great Sacrifice… God made them coats of skin, large, strong, durable, and fit for them: such is the righteousness of Christ; therefore put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Sacrifice is a vital element of Christianity. The sacrifice of animals goes back some 5,000 years. But contrary of the charges of our critics, this practice in ancient Judaism, and the concept of Sacrifice in Christianity is not borrowed or based on pagan worship. If anything, just the opposite it true. Why do I say that? Sacrificing to God, as worship, is first named as being performed by Noah when he and his family first disembarked from the Ark. Noah's example of offering a sacrifice is the reason why so many pagan cultures have incorporated sacrifices into their religious practices. Sacrificing to God was a known worship practice when God confounded the languages of the people at the Tower of Babel.  When they dispersed, the knowledge of God that they passed on diminished and was altered over time. We read of this taking place in Romans 1:25 and 28: “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator,” and Verse 28: “... they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.” They changed the identity and nature of the One being worshiped. The one True God became a myriad of deities that included animals and insects and celestial bodies, but they apparently maintained the practice of sacrifice in the worship of those deities. And those practices were departures from true worship, and not the original pattern which the Bible used as its blueprint. As I said, just the opposite is the case.

I felt that, for some here,  a good background regarding sacrifices, or refresher for others here tonight, would be a good thing. The word “new” occurs frequently in regard to the notion of sacrifice.

Our next occurrence of the word “new” is in regard to Jesus' teachings. They were something of a startling and controversial departure from what the observant Jews of His day were accustomed to. We read of their reaction to His ministry in Mark 1:27: “And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.”

Baptism is a public declaration of our having accepted Jesus' sacrifice for our sins. Baptism is the picture of our entering into the death of Jesus Christ with Him. We read beginning in Romans 6:3: “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

We are, each of us, new creations in Jesus Christ: We read in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Can you appreciate the power of that single Verse? Notice how this is brought into greater focus in a [i]new[/i] commentary that I am introducing this Evening: Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible: “Therefore if any man be in Christ,.... There's a secret being in Christ from everlasting; so all that are loved by him, espoused unto him, chosen and preserved in him, to whom he was a covenant head, surety, and representative, are in him, united to him, and one with him; not in such sense as the Father is in him, and the human nature is in him, but as husband and wife, and head and members are one: and there is an open being in Christ at conversion, when a man believes in Christ, and gives up himself to him; faith does not put a man into Christ, but makes him appear to be in him: and such an one "is a new creature"; or, as some read it, "let him be a new creature": who understand being in Christ to be by profession, and the sense this, whoever is in the kingdom or church of Christ, who professes himself to be a Christian, ought to be a new creature: the Arabic version reads it, "he that is in the faith of Christ is a new creature". All such who are secretly in Christ from everlasting, though as yet some of them may not be new creatures, yet they shall be sooner or later; and those who are openly in him, or are converted persons, are actually so; they are a new "creation", as the words may be rendered: , "a new creation", is a phrase often used by the Jewish (h) doctors, and is applied by the apostle to converted persons; and designs not an outward reformation of life and manners, but an inward principle of grace, which is a creature, a creation work, and so not man's, but God's; and in which man is purely passive, as he was in his first creation; and this is a new creature, or a new man, in opposition to, and distinction from the old man, the corruption of nature; and because it is something anew implanted in the soul, which never was there before; it is not a working upon, and an improvement of the old principles of nature, but an implantation of new principles of grace and holiness; here is a new heart, and a new spirit, and in them new light and life, new affections and desires, new delights and joys; here are new eyes to see with, new ears to hear with, new feet to walk, and new hands to work and act with: old things are passed away: the old course of living, the old way of serving God, whether among Jews or Gentiles; the old legal righteousness, old companions and acquaintance are dropped; and all external things, as riches, honours, learning, knowledge, former sentiments of religion, are relinquished:”

The whole idea of our being renewed from the inside out predates by five centuries the actual events that brought it about. We read in Ezekiel 36:26-27: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”

There is a corresponding New Testament acknowledgment of this Prophecy having been fulfilled in the Church with the establishment of the New Covenant. We read beginning in Hebrews 10:15: “Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way , which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” Like the Old Covenant, the New Covenant includes things very familiar to those to whom this epistle was written: The Laws of God, but now they were to be written on our hearts and minds and not on tablets of stone. Sin offerings are referred to, but now, this new Offering of the Lamb of God in the Person of Jesus Christ only needed to be offered once.  The veil of the Temple was torn that once restricted the people of God from the Holy of Holies. It is identified as the flesh of Christ through which we now can now enter with boldness. There is a high priest in the Old Covenant who offered sacrifices for sins daily, including his own sins, but this High Priest is new and very different: We read beginning in Hebrews 7:24: "But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.”

The New Covenant provides us a new and living way with greater access to God. It provides a far more intimate relationship with God, and a deeper understanding of His great Love for His people.

We already spoke of being buried with Christ in baptismal waters. When we come up out of that watery grave, a picture of our being raised with Jesus to new life is presented. The Apostle Paul tells us beginning in Romans 6:5: “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.”

Allow me to read, again from Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible: “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death,.... The nature and end of baptism are here expressed; the nature of it, it is a "burial"; and when the apostle so calls it, he manifestly refers to the ancient and only way of administering this ordinance, by immersion; when a person is covered, and as it were buried in water, as a corpse is when laid the earth, and covered with it: and it is a burial with Christ; it is a representation of the burial of Christ, and of our burial with him as our head and representative, and that "into death"; meaning either the death of Christ as before, that is, so as to partake of the benefits of his death; or the death of sin, of which baptism is also a token; for believers, whilst under water, are as persons buried, and so dead; which signifies not only their being dead with Christ, and their communion with him in his death, but also their being dead to sin by the grace of Christ, and therefore ought not to live in it: for the apostle is still pursuing his argument, and is showing, from the nature, use, and end of baptism, that believers are dead to sin, and therefore cannot, and ought not, to live in it; as more fully appears from the end of baptism next mentioned; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in newness of life; for the end of baptism is not only to represent the death and burial, but also the resurrection of Christ from the dead, which is here said to be "by the glory of the Father", some read the words, "unto the glory of the Father"; meaning either, that the Father might be glorified hereby; or that Christ, being raised from the dead, might enjoy glory with the Father, as he does in human nature; but rather the phrase expresses the means by which, and not the end to which, Christ was raised from the dead: and by the "glory of the Father" is meant, the glorious power of the Father, which was eminently displayed in raising Christ from the dead; and as baptism is designed to represent the resurrection of Christ, which is done by raising the person out of the water, so likewise to represent our resurrection from the death of sin, to a life of grace: whence it must be greatly incumbent on baptized believers, who are raised from the graves of sin by the power of Christ, to "walk in newness of life"; for since they are become new creatures, and have new hearts and new spirits given them, new principles of light, life, grace, and holiness implanted in them, and have entered into a new profession of religion, of which baptism is the badge and symbol, they ought to live a new life and conversation.”

Our former habits, tendencies and practices, and priorities need to be uprooted and replaced with living to the Glory and Honor of God in both word and deed. The Apostle Paul tells us about our becoming a new man. Notice how he tries to cover all of the ways we need to be renewed from the inside out, and do an about face and begin to live a different life. We read beginning in Ephesians 4:22: “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” As I said earlier, the new man is new from the inside out!

Matthew Henry has this to say about the new man: “The apostle charged the Ephesians in the name and by the authority of the Lord Jesus, that having professed the gospel, they should not be as the unconverted Gentiles, who walked in vain fancies and carnal affections. Do not men, on every side, walk in the vanity of their minds? Must not we then urge the distinction between real and nominal Christians? They were void of all saving knowledge; they sat in darkness, and loved it rather than light. They had a dislike and hatred to a life of holiness, which is not only the way of life God requires and approves, and by which we live to him, but which has some likeness to God himself in his purity, righteousness, truth, and goodness. The truth of Christ appears in its beauty and power, when it appears as in Jesus. The corrupt nature is called a man; like the human body, it is of divers parts, supporting and strengthening one another. Sinful desires are deceitful lusts; they promise men happiness, but render them more miserable; and bring them to destruction, if not subdued and mortified. These therefore must be put off, as an old garment, a filthy garment; they must be subdued and mortified. But it is not enough to shake off corrupt principles; we must have gracious ones. By the new man, is meant the new nature, the new creature, directed by a new principle, even regenerating grace, enabling a man to lead a new life of righteousness and holiness. This is created, or brought forth by God's almighty power.”

This next occasion of the word new is in regard to correction that Paul had to give to the Church at Corinth. They had tolerated, and even seemed to be proud of tolerating a man who was a member, but who also was having a relationship with his step-mother. This was not right and good behavior for Christians in the eyes of God. Paul figuratively refers to the Congregation as a new batch of dough being unleavened at for the Passover Season. Paul uses the concept of leaven, or in the translation I used, yeast, to represent those things we need to remove from our daily lives. We read in 1 Corinthians 5:7: “Get rid of the old yeast so that you may be a new batch of dough, since you are to be free from yeast. For the Messiah, our Passover, has been sacrificed” (International Standard Version). Matthew Henry had this to say regarding this passage: “Christians should be careful to keep themselves clean, as well as purge polluted members out of their society. And they should especially avoid the sins to which they themselves were once most addicted, and the reigning vices of the places and the people where they live. They were also to purge themselves from malice and wickedness-all ill-will and mischievous subtlety. This is leaven that sours the mind to a great degree. It is not improbable that this was intended as a check to some who gloried in the scandalous behaviour of the offender, both out of pride and pique... Christians should be careful to keep free from malice and mischief. Love is the very essence and life of the Christian religion. It is the fairest image of God, for God is love (1 Jn. 4:16), and therefore it is no wonder if it be the greatest beauty and ornament of a Christian.”

The love that God would have us manifest in our lives is both an ornament of great beauty, as well as a Badge of Identification. The Apostle John quoted Jesus saying, in his Gospel in John 13:35: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

And he wrote of it, again, in his first epistle in 1 John 5:2: “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.”

For many people, when the words “Commandment of God” is used, they think of a menacing order that is thundered from the heavens that is received with dread and trembling. But Jesus also gave us Commandments. In keeping with the tonight's theme of newness, we read in John 13:34: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”
Jesus' new Commandment is that we are to love one another as He has loved us. Let me ask all of you,

How has He loved us?

And how should we love one another?

From Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible:
For the phrase, “A new commandment I give unto you,.... As parents, when they take their leave of their children, in their dying moments, give them proper instructions and orders, and lay their dying injunctions on them, so Christ taking his leave of his disciples, gives them his; which were, that they love one another: as brethren in the same family, children of the same Father, and fellow disciples with each other; by keeping and agreeing together, praying one for another, bearing one another's burdens, forbearing and forgiving one another, admonishing each other, and building up one another in faith and holiness: and this he calls "a new commandment"; that is, a very excellent one; as a "new name", and a "new song", denote excellent ones; or it is so called, because it is set forth by Christ, in a new edition of it, and newly and more clearly explained, than before; and being enforced with a new argument and pattern, never used before.”

From Gill's Exposition, The phrase “as I have loved you; (is) to be observed in a new manner, not "in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness of the spirit": … as Christ has loved his people freely, notwithstanding all their unworthiness and ungratefulness, so should they love one another, though there may be many things in them observable, which are disagreeable; as Christ loves all his children without any distinction, so should they love one another, whether poor or rich, weaker or stronger, lesser or greater believers; and as Christ loves them not in word only, but in deed and in truth, so should they love one another with a pure heart fervently, and by love serve one another.”

David, in the Psalms, writes of our having a new song: We read beginning in Psalms 40:1: “I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.”

The was a promise of new tongues: We read in Mark 16:17: “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;”

Of course we remember on the Day of Pentecost when the Church was born, that the disciples were all speaking in new tongues that enabled them to preach the Gospel to many  nationalities, and all in their own languages, bringing thousands to repentance and salvation.

As faithful believers, Scripture speaks of our being given a new name: Notice, beginning in Revelation 2:17: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”

We read of Abraham in what is known as the Faith Chapter. Does anyone know what that chapter that is? Hebrews 11:8: “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”

As Christians, we are Abraham's seed as it tells us in Galatians 3:29: “And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

As heirs with Abraham, we also look for that city, whose Builder and Maker is God. We read of it in Revelation 3:12: “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God:”

And then another new name is referred to: as this Verse closes with Jesus' words, “and I will write upon him my new name.”

Everything we see in the Universe, as magnificent and breathtaking and awe-inspiring as it is, is merely a temporary backdrop like cardboard scenery in a stage play. Scripture gives us a preview of this future where we read in Revelation 6:14: “And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.”

But God has something all ready to take its place. The New Jerusalem will be a part of it. We read of our Glorious and Eternal home beginning in Revelation 21:1: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”

Is it any wonder why Satan is jealous of us, hates us and wants to deprive us of the unimaginable joy waiting for us for Eternity which God has in store for us?

I will close with a comment from my old friend, Matthew Henry: “This new Jerusalem is the church of God in its new and perfect state, the church triumphant. Its blessedness came wholly from God, and depends on him. The presence of God with his people in heaven, will not be interrupt as it is on earth, he will dwell with them continually. All effects of former trouble shall be done away. They have often been in tears, by reason of sin, of affliction, of the calamities of the church; but no signs, no remembrance of former sorrows shall remain. Christ makes all things new. If we are willing and desirous that the gracious Redeemer should make all things new in order hearts and nature, he will make all things new in respect of our situation, till he has brought us to enjoy complete happiness.”

This concludes this Evening's Bible Discussion on “Newness.”
Romans, delivered on March 8th, 2012