God's View of New

Happy New Year!!

Once again we’ve mumbled our way through “Auld Lang Syne” (does ANYBODY really know the words much less know what they mean?!?).

As we sweep up the confetti and recover from staying up WAY past our bedtime, it’s a moment when we look forward to a fresh start. You hear a lot of stuff like, "New year, new me!" these days.

Instead of making some ridiculous New Year’s resolution, why don’t we look at what God has to say about the idea of new? I mean, He DID invent the whole idea!

Is there a better expert on the topic? Our universe began when He decided it would. In a few very simple words, He created absolutely everything out of totally nothing.

He’s the Creator, not the repeater. He’s the last one to slapping yesterday’s leftovers in the microwave. He’s all about fresh, crisp, and the cutting edge. Nobody knows new like You-Know-Who.

So ready or not, here we go. A quick review of God’s view of new.

“Sing to Him a new (Heb. chadash) song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts” (Ps 33:3).

As we flip through God’s greatest hits in the Psalms, it should come as no surprise that He has something to say about music. Here in Psalm 33, the songwriter encourages us to crank up the band and sing along.

The lyrics want us to focus belting out a “new song.” The Hebrew word here he uses for “new” is chadash, which means fresh. It comes from a root word describing a newly polished and sharpened sword. Think cutting edge.

Music is one of God’s favorite ways for us to worship Him. Sing it well. Sing it loud. And He’s not sitting around hoping we’ll dust off some of the oldies. Sing Him a new song. Something cutting edge.

“He put a new (Heb. chadash) song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD” (Ps 40:3).

Another tune in God’s boxed set of hit songs tells us that the ability to sing praise to God is actually a gift from God.

It also reminds us that my praise of Him shines the light on Him and draws others to Him. God apparently will use this fresh new melody to get the word out on His goodness and our deep need for Him.

“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new (Heb. chadash) under the sun” (Ecc 1:9).

Many folks believe the document we call Ecclesiastes is written by King Solomon near the end of his life. If you don’t know his story, the wisest man who ever lived (other than Jesus, of course) completely went off the rails.

He was stupid rich and that led him to be, well, stupid. He threw cash around chasing every pleasure you could imagine. In the end, he looks back on what a total waste it was.

Solomon’s point seems to be that life is nothing but leftovers without the Lord. Lather, rinse, repeat. No matter how many Benjamins you’ve collected. Without the newness and freshness of God in your life, everything is stale.

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new (Heb. chadash) thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Is 43:18-19).

Here we see God telling us to stop being obsessed with the rearview mirror. Maybe Satchel Paige was right when he said, “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.”

But it’s better than that. This is God’s way of saying that our future in Him is so bright that we gotta wear shades. These words are His way of encouraging His people about the first arrival of His Son.

But God doesn’t stop there. He’s ALWAYS up to something new, something fresh, something cutting edge. And it’s for our good and His glory.

God doesn’t want us to be prisoners of the past but focus on the future. Stand back and just watch what He’s going to do. In the world. In you. He’s about to blow your doors off.

“For behold, I create new (Heb. chadash) heavens and a new (Heb. chadash) earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind” (Is 65:17).

I don’t care whether you believe in climate change but it’s pretty clear our planet is pretty jacked up. I’m not saying God’s glorious fingerprints aren’t all over His creation. But we haven’t exactly been the best gardeners for Eden.

He has some VERY good news for us. God has a plan for not just a fresh new earth but heavens to boot. In the end, He’s not taking us to heaven but bringing heaven to us.

When He does, God will create new heavens and earth so incredible that we’ll forget everything before that!

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new (Heb. chadash) covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah…I will put My law within them, and I will write it on their hearts…for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jer 31:31, 33, 34).

“And I will give you a new (Heb. chadash) heart, and a new (Heb. chadash) spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes and be careful to obey My rules” (Ezek 36:26-27).

FDR is famous for the New Deal. But that’s peanuts compared to God's New Covenant for us in Christ. Oh, He had made promises through dudes like Abraham, Moses, and David. But the Lord had something unprecedented up His almighty sleeve.

Through His Son, He’s bringing a covenant so crazy that He’s taking personal responsibility for making it happen. He’s putting His law IN us. He’s writing it on our very soul/spirits.

He’ll make us fresh and new. He’ll cut out my stale and stony heart of disobedience. He’ll insert a new, soft and tender heart of willing obedience. God promises to never bring up my sin ever again. Yours either!

Bottom line, God promises to do for us what we could never dream of doing for ourselves.

“Neither is new (Gr. νεος/neos) wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and skins destroyed. New (Gr. νεος/neos) wine is put into fresh (Gr. καινος/kainos) wineskins, and so both are preserved” (Mt 9:17).

When we come to the New Testament, we see God really upping His “new” game. No better example than God in the flesh in the form of Jesus has come in the flesh to our rescue.

Our Savior drops a metaphor about wine and wine storage to describe just how new and different things will now be. The Good News is a fresh vintage. “New” is a Greek word (Gr. νεος/neos) which paints of picture of something fresh, recent, pristine, crisp, clean as well as younger and youthful.

This new divine merlot needs a breakthrough new storage method that’s “fresh.” The word here is καινος/kainos, which means something unprecedented, never before, novel, or unheard of, or new in quality.

What Jesus brought is so new, so fresh, so different that the old system couldn’t hope to contain it. The Gospel isn’t the Law 2.0. It isn’t an upgrade. Grace needs something limber and flexible!

“And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, ‘What is this? A new (Gr. καινος/kainos) teaching with authority…’” (Mk 1:27).

Jesus teaches like no one before or since. His method and message is unprecedented. The world has never heard anyone like Him. Often imitated. Never duplicated.

“This cup that is poured out for you is the new (Gr. καινος/kainos) covenant in My blood” (Lk 22:20).

It’s the night before Jesus’ betrayal and murder. His closest crew has no clue what’s about to happen. At dinner, our Savior connects an ancient promise with what will happen on a very bloody Friday.

In the ancient world, you would seal a covenant promise in blood. Jesus tells His closest followers that He’s sacrificing Himself in order to finalize God’s promise of the radical and revolutionary covenant which He made 600 years before through Jeremiah (Jer 31:31, 33, 34) and Ezekiel (Ezek 36:26-27).

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

Forget Chip and Joanna and “Fixer Upper.” The Lord doesn’t fix up anything. This isn’t some sort of holy reno and remodel. This is WAY better.

Once Jesus gets His holy hands on you, everything changes. I mean EVERYTHING! Forget who you used to be. That person is dead and gone. Our Savior has personally handcrafted a new you!!

“Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and having put on the new (Gr. νεος/neos) self, which is being renewed after the image of its Creator” (Col 3:10).

I must constantly make a point of taking off the crusting and stiff old self putting on the young and limber new self. It’s an intentional decision I must make daily.

Stop putting on the old ratty and worn-out me. Grab the bright and crisp new me my Creator is constantly renewing in the image of His own Son.

So as we roll into the new year, feel free to make a resolution or two. But don’t forget God’s view of the new He’s doing in me and you.