The new deal

Recently my small group read through a portion of Leviticus and then Hebrews ch. 8-10 in order to compare the old and new covenants. There were a lot of different discussions that came out of that. I would highly recommend taking the time to do it for yourself, even though it might seem rather dry at first.

I couldn't help but  feel that I had forgotten, or perhaps never known about, half of the new covenant. If you look at the old testament (covenant), it served many different purposes. Of course the primary purpose was to enable a relationship between God and His creation. It provided a system of purification so that God could dwell among sinners. But the covenant was more than that. It was also a way to unite a people. All of the festivals were community oriented as well as God-centered. It was a health code, meant to protect them from diseases that science had not yet discovered. It was also, in a very straightforward way, a system to bring joy to God.

Look at the beginning of Hebrews 8. Under the old covenant there were many different types of sacrifice and offerings. Some were meant to atone for sin. Others were meant to express gratitude to God and affirm reliance on His provision. We understand that Christ's death atoned for our sin once and for all, making ongoing sacrifices of atonement unnecessary. But what about the offerings of thanksgiving? What about the altar of incense that rose night and day before God as a sweet-smelling aroma?

The author of Hebrews says that if Jesus were on earth He would not be a priest because those sacrifices and offerings were still going on at the temple. But today they aren't. The temple has been leveled. So then, who is providing the constant worship to God? But what about the thanksgiving? What about the praise? What about the communal statements of faith and dedication half a dozen times per year? Is there anything to replace them?

I think worship is a mandatory aspect of our new covenant with God, just as the Jews under the old covenant were commanded by God to thank Him and worship Him in certain ways. I have often been guilty of worshiping only when I felt "ready" to worship. That's the wrong attitude- and in an unnatural foreign context it means that I have rarely truly worshiped. Worship is a choice, and it requires sacrifice.  It is also a pleasure, so I don't want to make it sound like a drag! But I do need to take worship more seriously.

Of course worship isn't just music either. It can apply to anything that I do with the heart purpose of glorifying God. There are days when my work is worship to God and other days when it isn't. "How can that be?" you ask. "Your work is God's work!" Yes, but on far too many days I do it on my own power. God will still use what I do but He is not glorified as He should be in the actual doing of the work because I am the one in the driver's seat. That is also a dangerous place for me to be, especially while doing "God's work," but that is another post for another time.

On the other hand, I have experienced true worship of God in something as mundane as running, when I deliberately did it in honor of God and for His glory rather than my own.

Moving on to other aspects of the old covenant, what about scripture memorization? God told the people of Israel to write scripture on the doorpost of their house and bind it to their hands and forehead. It may not have been literal, but constant immersion in the the Word of God was not an optional part of the old covenant and I don't think it is optional under the new one either.

What about community? There is so much here that I think it would take several more blogs to unwrap it. The old covenant created a community of faith. Do we believe that the new covenant has no similar goal? Sometimes it doesn't seem like it. We preach personal salvation and tend to adopt a "just me and Jesus" attitude. Hebrews says that since we are under this amazing new covenant, "let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another..."

Look at the prayer of Jesus in John 17. He asks the Father in verse 21 "...that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us..." That is a unity that far surpasses the unity of Israel under the old covenant. We have an intimacy with God that was impossible under the old covenant. We should also be living out a unity with one another that has never been seen before in the history of the world. We preach that, in order to enter into the new covenant, we must die with Christ and be raised again with Him, born anew of the Spirit. That means that we all have died the same death and live the same life. Why, then, do we often act as if our walk with Christ has little or nothing to do with anyone else?

Frankly, the evangelical world as a whole has a lot to learn from the Catholic church in this regard. Do we really believe that we are united in Christ to the rest of His Body? ALL of it? Even the parts that we don't agree with all the time? If so, the structure of our denominations, our churches, our families, and our personal lives should reflect that.