Hebrews 8:13 In that he said, A new covenant, he has made the first old. Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away. I. WE MUST LOOK AT THE CHARACTER OF THE NEW. Mere novelty by itself counts for nothing. Man's new things are too often brought in, not because they are needed, but from mere restlessness, love of change, and self-glorification. The right principle of change is necessity, superseding the old because it has done its work. That is the principle, we may be sure, on which God acts. Thus we must not too readily assume that the introduction of the new is the doom of the old; that is, using the word "old" in the sense of long-established. New philosophies, new schemes of the universe, rise up threatening the long-established gospel; but in time the philosophies become old, unsatisfying, and vanish away, while the gospel remains, still welcome, still powerful. II. GOD'S WISDOM IN DOING THINGS AT THE RIGHT TIME. God's new things always come in at the fullness of time. The first covenant had done its work, but those who upheld the forms of it were the last to see this. Nay, more; just in proportion as the inward reality vanished did they cling with tenacity to the outward form. If it had depended on the rulers of Jerusalem to say when the new covenant was needed, it would have been a long time in coming. Man by himself cannot be trusted to say when the season of decrepitude for any institution has come. God takes the laws of necessary change into his own hands, and makes it evident to those who have eyes to see that his new things have not come without necessity. The new state of things needs to be experienced as a reality, and then it approves itself as an improvement on the old; it becomes plain that the old was not an end in itself, but only a stage toward the attainment of the new. Whatsoever new thing is true and manifestly serviceable must make its way; and it is well for its own sake that the way should be made through difficulties and discouragements. They are wise who can see in time the difference between a mere novelty and a novelty that has conquest and resistless growth in it. The bringing in of the new wine-skins is the doom of the old ones. - Y. Parallel Verses KJV: In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. |
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