“What Is a Christian?” Part 47, All Things Are Become New”
Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2025 2:03 am
“What Is a Christian?” Part 47, All Things Are Become New” by Romans
Today, we crossed over into a New Year: 2025! And I am sure we are all looking forward to or at least hoping that the New Year will be a healthy and prosperous one for each of us, our families, our country, and our planet. We have been going through some rough times lately, individually and collectively. So we would all do well to have a new start, a fresh and positive start as the New Year begins.
I have decided to incorprate into our current Series, "What Is A Christian?" a Discussion previously delivered on a past New Years Day, that, nonetheless, applies to our being a Christian: the whole idea of newness.
The word, “New,” of and by itself, is generally regarded as a positive word. Advertising companies have made millions of dollars by introducing or promoting products in almost every category as being “new and improved,” perhaps so often that it means almost nothing to us when we hear it any more.
In the Bible, Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 1:9: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” Well, perhaps Solomon wasn't expecting me to be able to sit at my own kitchen table in Virginia, and be able to speak in a normal speaking voice, into a plastic box and have people all over the world instantly hear me as I quoted what he wrote!
But then, as I think about it, he was correct after all. Technology has merely enabled mankind to obey or disobey God more quickly, thoroughly and efficiently. So, since Solomon was actually referring to obedience and disobedience, and not the technology used to perform it, he was right: "... there is no new thing under the sun."
But where God's activities are concerned, the Bible has much to say about new things. In the spirit of the New Year, I decided to present a Discussion about just that: the title of this evening's Discussion is “All Things Are Become New.” I think you will be surprised as I was in preparing these Notes, the scope and the breadth of how many times and in how many ways “newness” is discussed in the Scriptures.
I will be using many topics and Scriptures this evening with some help from Thompson's Chain Reference Bible, under the topic, and from Torrey's Topical Textbook. The Scriptures and topics I will use tonight will be scattered and reassigned into various combinations of Themes so I won't be able to give specific credit to each Source when they are being used. That is why I am giving them general credit in this introduction for the assistance they both provided me.
I was curious, however, to see where and how the word “new” was first used in Scripture. It is found in Exodus 1:8: “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.” After all the good that Joseph had done in Egypt, enough time had passed that the rescue from the famine were long forgotten, and the much enjoyed Egyptian prosperity afforded by Joseph's God-given ability to interpret dreams had long been forgotten.
And... a “new king” had come to power. This use of the word “new” had no immediate positive connotations for the Hebrews living in Egypt. Many generations would pass before they would be delivered from the cruel and merciless bondage that was imposed on them by this “new” king.
Several chapters later, after their deliverance, the word “new” appears again. As before with the “new king and its aftermath, the application of the word “new” is not a positive one here, either. Allow me to set the stage for you: The children of Israel had been delivered from Egypt, but they were thankless murmurers, and miserable complainers.
On top of their ceaseless whining, Moses' authority to lead was also challenged. We read of Korah, and others taking men and rising up against Moses along with two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly... men of renown. God instructed Moses as to how to handle their doubt as to whether Moses was indeed chosen to lead the children of Israel, which brings us to this next occasion of the word, “new.”
We read, beginning in Numbers 16:28: “And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the LORD hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind. If these men...” (the rebels) “...die the common death of all men... then the LORD hath not sent me. But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit...
then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD. And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them: And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods.”
The two occasions of the word “new” that I just used are the only two I plan to use where there is no specific Theme involved. I thought they were significant enough to cite, because the first one that I cited was also the first one the Bible cited. The second occasion I used was a few Books later, and I used it because God was shown to be doing a new thing when the ground opened up to swallow those men of renown who withstood Moses.
The word “new” appears 153 times and in many contexts in Scripture. While I think it would be an interesting review to go over many of them, I decided instead to focus on the most edifying occasions of the word. And, I have found, in every case, that it is most edifying when it applied to something “new” for which God is responsible.
In every instance I will cite in the remainder of this Discussion, the word “new” is used in a positive, mind-altering, heart-altering, life-altering, creation-altering , and even Universe-altering context. And, in each case, it is a new thing in which God is the sole Source, the exclusive Initiator and the only Being capable of seeing to it that the new thing comes to pass.
Let's see what New Things God has planned for those who believe in Him, who trust that Scripture is His written Word, and who have accepted His Son's death for us to pay our sin debt. We read in Ezekiel 36:26 : “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.” Now someone may protest, “Your trying to apply to Christians what God specifically promised to Israel.”
May I remind you that we read of Gentile Christians in the New Testament, 1.) “And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29); and 2.) Gentile Christians “... wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree” (Romans 11:24). In Scripture. the olive tree was a symbolic picture of Israel.
So we, today, were promised a new heart and a new spirit. These are just two elements of another new thing God both proposed. You generally think of it as The New Covenant. Of it, Matthew Henry writes “All that have an interest in the new covenant, have a new heart and a new spirit, in order to their walking in newness of life.
God would give a heart of flesh, a soft and tender heart, complying with his holy will. Renewing grace works as great a change in the soul, as the turning a dead stone into living flesh. God will put his Spirit within, as a Teacher, Guide, and Sanctifier.
The promise of God's grace to fit us for our duty, should quicken our constant care and endeavour to do our duty. These are promises to be pleaded by, and will be fulfilled to, all true believers in every age.” Regarding this promise of a new heart and spirit in Ezekiel, The Sermon Bible adds, “I. The old heart is taken away and a new one put in its place. The substitution of one heart for another implies an entire change in the character and current of our affections.
Now a change may be simply a reform, or extending farther, it may pass into a revolution. The spiritual change, which we call conversion, is not a mere reform. It is a revolution. It changes the heart, the habits, the eternal destiny of an immortal being.
For the old mischievous laws which it repeals, it introduces a new code of statutes; it changes the reigning dynasty, wrenches the sceptre from a usurper’s hand, and banishing him forth of the kingdom, in restoring the throne to God, restores it to its rightful monarch.
II. Consider the view which our text gives of the natural heart. It is a heart of stone. "I will take the stony heart out of your flesh." Notice some of the characteristic properties of a stone. (1) A stone is cold. But what stone so cold as that in man’s breast? Sin has quenched a fire that once burned bright and holy there, and has left nothing now on that chill hearth, but embers and ashes—cold as death.
(2) A stone is hard. Fire melts wax, but not stone; water softens clay, but not stone; a hammer bends the stubborn iron, but not stone. Stone resists these influences; and emblem of a heart crushed, but not sanctified by affliction, it may be shattered into fragments or ground to powder, yet its atoms are as hard as ever. (3) A stone is dead. It has no vitality, no feeling, no power of motion. It lies where it is laid; speak to it, it returns no answer; weep to it, it sheds no tears;
image of a lost and loved one, it feels not the grief that itself can move. How many sit in the house of God as unmoved! Careless as spectators who have no concern in what takes place before them, they take no interest in anything that was done on Calvary; one would think it is of stones, and yet it is of living men that these words are spoken: "Having eyes, they see not; having ears, they hear not; neither do they understand." T. Guthrie, The Gospel in Ezekiel, p. 268.
I. Human hearts unappeasably cry out after change. Something new we all need, and because we need, we crave for it; and what we crave after, we hope for. The old we have tried, and it is not enough. In the future there may be what we need, and so long as there is a future, there is hope; but the past is dead.
Now the best lesson which the years can teach us is, perhaps, this one, that the new thing we need is, not a new world, but a new self. No change can count for much to a man save one which changes him.
II. At this point the Gospel meets us. It is the singular pretension of the Christian Gospel that it does make men new. It professes to alter character, not as all other religious and ethical systems in the world have done, by mere influence of reason or of motives, or by a discipline of the flesh; it professes to alter human character by altering human nature.
The Gospel is a message from Him who made us, that He is among us re-making us. Out of the fact of the Incarnation springs the hope of our renewal. God now is not outside of mankind, but inside.
From the inside He can work and does work, renewingly. A race which includes God need not despair of Divine life; it can be divinely re-created from within itself. "The Head of every man is Christ." He that is in Christ is a new creature. Attach yourself to Him; hang on by Him. He is God in man, renewing man; and He will renew you in this new year.
III. Let us stir ourselves up to compare the life we are this day leading with the life we should lead were we made new by the Holy Ghost. Set the one against the other. Spiritual things are distasteful, and we drag ourselves to religious duty; we ought to rejoice in the Lord and run in His pleasant paths. This world absorbs and conquers us; we ought to rule it and use it for heaven. Internal restlessness and dissatisfaction with ourselves gnaw our hearts, but the saints have peace.
"A new heart will I give you." Do we not need it? Shall we not, every one of us, go to this daring much-promising Man, who claims to regenerate his fellows, and say: "Never men needed this renewing more than we do. Give us a new temper and a new spirit; yea, a new self, Lord, like Thyself."
IV. Change the man and you change his world. The new self will make all around it as good as new, though no actual change should pass on it; for, to a very wonderful extent, a man creates his own world. J. Oswald Dykes, Sermons, p. 249.”
I. When God gives a new heart, our affections are engaged in religion. The Gospel is accommodated to our nature; its light is adapted to our darkness; its mercy to our misery; its pardon to our guilt; its comforts to our griefs, and in substituting the love of Christ for the love of sin, in giving us an object to love, it meets our constitution and satisfies the strongest cravings of our nature. It engages our affections, and in taking away an old heart, supplies its place with a new one and a better.
II. Consider the new heart. It mainly consists in a change of the affections as they regard spiritual objects. In obedience to a Divine impulse, their course is not only in a different, but in a contrary, direction; for the grace of God works such a complete change of feeling, that what was once hated you now love, and what was once loved you now loathe; you fly from what you once courted, and pursue what you once shunned.
III. In conversion God gives a new spirit. By this change (1) the understanding and judgment are enlightened; (2) the will is renewed; (3) the temper and disposition are changed and sanctified. (4) In conversion God gives a heart of flesh. In conversion a man gets (1 a warm heart; (2) a soft heart; (3) a living heart. (5) By conversion man is ennobled.
T. Guthrie, The Gospel in Ezekiel, p. 287. References: Eze_36:26.—T. Guthrie, The Gospel in Ezekiel, p. 247; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 62; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv., No. 212; vol. viii., No. 456; vol. xix., No. 1129; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 230; D. B. James, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 125. Eze_36:26, Eze_36:27.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii., No. 1046; J. Sherman, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 13.”
The New Things that God Promises will come are Of Divine Origin
John 1:13: “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” The Bible Tell us that, as Christians, we are a New Creation: We read beginning 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...
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”
Regeneration is a vital aspect of Salvation. We read in Titus 3:3: “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;”
Besides a regeneration, the Bible speaks of a newness where believers are concerned:
We read in James 1:18: “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” We, as Christians are spiritually renewed, as if our whole being is starting again from scratch:
Notice, also what we find in 1 Peter 1:3-4: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you...”
We also find that we are renewed by the Word of God, itself: In 1 Peter 1:22, we read: “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”
What else does Scripture tell us about this New Covenant? Perhaps I should ask first, how and why did the Old Covenant even become an Old Covenant? A Covenant is an agreement between two parties to perform various things. When someone rents an apartment, the renter promises to pay the rent on time, and keep up the property in various ways, while the landlord offers a place to stay, to repair leaky pipes and leaky roofs, and make sure the heat and air conditioning works in the winter and summer.
It is a covenant not in so many words. Well God had proposed a Covenant with Israel: If they obeyed His Commands, he would Bless and protect them as a nation... as His chosen people. But Exodus 31:16 identifies that Covenant between God and Israel as “a perpetual covenant.” So... what happened? How and why was a New Covenant even necessary as a replacement? Because of something else that was perpetual that we read of.
Jeremiah 8:5 the Lord asks: “Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.” Jesus phrased Israel's resistance to God with these words found in Luke 13:34: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!”
Israel, from the time they left Egypt and agreed to abide to the terms of the Covenant, generation after generation, broke God's Laws, trampled His statutes under foot, and committed spiritual adultery. As with the Apartment Lease, if the tenant stops paying the rent, or the landlord doesn't repair the hot water heater, the Lease is void. Israel's rebellion voided the Covenant.
We read in Hebrews 8:8: “For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:” And, again, we are Christ's, so we are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promises" (Galatians 3:29).
This New Covenant is made possible only by the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, by His shed blood. We read beginning in Matthew 26:26: “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”
Romans 11:25: “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”
A Deliverer was to come out of Zion. Centuries of sacrificed animals for sins of all kinds had not diminished the need for more animals to be sacrificed for, as yet, uncommitted sins. But God had done something new. All of those sacrificed animals pointed the Way to the Lamb of God Who only need be sacrificed once and for all.
We read of that in Hebrews 10, beginning in Verse 10: “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God...
For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” And the benefits of being rescued by Jesus as our Deliverer are spoken of in Romans 7:6: “But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”
Of this John Gill writes, “in newness of Spirit; under the influences of the Spirit of God, the author of renovation, of the new creature, or new man created in us, in righteousness and true holiness; and from a new heart, and new Spirit, and new principles of life, light, love, and grace, formed in the soul; and by walking in "newness of life", Rom_6:4, or by a new life, walk, and conversation:
and not in the oldness of the letter; not in the outward observance of the law of Moses, which is the "letter"; not indulging the old man, or walking after the dictates of corrupt nature; nor behaving according to the old former course of living: on the whole it may be observed, that a believer without the law, being delivered from it, that being dead to him, and he to that, lives a better life and conversation under the influence of the Spirit of God, than one that is under the law.
And the works of it, destitute of the grace of God; the one brings forth "fruit unto death", the other serves the Lord, "in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter."
Hebrews 12:24 tells us that Jesus is “the mediator of the New Covenant.” Are there any other mediators? Anyone else involved in seeing to it there there not be a repeat of the failings that befell the first Covenant? No... We are clearly told in 1 Timothy 2:5: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our Faith (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus is also our High Priest but far more than merely our High Priest. We read in Hebrews 4:15: “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” In that Office we read that Jesus “is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for” us (Hebrews 7:25).
That is why the New Covenant has the provision that we read in Ezekiel 11:19: “And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”
Jesus' intervention in our lives is what enables the Scriptures to call us New Creatures... brand New Creatures. Ephesians 2:10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” We are re-created in Christ as a “new man:” Notice in Ephesians 4:24: “And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
Colossians 3:10: “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:” We are renewed in knowledge. Paul wrote in Romans 12:2: “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” The Greek word that Paul used when he wrote that we should be transformed is “metamorfoo,” from which we get the English word, metamorphosis.
Paul tells us that our transformation from who and what we were before God called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, should be as radical a change as what happens when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. There is no resemblance between those two creatures, and the same should be true of us. We have, in God's eyes, become a new creature, unrecognizable from who and what we were:
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.” It was not only a New Covenant, it was a better Covenant, and was called better in a number of places, and for a number of reasons: We read in Hebrews 8:6: “But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.”
The promises of the Old Covenant assured prosperity and safety to God's people on an earthly and physical plane. Everyone who lived under the terms and promises of the Old Covenant, also died natural deaths under the terms and promises of the Old Covenant. The promises of the New Covenant go far beyond living a limited physical existence within the confines of a single geographic area, however blessed that life or land was.
Matthew Henry writes of this: “But the covenant here referred to, was that made with Israel as a nation, securing temporal benefits to them. The promises of all spiritual blessings, and of eternal life, revealed in the gospel, and made sure through Christ, are of infinitely greater value. Let us bless God that we have a High Priest that suits our helpless condition.”
The New Covenant was delivered via a Better Revelation: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son (Hebrews 1:1-2).” The original covenant was delivered and administered by various men, leaders and prophets. The New Covenant was delivered, made possible and administered and mediated by the Son of God, Whose voluntary sacrifice of Himself brought it about.
The New Covenant provided a Better Hope (Hebrews 7:19), is characterized by a Better Priesthood (Hebrews 7:20-28), was ratified with Better Sacrifices (Hebrews 9:23), offers Better Possessions (Hebrews 10:34) promises a Better Resurrection (Hebrews 11:35), speaks of a Inheriting Better Country, specifically a new city (Hebrews 11:13-16). What city has been prepared for those under the New Covenant, and why do we need a new city? That is answered in Hebrews 13:14: “For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.”
We read of that new city in Revelation 21:2: “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.”
The New Covenant also makes provision for the re-creation of not just the arrival of a New Jerusalem, not just the arrival of an entire planet, but also the entire Cosmos as we know it! They are in both the Old and the New Testaments: Isaiah 65:17: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” 2 Peter 3:13: “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”
When all is said and done, and everything is new, we read of our place in that New Heavens and New Earth 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 I will write upon him my new name.”
Today, we crossed over in to a New Year: 2025! And we can look forward to it, and hope that the New Year will bring our families and our nation stability, health and prosperity. But Scripture hold out to us Promises of New and Wonderful Things, beyond just one projected year, and beyond our ability to imagine or express them, that God has been eagerly anticipating to shower on those who love and obey Him, and into Eternity!
We serve a God of inestimable Majesty and Glory Whose good pleasure it is to invite us to share as joint heirs with Christ, not just Eternal Life and Fellowship with Him but also a New Jerusalem, a New Heaven and a New Earth and Blessings that we cannot begin to grasp. I close with this Verse found in Revelation 21:5: “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.”
This concludes this Evening's Discussion: “What Is A Christian? Part 47: All Things Are Become New.”
This Discussion was originally presented “live” on January 1st, 2025.
I have designed a website to serve as an Online Book Store for the things I have written and published on Amazon. These are in the form of both Kindle eBooks, and paperback books. Some of you may recall a Series I presented on "The Lord's Prayer" several years ago. My original notes for this and other Bible Studies have been greatly revised and expanded for these publications. For further details on the books that are available, and for ordering information, click the following:
https://arvkbook.wixsite.com/romansbooks
If you purchase and read any of my books, Thank you! I would also greatly appreciate a review on Amazon!
Today, we crossed over into a New Year: 2025! And I am sure we are all looking forward to or at least hoping that the New Year will be a healthy and prosperous one for each of us, our families, our country, and our planet. We have been going through some rough times lately, individually and collectively. So we would all do well to have a new start, a fresh and positive start as the New Year begins.
I have decided to incorprate into our current Series, "What Is A Christian?" a Discussion previously delivered on a past New Years Day, that, nonetheless, applies to our being a Christian: the whole idea of newness.
The word, “New,” of and by itself, is generally regarded as a positive word. Advertising companies have made millions of dollars by introducing or promoting products in almost every category as being “new and improved,” perhaps so often that it means almost nothing to us when we hear it any more.
In the Bible, Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 1:9: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” Well, perhaps Solomon wasn't expecting me to be able to sit at my own kitchen table in Virginia, and be able to speak in a normal speaking voice, into a plastic box and have people all over the world instantly hear me as I quoted what he wrote!
But then, as I think about it, he was correct after all. Technology has merely enabled mankind to obey or disobey God more quickly, thoroughly and efficiently. So, since Solomon was actually referring to obedience and disobedience, and not the technology used to perform it, he was right: "... there is no new thing under the sun."
But where God's activities are concerned, the Bible has much to say about new things. In the spirit of the New Year, I decided to present a Discussion about just that: the title of this evening's Discussion is “All Things Are Become New.” I think you will be surprised as I was in preparing these Notes, the scope and the breadth of how many times and in how many ways “newness” is discussed in the Scriptures.
I will be using many topics and Scriptures this evening with some help from Thompson's Chain Reference Bible, under the topic, and from Torrey's Topical Textbook. The Scriptures and topics I will use tonight will be scattered and reassigned into various combinations of Themes so I won't be able to give specific credit to each Source when they are being used. That is why I am giving them general credit in this introduction for the assistance they both provided me.
I was curious, however, to see where and how the word “new” was first used in Scripture. It is found in Exodus 1:8: “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.” After all the good that Joseph had done in Egypt, enough time had passed that the rescue from the famine were long forgotten, and the much enjoyed Egyptian prosperity afforded by Joseph's God-given ability to interpret dreams had long been forgotten.
And... a “new king” had come to power. This use of the word “new” had no immediate positive connotations for the Hebrews living in Egypt. Many generations would pass before they would be delivered from the cruel and merciless bondage that was imposed on them by this “new” king.
Several chapters later, after their deliverance, the word “new” appears again. As before with the “new king and its aftermath, the application of the word “new” is not a positive one here, either. Allow me to set the stage for you: The children of Israel had been delivered from Egypt, but they were thankless murmurers, and miserable complainers.
On top of their ceaseless whining, Moses' authority to lead was also challenged. We read of Korah, and others taking men and rising up against Moses along with two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly... men of renown. God instructed Moses as to how to handle their doubt as to whether Moses was indeed chosen to lead the children of Israel, which brings us to this next occasion of the word, “new.”
We read, beginning in Numbers 16:28: “And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the LORD hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind. If these men...” (the rebels) “...die the common death of all men... then the LORD hath not sent me. But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit...
then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD. And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them: And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods.”
The two occasions of the word “new” that I just used are the only two I plan to use where there is no specific Theme involved. I thought they were significant enough to cite, because the first one that I cited was also the first one the Bible cited. The second occasion I used was a few Books later, and I used it because God was shown to be doing a new thing when the ground opened up to swallow those men of renown who withstood Moses.
The word “new” appears 153 times and in many contexts in Scripture. While I think it would be an interesting review to go over many of them, I decided instead to focus on the most edifying occasions of the word. And, I have found, in every case, that it is most edifying when it applied to something “new” for which God is responsible.
In every instance I will cite in the remainder of this Discussion, the word “new” is used in a positive, mind-altering, heart-altering, life-altering, creation-altering , and even Universe-altering context. And, in each case, it is a new thing in which God is the sole Source, the exclusive Initiator and the only Being capable of seeing to it that the new thing comes to pass.
Let's see what New Things God has planned for those who believe in Him, who trust that Scripture is His written Word, and who have accepted His Son's death for us to pay our sin debt. We read in Ezekiel 36:26 : “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.” Now someone may protest, “Your trying to apply to Christians what God specifically promised to Israel.”
May I remind you that we read of Gentile Christians in the New Testament, 1.) “And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29); and 2.) Gentile Christians “... wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree” (Romans 11:24). In Scripture. the olive tree was a symbolic picture of Israel.
So we, today, were promised a new heart and a new spirit. These are just two elements of another new thing God both proposed. You generally think of it as The New Covenant. Of it, Matthew Henry writes “All that have an interest in the new covenant, have a new heart and a new spirit, in order to their walking in newness of life.
God would give a heart of flesh, a soft and tender heart, complying with his holy will. Renewing grace works as great a change in the soul, as the turning a dead stone into living flesh. God will put his Spirit within, as a Teacher, Guide, and Sanctifier.
The promise of God's grace to fit us for our duty, should quicken our constant care and endeavour to do our duty. These are promises to be pleaded by, and will be fulfilled to, all true believers in every age.” Regarding this promise of a new heart and spirit in Ezekiel, The Sermon Bible adds, “I. The old heart is taken away and a new one put in its place. The substitution of one heart for another implies an entire change in the character and current of our affections.
Now a change may be simply a reform, or extending farther, it may pass into a revolution. The spiritual change, which we call conversion, is not a mere reform. It is a revolution. It changes the heart, the habits, the eternal destiny of an immortal being.
For the old mischievous laws which it repeals, it introduces a new code of statutes; it changes the reigning dynasty, wrenches the sceptre from a usurper’s hand, and banishing him forth of the kingdom, in restoring the throne to God, restores it to its rightful monarch.
II. Consider the view which our text gives of the natural heart. It is a heart of stone. "I will take the stony heart out of your flesh." Notice some of the characteristic properties of a stone. (1) A stone is cold. But what stone so cold as that in man’s breast? Sin has quenched a fire that once burned bright and holy there, and has left nothing now on that chill hearth, but embers and ashes—cold as death.
(2) A stone is hard. Fire melts wax, but not stone; water softens clay, but not stone; a hammer bends the stubborn iron, but not stone. Stone resists these influences; and emblem of a heart crushed, but not sanctified by affliction, it may be shattered into fragments or ground to powder, yet its atoms are as hard as ever. (3) A stone is dead. It has no vitality, no feeling, no power of motion. It lies where it is laid; speak to it, it returns no answer; weep to it, it sheds no tears;
image of a lost and loved one, it feels not the grief that itself can move. How many sit in the house of God as unmoved! Careless as spectators who have no concern in what takes place before them, they take no interest in anything that was done on Calvary; one would think it is of stones, and yet it is of living men that these words are spoken: "Having eyes, they see not; having ears, they hear not; neither do they understand." T. Guthrie, The Gospel in Ezekiel, p. 268.
I. Human hearts unappeasably cry out after change. Something new we all need, and because we need, we crave for it; and what we crave after, we hope for. The old we have tried, and it is not enough. In the future there may be what we need, and so long as there is a future, there is hope; but the past is dead.
Now the best lesson which the years can teach us is, perhaps, this one, that the new thing we need is, not a new world, but a new self. No change can count for much to a man save one which changes him.
II. At this point the Gospel meets us. It is the singular pretension of the Christian Gospel that it does make men new. It professes to alter character, not as all other religious and ethical systems in the world have done, by mere influence of reason or of motives, or by a discipline of the flesh; it professes to alter human character by altering human nature.
The Gospel is a message from Him who made us, that He is among us re-making us. Out of the fact of the Incarnation springs the hope of our renewal. God now is not outside of mankind, but inside.
From the inside He can work and does work, renewingly. A race which includes God need not despair of Divine life; it can be divinely re-created from within itself. "The Head of every man is Christ." He that is in Christ is a new creature. Attach yourself to Him; hang on by Him. He is God in man, renewing man; and He will renew you in this new year.
III. Let us stir ourselves up to compare the life we are this day leading with the life we should lead were we made new by the Holy Ghost. Set the one against the other. Spiritual things are distasteful, and we drag ourselves to religious duty; we ought to rejoice in the Lord and run in His pleasant paths. This world absorbs and conquers us; we ought to rule it and use it for heaven. Internal restlessness and dissatisfaction with ourselves gnaw our hearts, but the saints have peace.
"A new heart will I give you." Do we not need it? Shall we not, every one of us, go to this daring much-promising Man, who claims to regenerate his fellows, and say: "Never men needed this renewing more than we do. Give us a new temper and a new spirit; yea, a new self, Lord, like Thyself."
IV. Change the man and you change his world. The new self will make all around it as good as new, though no actual change should pass on it; for, to a very wonderful extent, a man creates his own world. J. Oswald Dykes, Sermons, p. 249.”
I. When God gives a new heart, our affections are engaged in religion. The Gospel is accommodated to our nature; its light is adapted to our darkness; its mercy to our misery; its pardon to our guilt; its comforts to our griefs, and in substituting the love of Christ for the love of sin, in giving us an object to love, it meets our constitution and satisfies the strongest cravings of our nature. It engages our affections, and in taking away an old heart, supplies its place with a new one and a better.
II. Consider the new heart. It mainly consists in a change of the affections as they regard spiritual objects. In obedience to a Divine impulse, their course is not only in a different, but in a contrary, direction; for the grace of God works such a complete change of feeling, that what was once hated you now love, and what was once loved you now loathe; you fly from what you once courted, and pursue what you once shunned.
III. In conversion God gives a new spirit. By this change (1) the understanding and judgment are enlightened; (2) the will is renewed; (3) the temper and disposition are changed and sanctified. (4) In conversion God gives a heart of flesh. In conversion a man gets (1 a warm heart; (2) a soft heart; (3) a living heart. (5) By conversion man is ennobled.
T. Guthrie, The Gospel in Ezekiel, p. 287. References: Eze_36:26.—T. Guthrie, The Gospel in Ezekiel, p. 247; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 62; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv., No. 212; vol. viii., No. 456; vol. xix., No. 1129; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 230; D. B. James, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 125. Eze_36:26, Eze_36:27.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii., No. 1046; J. Sherman, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 13.”
The New Things that God Promises will come are Of Divine Origin
John 1:13: “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” The Bible Tell us that, as Christians, we are a New Creation: We read beginning 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...
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”
Regeneration is a vital aspect of Salvation. We read in Titus 3:3: “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;”
Besides a regeneration, the Bible speaks of a newness where believers are concerned:
We read in James 1:18: “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” We, as Christians are spiritually renewed, as if our whole being is starting again from scratch:
Notice, also what we find in 1 Peter 1:3-4: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you...”
We also find that we are renewed by the Word of God, itself: In 1 Peter 1:22, we read: “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”
What else does Scripture tell us about this New Covenant? Perhaps I should ask first, how and why did the Old Covenant even become an Old Covenant? A Covenant is an agreement between two parties to perform various things. When someone rents an apartment, the renter promises to pay the rent on time, and keep up the property in various ways, while the landlord offers a place to stay, to repair leaky pipes and leaky roofs, and make sure the heat and air conditioning works in the winter and summer.
It is a covenant not in so many words. Well God had proposed a Covenant with Israel: If they obeyed His Commands, he would Bless and protect them as a nation... as His chosen people. But Exodus 31:16 identifies that Covenant between God and Israel as “a perpetual covenant.” So... what happened? How and why was a New Covenant even necessary as a replacement? Because of something else that was perpetual that we read of.
Jeremiah 8:5 the Lord asks: “Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.” Jesus phrased Israel's resistance to God with these words found in Luke 13:34: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!”
Israel, from the time they left Egypt and agreed to abide to the terms of the Covenant, generation after generation, broke God's Laws, trampled His statutes under foot, and committed spiritual adultery. As with the Apartment Lease, if the tenant stops paying the rent, or the landlord doesn't repair the hot water heater, the Lease is void. Israel's rebellion voided the Covenant.
We read in Hebrews 8:8: “For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:” And, again, we are Christ's, so we are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promises" (Galatians 3:29).
This New Covenant is made possible only by the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, by His shed blood. We read beginning in Matthew 26:26: “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”
Romans 11:25: “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”
A Deliverer was to come out of Zion. Centuries of sacrificed animals for sins of all kinds had not diminished the need for more animals to be sacrificed for, as yet, uncommitted sins. But God had done something new. All of those sacrificed animals pointed the Way to the Lamb of God Who only need be sacrificed once and for all.
We read of that in Hebrews 10, beginning in Verse 10: “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God...
For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” And the benefits of being rescued by Jesus as our Deliverer are spoken of in Romans 7:6: “But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”
Of this John Gill writes, “in newness of Spirit; under the influences of the Spirit of God, the author of renovation, of the new creature, or new man created in us, in righteousness and true holiness; and from a new heart, and new Spirit, and new principles of life, light, love, and grace, formed in the soul; and by walking in "newness of life", Rom_6:4, or by a new life, walk, and conversation:
and not in the oldness of the letter; not in the outward observance of the law of Moses, which is the "letter"; not indulging the old man, or walking after the dictates of corrupt nature; nor behaving according to the old former course of living: on the whole it may be observed, that a believer without the law, being delivered from it, that being dead to him, and he to that, lives a better life and conversation under the influence of the Spirit of God, than one that is under the law.
And the works of it, destitute of the grace of God; the one brings forth "fruit unto death", the other serves the Lord, "in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter."
Hebrews 12:24 tells us that Jesus is “the mediator of the New Covenant.” Are there any other mediators? Anyone else involved in seeing to it there there not be a repeat of the failings that befell the first Covenant? No... We are clearly told in 1 Timothy 2:5: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our Faith (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus is also our High Priest but far more than merely our High Priest. We read in Hebrews 4:15: “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” In that Office we read that Jesus “is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for” us (Hebrews 7:25).
That is why the New Covenant has the provision that we read in Ezekiel 11:19: “And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”
Jesus' intervention in our lives is what enables the Scriptures to call us New Creatures... brand New Creatures. Ephesians 2:10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” We are re-created in Christ as a “new man:” Notice in Ephesians 4:24: “And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
Colossians 3:10: “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:” We are renewed in knowledge. Paul wrote in Romans 12:2: “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” The Greek word that Paul used when he wrote that we should be transformed is “metamorfoo,” from which we get the English word, metamorphosis.
Paul tells us that our transformation from who and what we were before God called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, should be as radical a change as what happens when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. There is no resemblance between those two creatures, and the same should be true of us. We have, in God's eyes, become a new creature, unrecognizable from who and what we were:
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.” It was not only a New Covenant, it was a better Covenant, and was called better in a number of places, and for a number of reasons: We read in Hebrews 8:6: “But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.”
The promises of the Old Covenant assured prosperity and safety to God's people on an earthly and physical plane. Everyone who lived under the terms and promises of the Old Covenant, also died natural deaths under the terms and promises of the Old Covenant. The promises of the New Covenant go far beyond living a limited physical existence within the confines of a single geographic area, however blessed that life or land was.
Matthew Henry writes of this: “But the covenant here referred to, was that made with Israel as a nation, securing temporal benefits to them. The promises of all spiritual blessings, and of eternal life, revealed in the gospel, and made sure through Christ, are of infinitely greater value. Let us bless God that we have a High Priest that suits our helpless condition.”
The New Covenant was delivered via a Better Revelation: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son (Hebrews 1:1-2).” The original covenant was delivered and administered by various men, leaders and prophets. The New Covenant was delivered, made possible and administered and mediated by the Son of God, Whose voluntary sacrifice of Himself brought it about.
The New Covenant provided a Better Hope (Hebrews 7:19), is characterized by a Better Priesthood (Hebrews 7:20-28), was ratified with Better Sacrifices (Hebrews 9:23), offers Better Possessions (Hebrews 10:34) promises a Better Resurrection (Hebrews 11:35), speaks of a Inheriting Better Country, specifically a new city (Hebrews 11:13-16). What city has been prepared for those under the New Covenant, and why do we need a new city? That is answered in Hebrews 13:14: “For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.”
We read of that new city in Revelation 21:2: “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.”
The New Covenant also makes provision for the re-creation of not just the arrival of a New Jerusalem, not just the arrival of an entire planet, but also the entire Cosmos as we know it! They are in both the Old and the New Testaments: Isaiah 65:17: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” 2 Peter 3:13: “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”
When all is said and done, and everything is new, we read of our place in that New Heavens and New Earth 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 I will write upon him my new name.”
Today, we crossed over in to a New Year: 2025! And we can look forward to it, and hope that the New Year will bring our families and our nation stability, health and prosperity. But Scripture hold out to us Promises of New and Wonderful Things, beyond just one projected year, and beyond our ability to imagine or express them, that God has been eagerly anticipating to shower on those who love and obey Him, and into Eternity!
We serve a God of inestimable Majesty and Glory Whose good pleasure it is to invite us to share as joint heirs with Christ, not just Eternal Life and Fellowship with Him but also a New Jerusalem, a New Heaven and a New Earth and Blessings that we cannot begin to grasp. I close with this Verse found in Revelation 21:5: “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.”
This concludes this Evening's Discussion: “What Is A Christian? Part 47: All Things Are Become New.”
This Discussion was originally presented “live” on January 1st, 2025.
I have designed a website to serve as an Online Book Store for the things I have written and published on Amazon. These are in the form of both Kindle eBooks, and paperback books. Some of you may recall a Series I presented on "The Lord's Prayer" several years ago. My original notes for this and other Bible Studies have been greatly revised and expanded for these publications. For further details on the books that are available, and for ordering information, click the following:
https://arvkbook.wixsite.com/romansbooks
If you purchase and read any of my books, Thank you! I would also greatly appreciate a review on Amazon!