Old and New

Already Shining

(1 John 2:7-8, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 20, 2016)

[7] Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. [8] At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

Beloved

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus is the beloved of the Father and of the church. (See Spurgeon's Morning and Evening for today, March 20.) But have we embraced the truth that we who are in Christ are the beloved of the Father? Have we thought that way about ourselves and about each other? In this morning's prayer email we marked with rejoicing the coming of a new beloved grandson for one family in the church. We also mourned with our sister the death of one of the beloved elderly men of the church. At times of birth and death we catch a better glimpse of the value of life, and we give thanks to God.

An old commandment

If we consider the words “old” and “new” as they relate to the experiences of our lives, perhaps we think of birth and death. Someone new is being born. Someone else known to us and appreciated for many years is suddenly gone. In the Bible, the words “old” and “new” are used in the same sentences several times. We read of an old and new way of life or of an old and new commandment as in the passage before us this morning. This is combined with this human experience of birth and death, since something is “passing away,” and something else is “already shining” with the light of a new day.

With God, who knows all things, the new is anticipated perfectly in the old, and the old is wondrously fulfilled in the new. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17) There is great value in old wine and even in an old piece of cloth if you want to mend an old garment. (Matthew 9:16-17) And everyone who loves the Word of God and the Kingdom of Heaven learns how to make good use of both what is old and what is new. (Matthew 13:52)

The commandment to love God and to follow in His ways by loving others is as old as the Garden of Eden and the Books of Moses. Yet there was more for the people of God to know and experience regarding this love than could have been understood from the words of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

A new commandment

We have to be born from above in order to walk in love as Jesus walked. We are told in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” Something has happened, not just in our own lives but in one life and in one gift for billions of people, to make this new life of love possible. The one life is the resurrection life of Jesus. The one gift is the precious blessing of the Holy Spirit poured out upon the church.

The darkness is passing away

The resurrection of Jesus and the fuller work of the Holy Spirit throughout the world are the two turning points that mark the change from Old Covenant to New Covenant. Many people assume that New Covenant life begins with Matthew 1 since Matthew is the first book of the New Testament, but this is not exactly correct. In the gospels, Jesus is doing what many prophets did before Him. He is announcing the coming of a New Covenant life, but now that new life is imminent in His own presence. But when He fulfills Old Testament prophecy (Zechariah 9:9) by riding into Jerusalem as the Messiah King, he is traveling a very costly road that will soon yield to resurrection life, and after His ascension, to the best of all donations that could be given to His beloved church. In His pathway to resurrection, He shows us what love is all about. By the Holy Spirit, He dwells within us and empowers us to walk in love.

Many people today long for fame. For Jesus, celebrity would mean death. It was not easy to be a quiet and modest Messiah, but our Lord did this as long as He could. When the time came to die for us, He deliberately became more famous. In John's gospel we read of seven signs that culminate in Jesus' own resurrection. Immediately before that, Jesus calls Lazarus from the grave, and seals His own cross love through such a public and obvious miracle. His enemies know that something must be done to stop Him. Shortly after that the sister of Lazarus anoints Jesus' body for burial. “The next day,” we learn in John 12:12, “the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.” The familiar story of Palm Sunday immediately follows. On that day and on the cross that would certainly follow in just a few days, Jesus publicly showed us how costly the old commandment of love really was. In doing so He gave us a new commandment. Only now could we begin to see (once the Spirit would give us eyes to see) what love was really about. We would walk as Jesus walked.

The true light is already shining

This should make a big difference to us in the way that we seek to obey God's Law. What was the old way of preparation? We would hear the commandment of love, applaud it with our minds, teach it to our children, and find ourselves defeated by our own sinful flesh.

What is the new way? It is not that the commandment is less. If anything it is more, since now we see what the costliness of love always was. Once we did not know it. Now we see and hear. “Hosanna!” Then another shout: “Crucify Him!” Jesus was made lower so that His beloved church would be raised up to His glorious home. Once we could not have the victory of love. Now His Spirit dwells within us and makes us more and more like Him.

There really is a turning point between the Old and the New, and it begins today. Historically, and for billions, it begins on this day we have come to call Palm Sunday. It continues through Good Friday, Easter, and then the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost. The church is born. But for some today, this day, it begins for you. The true light is brighter. You see the love of God for you more than you ever have before, and have the power of God in you to walk as He walked.

The love that the Lord has for us is cross love. It is to be received and embraced. It is to be valued and followed. This love brings a new humility that is willing to see our guilt as it is and to believe that we are the beloved of the Father. The way of healing for the church has come to us through the humility of the gospel of Christ's love.

The first covenant is now obsolete and has vanished away with the destruction of the old temple (Hebrews 8:13) But a new temple has been born in us. We are thankful for the heritage of the Old Covenant that prepared God's people for the coming of the Light, but we are even more grateful that we live in the time of resurrection light for the whole world. God has given us a new way to obey because of Jesus and the Spirit that He has given us.

Old Testament Reading—2 Chronicles 7:11-22 – If my people humble themselves...

Gospel Reading—Luke 5:33-39 – Old and new