By faith, through grace, for good works.

I’m going to be honest, Hebrews is a book in the bible that confuses me. It is one I do not read often and it is one that is filled with so much information. One of the pastors at Hosanna recently referred to it as “A summary of the bible.” Well, no wonder it is packed full; it really does walk through all of it, beginning to end. At Hosanna, we have been reading it as part of a series on Faith. The daily devotionals have helped me to open my eyes to it a little more and be able to relate it to my own faith. At the end of Hebrews 8 is this verse:

By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear. Hebrews 8:13

Out of this, I had two questions:

1. What covenant is being referenced?
2. What is the context, the meaning, of obsolete in this verse?

1. In my study bible, it tells me that the Sinaitic Covenant is obsolete and outdated. That’s the 10 commandments, the “Law of Moses.” Which kind of throws me off a little bit because we still talk about the 10 commandments in church, they are still a part of the bible, a part of the truth, a part of God’s story. But, what I am learning is that we use them in a different way than the Israelites did. We no longer try to live by the law because we don’t have to. We now, on this side of the cross, live by our faith. We live, as Christians, to be more and more like Jesus. We live knowing that we can’t fulfill the law, but that we don’t have to because Jesus did. We live in freedom, in reconciliation, in relationship with God.

…remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants and promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Ephesians 2:12-13

2. Obsolete, I think, is quite literal in this verse. Obsolete is to be out of date to no longer be used. When I did some cross referencing, this verse stuck out to me from 2 Corinthians:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17

The old law, the law of Moses, is no longer what we live by, it is gone, and the new is here. We have salvation. And it is by faith, through grace that we have been saved (Ephesians 2). But, that is just the baseline, the beginning of our faith, the beginning of all God has for us.

…show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. James 2:18

The law of Moses may be obsolete, but we serve a God that is not. Our God is alive today. He still has BIG expectations for us, but He has even BIGGER grace for us. To truly walk out our faith, it means to do good in this world. But, it isn’t a “have to” instead, it is a “get to.” As our hearts are changed by God, as we grow in our relationship with Him, we just naturally and effortlessly do good in this world. Because, we are no longer living for ourselves, but for our God. For His glory and His goodness. We get to walk in that freedom ever day and when we do, we are not only changing our own lives, but the lives of those around us.

Love and blessings,