Easter Makes Everything NewSample

Out with the Old, in with the New

The new covenant, the new way of life that Jesus secured for us through His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, was promised by God in the Old Testament: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you,” God said. He was saying, “I’m not working with your old heart, your old will. I’m going to put a new heart and a new spirit in you, because what you have now is messed up, and it can’t be changed. I’m not fixing it, not putting a Band-Aid on it. I’m giving you a new heart, a new spirit.”

He went on, “I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” In other words, “You won’t be hard and calloused anymore. You’ll be tender now and see things the way I do, not because you study and practice but because I’m giving you a new heart, a new spirit. Live out of it!”

He continued, “And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezek. 36:26–27). This was hundreds of years before Christ came to earth. How are we going to obey God and be overcoming? His Spirit, in our new spirits, will move us from the inside out. It’s not by turning over a new leaf or promising to change. That’s wasted. “I’m going to put My powerful Spirit in you,” God says, “the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, and I will move you however I want to move you. You’ll want to obey Me; you’ll want to read My Word; you’ll want to show compassion, not because someone taught you to do these things but because My heart is in you.”

Teaching has its place, but Christianity is not a teaching religion. That’s for Mormons and Buddhists and Jehovah’s Witnesses—all they can do is teach. Christianity is supernatural! It’s a new life. The old has gone, the new has come.

Many of us, like I did, grew up in church trying to patch up the old. But that’s hopeless. Christianity is not about, “Come on, do better. Jesus died on the cross, after all.” No, the whole thing is of the Lord—the pardon, the forgiveness, the cross, the blood, and the Spirit working in us giving us new hearts, new centers that we’re supposed to live out of. That’s why the Bible says, “Walk by the Spirit, by that new Holy Spirit living in you. Let Him shape your thoughts and your desires.” Praise God. Isn’t that good?

Let’s rejoice in the promise of the new covenant.