When something like a car engine is renewed, it needs to be “overhauled”. The engine remains the same thing, but it needs to be given some new parts, while some old parts need cleaning, drilling, adjusting in order to give the old engine new life. In a sense, the same thing happened to God’s covenant.
God’s plan of salvation has been the same one from even before the creation. However, it took a long while for the world to be prepared in order to receive God’s final Revelation, namely Jesus Christ. Jesus came to earth to continue God’s existing, old covenant, but also to give in new meaning, new significance, and a new emphasis.
This “old-new” (renewal) theme is strongly emphasized in the New Testament by Jesus himself, for example, when He spoke about the “new covenant in his blood” – Luke 22:20). It is also highlighted the authors of Acts, the Epistles and the Book of Revelation. Here in the Northern Hemisphere we even have the well-loved season called “Spring” to remind us that renewal is promised, that it is constant and consistent. Just as we expect Spring to arrive, waiting for the weather to change, knowing that new life (leaves, flowers) will appear, in the same way we are assured that Jesus not only brought new life to us when He died and rose from the dead, but that there is a promise of future life with Him for eternity.
April-May is just that season of the year in our Christian calendar that speaks to us so much about God’s New Covenant, Jesus Christ who came to die in our place in order to offer us new life! Jesus came to renew God’s covenant, to give it new meaning, to bring it to fulfillment.
Somehow, during this Spring, remember that God sent Jesus to give his old covenant an overhaul! And by His grace we are the ones who benefit from what Christ has done for us.
