Remember those TV ads from when you were a kid? They were always promoting something that was “new and improved”. New and improved struck me a few days ago when I was thinking about the old and new covenants. We know that the new covenant is new – it’s in the name – and we know that it is an improvement over the old covenant. The book of Hebrews outlines some clear covenant comparisons and spells out for us what is “better” about the new covenant.
- Jesus brings a better hope (Hebrews 6:19-7:19),
- Jesus is a better priest (Hebrews 7:21-8:2),
- Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant (Hebrews 8:4-13),
- Jesus is a better sacrifice (Hebrews 9:11-28),
- Jesus is a better offering for sin (Hebrews 10:1-16), and
- Jesus’ new covenant is built on better promises (Hebrews chapter 11).
With all the “better” that the new covenant brings, why are folks hesitant to embrace all of the promises and provisions of the new covenant? Why are we still drawn back to an old covenant mindset and practice. Why do we try to mix the two covenants together?
Let’s examine the old and new covenants as if they were laundry detergent. I am going to use Tide as our laundry detergent, not to promote a product, but as a useful shorthand for laundry detergent. The old covenant is what I call “original Tide”.
So how does the laundry process work with original Tide? Generally speaking, we notice that our clothes are beginning to smell bad or have become dirty with spills or stains. So we wash them with our original Tide. They clean up well. The smell good. They look good. We are good to go for another week, month, or whatever. At any rate, it is a bit of a job to do this laundry process over and over. But it is a job that needs to be done if we want clean clothes to wear.
Now let’s say the Tide people come along with a “new and improved” Tide. But this Tide is unlike any “new and improved” that you have ever experienced. Here is how it works.
When you wash your clothes for the first time with new and improved Tide, they stay clean for the rest of your life. You never have to wash these clothes again, ever. Washing your clothes just one time in new and improved Tide produces clothes that are always fresh, always clean, completely free of stains or offensive odors. In fact, you can’t mess this up if you tried. There is nothing you can do to these clothes that would ever have them required to be washed again.
On top of that, these washed one time in new and improved Tide clothes will never wear out. They will never need to be replaced. For the rest of your life, these clothes will smell fresh and look perfectly clean after just one washing.
Is that a laundry detergent you would like to have? Well, I can see that you want to say “yes”, but I also see the skepticism in your eyes. And those eyes are saying to me, “No thanks, Jay. There is literally no way this kind of power could exist in a laundry detergent. It is impossible to create a detergent this new and improved that my clothes would never need to be washed ever again. I will pass on this crazy idea. I will stick to my original Tide and my usual laundry routine.”
Why would someone turn down the new and improved Tide? Because it sounds too good to be true. And believing that it is too good to be true, they pass on the opportunity. Do you see the analogy with the new covenant?
Under the old covenant, sin was an ongoing issue. Sins needed to be confessed. Punishment needed to be handed down. Sacrifices needed to be offered. Acts of penance needed to be carried out. And it was an over and over pattern that needed to be repeated just like the job of washing our clothes over and over again. And for some reason, we feel like this is just the way things are, the way things should be, the way the spiritual world works.
But under the new covenant, all of this “over and over” has been removed. Jesus died once for all, exchanging His righteousness for our sin; sin that He has taken away for good. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians 5:21). God calls this great exchange a thorough, one-time, washed clean. “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).
Do you see the picture, clearly explained throughout the New Testament? You have literally been washed clean by the one-time sacrifice of Jesus and your embrace of His gospel message. You have been washed clean by the one-time cleansing of the new and improved new covenant. You are now identified as righteous (Ephesians 4:24), holy (Colossians 3:12), blameless (Colossians 1:22), clean (Acts 15:9), and perfected (Hebrews 10:14) in Jesus.
But just like our laundry analogy, we often see this picture of grace as just too good to be true. And I get it. It seems too supernatural, too out there, too other worldly, too impossible to be true. Do not let your skepticism stop you. Do not let what you have been taught about some connection to the old covenant stop you. Do not let “too good to be true” stop you.
Yes, it sounds too good to be true. BUT IT IS TRUE! All of it is true. All the promise and provision of the new covenant is true. And it is being given to you by the grace of God. Believe it, receive it, embrace it, and soak it in. It is yours, free to everyone who believes! And yes, no more wash cycles required!