Hebrews 8:13 KJV
In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
Years ago I pastored a young lady who had a childhood friend who was battling what turned out to be terminal cancer. Since this lady and her family were brand new in our church, they were excited about our church and anxious to get their friends to come there with them. One of those friends, of course, was this woman with cancer. She never came to our church but we got regular updates on her declining condition from the family who had recently joined.
The battle with the cancer was brutal. At one point the friend in our church blurted out to me, "Why doesn't she just give up and die already?" I knew what she meant. I knew she meant well and that death would end the unbelievable suffering her friend was enduring. Still, it struck me odd, almost cruel. As far as I could tell this new member in our church was about as gracious and compassionate a person as I have ever been blessed to know. But she wanted this struggle to be over.
The incident reminds me of the very emotional struggle of replacing Old Testament laws with New Testament faith.
· There is no question that the new is here
· There is little debate that it is better
But some refuse to let the fight die.
As strange as it may seem, the gracious and the compassionate position is to urge the old to simply "vanish away."
· It is not unkind or hateful to urge Jews, especially those who claim to have faith in Christ, to make a clean break from the Old Testament Law.
· It is an act of love to push Christians who are Gentiles by birth away from Judaistic rituals and toward a Bible believing New Testament Baptist church.
God has a plan that will one day restore Israel's holy and rightful place. But that is the business of the future. Today's business is to lead all men, Jew or Gentile:
· to Christ,
· to baptism and
· to common fellowship in a local New Testament Bible believing Baptist church.
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