All Things New

Reading the Old Testament in light of the New is an overwhelming contrast. Like—

Night and day. 

Dark and light. 

Death to life. 

Old to New. New. New. 

Do you think God created this contrast on purpose? I mean, is it possible all of those laws, the sacrificial system, all the death, violence and blood, were merely the setup for Jesus’ 3-word mic drop? 

“It is finished.”

Tetelestai. Finished. The whole complicated, bloody mess. Finished. 

Please excuse me. I’ve been immersed lately in the Torah. The first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures. The books of the law. My husband and I along with a group of neighbors have committed to a Bible read-through in 2026, and we’ve been hacking through the wilderness with the Israelites. Ufda. 

Concurrent with my OT reading I’ve been s-l-o-w-l-y memorizing Colossians. (Gone are the days of my youthful brain.) And just as I’m persevering with Moses, I am also doing my best to retain these words from Paul: 

He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:14) 

Have you ever thought about what it must have been like to be Paul? A Pharisee, for pete’s sake. Talk about a guy immersed in the nitty gritty of old covenant law. But then Paul met the risen Jesus, and just like that it was 

All

Things

New.

Therefore, don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17) 

Sometimes I think we don’t have an inkling of the mind-bending, life-altering, it-is-finished work of Jesus. From shadow of death to Light of Life… The substance of everything is the risen Christ. He is the very personification of contrast. 

Paul knew he was a sinner saved by grace. He also knew he was a Pharisee saved from the laws of religion. 

But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law. (Romans 7:6) 

No one knew better than Paul what it meant to be free. He had a habit of describing his old superstar checklist of religious achievements and calling all of it “garbage” in contrast to knowing Jesus. (Philippians 3:8 NIV*) 

I read the Old Testament with a sense of burden, and for good reason. Something is incomplete. The story isn’t finished. 

This week we act out this contrast in real time. Good Friday to Easter Sunday. Soberest evening to jubilant morning. Death’s last gasp turns to unending resurrection life. Do you feel it? 

The cross becomes the pivot that reverses the entire story. It flips the script on its head. Because of resurrection we must now read the story backwards. Jesus is both the culmination and the beginning of all things. He is our brand new life. 

__________________________

Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him— if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it. (Colossians 1:21-23) 

*All other Scripture is CSB