Every January there are a few weeks when it seems awkward to say the new year, and people accidentally write the old year out of habit or tradition, but everybody agrees that it is right to divide the old year from the new.
By February these mistakes are resolved, and if anyone continued to make them by November we would consider them senile.
Two thousand years ago the Lord Jesus Christ returned from heaven to give to Paul new information that changed the way we deal with each other and with God.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” – 2 Cor 5:17
Yet, people still ignore the changes and continue to operate under the old things that are passed away… two thousand years later.
A Jew or Not a Jew
The debate has raged for millennia about whether or not members of the church are now spiritual Israel taking the place of the circumcision.
According to the revelation of Christ given to Paul there is neither Jew nor Gentile in the body of Christ. In time past there was a difference between Israel and the nations. Israel was God’s people, and to be a Jew meant you had access to God’s word and his will.
“But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” – Eph 2:13
Gentiles in time past were far off, but are now made nigh to God through the blood of Christ, not through a nation or through circumcision. In fact, according to what is new, circumcision does not profit anyone!
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” – Gal 6:15
In the new dispensation from God there is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision; we are all part of a new creature that is neither Jew nor Gentile.
The Law or not the Law
Other issues are also dealt with easily when we understand that old things passed away with the revelation given to Paul.
The law was the manual by which God’s people operated for more than a thousand years. By the change in dispensation, where all things are become new, we are no longer under the law, but under grace.
“But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” – Rom 7:6
The old thing of the law and its consequence of condemnation has been dealt with by Christ as part of all things becoming new.
“Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;” – Eph 2:15
All Things Become New
When old things pass away there is a tendency to live in the past.
Two thousand years after God made known that all things are become new, churches still walk in the old things of tithing, covenant prayer promises, building a kingdom, saying the Lord’s prayer, water baptism, commandment keeping, and trips to Israel’s land.
It is time the church made the resolution to let old things pass away, and recognize all things are become new by the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery (Rom 16:25).
Churches that fail to rightly divide are living in the past!
It is long passed due to change our doctrinal calendars so that we no longer live or walk according to the old things of Israel, their covenants, and their red letters.
What a happy dispensational new year that would be!
Article Index Published: January 5, 2013
Last Modified: January 20, 2018