I have an old, worn out pair of shoes that I really need to throw away. I have a new pair, but I find myself continuing to put on the old pair, as they are “more comfortable,” even if they are full of holes and the sole is separating!  Whether it is a baseball glove, a cap, a purse, or maybe a tool, or even a vehicle, it is hard to part with an item that has been part of our life for some time, and one with which we are comfortable.  At one time, when I was doing quite a bit of cabinet-type work, we ordered a quality, commercial table saw. It sat in the box for a couple years before I even got it out to use, as the old, much-less expensive, saw was doing “just fine,” and I was comfortable with using it. 

     The same principle is true when it comes to our spiritual lives.  It is hard to let go of the old habits and the old way of doing things and to start living the new life we have in Christ (II Cor. 5:17).  When the Israelites were freed from some 430 years of bondage in Egypt, they spent the next 40 years wandering in the wilderness before entering the land promised to them, because they kept complaining. It started from the moment that they faced the Red Sea in front of them and Pharaoh’s army behind them. “They said to Moses, ‘Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt…It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness’ ” (Ex. 14:11,12).  Then they complained about the lack of good water and being hungry. Again they grumbled to Moses, saying, “Why, now have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” (Ex. 17:3). God miraculously provided water for their thirst and manna for their hunger (Ex. 15-17). Then they even tired of eating manna and griped about that, and asked for meat (Nu. 11:4). They said, “We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic…but now there is nothing at all to look at except this manna” (Nu. 11:5,6).  It seems that their physical desires somehow clouded their memory of the harsh treatment they experienced under the Egyptian taskmasters and would rather be back in Egypt.  But, as an old Keith Green song said, “You Can’t Go Back to Egypt.”   Even if the old life was difficult, it’s hard to put it behind us. 

     The same was true when Jesus came to establish a New Covenant with Israel.  The Old Covenant, the Law, though it was perfect, could make no one perfect. In fact, what it did was to reveal sin so that the Jews would see their need of the Messiah Jesus as their Redeemer and Savior (Gal. 2:16; 3:1-3,19-29).  Even when they put their trust in Jesus and His death, burial and resurrection to save them, some had the tendency to lapse back into Judaism, under the Law, which only condemned and couldn’t save.  Paul called them “foolish,” asking them, “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish?  Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Ga. 3:1-3).  It would appear that the author of the book of Hebrews was addressing the same problem with the Jewish believers, many of whom apparently tried to mix Law and Grace and go back under the Old Covenant.  After all, it was a “known,” and in that sense more comfortable. They knew exactly what was expected, even though they were powerless to perform. 

      Jesus taught the parable of the wineskins to deal with this issue. He said, “No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins” (Lk. 5:37,38). The point He was making was that the new teaching of the grace of Christ cannot be contained within the old forms of the Law (cf Jn. 1:17). Some people were finding it difficult to accept that the old ministry of the Law was meant to give way to the new ministry of grace through the high priesthood of Christ. They were tempted to say, “The old is better, more comfortable.” But the “Law was meant as a signpost, not a solution” (Today in the Word, 3-15-2024). 

     As believers, we have a whole new life in Christ. We are partakers of the Divine Nature, with the Godhead living within us (I Cor. 3:16; 6:19,20; Gal. 2:20). We not only have forgiveness for what we have done–sinned (Eph. 1:7), but deliverance from what we are–sinners (Ro. 6:6 cf Ro. 5:10). Unfortunately we still have trouble letting go of the old habits and patterns and tend to fall back into our old way of doing things. It’s more comfortable.  But, the Apostle Paul challenges us with these words: “In reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the Spirit of your mind, and put on the new self which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth (Eph. 4:22-24).  He repeats this challenge in Col. 3:8-11 with a list of things to “put on and put off,”

     Do you have some things left over from your B.C. (Before Christ) days that need to be “put off” and thrown away and some new things that need to be “put on”?  Ask God, He will help you do it!

 Forever His,

     Pastor Dave