Sunday begins a new year. This year I feel fortunate to have survived the "holiday season" with everything in tact. I detest the commercialism that has become our celebration but I am too tired and old to keep on tilting at windmills so I just continue on in my curmudgeonly ways and curse quietly under my breath trying hard not to make everyone around me as miserable as I tend to feel during this time of the year.
However, it is my custom to take a few minutes to "take stock" during this time of year (probably NOT the best frame if mind for my musing...but somehow it works for me). This week while pondering I have also been working on a series of sermons for the church that will deal biblically and theologically with things that are "new."
There are two primary words in the bible for "new": neos and kainos. Both terms are sometimes used synonymously and interchangeably so I expected the contrast between what is "new" and what is "old"--for instance Jesus' teaching about the new and old wine and wineskins...after all the bible is not rocket science!
However, what I came to understand theologically about how these terms are used shed some light on some issues in my life and I thought that someone might find them helpful as well...sorry I won't be posting all the information from all four sermons but if you have interest--this should get you started.
First off...here is a partial list of things that are either new (in contrast with the old) or are made new in the New Testament:
Using the term "neos":
Dough (1 Cor 5:7)
Wine (Matt 9:17 and parallels)
"New" Man (Col 3:9)
Covenant (Heb 12:24)
Using the term "kainos":
Commandment (Jn 13:34; 1 Jn 2:7-8)
Creation (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15)
Existence [life in the Spirit] (Rm 6:4; 7:6)
Man (Eph 2:15; 4:24, cf 2 Cor 4:16, Col 3:10)
Heaven and Earth (2 Pt 3:13, Rev 21:1)
Name (Rev 2:17; 3:12)
Jerusalem (Rev 3:12; 21:2)
Song (Rev 5:9; 14:3)
It is a pretty impressive (albeit partial) list!! But here is what I came to understand...these things are not "copies" of the old things--God, through Christ is not "renewing" these things...He is either comparing and contrasting these things with the "old" ones (especially in the case of "neos" with dough and wine). Or He is making literally NEW things.
If I understand the language correctly (and I have not taken the time to go over every verse in the original language yet--so I may have come to a wrong conclusion) but I think a better way to state these terms is like this--"neos" is primarily used of things that are "fresh" compared to things that are old and stale. "Kainos," on the other hand, has a qualitative dimension to it that might be rendered as "better" (that is NOT to say that everything that is deemed "new" is better than the "old" things)--if the New Testament is a fulfillment of the Old Testament then we should see the "new" things as fresh and better things that God has set upon the foundation of the old things. It is not a "new" thing that comes from the old...but it is something completely fresh that surpasses what has already been.
When we apply this line of thought to the lists above the promises of God take on a WHOLE new dimension. Eventually "everything" will be made new for "the old order has passed away" (Rev 21:5) but in the meantime look what God is already accomplishing in the life of those who love and live for Him!!!
There is no doubt that Sunday at 12 midnight we will begin a "New" (fresh as far as the calendar is concerned) Year...but is it also possible that God is working in our lives to make things "new" (qualitatively better)? The problem is that we associate the term "better" with things always going our way and us getting what we want...but that is NOT what God has promised!!
In the lyrics of The Counting Crows "it's been a long December and there's reason to believe that maybe this year will be better than the last..." it will because we will be one step closer to God making everything new because He is alive and at work. I believe...help my unbelief.
BTW...Happy "New" year!
