Who doesn’t love new stuff? I love new shoes, new books, new music albums, new movies, and I really like the new iPhone (no, I don’t have one). New is the new new, or, to say it another way, our hearts long for the new and it’s always been that way.
Murray Harris, in his commentary on 2 Corinthians, writes that “The theology of the NT—or indeed Pauline theology—could be written around this theocentric concept of ‘newness’” (p. 433).
In the new era brought by Christ, there is—
- new wine of the new age (Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37–38)
- new covenant (Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25; 2 Cor. 3:6; Heb. 8:8, 13; 9:15; 12:24)
- new creation/creature (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15)
- new man/humanity (Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10)
- new song of redemption (Rev. 5:9; 14:3)
- new name for believers (Rev. 2:17; 3:12)
- new commandment of love (John 13:34; 1 John 2:8)
In the consummated kingdom there will be—
- new wine of the heavenly banquet (Mark 14:25)
- new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1; 2 Pet. 3:13)
- new Jerusalem (Rev. 3:12; 21:2)
“See!” God says, “I make everything new!” (Rev. 21:5).
Indeed he does, and in a very permanent and non-consumerist way.
I love old books more than new…
But I do love a new old book…
So will the hallowed halls of the eternal libraries in heaven be sparkling with new books or all antiquarian? Predictions? I say new cloth, and never losing that new book smell. I think I can make a biblical case that old books remain under the old covenant.
“Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”
New is good. The new creation me, while far from perfect, is much improved over the pre-Christ version.