October 2026

How much cash do you have in your wallet at this moment? I have $66 in my wallet as I type this article. To be honest, that’s $66 more than I normally carry in my wallet, because I do not typically carry or use cash. I pay for virtually everything with my debit card.  I suspect most of you use either your debit or credit card to pay for everyday items as well. I’m sure there are still some reading this who would say, “Not me, I only use cash.” Or maybe some would say, “Not me, I don’t even have a debit card.” Okay. Got it. Nevertheless, according to Google, the majority of daily transactions are purchased with a payment card, either debit or credit, with only 13% to 14% of purchases being made with cash. One does not have to strain credulity to realize that cash could become obsolete quite easily. The penny has already gone the way of the rotary phone. Usually, things that become obsolete ultimately become quite scarce and over time fade away into memories and museums.

       The writer of Hebrews talks about the obsolescence of the Old Covenant in Hebrews 8:13: By saying, a new covenant, He has declared that the first is old. And what is old and aging is about to disappear. By Old Covenant, the writer is referring to the Mosaic Law, specifically the ceremonial and civil aspects of Jewish life and identity in the Old Testament. Even in the Old Testament, under the Old Covenant, God had told His people that there was a time in the future in which He would interact with them in a new way, under a New Covenant. The locus classicus for the New Covenant’s announcement in the Old Testament is Jeremiah 31:31-34: 31 “Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke even though I had married them”—the Lord’s declaration. 33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put My teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. 34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin.” God told His people that under the New Covenant the Word of God would be written on the hearts of His people, not merely written on tablets of stone. This internal transcription of God’s Word meant no longer would religion be a matter of conforming behavior to an external standard. Rather, worship of God in the New Covenant would result in an internal, ontological transformation that necessarily produced external change of behavior, loyalty, love, and purpose. Life under the New Covenant is about circumcision of the heart not merely the flesh. Therefore, life under the New Covenant is far better than life under the Old Covenant because it is heartfelt and eternal, not ceremonial and temporary.

     When the writer of Hebrews made his statement about the obsolescence of the Old Covenant the Temple still stood. However, the Temple would not stand for long. Within a few years of stating, “what is old and aging is about to disappear,” the Romans destroyed the Temple and ended forever Old Covenant ceremonial worship—although Jesus had ended its efficacy nearly 40 years earlier.

     We should not fear, nor should we seek a return to Old Covenant ceremonial worship in a literal temple in Jerusalem. Such desires and support not only reveal another rejection of Jesus, but a desire to go backwards within redemptive history to an inferior, temporary covenant. The Apostle Paul talked about the temporal, teleological nature of the Old Covenant in Galatians 3:24-26: 24 The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith. 25 But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Children need guardians because of their immaturity and lack of life experience. A full-grown son or daughter, however, doesn’t need a guardian because they are mature. A theological system that promotes a return to a phase of redemptive history in which God’s people are not mature and still under a guardian may explain childishness in the church. The Apostle Paul gives the purpose for pastors and teachers within the church in Ephesians 4:11-13 11 And He personally gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 for the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into a mature man with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. Maturity under the New Covenant is measured by Christlikeness, not a return to an obsolete, inferior, temporal ceremonial form of worship or the identity markers that demonstrated inclusion in that form.

Pastor Clint Miller