VV#20 - The New Springs from (the Ashes of) the Old
How New Things Often Inadvertently Arise from Older Things
The New Springs from the Old
There was a phrase that I very clearly remember from my Bible College days many years ago. I always thought it was a great quote that so perfectly summed up the relationship of the “New Testament” in the Bible, to the “Old Testament”.
The phrase was:
“The New is in the Old concealed, and the Old is in the New revealed.”
And oh, how true these words ring now, even moreso, all these years later. This now seems to me to be a regularly recurring trend and theme throughout history, and is by no means confined to just biblical or theological development.
And the only thing that I would now add to that phrase is that, more specifically, the new often rises from the ashes of the old.
But for those who had grown in up what us moderns now call “Judaism”, this must have been very difficult principle to see (and is still difficult for us moderns to appreciate as well, living in the very St Paul-influenced world that we do).
Indeed, in writing to the Christians in Rome (and in other places), this was St. Paul’s grand historical objective (regardless of whether one agrees with it or not):
…to put into plain language for his fellow Jews, how this salvation through “Christ Crucified” (which to them, understandably, would have come across as madness) was indeed the fulfillment of their Jewish faith and practice.
Yes, whether or not one personally is a believer in this “Christ crucified” as Paul suggests, is irrelevant to the wonder of the comprehensive “summing up” that he achieved in this letter, and it’s subsequent monumental historical impact, as we discussed here.
In Chapter 9 verses 30-33, Paul says:
“What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal.
Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.
As it is written:
‘See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble,
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame’.” (quoting Isaiah 8:14, 28:16)
In other words, that so many of Paul’s fellow Jews ended up forgetting the spirit of the law that they followed and the reasons for those ordinances, and instead only followed the “letter of the law” in the tradition of Jewish sects like the Pharisees, who Christ is so famous for thoroughly rebuking, and from which St. Paul himself (ironically) emerged.
Paul is basically saying that his fellow Jews have forgotten the famous verses in the Torah where God said to Abraham that, because he trusted in God, “it was credited to him as righteousness” (as he discusses in Romans chapter 4). In other words, that this principle of “salvation by faith” (which would have been shocking to most of his fellow Jews) was hinted at in the Torah (even long before Moses).
He’s essentially saying that there’s more to Judaism than just following the specifics of the laws of Moses, of which different sects obsessed over the minutest details. That all these laws were indeed pointing to something to come…
And it was the spirit of these specific laws in the Torah that Paul claimed his fellow Jews had forgotten, which he said actually pointed to this new salvation through Christ.
But as mentioned prior, this Christ had undergone the worst humiliation ritual possible: crucifixion. That a god-man could undergo such a humiliation to begin with, was considered by the vast majority of people to be impossible, and grotesquely absurd.
But that he could then also rise from such a humiliation death afterwards? That was dangerous nonsense.
And Paul knew this well.
And that is why he had referenced in a different letter a principle from the Psalms and the Prophets about how sometimes the most important things in life come from a minority perspective, but that when the majority hear this strange new perspective (that often seems to contradict their most basic and cherished beliefs), they wouldn’t be able to handle it… that this new idea would (understandably) be:
“a stone that causes men to stumble, and the rock that makes them fall”. (Isaiah 8:14, quoted by Paul in 1 Peter 2:8)
For Paul, the new did indeed spring from the old, but the new would probably end up being expressed through a small minority, through something his own Torah referred to as a “remnant”.
The 80/20 Principle, and the idea of a Remnant
And as it turns out, this principle of the new springing from the old is also connected to another principle, now more commonly known as the 80/20 principle.
In certain fields of work and business, modern people often discuss this principle, which is basically the idea that approximately 80% of your benefits/income that you are working towards often comes from 20% of your effort/output (especially if you are a freelancer or entrepreneur).
And all throughout human history, we can see parallels of this principle at work—that, regardless of how dominant or imposing/important the overwhelming 80% of a situation or people group may seem, the main factor that determines the course of history (that is, how things end up turning out in the end) is usually determined by factors that are less obvious… those things that come from the 20% (the minority) of a group, or a force, or a movement.
Indeed, these “green shoots”, this minority (that influences history the most) is itself a biblical archetype, known in the Old Testament as a remnant.
The Vital Villain Who “Stumbles over the Stumbling Stone”
And so with Paul, this idea of a “remnant”, this idea of a small group of people who emerge from the older and larger (majority) group (which, as mentioned, was quite prominent in his understanding of the Torah/Old Testament), would then make sense to be a principle that would manifest in this new salvation message that he was spreading as well.
That we would do well to expect that not all of the Jews who heard this new message would be excited about it. And that we should actually expect most to be positively repulsed by it.
As he said in 2 Corinthians 2:16:
“To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?”
This paradox must have really weighed on Paul… to see such a contrast between both groups reacting to his message, and amongst his very own people, who he loved dearly. But as someone who knew this principle well from the stories of old, it was also a reason to not despair about the upheaval that was now happening all around them.
For in Paul’s view, in the same way that Jehovah had deliberately hardened the heart of (the villain) Pharaoh, so that it would serve the epic story that ultimately climaxed in the crossing of the Red Sea by Moses and his people…
…so also, Paul was confident that these Jews who remained in a more strict “letter of the law” interpretation of the law of Moses (the Pharisees in particular), and who rejected Christ as a spiritual Messiah (rather than political Messiah), would still yet serve a great purpose in the unfolding epic that was just beginning to unfold around them, and that the Christian story would also have it’s ultimate climax.