{"id":320,"date":"2008-01-03T19:17:07","date_gmt":"2008-01-03T23:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/godandculture.wordpress.com\/2008\/01\/03\/something-new\/"},"modified":"2008-01-03T19:17:07","modified_gmt":"2008-01-03T23:17:07","slug":"something-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/something-new","title":{"rendered":"Something New"},"content":{"rendered":"

Khaled Hosseni\u2019s bestselling novel The Kite Runner<\/em> is a story of redemption. Almost.<\/p>\n

The prologue introduces us to a thirty-eight year old Afghani \u00e9migr\u00e9 who for twenty-six years has carried a secret that has left death and tragedy in its wake. Now living in America, Amir is presented with an opportunity \u201cto be good again.\u201d Having been taught by his father as a young boy to disregard Islam as the teaching of \u201cbearded idiots,\u201d he turns to Islam in his approaching middle age in the hopes that through its prayers and rituals he can find \u201ca way to be good again,\u201d and relieve his soul of the guilt he has carried for twenty-six winters.<\/p>\n

But Islam\u2019s problem is the problem with all religions. Christianity understands what Islam does not. Man does not need a way to be good<\/em> again. He needs a way to be new<\/em> again. And this is the exciting message of the Christian gospel. God Himself condescended to us in the form of a baby \u2013 the Word made flesh and dwelling among us \u2013 in order to open for us \u201ca new and living way\u201d (Hebrews 10:19,20) to Himself through His own sacrifice for us in our stead. When Jesus gathered with his disciples in the Upper Room to celebrate his final Passover, he introduced them to a New Covenant (Matthew 26:28). Under the old covenant God had written his law in stone; now He would write it upon the hearts of his people. Under the old covenant only the priest had access to God; under the new covenant God has revealed Himself personally and all the people have access to Him by faith. Under the old covenant the people worked at being good again. Under the new covenant the sacrificial Lamb became the end of the law for righteousness to those who believe.<\/p>\n

Out of this New Covenant comes a New Commandment (John 13:34) creating a New Community made up of New Creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17) who are anticipating the return of their Savior for a New Celebration (Matthew 26:29). We don\u2019t need a way to be good again. In reality we were never good to begin with. What we need is what God has provided in His Son: a way to be made new: \u201cBehold, I make all things new,\u201d is the cry from the throne which commences our eternity with God.<\/p>\n

Redemption comes not from what we do, not from what any religious system demands of us, but from what God has done. By our faith in Christ, we cannot only be made new; we can boldly approach the throne of our Father in Heaven to obtain mercy and receive grace to help in time of need, something Khaled Hosseni\u2019s protagonist searches for and never really finds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Khaled Hosseni\u2019s bestselling novel The Kite Runner is a story of redemption. Almost. The prologue introduces us to a thirty-eight year old Afghani \u00e9migr\u00e9 who for twenty-six years has carried a secret that has left death and tragedy in its … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.godandculture.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}