Ctrl + Alt + Del

If you have used a PC for any length of time you are probably familiar with this sequence, and you have an IBM engineer named Dave Bradley to thank for it. Before this multi-key sequence was invented, when programs failed or errors occurred, the only way to fix the system was to turn the power off, wait a while, and then turn the system back on and wait several minutes as the system rebooted, running a very long self-test process. Dr. Bradley had to come up with a faster, more efficient way of rebooting and resetting the computer. One of the first ideas was a simple reset button, but as Dr. Bradley points out, “there’s a chance you could hit it by mistake and all your data would be lost. “ The process couldn’t be so simple that it would cause further problems. So Dr. Bradley came up with a three-key sequence that could not be pressed by mistake; by skipping over many of the long self-tests, the restart time went from several minutes to around fifteen seconds.

“I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6)

“If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it.” (Hebrews 8:7)

“When God speaks of a ‘new’ covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.” (Hebrews 8:13)

It has been said that the story of the Scriptures is God moving closer and closer to His people. God desperately wants a personal relationship with us and every move He has made throughout history is to get closer to that relationship. The old system of sacrificing animals for our own sins didn’t fit within the close relationship God wants with us. God states Himself that He doesn’t want our animal sacrifices—He wants our love and wants us to know Him. The animal sacrifice system wasn’t the best and most efficient way. God foretold a new covenant to the prophet Jeremiah in the early 600s B.C.

“‘The day is coming,’ says the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,’ says the Lord. ‘But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,’ says the Lord. ‘I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sin.’” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

And we know that God had this new covenant in mind since the fall of man.

“And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.’” (Genesis 3:15)

This verse is the first prophecy in Scripture, foretelling the coming of Jesus (the offspring), being crucified (the snake striking His heel), and rising from the grave, defeating sin and death (striking the snake’s head). The old system was not the most efficient way to save us from sin and God had a new system, a new covenant ready to go, even before the old one was in place.

“So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.
“Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.” (Hebrews 9:11-15)

“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.” (Romans 12:1)

“But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” (1 John 1:9)

“Then he says, ‘I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.’” (Hebrews 10:17, Jeremiah 31:34)

“They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. (…) But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises.” (Hebrews 8:5a-6)

God implemented a new covenant through Jesus: He is the High Priest over all things; the curtain between the Holy of Holies was torn and Jesus’ perfect sacrifice has paid for our sins once for all time. We are free to come to Him through Jesus, confessing and repenting of our sins and we are welcomed into relationship with God the Father, the close relationship He has wanted from us all along. Like the three-key sequence Ctrl+Alt+Del, this is not something that can be done by mistake—it is an active choice of free will to accept Jesus’ payment, repent of your sins, and you are given new life to live in relationship with God the Father. The old covenant is done away with and the new has come through Jesus Christ.