Originally posted: 10/01/2021
When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear, (8:13).
The writer wraps us his previous comments regarding the Perfecting Power of His Priesthood by stating “the main point in what has been said is this…” And his main point actually takes us back to the beginning of this book. It’s really the main point of this entire book. As our Perfect High Priest, He has finished His work and He is now seated at the right hand of God on His throne in heaven.
Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, (8:1).
But the saying, “old habits die hard,” came to mind. The scrupulous teachings provided in this book were given to keep these Hebrew Christians from falling into the old habit of religious ritual, while exhorting them to cling to the better hope they now have in His New Covenant. Five times throughout the book of Hebrews, the writer makes the main point that His New Covenant is secure and nothing else needs be done, for He has Sat Down and taken His rightful place at the right hand of the Father; His work perfectly completed.
…When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, (Hebrews 1:3).
But to which of the angels has He ever said,
“Sit at My right hand,
Until I make Your enemies
A footstool for Your feet”? (Hebrews 1:13).
Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, (Hebrews 8:1).
Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; 12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, (Hebrews 10:11-12).
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God, (Hebrews 12:2).
And his Jewish audience, so steeped in the commands of the Law and in their allegiance to the Law, would be led to find confirmation of His New Covenant from God’s Inspired Source… their Sacred Scriptures.
Consider His New Covenant
Communicated within the main point is this reality: if anyone could keep the Law on their own, there would be no need for a New Covenant.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second, (8:7).
As discussed yesterday, the Law did not miss the mark; His Law is perfect and sure, right and pure.
The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
8 The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes, (Psalm 19:7-8).
But His Law was not His faultless means given to justify His people; His Law was given to show us our utter sinfulness and desperate need for salvation through faith in Christ.
What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.” (Romans 7:7).
Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith, (Galatians 3:24).
The fault was not in His Law, the fault was in His people.
But finding fault with His people, He says… (8:8a)
But focusing on the fault-filled people would in no wise bring a solution; and instead the attention is fixed where it belongs, on the “better things” of Christ and His “more excellent ministry” as the mediator of a “better covenant” that is established and founded upon “better promises.”
But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises, (8:6)
Simply put, His New Covenant is a better covenant; for it was established by the precious, unblemished, spotless blood of Christ.
In the same way He also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant established by My blood; it is shed for you,” (Luke 22:20 HCSB).
knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ, (1 Peter 1:18-19).
And His New Covenant would make the first one obsolete, again strengthening the Hebrew believers against the heresy of the Judaizers.
When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear, (8:13).
Evidence for this commanding claim is presented in a passage cited from their revered Scriptures, by one of their most honored prophets, Jeremiah (quoting from chapter 31, verses 31-34), reminding these Hebrew Christians that His New Covenant had been His plan of redemption all along.
For though the people of Israel had been given the Law, they were utterly incapable of keeping the Law; and if then judged by the Law, they would be found at fault and placed under His wrath.
And to the people of Jeremiah’s day, so saturated in their sin, God revealed His Grace as He told them of the days that are coming when His New Covenant would be put in effect.
“Behold, days are coming, says the Lord,
When I will effect a new covenant
With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;
9 Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers
On the day when I took them by the hand
To lead them out of the land of Egypt;
For they did not continue in My covenant,
And I did not care for them, says the Lord.
10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
After those days, says the Lord:
I will put My laws into their minds,
And I will write them on their hearts.
And I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.
11 “And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen,
And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
For all will know Me,
From the least to the greatest of them.
12 “For I will be merciful to their iniquities,
And I will remember their sins no more,” (8:8-12).
It would only be as He effected a New Covenant that any of us, Jew and Gentile alike, could be spared and forgiven our sin. It is by His transforming Grace that He perfectly transforms minds and hearts to know Him as the Lord God.
From NIV Study Bible notes on 8:8-12:
“A quotation from Jer 31:31-34… containing a prophetic announcement and definition of the new covenant, which was to be different from the Sinaitic covenant (v.9). Its superior benefits are: (1) God’s laws will become inner principles (v.10a) that enable his people to delight in doing his will (cf. Eze 36:26-27; Ro 8:2-4); (2) God and his people will have intimate fellowship (v. 10b); (3) sinful ignorance will be removed forever (v.11); and (4) forgiveness of sins will be an everlasting reality (v.12).”
How do we respond to His New Covenant?
Once again, along with the Hebrew believers, we too are reminded that our salvation has nothing to do with anything we do.
His New Covenant is established in Christ and effected in us through faith. When we trust Christ for our salvation, He does all the work in us as He establishes us as His new creation, placing His Law in our hearts and minds, and enabling us to not only obey, but to find delight in our obedience.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come, (2 Corinthians 5:17).
It is by His New Covenant that He establishes us as His new creation; His new creation to enjoy intimate fellowship with our Creator; His new creation whose sin is removed forever; His new creation who now lives in the reality of His everlasting forgiveness.
Oh, that we would take hold of His Truth! When we are in Christ, we are not condemned! For by His New Covenant, He has fulfilled the Law that we would not only be forgiven, but we would be freed from the law of sin and death.
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, (Romans 8:1-4).
Oh, that we would walk according to the Spirit! For like the old covenant, the old self has been made obsolete by His new creation.
When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear, (8:13).
And while we certainly still contend with the old self, that old self will become more and more obsolete as we walk in obedience, trusting Him to renew us in the spirit of our minds.
that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth, (Ephesians 4:22-24).
Oh, how we need His Transforming Truth to empower us to lay aside the old self. Let us never take for granted the gift of His Sacred Scriptures, that we would be kept from being conformed by those old habits that die hard.
Let us come daily in faith and dependence on His Holy Spirit that we would live as His New Covenant creations who are being transformed by His Holy Word.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect, (Romans 12:2).
The day is coming when that old self will completely disappear. Until that day, when we will have the glorious privilege of seeing Christ in all His glory, let us walk by the Spirit that we would strive to become like Jesus, with all our hope fixed on Him and the “better things” He has enacted by His New Covenant.
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure, (1 John 3:2-3:).