The Great News of the New Covenant
Imagine that a family buys a home when interest rates are extremely high. Their mortgage payment is crushing them every month. They can barely stay afloat.
Then somebody comes and tells them “I have a much better deal for you. I can get you a significantly better interest rate”.
So they sign a new agreement with much better terms. And by reducing the interest rate, the payment is lower and they now can breathe financially.
Same house. Same family. But the new agreement completely changes their lives.
That is what Hebrews 8 tells us about. It is about the great news of a new agreement, or new covenant as Hebrews calls it, a new agreement between God and men that is so much better than the old one, a covenant that grants us to have a relationship with a holy God in spite of our sin. A covenant that completely changes our lives now and forever.
So let us read Hebrews 8. We will read for now the first 7 verses
1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. 4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. 5 They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” 6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
[Let’s pray]
Hebrews is a letter written to a group of believers who had been saved through faith in Jesus, but were now being tempted to revert back to the old covenant of the law. They were pursuing acceptance from God through obedience to God, and the author of the book warns them that that is a dead end, and that reverting back to it is nothing less than spiritual suicide.
Now, you and I are also vulnerable to this temptation. Although we may have a clear understanding that salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ, we often live as if God’s love towards us depended on how well we obey his rules.
If I wake up early and read my Bible and pray, I kiss my wife and kids, I diligently work and finish my projects, I am patient and kind to everyone, then I feel good about myself and I feel that God is pleased with me, and loves me and accepts me. But if I wake up late and rush through my Bible reading or skip it altogether, I am behind my work and I am irritated most of the time, then I have a nagging feeling that God is disappointed with me and that there is no way he loves me because I am such a failure.
If God loves me and accepts me only if I perfectly obey him all the time, then I am doomed, because I will always fall short. Since I am not capable of obeying his law fully and completely, I have no hope of having a relationship with God and being loved by him.
But Hebrews 8 has great news for us! God has established a new covenant that is much better than the old one since it is based on better promises. With the new covenant, God has provided a mediator, Jesus, who perfectly fulfilled his law on our behalf and who represents us before Him, so we can have access to God through Jesus, our mediator, and not through our obedience to God.
Now we are going to expand on this good news of the new covenant as presented in Hebrews 8, and will divide the message into two sections in chapter 8. The first section of the chapter talks about Jesus as the mediator, the high priest of this new covenant, and the second section of the chapter outlines the promises of the new covenant
- The mediator of the new covenant
- The promises of the new covenant
Let’s start with section 1
1. The mediator of the new covenant
I have been talking about covenants a lot, but I do not want to assume that you all know what a covenant is. In simple terms, a covenant is an agreement between two parties. It is a formal contract that outlines the regulations by which these two parties establish a relationship. In particular, the Bible speaks of covenants between God and men.
Now why do we need these covenants with regulations in the first place?
If you want to meet with an important, high rank government officer, you don’t just show up to their office and say: “Hi dude! I thought of stopping by and having a chat.” You can’t do that. There is a protocol you have to follow, and the higher the rank of the person the stricter the rules to meet with them.
If the ruler you want to meet is very important and powerful, you probably cannot speak with him directly, you need a representative, mediator who will speak on your behalf. If you want to meet with God, you cannot speak directly, you need a mediator, and in the new covenant, that mediator is Jesus. Let’s read again Hebrews 8:1
8:1 “Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest [that is a mediator], one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven”
That is the main point of what we are saying, says the author of Hebrews:
“We have such a high priest”! Such a mediator, such a representative before the King.
Now let’s imagine for a moment that you want to meet with a king. Kings were influential leaders who had way too much concentrated power in their hands. People appropriately feared and respected them, since their lives may be at risk otherwise. It was a fearsome thing to be in front of them. Most people had no chance to be in the presence of the king ever.
Some kings had conquered and dominated large regions and empires and possessed unimaginable power. Think about Augustus Caesar, the Roman emperor, or Nebuchadnezzar, the powerful Babylonian monarch. Or in modern terms, think of Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, or Vladimir Putin. We really have very little chance to be in front of any of these powerful earthly rulers, we are not important enough, we are not worthy enough.
What if you want to meet the Majesty in heaven? He is on a completely different level. God created the heavens and the earth, he is the King over all kings, he dwells in unapproachable light, he is magnificent and powerful and fearsome, and we should tremble at his holiness. Not only that, but we have transgressed against his holiness time and again, we have dishonored his glory and therefore we are rebels and traitors sentenced to death because of our transgressions against the Majesty in Heaven. We are weak, filthy, unholy, unworthy. God is majestic, holy, pure and powerful. Not only do we not have access to the Majesty in Heaven, we are also condemned to death because of our rebellion against him. If we have any chance to survive, we need to appeal to his mercy, we desperately need some sort of a lawyer, someone who would represent us before him.
We do not want a low rank representative, we want the one who has access to the King and is highly regarded by him. Someone who is close to the King. Our life depends on the level of influence of this person. We need the best mediator we can get, to appeal for mercy and forgiveness on our behalf.
Again, in the times of kings, the person who sat at the right hand of the king was considered very important, they were trusted, respected and had the chance to approach the king like no one else. Being at the right hand is the highest position of honor, authority, and power next to the ruler. This person acts with the power and authority of the monarch, serving as their “right-hand” or most trusted advisor. If you want a representative before a powerful king, you want the highest rank person, the one of highest honor, the one who is seated at his right hand.
If you want a representative, a mediator between God and you, you want Jesus, the mediator who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven!
Verse 2, He is
8:2 “a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man”
Jesus the high priest, the mediator, is a minister in the holy places, in the heavenly places, in the true tabernacle in heaven! One that was set up not by man but by God himself.
Verse 5b, “For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, ‘See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.’”
Can you picture that? When God was giving the law to Moses, he showed an extremely detailed blueprint of a tent, what eventually became the earthly tabernacle, the place where God would descend and dwell with his people. God gave him very specific instructions on how to set it up. But really that blueprint, that pattern, was a representation, verse 5, “a copy and shadow of the heavenly things”. They were intended to be a picture of a majestic true tabernacle in heaven, that God himself had set up so that his Son, the ultimate high priest, would enter to minister, to serve and to offer the most precious sacrifice ever.
Jesus is not like the earthly high priests who by the law, verse 4, were “appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices”. They were just serving the copy and the shadow of the heavenly things. They were sacrificing day in and day out, lambs and goats, offering sacrifices to placate the holy God, as a reminder of their sin and impurity. Those earthly high priests had to offer sacrifices for themselves and for the unintentional sins of the people. They were pointing to a future event, when the supreme high priest would enter the heavenly tabernacle with the sacrifice of his own body, to purify once and for all the unholy!
Verse 6: “Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.” Jesus Christ, our supreme high priest, came to inaugurate a new, glorious covenant, that is better and superior, because it is enacted on better promises. A much more excellent ministry, related to a better covenant with better promises.
Now what are the promises of this new covenant? What makes it better? Why is this covenant such great news?
2. The promises of the new covenant
Here’s the second section of our passage, read with me verses 8-13
8 For he finds fault with them when he says:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
These are the promises that the Lord himself declared. He promised that a new covenant was coming, a covenant fundamentally different from the old one.
Verse 9: “not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them”
This old covenant is the one given to Moses, after God had taken Israel out from the land of Egypt. It established the rules and regulations on how to interact with God. It described the tabernacle, the priests and the sacrifices, it provided a set of rules the people of God had to follow to be in good standing before God, but in verse 9 it says: “they did not continue in my covenant”. They could not keep up with the rules. They could not obey the law the way it was expected of them. The old covenant did not work, not because of God, but because of the people. They could not keep their part of the deal. No matter how much they tried, they could not keep the law, and therefore a second one, a new covenant was necessary. With new promises, and new priesthood, and new power to overcome the deficiencies of the human party.
Verse 10
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
The problem of Israel, and our problem as well, is not the lack of direction from God. It is that our hearts are corrupt and cannot follow his direction. The law given to Moses was written on tablets of stone. The Israelites were expected to know the law, to memorize it, to meditate on it and to be affected by it. But it never penetrated their hearts. Although they could attempt to conform to the law externally, their hearts were far from God, they were dead to God. So then God promised that he would solve that issue by writing the law in their hearts, rather than in stones, that he would pour it out in their minds, so they would understand it. The effect was going to be that they will recognize and acknowledge him as who he is: God! And that they will behave as his people.
Verse 11:
And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest
Nobody would have to introduce God to others, they will all know him from the least to the greatest. No high privileges are necessary, no nobility, or position, or riches or intellectual ability. All, small or great, high or low, gentile or Jew, they would all know God and recognize him as such.
This is amazing news for all of us. No matter who you are, you are not at a disadvantage, the new covenant is available to you! You are able to know God independent of rank, position, race or socio-economic situation. You are able to meet the Majesty in heaven
Verse 12:
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more
Sin is the obstacle, the barrier, it is what separates us from the holy God. If sin is dealt with, then we are golden! And that is why this promise is mind blowing:
God is talking to you:
- I will be merciful toward your iniquities and
- I will remember your sins no more
You see. God knew what the problem of the old covenant was. It was our sinful hearts. Our sin separates us from him. So he decides to remove the root issue altogether. “I will be merciful toward your iniquities and I will remember your sins no more”, he declares
If there is no sin, there is no more separation from God, we can have access to him, we can be loved and accepted.
But how is that even possible?
Is it that God just says: “No worries, you can sin as much as you want, I will pretend that nothing happened, I will remember your sins no more. I will just put them under the rug and forget about them!”
No!
There was a huge cost to make this possible.
God will never remember our sins because they were carried away by his Son. The supreme high priest entered the heavenly temple and offered himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sins, he placated the wrath of God against our sins and he satisfied his justice, he absorbed in his own body the punishment that we deserved and purified with blood our filthy conscience. God was completely satisfied once and forever, so he will never again remember our sins, our iniquities, our transgressions, our filthiness. We are pure, and holy and innocent forever, because the innocent one was made sin for us.
This is indeed the great news of the new covenant, a better covenant enacted over better promises, mediated by Jesus, our supreme high priest.
Let us not go back to the old covenant, which is obsolete, let us not seek acceptance from God through our obedience. No! Let us run to Jesus our high priest who is interceding for us, who is seated at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven, let’s run to the throne of grace to find help in the time of need, let’s direct our eyes to the heavenly temple, where we can worship the true and only God for providing this new covenant, that has a supreme mediator and incomparable promises.