Today we continue our study of the book of Hebrews. We have examined the author of the book as well as the people to whom the book was written. The book of Hebrews is about ‘better’ things and we have begun our look at a ‘better covenant’. We examined the intracacies of the Old Covenant and now we will look at the New Covenant and what makes it better.
Let’s take a look.
What makes this New Covenant BETTER? Let’s look at a few things detailed by MacArthur (pages 213 – 217):
- It is made by God. In Hebrews 8: 8 we find the writer echoing the word of Jeremiah 31 as he talks about the better covenant. “I (God) will make a new covenant.”
- This covenant would not be an enhancement of the Old Covenant. It would be a radically different covenant. In Jeremiah 31:34 God says that the new Covenant would “not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers.” God would do a new thing and that new thing would be the New Covenant that would be administered by Jesus.
- The New Covenant would again be made with the Israelites. God has never made a covenant with the Gentiles. His covenants have always been made with Israel. He never rejected Israel or transferred His covenant to any other people. Jesus said in John 4:22, “Salvation is from the Jews.” When Gentiles are saved, we are grafted into the lineage of Abraham and become partakers of the New Covenant through faith in Jesus Christ. See Romans 11 for more indepth discussion on Gentiles being grafted into the New Covenant and the lineage of Abraham.
For a season of time, Gentiles are partakers of the New Covenant in a much larger way than the Jewish people, but that will change one day. Romans 11:26 says that all Israel will be saved. This is why it is so important that we who are Christians pray for the Jewish people’s hearts to be softened toward the New Covenant of Christ. - The New Covenant is not conditioned on the obedience of the people to the Law. The New Covenant only requires that the person acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior and allow Him to live in their heart.
- The New Covenant is an internal covenant which God said He would write on the hearts of the Jewish people. It is a covenant based on love and a desire to obey rather than obedience spurred by fear. The New Covenant changes the hearts of those who partake of it.
- The New Covenant is personal in that the Holy Spirit enters the heart and abides with any who accept the sacrifice of Christ for their sin. Under the Old Covenant the Holy Spirit did not permanently abide within anyone.
- Total forgiveness is possible under the New Covenant. This is the most important difference in the Old and New Covenants. Total and complete forgiveness of sin was never possible under the Old Covenant. Sin was never completely forgiven but rather it was covered by the blood of the animal that was sacrificed by the sinner. This covering only lasted until the person sinned again and then another animal sacrifice was required. Under the New Covenant, the blood of Jesus covers every sin, past, present and future—never to be brought up again by God. One sacrifice by Christ was all it took!!
- The New Covenant is for NOW!! MacArthur (pages 216-217)says the following:
“It is hard for a Jew to realize that the Old Covenant, with its laws and ceremonies, was only a symbol, a picture of God’s plan for them and for the world. The symbol has been substituted for the reality. “One other major and crucial difference in the Old Covenant versus the New Covenant is that the Old Covenant did not provide access for the people to God. The High Priest went through the veil and into the Holy of Holies only once per year (Yom Kippur) and then only briefly to present a blood offering to God. No other priest and certainly no common man or woman was allowed access to the Holy of Holies where the Presence of God resided. The New Covenant provided for the veil to come down that separated God and man giving man now full and complete access to God through Jesus Christ. This is HUGE, my friends. Nothing in the Old Covenant could even come close to allowing man access to God.
WBC (page 209) reminds us of the following: “The supersession of the old covenant was not due simply to the unfaithfulness of the people to the stipulations of the covenant. It occurred because a new unfolding of God’s redemptive purpose had taken place, which called for a new covenant action on the part of God. That God took the initiative in announcing His intention to establish a new covenant with Israel (Hebrews 8:8a) indicates that He fully intended the first covenant to be provisional.
In Hebrews 8: 13 the writer referencing God’s words in Jeremiah 31 says, “When He said, ‘A new covenant’, He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.” This writer to the Hebrews “could not have known how literally this truth would be fulfilled within a few years of his writing. When Titus destroyed Jerusalem, he destroyed the Temple—which had been completed only for a short time. Without the Temple, there was no altar, no Holy of Holies. There could therefore be no sacrifices and no ministering priesthood. And without a priesthood and sacrifices, there could be no Old Covenant. The destruction of the Temple completed the closing of the Old Covenant—by removing the place of sacrifice that no longer served a purpose. ” (MacArthur p.217)
If you have spent any time at all in the Word of God and walking with Jesus you know that God does not do things randomly or without purpose. So, a logical question to ask at this point would be ‘Why did God bother with the Old Covenant with all of its copies and shadows at all?’
Even though the Old Covenant was a shadow, it still had a purpose and that purpose was to reflect or show forth the reality of the thing that was yet to come. It made God’s chosen people look for and long for the real deal, which was salvation through Messiah, Jesus Christ. The only problem is that the Jewish people missed the real because they were, and still are with only a small number of exceptions, so focused on the shadow.
