7. A Better Covenant Hebrews 8:1 – 9:14
HEBREWS CHAPTER 8 VERSE 1 TO 9 VERSE 14
7. A Better Covenant
7. A Better Covenant Hebrews 8:1 – 9:14
“Are we okay?” “Are we good?”
People suffer a tremendous amount of anxiety over difficult human relationships. We worry about them a lot. We ask each other, “Are we okay?” What we mean is: “Is there something that needs fixing and repairing here?”
But most people rarely think about asking those questions in regard to God. In fact, many people skip through life thinking that God is pretty pleased with them. It doesn’t dawn on them for a moment that their relationship with God might actually be broken.
The biblical story is that every human being is born a sinful person, estranged from God. So, if anyone goes to God on their own merits and asks, “Are we okay?” the answer will be “No, we’re not okay.” God is holy, and we are sinful. The relationship is broken, and we cannot do anything (on our own) to fix it.
In Hebrews 8 – 10, we see very clearly that there is a better way for us to fix our relationship with God. Our author has already discussed how Jesus is a better priest than any previous priest. He now develops that by describing how Jesus brings in a whole new way of relating to God. By comparing the old covenant under Moses with the new covenant in Christ, he shows that the law and the sacrificial system were always intended to point to Jesus.
Now, this doesn’t mean that people weren’t saved by Jesus under the old covenant. They were saved in the same way as we are saved now: by faith alone in the sacrificial work of Christ alone. They looked ahead to Christ—through the types and shadows of the sacrificial system—and we look back to Christ. While the blood of bulls and goats does not, in and of itself, take away sins (Hebrews 10:4), it does point toward the thing that does: the sacrifice of Christ.
Hebrews 8 starts off this section of the book by introducing the new covenant brought in by Jesus—which is far better than the old system under Moses.
The True Tent
Verses 1-6 describe the old-covenant sacrificial system and how it pointed to Jesus. We see what the old-covenant priests did and how Jesus, in the new covenant, provides a superior priesthood.
Our author begins with the unique location of Jesus’ ministry: he is “one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven” (v 1). This is an allusion to Psalm 110:1, where the Messiah is given a place of honor and glory at the right hand of God.
It is significant that Jesus is “a minister in the holy places, the true tent that the Lord set up, not man” (Hebrews 8:2). Jesus does his work of mediation in heaven in the very presence of God himself.
This stands as a contrast to the high priest in the old covenant. On the Day of Atonement, after offering sacrifices, he would take the blood inside the earthly “tent” known as the tabernacle and sprinkle it on the ark of the covenant in the innermost chamber known as the “Most Holy Place” (or the “Holy of Holies”).
God himself gave very particular instructions to Moses about this tent: “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain” (v 5). But we are told—and this is the key—that this earthly tent was merely “a copy and shadow” of the heavenly tabernacle.
This means that the tabernacle was simply a man-made tent that was symbolic of the real dwelling place of God in heaven. Sure, God did dwell in the earthly tabernacle in a sense. But God’s real dwelling place is in heaven itself. This is the better temple which Jesus entered.
So, Jesus’ priesthood is superior precisely because of where his ministry takes place. Christ’s sacrifice is presented in the “true tent” of heaven itself, in the very presence of God.
A Better Ministry
The second unique feature of Jesus’ priesthood pertains to the sacrifice that Jesus offered. Like any priest, Jesus would have been expected to bring a sacrifice: “Every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest [Jesus] also to have something to offer” (v 3).
But we wouldn’t expect Jesus to bring an ordinary sacrifice. Why? Because he’s not an ordinary priest. In fact, our author goes out of his way to remind us of this fact: “If he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all” (v 4). Our author is not denying that part of Jesus’ redemptive activity took place on earth. Rather, he’s emphasizing that Jesus did not operate like the Levitical priests; he never entered the earthly temple in Jerusalem as they did.
This fact is worth pausing on for a moment. Have you ever noticed that Jesus never even tried to enter the Holy of Holies to be in God’s presence? As the Son of God, he would have had as much right to be there as anyone. But that was not the nature of his priesthood. He knew his priestly ministry was going to be in heaven, not on earth.
Because Jesus’ priesthood is different, we would expect his sacrifice to be different. The priests made offerings “according to the law,” but not Jesus. No, he offered what no other priest in the history of Israel had ever done: he offered himself.
And there is no sacrifice that can put you in better stead with God than Jesus. In fact, he is the only one who can put you in good stead with God. That is what we saw in 7:26-27: he offered himself as a perfect sacrifice and dealt with our sin once and for all.
Little wonder that, in 8:6, our author sums it up by saying that Christ’s ministry is “much more excellent” than the old ministry of the priests. And if Christ is better, then “the covenant he mediates is better.”
Understanding Covenants
When two people get married, they stand in front of a congregation and make promises to one another. They enter into an agreement—like a contract. They also exchange signs of that agreement: rings which they wear for the rest of their lives to remind them of the promises they have made. What they are doing is entering into a covenant. A covenant is simply an arrangement in which two parties make vows to one another and exchange symbols associated with those promises. People can make covenants with one another. But God also enters into covenants.
God has always saved his people through what theologians call the covenant of grace, which was revealed in stages. God first made a covenant with Abraham, promising that he would be his God and would establish his family (Genesis 15). Much later, he made a covenant with Abraham’s descendants, the people of Israel, after he delivered them from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 24:3-8).
This was like God getting married. He was the groom, and Israel was his bride; promises were exchanged, vows were made, and signs were given. But then God’s bride ran off with other gods. The Israelites did not keep their promises.
Unlike many human husbands, God did not end it there. He said, I am going to pursue my people again. He promised a new covenant.
The Need for a New Covenant
In Hebrews 8:8-12 our author quotes from Jeremiah 31:31-34.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will
establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” (Hebrews 8:8)
In the time of Jeremiah, things in Israel were an utter shambles. The nation was divided into two kingdoms. Exile was on the horizon. Idolatry was rampant. Things had fallen apart. The few people who really loved God were desperate for him to do something. So, God stepped onto the scene in Jeremiah 31 and said, I will. He would renew his covenant and go after his bride again. He would come and set things right.
God does not say that he is going to make a new covenant with a new set of people. The nucleus remains “the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” So, if you are part of the new covenant, you’re part of the new Israel. Romans 11:17 explains that the Gentiles (non-Israelites) have been “grafted in” to the tree of Abraham—a new branch becoming part of the old plant.
By “Israel” we no longer mean a physical, political entity but a spiritual reality. But there is clear continuity. God does not abandon his people and start again with a completely different set. He renews and expands his people in the promises of Christ.
Our author mentions two reasons why a new covenant was needed. First is that the old covenant was faulty. He reminds us, “If that first covenant had been faultless there would have been no occasion to look for a second” (Hebrews 8:7). Saying that the old covenant was faulty does not mean that it was wrong or sinful or bad. It simply means that it could not accomplish what it looked forward to. It was provisional. Indeed, this was the point in chapter 7: the old covenant priesthood was not able to provide “perfection” (7:11).
The second problem with the old covenant was that the people were faulty. In 8:8 our author says that “[God] finds fault with them”—not with “it” but with “them”: that is, with Old Testament Israel. We see this more fully in verse 9: “They did not continue in my covenant.”
The problem with the old-covenant people was simply that they broke their covenant. They were idolaters. Like a cheating spouse, they ran off with other gods.
The God of heaven had gone to the people of Israel, his bride, and given everything to her—loving her and pledging himself to her. He “took them by the hand” (v 9). Yet off Israel went.
But such is the heart of God that he pursues even those who wander and flee.
God is an unrelenting pursuer of those he loves. He will not stop. He will not quit. He will not cease. He even goes to his own death in Jesus Christ to win his bride. Yet you and I still say, “I’m not sure you really love me!” We all struggle with doubt, but this is the cure: to realize that you have a God who has gone every extra mile—who has given more grace than is imaginable—to pursue a wayward bride. That kind of God is not going to abandon us.
New-Covenant Glories
The old covenant had been abandoned by Israel, and so God established a new covenant. There were three things that were new about this new covenant: it involved new power, new people, and a new priest.
As we enter into this comparison between the old and new covenants, we need to begin by remembering that the contrast between them is not absolute. We must be careful not to overstate the differences in a way that caricatures the old covenant as harsh, cold, legalistic, and only concerned with externals. Nor should we present the new covenant as unconcerned with the law or with obedience. As we shall see, the differences between the covenants are often a matter of degree.
To be sure, the old covenant had a lot of externals. It involved rituals and laws. But these external things were always meant to be a sign of what was going on inside—of the love and faith that people should have had for God in their hearts. And many Israelites did love God from the heart (1 Samuel 13:14; 2 Kings 23:25; Psalm 40:8; Acts 13:22).
However, much of Israel was simply laboring to keep the law and perform the rituals, without stopping to think about their meaning. Their religion became a largely external matter with no internal dimension—no heart.
We tend to like external performance because it is measurable. Boxes can be checked and then compared to other people’s, and we can feel good about ourselves. We feel as though we are in control of our own fates. That is what our sinful selves want.
But I can tell you this: if you try to keep God’s law merely as an external thing with no real heart in it, you will have a difficult time. You will turn into a Pharisee, cracking the whip to get everyone to obey.
But the new covenant would involve something different.
“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 … they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” (Hebrews 8:10-11)
God was going to provide new power for his people. He was going to write his law on their hearts. He would pour out his Holy Spirit and change them from the inside.
The new covenant still involves law-keeping. God still cares about obedience. The difference is in how you obey him. In the new covenant, the Holy Spirit is poured out in greater measure on every one of God’s people (Romans 5:5; 1 Corinthians 12:13). Now you are empowered to obey God in the way you always should have done.
The new covenant also involves a new people. There were many people in the nation of Israel under the old covenant who performed the rituals and kept the law but who did not really believe. So, the people of Israel were often told, “Know the Lord” (v 11). But under the new covenant, due to the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, there is essentially a revival. “For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.”
Of course, we should remember that this new-covenant promise is not fully realized in the present—we should not expect a completely pure church now. As the book of Hebrews itself shows, there are still unbelievers within the new covenant community. In fact, the whole theme of apostasy shows that people can be part of the covenant community and yet still “fall away” (Hebrews 10:29). But one day these new covenant promises will be realized completely, when Christ returns and the church is made pure.
Third, there is a new priest. God promised, “I will be merciful towards their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more” (8:12). How is that possible? Because—as the writer to the Hebrews has repeatedly told us—we have a priest who enables sins to be fully and finally forgiven.
To be clear, sins were forgiven in Old Testament times too. But they were forgiven in anticipation of Christ’s forthcoming work. The blood of bulls and goats, in and of itself, could never accomplish forgiveness (Hebrews 10:4). In the new covenant, that forgiveness has been fully achieved.
“I will remember their sins no more.” Have you ever had the experience of someone continually bringing up something you did in the past? You regretted it and apologized and you thought it was done with, but the person keeps throwing it back in your face. The forgiveness we have in Christ is far deeper than that. God promises to completely forget our sins—not because he does not care about sin but because Jesus is enough to cover it.
These are the reasons why the new covenant is so much better. The old covenant was good, but God made it “obsolete” when he spoke of a new covenant (8:13). Jesus has gloriously fulfilled all that the old covenant pointed to.