Hebrews 8:1–13
“Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being.
Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already priests who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”
For if there had been no fault in that first covenant, no place would have been sought for a second.
But God found fault with the people and said:
“The days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they did not remain faithful to my covenant,
and I turned away from them,
declares the Lord.
This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one “old”; and what is old and aging will soon disappear.”
A better covenant
The author of Hebrews throughout has been commending Jesus as better—better than the angels, better than Moses, better than Melchizedek. In this central part of the letter the author is focused on Jesus as a better high priest. In chapter eight the author looks at the role of the high priest within the covenant between God and his people.
In chapter seven, just before this, the author spoke about the “better covenant” that Jesus guarantees (7:22). In this chapter he says that Jesus is the mediator of a “better covenant,” a “new covenant” (8:8). This term “new covenant” is significant in the New Testament. In fact, the very same words in the original language that are translated here as “new covenant” are translated in our Bibles as “New Testament.” This is where the phrase “New Testament” comes from. The New Testament—the collection of books in the Bible written after Jesus and about him—is about the new covenant that God has established through Jesus.
What is a covenant?
So, what is a covenant? It’s not a word we use much. Today we live more by contracts than by covenants, and though there’s some similarities there’s some really important differences for us to understand. A contract is about an exchange. It binds two parties together around a very limited area of their lives. For example, I sign a contract with a publisher; I agree to write a book and deliver it on a certain timeline, and they agree to publish and market it under certain conditions. But my life isn’t connected to the publishing company any more than that. That’s the limit of our relationship.
A covenant, however, is about a relationship: a covenant is an agreement that outlines the shape of a relationship between two parties that involves the whole of their lives. The closest thing we still have today is marriage. Though in our culture it’s seen more and more as a contract, it is intended to be an agreement, bound by vows spoken by both sides, that define the shape of both the man’s and woman’s entire life.
The Old Covenant
In the Old Testament—the books written about the “old covenant”—God enters into relationship with the people of Israel by making a covenant. Early in the story of the Bible, in the book of Exodus, we see God leading Israel to the foot of a mountain called Sinai. There he gives them what we call the Ten Commandments. And after that, and some more laws, it says this: “When Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.” Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said. . . Then he took the Book of the Covenant (in other words, the words Moses had just written down) and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey” (Exodus 24:3-4, 7).
Because this covenant created a relationship with God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and not just another person or nation, the covenant at Sinai was meant to shape every area of their life without exception. Its laws were the conditions of relationship with God. And in relationship with God, the Creator of heaven and earth, Israel would experience the beauty of the life that only he could give. They were promised abundant blessing, long life, large families, and a beautiful land to live in in peace, free from the fear of any enemies.
This is what we now know as the “old covenant.” So, what’s wrong with that? As the author of Hebrews says, “For if there had been no fault in that first covenant, no place would have been sought for a second” (8:7). Why does the author of Hebrews say that Jesus is part of a “better covenant,” a “new covenant”?
Why a new covenant?
Why was a new covenant needed? There was nothing wrong with God, the partner who initiated the covenant and brought Israel into it. But there was something wrong with the other partner to the covenant, Israel. God says, in verse 9, the problem was that “they did not remain faithful to my covenant. From the history of Israel we read about in the Old Covenant/Old Testament, we know they rarely obeyed God—especially not fully—or kept his covenant. God had been a faithful husband to his one wife, Israel, but they kept sleeping around with other gods.
Jesus is better. Everything about Jesus is better—who he is and what he does, his person and his work. Everything about Jesus is better than what came before. This includes the new covenant relationship he mediates. The old covenant depended on Israel’s obedience, their continued faithfulness. The new covenant, by contrast, was made despite our unfaithfulness, precisely to overcome it.
Because it’s not that we’re any better than Israel—far from it. Just like them, we are unfaithful and fail to obey God. What’s different is Jesus, our better high priest. He has made a way, by “offering himself” in our place (7:27), to make amends for our unfaithfulness—for our sin.
“We do have such a high priest” (Hebrews 8:1): Jesus. A new covenant relationship with God through Jesus shapes the whole of our lives—now, and into eternity. God enters into every part of our lives—who we are, our identity, what we do, our behaviour, our relationships with others, our friendships, our families, our past and our future—and brings His salvation and His kingdom into all of it. In the new covenant, God has made and will make an end of all our sin, of disease, suffering, and of death. Jesus has overcome it all through his work as our better high priest. This is why the new covenant can really be an eternal, everlasting relationship: because it doesn’t depend on us; it all depends on what Jesus has already done.
If you would like to enter a relationship—into this new covenant—with God through Jesus, you can. Whereas the old covenant was just with one nation, Israel, this new covenant is for everyone and anyone. It’s for you, and for me. God calls us all to come home to him. Jesus has carved the path, he has blazed the trail, for us to come right into God’s presence.
— Notes from Pastor Steve Harris’s sermon on May 29th, 2021
CLICK HERE to watch the Hebrews 8 sermon on YouTube.