THE SUPERIOR COVENANT

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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.” But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which He is Mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises.

For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 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By calling this covenant “new,” He has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.

But when Christ came as High Priest of the good things that are now already here, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

Hebrews 8:3-13, 9:11-14

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Jesus ushered in a new covenant between God and His people, a people who now included everyone. That was one of the big changes that made it new.

Prior to Jesus’ death and resurrection, God had made a covenant promise with the people of Israel. He would be their God exclusively and they would be His people. All they had to do was remain faithful and obedient to Him and His commands. Knowing sin would happen, God established a sacrificial atonement system and appointed representatives, priests, who could offer up offerings for a repentant sinner so they could be reconciled to Him. Once a year, there would be on priest, the High Priest, who would be permitted to enter the Most Holy Place (also called the Holy of Holies) and offer up a sacrifice to atone for his sins and the sins of all the Israelite people. This atonement would require the shedding of blood, often from a sacrificed unblemished lamb. These sacrifices, whether daily or annual, happened over and over and over again.

That’s the way it was but it wasn’t the way it would always remain. For as we look at our scripture passage today from Hebrews, chapter 8, we find the writer repeating the words of the prophet Jeremiah who had prophesied the following around 600 years earlier:

“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.” Jeremiah 31:31-34

The old covenant way of establishing atonement perpetually wasn’t working and so God established a covenant that was greater, one where Jesus was the “Mediator”, a perfect divine Intercessor who would purchase the pardon of all sinners through His shed blood offered up on the cross of Calvary. This established “better” promise would be one that only required a person to repent of their sins and believe in His Son Jesus as Savior to gain salvation and its associated eternal life.  And when He called the covenant established through Jesus as “new”, God “made the first one obsolete”.

In other words, the new covenant God established through His Son was superior to the one that preceded it. The new superseded the old.  

Indeed, Jesus came and a new covenant was put in place, a covenant unlike the one God had made with the Israelites, the ancestors of the Hebrew Christians who received and read this letter. His (Jesus’) sanctuary was (and still is) in Heaven and the earthly one constructed by Moses, in strict accordance with God’s directions, was to be a “copy and shadow” of the heavenly sanctuary still yet to come. And Jesus, as the ultimate High Priest, “entered the Most High Place once for all” and “by His own blood” He obtained “eternal redemption” while making the way for all who would believe in Him to follow. Anyone who placed or places their trust in Him to be saved finds their consciences “cleanse(d) from acts that lead to death” (aka sin) so the Christian believer can “serve the living God”.

Friends, today this superior covenant is our everlasting hope. For through belief in Jesus, our eternal future is secure and victory over death and the grave is certain. Is this not reason to rejoice and give thanks?

I pray you will join me daily in doing just that, to praise God with fullest gratitude for the gift of His Son Jesus and the saving pardon we receive through His sacrifice.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.