A Much Better Deal - Hebrews 8

Hebrews 8:7-13 

For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 8 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 Israe 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and will remember their sins no more.” 13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.

Yesterday the author taught that Jesus was a superior high priest to the ones in the Old Testament.  Their sacrifices needed to be made year after year, but Jesus' sacrifice was a once and for all a sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin.  Today, he compares the old covenant God made with Moses, with the new covenant Jesus came to bring.  

The old covenant spelled out for the Israelites how they would worship God.  How they would build the tabernacle to the specifications God had given them. Importantly how they could approach his holiness in the tabernacle as sinful human beings.  He had given them the Ten Commandments as the standard by which they should live by.  If they obeyed the commandments they would blessed, but if they disobeyed they would be cursed.  The problem with the old covenant was it had no power to change the human heart.  Though people knew the right thing to do they couldn't do it.  Though they knew they should only worship one God, they worshipped other gods.  

Yet the prophet Jeremiah talked about a day when God would make a new covenant with his people.  It wouldn't be written not on stone tablets but on human hearts.  This famous passage comes from Jeremiah 33:31-34.  It is crucial for understanding the movement God made from relating to His people from the old covenant to the new covenant.  Today's passage says that if the old covenant was so effective why did it need to be replaced?  Why? It had become obsolete because it had no power.  So what are the characteristics of the new covenant?  

1. God initiated the new covenant.  "I will establish this covenant." "I will put my laws on their minds and write them on their hearts." "I will forgive their sins".  This is what we call a unilateral covenant.  God offers this covenant, which we could also say are his "promises". In a covenant the person who offers the covenant makes and insures the promises are kept.  And in this covenant that person is God!

2. Through the new covenant we can know God and be known by him.  Because of Jesus' once and for all sacrifice we can enter into God's presence. God says that he will forgive us our sins and remember them no more.  Yes right they are completely gone.  We don't have to pay for our sins, they are removed and we are washed whiter than snow. 

3. God's law will be written on our hearts and minds.  Because we know God will know what pleases and displeases him through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Though the law still is a guide for right and wrong, we will understand the Spirit of it, not just the letter of the Law.  

In the end the new covenant is a much better deal for us.  It is based on God's promises which are all fulfilled in Jesus.  All it requires of us is to trust in those promises which brings us into a real relationship with God. Obedience to God then comes not in fear of judgment but in gratitude of what Jesus has done for us.