Like I said in a previous post where I provided a link to The Better Covenant Part 1 & 2 [
https://www.thbg.org/?T2], most of what I am posting below is gleaned, and some word for word, from listening to those two sermons. What I've learned in studying this is that God
did not enable the Israelites to keep the righteous law of God, wherein the new covenant, God enables persons. The law was designed to make them (and us) conscious of sin, and thereby pointing them (and us) to their (our) need for a Savior (ie the promised seed). There was something else that stood out to me, but I don't remember what it was. I've got to start writing this stuff down.
Jesus, High Priest of a Better Covenant
Hebrews 8:6-13 ESV
6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
8 For he finds fault with them when he says: "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
10 For 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, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."
13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
Covenant- A transaction or agreement between two parties whereby each party agrees to fulfill certain obligations and was promised certain advantages.
The promise-plan of God—(declaration of God to the human race revealed in redemptive history)
1. I will be your God
2. You will be my people
3. I will tabernacle with you (Exodus 29:45-46)
Old Testament references to the “seed” as the promised plan of God
- “Seed” who would defeat Satan (Gen. 3:15)
- Blessing upon the whole world through the “seed” (Gen. 12:2-3)
- Promise of an eternal throne established through the “seed” (2 Sam. 7:16)
- Promise of a new covenant established through the “seed” (Jer. 31:31-34)
- The “seed”- The individual man [Christ] who consummates God’s promise in history (Gal. 3:16)
Mosaic (Old) Covenant
- Centered on God giving his divine law to Moses on Mt. Sinai, covenant made with Israel
- Conditional (the blessings God promises are directly related to Israel’s obedience to the Mosaic Law; if Israel obeys, God will bless them, if Israel disobeys, God will punish them)
- A covenant established and maintained entirely by God (disobedience did not nullify it)
- Mediated by priests
- The Levitical priests were limited by their:
- Lineage (who they were descended from)
- Morality (they could not make a continuing on ongoing atonement-- they died)
- Sinfulness (they had to atone for their own sins first)
- Imperfect Offering (they had nothing perfect to offer, it was tainted by sin)
- Place of Offering (the temple was a shadowy copy, man-made building
The Levitical priesthood was contained in a “faulty” covenant (v. 7)
- God took no specific action to make the people morally able to keep the covenant (v. 9c)
- Ministry of the old covenant is one of dead ritual which never brought justification (Rom. 3:20)
- Designed to lead man to a knowledge of his sin (Rom.3:20)
New Covenant
- The consummation of all the previous covenants
- A covenant of grace
- A covenant established by the Son of God (Luke 22:20 new covenant “in my blood”)
- Jesus the mediator of the new covenant
- Ministry of the new covenant is one of grace which brings us directly into God’s presence
The changes of the new covenant
- God will put the “law” into the minds of those in the new covenant (v. 10b)
- God will “write” the law on the hearts (ie the will) of those in the new covenant (v. 10c)
- God will “be” the God of those in the new covenant (v. 10d)
- God will be “known” by those in the new covenant (v. 11)
- God will be “merciful” of the sin of those in the new covenant (v. 12)
- A real forgiveness and righteousness will be found; ritualism and religion will be done away with, brings justification
- Will unite that which is divided [Israel/Judah, God/man]
- Will be universal, not limited to a specific ethnic group
- Based on internal desire—the old was based in external ritual (vv. 10-11)
Promise Plan of God
1. Jesus is the Person of God. Those who belong to Jesus belong to God.
2. Jesus has a people who are his own given to him by the Father (John 6:37)
3. The incarnate Son of God tabernacles with human beings.
In the new covenant, God will regenerate people into morally able individuals (I will write the law on their hearts [on their moral will].
Biblical regeneration- The work of the Holy Spirit, through the preaching or hearing of the Word of God, to change the moral will of an individual so that he or she can respond to God’s offer of salvation in both repentance and faith.