Hebrews 8

Bible study with Pastor Terry Gray

THE BETTER COVENANT

Hebrews 8:1-2

Jesus is our High Priest. He is interceding for us in Heaven right now.

1 Timothy 2:5

There is only one intercessor for us. And that is Jesus Christ. There is only one way to heaven. Not through a human pope, not through Mary, not through Buddha, etc. The ONE way to Heaven is through Jesus.

Hebrews 8:3-6

Jesus does not offer sacrifices or carry out rituals of the Old Testament because He is a priest of a different order.

Jesus does not offer sacrifices because he IS our ultimate sacrifice, our ETERNAL sacrifice.

Jesus does not follow rituals of the Old Testament or the old covenant because Jesus is our NEW Testament, our NEW covenant.

Old Testament rituals and the Law were only a shadow of what goes on in Heaven, not the real thing!

Hebrews 8:7-12

Israelites followed the Mosaic Law, the Law of the Old Covenant. However, God made it clear that this Law, this old covenant was to be replaced with a new and better

covenant. Paul is quoting Jeremiah here, an Old Testament prophet who was living under the old covenant yet predicting the coming of the new! Other Old Testament prophets (e.g., Ezekiel, Joel, etc.) also prophesied about the coming of the new covenant, fulfilled by Jesus! These prophets all promised a new way of doing things that was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost.

The Old Covenant, the Mosaic Law, they were never meant to be permanent. They were always meant to be temporary. They were always meant to be replaced by something better, a new covenant. The Old Covenant Law and priesthood all pointed to the New Covenant and Jesus.

The New Covenant is based on what God does, not on what man does--Just look at all those "I will..." statements by God in Jeremiah 31:31-34!

Why? Because man could not remain perfectly faithful to God. Man, no matter how hard he tried, could never overcome his sin nature and redeem himself. This is why the Old Covenant was never enough. It was a shadow of the perfection to come. It was meant to show us why we need Jesus. So, let us all learn the lesson and look to Jesus. Do not hold on to an old replica.

The New Covenant is God saying, "I will; I'm going to do it." The Old Covenant was not like this. It was God giving man the Law, saying, "If you if you obey, then I will." No man could keep the Law perfectly.

The Old Testament was a covenant of works. It's about earning and deserving. The New Testament is a covenant of Grace. It's about believing and receiving. Jesus came and accomplished our salvation for us. It is us trusting his work that we get saved. Our salvation is dependent purely on what God has done, has FINISHED for us. There is nothing we could do to earn salvation. So, thank God (literally) it is not up to us. THANK GOD HE TOOK CARE OF IT ALL!

Hebrews 8:10-11

Under the New Covenant, God changes us from inside out. The Law was an external force, telling us to this and that, revealing how we will never be good enough. Jesus, however, is our internal force. His love changes us from inside out. His love encourages us to be like Him. He saves us from our despair. He welcomes us into His arms, even after we nailed Him to the Cross.

Under the New Covenant, we can directly know God and develop an intimate relationship with God. This was not possible through the Old Testament, because sin kept us apart from God. When Jesus came, He changed all that. He broke down the sin barrier, so that through Him, we can be in the direct presence of God.

Hebrews 8:12

Under the New Covenant, our sins are decisively dealt with and completely forgiven. God remembers no more. This does not mean God forgets. It simply means He no longer holds our sins against us. This is not true with the Old Covenant. Sins were cleansed with animal sacrifices,

animal blood, not once and for all, but every year. Bulls, goats, and lambs, these were not adequate substitutes for humans. The animal blood never atoned for sins. It just covered them. One day, every year, the high priest had to enter the Holy of Holies to make atonement for the sins of the nation. These are just one of the many clues that tell us the Old Covenant was never going to be good enough.

Hebrews 8:13

Clearly, the Old spoke of the New, and the New is way better than the Old.