Lesson Ie2b: The Adequacy Of The New Covenant Series

Tom Lowe

10/1/2020

Moses smashes the commandments of God

Lesson IE2b: The Adequacy of the New Covenant (Heb. 8:10-13)

Scripture: Hebrews 8:10-13 (NIV)

10. This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declare 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.

11. 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.

12. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (see Jer. 31:31-34).

13. By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.

Introduction:

The New Covenant would be permanent. Notice the personal quality of this covenant presented in the first-person singular pronoun: God said, "I will establish a New Covenant." "I will put my laws into their mind." "I will be their God." "I will be merciful toward their iniquities." "I will remember their sins no more." The three outstanding features that mark this New Covenant are inwardness, immediacy, and God's initiative.

Commentary

(Heb. 8:10) This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declared 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.

Notice the repetition of the words "I will." The Old Covenant tells what men must do, and the New Covenant tells what God will do. After the days of Israel's disobedience are passed, He will put His laws in their mind so that they will know them and, on their hearts, so that they will love them. They will want to obey, not through fear of punishment but love for Him.

The Law of Moses could declare God's holy standard, but it could never provide the power needed for obedience. Sinful people need a new heart and a unique nature within, and this is just what the New Covenant provides. When a sinner trusts Christ, he receives a divine nature within (2 Peter 1:4). This divine nature creates a desire to live and obey God. By nature, sinful people are hateful and disobedient (Titus 3:3 –7); but the new nature gives each believer both the desire and the self-motivation for a godly life.

The Law was external; God's demands were written on tablets of stone. But the New Covenant makes it possible for God's Word to be written on human minds and hearts (2 Cor. 3:1-3). God's grace makes possible an internal transformation that makes a surrendered believer increasingly like Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 3:18). Does this not mean that, by the entrance of Christ into a person by His Spirit, He guides him into the knowledge of the truth? It is His voice that now whispers, “This is the way, walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21).

It is unfortunate that many Christians think they are saved by grace but must then fulfill their Christian life according to the Old Testament Law. They want the New Covenant for salvation but the Old Covenant for sanctification. The Apostle Paul had a phrase to describe this condition: "fallen from grace" (Gal. 5:4). Not "fallen from salvation," but fallen from the sphere of God's blessing through grace. We do not become holy people by trying to obey God's Law in our own power. By yielding to the Holy Spirit within that, we fulfill the righteousness of the Law (Rom. 8:1-4); and this is entirely of grace.

(Heb. 8:11) and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being.

There is no forgiveness under the Law because the Law was not given for that purpose. "Therefore, by the deeds of the Law, there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; or by the Law is knowledge of sin" (Rom. 3:20). The Law could not promise forgiveness to Israel, let alone to all humankind. Only through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is that forgiveness possible to all who will call on Him. The Old Testament sacrifices brought a remembrance of sins, not a remission of sins (Heb. 10:1-3, 18).

The second characteristic, the new covenant's immediacy, means that no longer are we dependent upon a body of traditional testimony for our religious guidance. Another interpretation of verse 11 might be, "No man shall say to his neighbor or his brother, know the Lord; for everyone shall know me, from the least of those to the greatest." And then Isaiah said, "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11:9). It is the privilege of those who come under the New Covenant to have a knowledge of God, which is not confined to gossip or the testimony of others. This knowledge grows out of the personal communion of the soul with God. To know God is not merely to have a book of information about Him, but to have a personal relationship with God that grows out of obedience to Him. God's most significant concern is not to impart knowledge about Himself to satisfy our speculated curiosity. He is interested in building a kingdom of right relationships between people. He gives Himself to those who obey Him. This obedience brings a vital immediate knowledge of God Himself, which is infinitely better than understanding facts about him.