Christianity – A New and Better Covenant
This Covenant has a better Priest (7:1-17, 7:20-8:5)
Jesus’ Priesthood cannot be destroyed by…
…Death (7:23-25) …Sin (7:26-28)
This Covenant has a better Hope (7:18 – 19)
This Covenant has better Promises (8:6 – 13)
Unconditional Promises vs. Conditional Promises
This Covenant has a better Sacrifice (9:1-10:18)
Slide
In the letter of Hebrews we have been going through, God has used the author to address some important things that were hindering the Hebrew Christians in their spiritual maturity and some who were in the church that were not yet Christians from truly receiving Christ as Savior.
But in today’s society, we read this sometimes and think,
“Well, since I am not Jewish, this has no bearing on me.”
But that is far from the truth as I hope to help us see today as we talk about the better Covenant offered by Christianity.
The coming of Christ brought forth a new and better covenant for the People of God.
When we say new Covenant, we recognize that there was an Old Covenant this was the Covenant that was made with the Israelites at Mount Sinai, the covenant of the Law.
Now this Old Covenant had conditions for God’s people to obey.
We read about this in
Exodus 19:5
5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.
We see some of the conditions and results of obeying or not obeying.
Deuteronomy 30:15-18
15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
These were the provisions of the Old Covenant.
Obeying God resulted in blessing and
Disobeying Him brought curses.
Now in this Old Covenant there were priests and sacrifices and promises that went along with the covenant.
This is how things operated before the New Covenant in Christ came into being but these things were a picture, a foreshadowing of the fulfillment that Christ would bring into all of these areas.
So we are going to look at why this new Covenant in Christ’s blood is new and better than the Old Covenant and in fact better than any psudeo covenant that we as a society may be following.
We are going to look at Hebrews 7-10
Slide
I will not read the whole thing to you right now, but as we go through, we will read selected portions to examine what the author was trying to tell the Hebrews and what application we can take from this.
The first thing about the new covenant in Christ’s blood was that
The New Covenant has a better Priest
Slide
Through most of chapter 7, the author talks to the Hebrews about the Priesthood of Jesus.
One of the questions that the Hebrews had is how can Jesus be a priest since he descended from Judah and not Levi.
Priest because of Regulation or Indestructible Life
Well, the author tells us that Jesus is a Priest in the order of Melchizadek and is a better priest than any of the Levitical priests because, as it says in Hebrews 7:16, they were priests on the basis of a regulation about their ancestry, but Jesus was a priest on the basis of an indestructible life.
So,
Jesus’ Priesthood cannot be destroyed by…
… Death
Slide
The Old Covenant had different High Priests because they would die and have to be replaced.
Hebrews 7:23-25
23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
But Jesus overcame death and always lives to intercede for us. He will never be replaced.
But not only can it not be destroyed by death.
Jesus’ Priesthood cannot be destroyed by…
…by Sin
Slide
Hebrews 7:26-28
26 Such a high priest meets our need-one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.
Jesus Christ is a better Priest than those who die and those who sin because He has no sin and can be our eternal advocate before the Father. We never need to worry about having to have a new advocate and priest because Jesus can and will serve that role for us forever.
This New Covenant has a better Priest, but
The New Covenant has a better Hope
Slide
Hebrews 7:18-19
18 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
The Old Covenant gave regulations but it was never intended to bring salvation for us. It was intended to
show our need for a Savior and
help us rely on Him,
not on us following rules.
Galatians 3:21, 24
21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. …24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.
The New Covenant however, offers the hope of relationship with God,
not a hope of religion or rules
which is really no hope at all.
We have a hope of walking with God, of being with Him for eternity, based on what He has done, not what we do.
The hope of this covenant is far better than the hopelessness that became apparent in the Old Covenant.
The New covenant offers us hope of eternity.
Hebrews 7:25
25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
This covenant has a better hope for us.
We have hope for now.
We have hope for eternity.
But it doesn’t only provide a better hope,
The New Covenant has better Promises
Slide
Hebrews 8:6-12
6 But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.
7 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 time is coming, declares the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
9 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
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.
10 This is the covenant I will make with the house 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.
11 No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, ’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."
The author quotes Jeremiah 31 here.
Both the Old Covenant and New Covenant had promises.
But the New Covenant promises were better.
Remember what we read earlier in
Deuteronomy 30:15-16
15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
Follow the law and receive blessings
Disobey and receive curses.
God had responsibility to bless as we had responsibility to obey.
The Old Covenant Promises were Conditional
Slide
The New Covenant Promises are Unconditional
Listen to what the Lord says
Hebrews 8:10-12
10 This is the covenant I will make with the house 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.
11 No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, ’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."
Now Where is man’s responsibility outlined in this passage?
Nowhere
Our only responsibility is to receive the blood of Christ as the means of receiving the forgiveness he offers and thereby enter into the new covenant.
God has all of the responsibility.
God has given us better promises.
Promises that don’t require us to uphold anything, because we are not able. This is a far better covenant with far greater promises.
But not only does this covenant have a better Priest, a better hope and better promises,
The New Covenant has a better Sacrifice
Slide
All of chapter 9 is arguing this point.
The Sacrifices of the Old Testament were never designed to sake away our sins or to even clear our consciences
Hebrews 9:9 tells us
“that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper.”
Hebrews 10:3-4
3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, 4 because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
The sacrifices of the Old Testament just reminded us of our need because at that time, sins were “passed over” (NKJV) or unpunished (NIV), but were not taken away.
Listen to what Paul writes in
Romans 3:20-25
20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
21 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-
(from New International Version)
Rom 3:25- NKJV
25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
The Sacrifices of the Old Testament did not take our sins away or even cleanse our conscience.
Takes away our sin
The sacrifice of the New Covenant is better because He sacrificed to take away our sins
Hebrews 9:24-28
24 For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. 25 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
The Sacrifice of the New Covenant is better by far because it has taken away our sins and is able to cleanse our consciences.
Now are sins are taken away in regards to our salvation.
That is unconditional when we receive Christ as Savior.
Our fellowship with God is conditional however.
This is why we our conscience doesn’t always feel cleansed.
What is it conditional on?
It is conditioned on confession and seeking his forgiveness.
1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us (other versions – Cleanse) from all unrighteousness. (from New International Version)
While we are forgiven completely for our sins, past, present and future in terms of our salvation, we need to confess and be cleansed in our conscience for sins we still commit to experience continued fellowship with the Lord.
So we can see how much greater this new covenant is than the Old one.
Well that is all fine and dandy, but I am not Jewish and I never followed the Old Covenant anyway.
Today’s Old Covenant
Maybe you don’t and maybe you do, but our society follows a form of it.
But the form of it is really not from God.
We tend to make ourselves both parties in this covenant.
We live life under a set of rules that say.
Do good and be blessed.
Do bad and be punished.
What Goes around, comes around.
Now while some of these principles are based on some truth, but the problem is that who decides what is good and what is bad?
We tend to put ourselves in that role as well through society. If something that was thought bad before comes to a point where we a lot of people are doing it, then we change it from bad to good.
For instance,
Living together
Sex outside of marriage
Abortion
Homosexuality
These things were thought to be bad before, but in today’s society is seeking to or has already changed these from the bad things column to the good things or at least neutral column.
Then we appoint priests to confirm these things that we decide.
What priests are you talking about.
Think talk show hosts, radio personalities
Oprah Winfrey
Dr. Phil
Now I am not saying that everything that talk show hosts or specifically Oprah or Dr. Phil espouses is bad.
What I am saying is that being espoused from our self appointed Priests are the rules we set down and then want to feel good about.
So we watch things that will make us feel better about ourselves and we think will make us a better place to live.
The problem is the goal is personal happiness.
Now there are some things that are espoused that are good.
But if the goal is to just feel better yourself, you will find it lacking.
No matter what you think about Rick Warren, I love the first line in his book, the Purpose Driven Life.
“It is not about you.”
He with the most toys when he dies doesn’t win
The adage that God helps those who help themselves is not true.
The last I read the Bible is that God helps those who can’t help themselves.
So we have a covenant that we follow and priests offering the hope of personal happiness with little sacrifice.
Where has that gotten us?
Have we achieved the utopian society we strive for?
Turn on the news and you tell me.
A husband and father pulls over in Will County and kills his wife and kids.
A married man in Ohio arrested for killing his pregnant girlfriend whom he already had a kid with.
A professional wrestler kills his wife and child and then himself.
No the covenant we follow in society has not brought anything positive.
We follow a form of the old covenant but with ourselves set as God, with our own priests, promises and sacrifices.
I received an email this week saying there is so much evil in the world and it needs to end.
The reality is that evil is basically what reigns when you take God out of the picture.
Our covenant with ourselves has produced evils toward one another that seem incomprehensible. But that is what happens when we follow our own covenant.
Listen, The new covenant in Christ’s blood is still the best!
There are some who need to enter into that covenant. Others, who may have entered into the New Covenant are not experiencing the cleansing of conscience that is offered in the New Covenant because we fail to confess our sin and still follow our own way.
Today, if you have never entered into the New Covenant with the one true God through His Son Jesus Christ, by receiving Him as Savior, won’t you do that?
That truly is your only hope for now and for eternity.
And for those who have entered this covenant but need their consciences cleansed, confess your sins and seek forgiveness so you can experience fellowship with the Lord.
Let’s pray.
