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. (Hebrews 8:13 ESV)
Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. (Hebrews 9:1 ESV)
This quarter in Sunday School, our teacher has been rolling through the book of Hebrews. This past week, he pointed out something that helps to clarify what we are reading in this section of Hebrews:
- Jesus is a better high priest;
- God has provided a better covenant; and
- Jesus is a sacrifice.
The writer of Hebrews is covering material that isn’t Christianity 101 (v. 6:1). He is trying to lead the readers — both then and now — to maturity in their walk with Jesus Christ. Though the gospel message is simple — we are sinners separated from God, we need a Savior and we have one — the application of the gospel to our daily lives can be very tough. For example, I tend to think I can be the high priest that I need if I live right and my theology morphs God’s better covenant into something unrecognizable and I think I can be a good enough sacrifice so that I don’t need Jesus. In my mind I understand and accept the gospel, but on a daily basis, I try to pull God off the throne and take on the world by myself.
This kind of thinking is what makes a proper understanding of the gospel so important. And thanks be to God that He has provided us clarity through the book of Hebrews!
So with this in mind, let’s pick our study of Hebrews back up and look at the last verse of chapter eight and the first verse of chapter nine:
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. (Hebrews 8:13 ESV)
Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. (Hebrews 9:1 ESV)
We’ve previously looked at Wayne Grudem’s definition of a covenant:
“With respect to covenants between God and man in Scripture, we may give the following definition: A covenant is an unchangeable, divinely imposed legal agreement between God and man that stipulates the conditions of their relationship.” (p. 515)
Grudem also notes this related to Biblical covenants:
- Man can’t negotiate the terms of these divine covenants. God delivers the covenant and man either accepts or rejects the covenant;
- The terms are one-sided, that is, they are handed down by God;
- The terms handed down by God are unchangeable; and
- Though the terms are unchangeable, covenants can “be replaced or superseded” in their entirety.
Chapter 8, and specifically verse 8:13, make it very clear that God is replacing the Old Covenant with something new. The last verse of the chapter notes that, “what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” Accordingly, it makes sense that the “regulations for worship” under the “first covenant” would also change. Specifically, these “regulations” gave instructions for making acceptable sacrifices to God. In Chapter 9, we’ll see that Jesus Christ is not only a better high priest, but here we’ll also see that He is a much better sacrifice.
Next time, Lord willing, we’ll continue looking into the details and find out why Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for our sins.
“Thursday Hebrews” is a weekly Bible study series from the book of Hebrews. All Bible quotations are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV) Bible translation. You can read all of the posts in this series by clicking here. You can catch up on chapters 1 -7 by clicking here.