Hebrews 8:1-13

The Mediator of a Better Covenant

We have now reached the glorious climax of the preacher’s sermon to the Hebrew Christians.  Beginning in chap. 8 and running through chap. 10 we have the heart of the message pumping life-giving blood throughout the many veins of this masterful sermon.  Here we have finally reached heaven where we gaze upon Jesus Christ as He sits mightily, exalted upon His throne in Heaven forever surrounded by the myriad upon myriad of angelic beings singing His praises above all creation.  

Immediately preceding this main point, the preacher has demonstrated the superiority of the high priestly heavenly-ministry of Jesus over the earth-bound priestly ministry under Moses.  Jesus has come to fulfill that old order, bringing it to its end, and inaugurate a new, eternal priesthood to serve as your high priest forever.

At the end of the day, the priests of the Levitical order proved weak and worthless because they were based upon the Law of Moses, which itself proved weak and worthless (cf. 7:18-19).  The Law was weak as a means of providing the righteousness and holiness that sinners needed to approach a Holy God (cf. Rom. 8:1-4).  Since the Law of Moses failed to bring about the righteousness that God required of man, a new way into His presence was set in order to replace the old way of Moses – a new way that provides the full forgiveness of all your sins (cf. 10:18-22). 

However, as we have seen throughout the sermon, the so-called “new” way actually precedes the “old” way by eternity.  It had always been God’s plan to bring about the new way of the priestly order of His own Son, but He chose to precede it with pictures, types, copies and shadows under an old administration which would be fulfilled and completed in the reality of the gift of His Son. 

In v. 1, the preacher assures you that you in fact have a high priest, as he has just described in chap. 7, who is now alive and well and sitting at the right hand of the majesty on high, a point he made in the opening verses of the sermon (cf. 1:3).  The preacher sees your hope in the better promises of the new covenant as being grounded in the finished work of Jesus at the cross, his resurrection, and his ascension to the right hand of God in Heaven.  There the sacrifice was made and offered up to God and it is there in heaven that His priestly ministry on your behalf continues even to this day.

It is for this reason that you have great comfort and boldness to approach God at any time of every day of your life.  You can approach God’s very presence to find grace and mercy in your time of need because Jesus Christ sits always before God to intercede for you.

As we have seen, this high priest possesses infinitely greater qualifications than the priests under Moses, who served under the Old Law.  That Law could only appoint weak men to serve at the altar of the earthly temple (cf. 7:28).  There were two primary ways in which the old priesthood proved weak and worthless:  first, the old system needed a multiplicity of priests to fulfill the responsibility of serving because they each suffered from mortality (cf. 7:23).  Because of death, there had to be a continual fresh supply of new priests to replace the old who passed away.  But this new high priest doesn’t need another to take his place because he serves according to the power of an indestructible life.  Because He alone continues forever, he holds his priesthood permanently (cf. 7:16, 24).

The second way in which the old priesthood proved worthless is that the priests themselves were sinners and therefore had to offer a sacrifice for their own personal sins before they could offer a sacrifice for the sins of their neighbors (cf. 7:27).  But again, this priest is superior because he is holy, innocent, undefiled, and forever separated from sinners in that He had no sin.  Therefore, he does not need to daily stand in the temple offering sacrifices over and over, which never take away sin.  Instead, through His one perfect sacrifice your sin debt has been paid in full and there is no need for another drop of blood to ever be shed for your rebellion.

That is why the old Law had to be replaced with the gospel (cf. 7:12, 18-19, 28).  The Law had no power to make a sinner perfect any more than a command to a corpse has the power to make a dead man get up and walk.  What was needed was a new life, a resurrected life that comes only from another – one who ever lives according to the power of an indestructible life.

But the preacher is not finished contrasting the glorious superiority of this high priest with the priests of old.  In chap. 8, he unfolds yet two more contrasts between the old and the new.  The first contrast focuses on the nature of the heavenly sanctuary verses the earthly sanctuary and the second contrast shows the necessity for a new covenant to replace the old.

First, let’s look at the link between the heavenly and earthly temples.  In the first five verses of chap. 8, the preacher places Jesus in heaven where he now serves as your high priest in the direct presence of God.  This is the true sanctuary – the true tabernacle where God dwells.  This tabernacle, unlike the earthly copy, was not built by the hands of man, but by God himself. 

Here the preacher links the old covenant under Moses with the temporary which must necessarily come to an end.  The old tabernacle was pitched by man – it was connected to and dependent upon the strength and life of mere mortals.  The old tabernacle, like the law itself, was based upon the works of the flesh.  Because they were temporary, based on the works of man (like the Old Covenant) – so was this old meeting place with God. 

Now as a priest, Jesus too had to offer a sacrifice (v. 3).  But how could Jesus offer a sacrifice since he did not belong to the physical descendents of Levi?  That was the problem with the old Law of Moses – it was based on the works of man (v. 4).  It could only function in this earthly realm and therefore limited by mortality.  But Jesus comes to bring power to the earthly realm – the power of an indestructible life.  So Jesus does not come according to the old Law to continue the old priesthood under Moses.  He comes according to the heavenly priesthood, the greater priesthood – and necessarily fulfills the old in the process.

Now in v. 5 we have a very important statement that helps us tremendously to read the Old Testament Scriptures.  Many times we as Christians find it difficult to know what we are to do with the Old Testament Scriptures written to the Hebrew people.  How do we relate to the Old Covenant history, law, promises, etc.?  In this verse, the preacher tells us what we are to do with the Old Testament Scriptures and it revolves around the term “pattern” found in v. 5.  The word used here is the word “type” where we get our word “typology.”  The preacher also calls it a “copy” and “shadow” at the beginning of the verse.

To understand “typology” you must understand that what is real is found in heaven in God, who is the source of all life.  All of creation is merely a picture or an image of reality or of God.  Another way of expressing this is to see that all life is dependent upon God – He alone is the beginning and the end.  He is the source and the completion of all life.  He alone is totally independent of all others and exists solely in Himself.

Now, God had a story to tell and unfold before you and that story began in a time long, long ago.  Throughout the story, God has provided you with glimpses of what He was going to do at the climax of His story.  He provided people, places, and things that gave you a picture of this one thing he would do in the fullness of time.  Now, since those pictures came from God then they were copies of what was real in heaven.  They were shadows cast upon the earth from the reality in heaven.  But those types and shadows also looked forward in time in the history of the world when the reality of heaven itself would come down to earth and be in-fleshed in our time and space.  So in the old, the reality of heaven was pictured, but in the new the reality in heaven arrives here on earth and brings the story God has been telling to its climatic, glorious moment.

The preacher gives an example of typology in v. 5 by quoting from Exodus 25:40 where Moses ascends to the top of Mt. Sinai to receive the Law of God, which include the instructions to build a tabernacle where God can dwell with His people on earth.  God tells Moses to build the earthly tabernacle exactly according to the model he sees before him so that the earthly is an exact replica of the heavenly sanctuary of God.  Why?  Because God has something greater in store for the future and he wants to prepare His people for it.  One day, God Himself will come and truly dwell in our midst in a manner that Moses could only dream of.  One day, the Word of God will become flesh and dwell among us and we will behold the glory of the only begotten God.  And to prepare for that day, God commands Moses to build an earthly representation of the heavenly.  Day-in and day-out for thousands of years, the people of God will experience in shadowy form what God will one day bring to reality.

So it wasn’t in the old tabernacle that man perfectly met God face to face.  That was only a shadow to prepare for the true tabernacle to come.  But once the true tabernacle arrives, the old must give way to the new and forever pass away.  The new wine of the gospel cannot be placed in the old wineskins of Moses. 

That’s why in v. 6 the preacher says that now in the history of redemption something radical has taken place.  The “now” of redemption is the arrival of the reality and the necessary passing of the shadows.  The day has now dawned and the night must forever flee away. 

We now have a perfect salvation because Jesus has accomplished all the work.  He has finished an excellent ministry, as the mediator of a better covenant that is based upon better promises.  We now have something better, more excellent than was offered through Moses. 

Now think about what this meant for these Hebrew Christians who were being tempted to turn back to Moses.  The preacher is not only saying Jesus is infinitely greater than Moses, but that Moses is fulfilled and now obsolete.  It isn’t that the Jews now have two options open for them:  one through Christ or one through Moses.  The whole old system has come to an end, because that for which is was preparing us has now arrived in Jesus Christ.  The Hebrew couldn’t return to Moses even if they wanted to because there is nothing left there to return to.  The old ways have been forever severed from heaven, the line has been dropped, never to return again.  Moses is now obsolete because Jesus is God’s sole means of salvation.

While the heavenly was pictured on earth by a mere rough estimate in the old, the heavenly has now truly come in the reality of the new.  The difference between Moses and Jesus is as radical as the distinction between earth and heaven.

But there is another way in the which the new is better than the old.  The old covenant God made through Moses to Israel at Sinai was based upon promises, but as the preacher said in v. 5 it was only temporary.  It was based upon a law that could not make anything perfect.  And that is what the priests of old served – the copy and shadow of heavenly things.

And this fact of a new, better covenant replacing the Mosaic Covenant is not new at all.  God Himself told Israel that a new covenant was coming (through Jeremiah 31:31-34; cf. vv. 8-12).  Once again, why would there be a “new” covenant if the “old” covenant was sufficient?  Why replace something that is perfect with another?  How do you improve on perfection?  But the fact that a new covenant was promised, even in the old, tells us that the old was not sufficient (v. 7). 

The preacher makes the point in v. 13 that when God said there was coming a “new” covenant that that necessarily meant that the “old” covenant under Moses is now obsolete and being obsolete it has grown old and is ready to disappear.  The old must now decrease and the new must increase.

But in what way is this “new” covenant better than the old?  The emphasis given in Jeremiah’s prophecy is that the difference is located in the effectiveness of the new over the old to bring about the necessary perfection God requires that we might forever dwell with Him, face to face (vv. 10-12).  Whereas the Law of Moses could make nothing perfect, the gospel will effectively accomplish the perfection that God requires.  How?  Jesus himself will accomplish the requirements of this new covenant.  He will fulfill the law and His atoning sacrifice will bring the end to your sins forevermore and what God requires will be given to you as a free gift through faith alone.

He will write the very law on our hearts, which means that what the law requires – the very essence of the law – will be given to you so that you will be considered righteous before God.  Jesus Christ in you – your righteousness before God.  It is in Christ that you may now approach God – what the law could not do, Christ has done for you (cf. 10:15-22).

Now think about what has been accomplished here.  What has been promised all the way back to Abraham, that God would forever repair the damage done by Adam and Eve and restore the fellowship that was lost there in the Garden, has now been repaired.  What was pictured in Israel’s history through the tabernacle and temple has been wonderfully fulfilled in the coming of the true tabernacle of God with man.  The fellowship has been restored – the relationship has been repaired – and peace has been accomplished between God and the elect in the person and work of Jesus Christ.  In Him, you draw near to God because all the conditions have been met for you in Christ.  All your sins have been forgiven.  The promise of God has now been realized – so that there will be no need for any to say, “Know the Lord” for all His people know Him from the least to the greatest:  for Jesus Christ has made Him known and you may now draw near to Him through the new and living way of God.

Amen!

-SDG-