Part 14

Not only is Jesus’ priesthood of a far-more fruitful order and rank, it is also ministered through a better and more fruitful covenant. The grand supremacy of this covenant proves all other covenants grossly insufficient. Paul shows the reason for this vast superiority: It’s established by a better executor, God Himself, and established upon “better promises” (Heb. 8:6). Observe.

Firstly, we find the New Covenant to contain the promise of grace (Heb. 8:7). The various covenants of old were not corrupt in and of themselves, but they were lacking this special ingredient, grace, and therefore they became altogether insufficient with relation to redemption. Man’s great weakness proved him lacking (Rom. 7:14). The New Covenant, quite contrarily, contains the gracious power mankind requires. When Jesus cut covenant, He also poured out the grace and wherewithal for us to inherit the covenant’s rewards (Rom. 8:3; Tit. 2:11-14; Heb. 8:8-9).

Next, we find the promise of transformation (Heb. 8:10). The law was written upon tables of stone, while the new and greater has been written upon the fleshy tables of the heart. What a sharp contrast! The old was primarily external while the new lives deeply within. We know by now that an external mandate can never duly change the human heart, for “the letter killeth”, and only the inward working of the Spirit “giveth life” (2 Cor. 3:3-11; Ps. 40:8). We now have a better promise of transformation, even into the very “same image” of God (2 Cor. 3:18).

Thirdly, we have the covenantal promise of knowing God (Heb. 8:11). In times past, a deep knowledge of God was quite rare. The priesthood ministered in a teaching ministry, but the corporate knowledge of God was most-unseen (2 Chron. 15:3). Only few men ever cared to know God in an intimate manner, such as Moses for example (Ps. 103:7). The old dispensation was shadowy, dark, full of mere ritual, and therefore less-understood. Paul declares that the New Covenant dispensation would be quite different, and far more fruitful. The Holy Spirit would now be our teacher, and man’s newly-redeemed spirit would now better-lead him toward richer and more fruitful communion with God (1 Jn. 2:20, 27; Matt. 28:19-20; Jn. 14:16-17, 26; 16:13; Hos. 2:16; Hab. 2:14).

Next, we have the promise of total forgiveness (Heb. 8:12). All old covenants could never accomplish the total removal and forgiveness of sins. The blood of bulls and goats only covered the sins of the people, but they were never actually removed or taken away (Heb. 10:1-4, 11). As such, there was a continual remembrance of sin and iniquity, especially on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:21). The New Covenant is far more fruitful in this respect. We are now made righteous in Christ, by faith in His abundant provision at Calvary. Our sins are no longer merely covered up temporarily, but rather, they’ve been wholly removed and radically obliterated (Acts 13:39). Jesus laid down His life as the only truly fruitful sacrificial Lamb, and thereby He literally “taketh away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29; 1 Jn. 3:5). Because our sins have now been removed instead of hidden, total forgiveness can now grow upon our branches. A complete and absolute pardon will be the grateful testimony of the repentant.

And lastly, we know the promise of eternity (Heb. 8:13). All old covenants were, at the time of Paul’s letter to the Hebrews, “ready to vanish away”. The old has been replaced by the new (Rev. 21:5), and the new is “everlasting” (Heb. 13:20). The old bondwoman must be cast out (Gal. 4:21-31). These aged treaties were to bow to the supremacy of the new covenant and to the authority of its executor. Jesus’ far-more abundant and superior fruit will be eaten for all time. Paul calls it an “eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:12) and an “eternal inheritance” (Heb. 9:15). It truly is an “everlasting salvation”, and it is the ultimate fulfillment of all old covenant promise (Isa. 51:6-8; 45:17; Ps. 103:17). The New Covenant will endure throughout all eternity simply because it is the very personification of King Jesus: He Himself was given “for a covenant of the people” (Isa. 42:6; 49:8). If Jesus is eternal then His contract with humanity is too (Rev. 1:11, 17; 2:8; 21:6). Jesus will always bear His wounds as a title deed to the human heart; He will ever reveal “a Lamb as [though] it had been slain” (Rev. 5:6), even slain from the world’s foundation (Rev. 13:8).

To be continued…