The Better Life

Introduction

Hebrews 8:1–13 ESV

1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. 4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. 5 They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” 6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. 8 For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” 13 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.

What makes life better? If you ask 100 people that question, you may receive 100 different answers. I want to get at the answer, which isn’t going to be a surprise to you, by sharing a story with you. Several years ago some congregants gave me a book by Juan Williams and Quinton Dixie for my birthday. The book is titled, This Far By Faith, Stories from the African American Religious Experience. One of the stories is about the life of Sojourner Truth, an African American woman who lived as a slave for 30 years in upstate NY, but became an abolitionist and advocate for women’s rights. Sojourner Truth wasn’t her given name, she took that name to herself years later. She was born Isabella Bomefree.

Upstate NY was Dutch country. So, the major church influence was the Dutch Reformed Church. What’s interesting is that the couple that took she and her children in were part of the Dutch Reformed Church but they actively spoke out against slavery. What’s even more interesting is that her former owner would come and visit her from time to time at this couple’s house. 

All of this set the scene for the occasion where she would experience God in a new way. As the authors put it, 

“She came to God in times of trouble, but when all was well she had less use for him. Life at the Van Wageners’ was so nice that there was little room for God.”

On this occasion, her former owner came to visit, and she was going to go back with him to his property for this celebration that was going on. It was an annual event, and for the black folks it was a time for socializing, drinking and dancing. As she was getting ready to go back, something came over her. She described it as a sense of being part of something outside of herself that was looking at her desire for drinking and dancing. She believed it was God’s way of telling her that a return to the former owner’s property and the sinful ways of the past would be a fatal turn away from God’s goodness. She couldn’t move for a few moments and then responded saying, 

“Oh God, I did not know you were so big.”

Let me quote directly from what the authors say, 

“She tried to go back in the house and work in the hope that her chores might relieve her mind and body of this burden, but it was not possible. As she began to think that she needed someone or something to stand between her and God to protect and guider her, another presence revealed himself. After a short while she recognized the presence - it was Jesus. Immediately she felt the warmth and comfort of a loving friend who wanted only what was best for her. It was Jesus who eased her fear of God, who had paid the the ultimate price for her sins, and who would forevermore walk by her side.”

What she realized is that the better life is the life with Jesus. And the Pastor to the Hebrews is presenting this same reality to them here in our text. For Sojourner Truth, this better life with Jesus wasn’t about a quiet life free of affliction and trouble. Her faith moved her to act on behalf of others. Risking her life as an abolitionist. So let me say this in answering the question “What makes life better?” “Better” doesn’t necessarily mean “easier.” Jesus is the Great High Priest who who has passed through the heavens, who stands between us and the Father, having paid the price for our sins, who eases our fear of God and who strengthens us to endure. Life with Christ is better because he’s better. This is significant because when you’re in the middle of a struggle, things seem worse, not better. In a boxing match the rounds are just three minutes. But if you’re getting beat up that three minutes can seem like a lifetime. All you want to do is hear the bell ring.

The Pastor has the audacity to tell these folks in the middle of their fight, why things are better. Here are the three things he tells them in v. 6 that make it better, Jesus has a Better Ministry. Jesus mediates a Better Covenant. That covenant is established on Better Promises.

Better Ministry

Hebrews 8:2 is the only place in the New Testament where Jesus is called a minister. It’s in the context of declaring that he’s a minister with a better ministry than any you find on earth. To use the words of v. 6, he has obtained a much more excellent ministry. Look at what he says in vv. 1-2,

Hebrews 8:1–2 ESV

1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.

He has just shown them that Jesus is the perfect high priest. He is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The word of the oath appoints a Son, the Pastor says in 7:28, who has been made perfect forever. Then, in the very next breath he says, the point of what we’re saying is this. In other words, let me make it clear to you just in case you missed it. This perfect high priest, he’s ours. He repeats what he said of Jesus in 1:3 (after making purification for sins…), Jesus sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven. 

What’s significant about him sitting down is that the priests on earth who served in the tabernacle were continually making offerings for the people; burnt offerings, guilt offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings; consisting of bulls, goats, lambs, rams. Day after day blood was shed in the tabernacle so that the people would not be consumed by their holy God. So the Pastor rightly says in v. 3 that every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Notice the difference when he talks about Jesus. In comparison he says, “thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.” Their offering is plural and ongoing. His offering is a singular, once for all offering for sin. When he made his offering it was finished. There was no longer any further offering for sin. So what did he do? He took his seat. But that doesn’t mean he’s not working. His seat is not just the seat of rest from his work of sacrificing himself on our behalf. It is also the seat of ministry. And it’s the best seat in the house. It is the seat of power and authority. It it is his throne at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

The Pastor says Jesus is a minister in the holy places, in the true tabernacle that the Lord set up, not man. He fixes their eyes heavenward. He’s letting them know that they’re missing the boat fixing their eyes on the earthly temple as the focal point of their worship. He says that’s just a copy and a shadow of the heavenly tabernacle. Here’s what gets us every time. We are tempted to believe more in what we can see with our eyes and touch with our hands. They could see this glorious temple in Jerusalem, and their hearts were drawn to that. The Pastor has to shake them up and say that’s not the original. 

Jesus has a better ministry because he is ministering with more authority in the true tabernacle. The Lord himself set this one up, not Moses. God the Son is right now, as we speak, ministering in the most holy place in the presence of God the Father on behalf of everyone who follows him. The Pastor is not talking theory or speculation. He is speaking fact. We have such a high priest. 

The Pastor doesn’t say, “you’re blessed because I’m your pastor. You’re blessed because I’m the man of God in this house.” The blessing for any church that any of us in here serve as pastor or elder in is not primarily that you’re their pastor. The blessing for every church is that Jesus is our Senior Pastor. Yes, Jesus appoints pastors and elders in his church. Yes, at the end of this letter, the Pastor will tell them in 13:17, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will give an account.” But he wants them to become preoccupied with the reality of Jesus’ heavenly priestly and pastoral ministry.

The problem is that they are preoccupied with the transitory. They are preoccupied with what Jesus describes in Matthew 6:19, “treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.” And this preoccupation with stuff that is not permanent, with something that is at best a copy and shadow of reality, is hindering their faith.

The glory and splendor of an earthly tabernacle cannot come close to matching the glory of the heavenly tabernacle. That’s why the point of worship is not the beauty of the building because Jesus is ministering in the most beautiful place you can imagine. And his ministry there is more excellent because it produces the fruit of endurance. Why is it, if you’re a Christian, that you have not thrown in the towel in the middle of the fight? It’s because your ability to endure is the fruit of Jesus’ more excellent ministry in the true tabernacle. Jesus’ ministry is to do all for those he saves. The strength to endure through the fight is the fruit of Jesus’ more excellent ministry.

Jesus has a more excellent ministry not only because he ministers in the true tabernacle, but also because he is the mediator of a better covenant.

Better Covenant

The Pastor first mentions this better covenant in 7:22 when he says that God the Father swore to Jesus makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. Here in this chapter he begins to flesh that out when he says that Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better. Then he says in vv. 7-9…

Hebrews 8:7–9 ESV

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. 8 For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.

He reminds them of God’s promise way back in Jeremiah 31 to establish a new covenant. Jeremiah’s ministry was in the 6th century BC. He prophesied about the fall of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. The Lord said to Jeremiah in 1:10, “I have appointed you this day to root up, to tear down, to destroy and to devastate, to build and to plant.” Most of Jeremiah’s message was harsh because of what the Pastor says in v. 8, God found fault with the people. That old covenant, that first covenant, was not problematic because it was unholy or unrighteous. The problem with the first covenant is what the Pastor says in 7:11, perfection could not be attained through it. Remember, God’s goal for humanity is not “niceness,” it’s perfection. And as the Pastor said in 7:19, the law made nothing perfect. The law reveals our sin, but it doesn’t change our hearts. 

So the Pastor has to remind them that the first covenant was temporary. The covenant that was established through Moses was temporary because it could not bring perfection. They should have known that because in Jeremiah’s day a new and better covenant was promised.The covenant Jesus mediates is better, not just because it’s established on better promises, but because Jesus is a better mediator. He doesn’t have to say it here because he’s already said it back in ch. 3.

Hebrews 3:3–6 ESV

3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

John puts it this way, “the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (Jn. 1:17). That’s a better deal. See, when the Pastor talks about a covenant, he’s not talking about a mutual agreement or contract that needs an arbitrator to settle disputes. You hear about arbitration all the time in the sports world. A player wants more money, and the owner doesn’t want to give him as much as he wants. So they bring in an arbitrator to settle the dispute based on the terms and conditions of the contract. And whatever the arbitrator decides is final and settles the case. 

It’s not like that with God’s covenant; like we’re negotiating with God and need a mediator to handle the negotiations. No. God sets the terms and conditions of the covenant. Those terms and conditions are not up for dispute. The mediator in God’s covenant doesn’t bring the two sides together to hammer out an agreement. The mediator in God’s covenant is an agent invested with divine authority in God’s settlement. The message of the covenant that came through Moses was basically this, “Do this and you will live” (Lev. 18:5; Ezek 20:11). 

Nobody could meet the conditions of that covenant. What makes Jesus the better mediator is that he came and met those conditions for us to the perfect letter of the law. He did it so that he could mediate the new covenant. His perfect obedience and his perfect sacrifice make him the only one who could guarantee the better covenant that Jeremiah spoke of 600 years before Jesus came on the scene.

God’s goal for us is perfection because the goal is to draw near to God. The goal of the covenant is fellowship with God. Jesus is a better mediator of a better covenant because he permanently secures our fellowship with God. Just because the covenant is new, just because the covenant is better doesn’t mean that you don’t violate the covenant. Guess what, I’m sorry to tell you that you’re still a covenant breaker. But having Jesus as our mediator, as our minister, as our high priest makes all the difference in the world. Jesus has the power to secure permanent ongoing fellowship between us and God. That’s the better life. 

Better Promises

That’s the better life because it’s established on better promises. We don’t have near enough time to do justice to all that is said here, but I want to make this point as I emphasize the better promises. We can often come to a text of Scripture or have an expectation from a sermon that God is going to speak to me and tell me what I’m supposed to do in this situation or that circumstance. And that’s good. But sometimes God sets before us the reality of what is so that we can see how glorious and wonderful he is. And that’s what’s going on here in the second half of this chapter. We are called to be in awe of the glory and wonder of God’s better promises. Four quick things. The promise is better because of the glory and wonder of reconciliation.

And its a glory that it goes beyond simply reconciling people to God. God’s powerful promise brings reconciliation not just vertically, but horizontally too. The devastating effects of the demolition job the people did under the old covenant was a church split. The one nation of Israel split into Israel and Judah. Harmony turned into strife. Peace turned into discord and even hatred. So God amazingly says in v.8, I’ll make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. I’ll take care of the reconciliation problem not just vertically, but horizontally as well.

A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews Excursus II: The Meaning of “The True Tent” in Hebrews 8:2 and “The Greater and More Perfect Tent” in Hebrews 9:11

The promise of the reunion of Israel and Judah was symbolical of the healing of every human breach and the reconciliation of all nations and persons in Christ, the seed of Abraham in whom all the peoples of the earth are blessed and united (

The promise of the new covenant is a promise to reconcile. God is going to once again be a husband to his people. He’s going to bring all of his people together into one redeemed humanity. 

The reconciliation that is impossible apart from Jesus Christ becomes a way of life in the new covenant because of regeneration. God fixes the heart problem. He said in Deut. 5, “Oh that they had such a heart to fear me and keep my commandments always.” The Lord says in v. 10 of our text,

Hebrews 8:10 ESV

10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

In the new covenant, the Lord fixes the heart problem. The hearts of stone that reside in the chests of men and women will be replaced with hearts of flesh. The depraved minds that are hostile to God will be replaced with minds that love his Law and meditate on it day and night. 

The new covenant is not called new because it contradicts the Old. Jesus said in Matthew 5:17 “17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Jesus’ words make it clear that both covenants demand obedience to the Law. But, the new covenant is not based on your or my obedience. It’s based the obedience of the Son of God. And because of that, when someone is united to Christ by faith, the Law becomes an inside out matter. The crazy thing about the new covenant is that obedience is promised. In the old covenant God promised to be their God on condition of their obedience. In the new covenant, because of the obedient one, Jesus Christ, God promises to put his law on our minds and write them on our hearts. The result of regeneration is that you will open this Word and you will find delight in following what God says. You will find encouragement in his promises. You will be glad for him to correct you. That’s because what you will want is to do all for him.

The better promises of the new covenant are not only reconciliation and regeneration, but also restoration to a right relationship. The promise God makes, “I will be their God and they shall be my people,” is included in the better promises of the new covenant, but it’s not a new promise. It’s a promise that runs from Genesis to Revelation. This is a promise of possession. God’s people would belong to him and he would belong to them. This statement has always been at the heart of God’s covenant with his people. Fellowship and friendship, union and communion with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is the crown and goal of religion. “They shall all know me,” he says in v. 11, “from the least of them to the greatest.” 

That’s where we’re headed; restoration to right relationship unhindered by imperfection because God created us as relational beings. We are not made to be isolated from God or from each other. Whether you know it or not, your greatest need is to be in fellowship first with the Triune God, and then with one another. 

That’s why God saved the promise that makes it all possible for last; the promise of remission, of cancellation, of forgiveness of sins. None of the other promises can come into being without these words, “I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” The ongoing, continual sacrifices of lambs and rams and bulls and goats under the old covenant, instead of cleansing sins, the Pastor says in 10:3 that those things served as an ongoing reminder of sins. There was a need for God to deal a final and complete death blow to sin. That’s what Jesus accomplished in his crucifixion on the cross of Calvary. But he not only accomplished this remission for us, he applied it when he took the blood of his sacrifice into what the Pastor calls in v. 2, the holy places, the true tent that the Lord set up in heaven. And there he applied it to the true mercy seat on behalf of everyone believes in him in order to fulfill God’s promise to be merciful to their iniquities and remember their sins no more. 

Reconciliation, Regeneration, Restoration, all based on Remission. Do you understand that when you turn and put your faith in God through Jesus Christ, you are forgiven of all your garbage and accepted as if you had never sinned at all? Do you get the fact that even when reluctantly forgive somebody whose done something wrong to you, you still struggle with not holding it against them, you still struggle not to throw it back in their face the next time they mess up? But God has no such struggle? He says, I will remember your sins no more. And he means it. 

You know how we know he means it? We know it because we see it and are reminded of it every time we come to this table. We are reminded of the great cost God paid to permanently secure our remission.

New is better. The Pastor says, that old covenant is obsolete. It has vanished away. Don’t even consider looking for anything else. It is a waste of your time. Set your eyes on the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ that secured the better promises of God’s new covenant.