Hebrews 8:7-13
Notes
Transcript
God relates to us through covenants
God relates to us through covenants
Salvation announced in Genesis 3:15
God’s desire to save a people for Himself, “the seed of the woman”
The prophecy of the Messiah in seed form, “the Seed of the woman”
This salvation is based on an eternal, sovereign choice, cf. Ephesians 1:4. This is an eternal covenant.
Further step revealed in God’s covenant through Abraham, Genesis 12:3, 6-7.
This is the Gospel, cf. Galatians 3:8.
The promised “seed”, in the first instance, refers to Isaac, the chosen son.
It also to the Israelites, the “seed” of the chosen son of the shosen son: Jacob, renamed Israel.
Ultimately, this refers to Jesus Christ, the Messiah: Galatians 3:16.
The blessing is realised when the nations live in the land that belongs to “Abraham’s seed”. The Gentiles justified by faith, living under the Messiah’s rule, on the land of promise—ultimately, the whole earth (cf. Romans 4:13).
Preparation of fulfilment through the Old Covenant through Moses, Exodus 19:3-6
God has created a people to Himself, rescuing them from Egypt, as He promised to Abraham. This way, the “seed” from which “The Seed” would come, is rescued.
God enters into a covenant with them: a promise that He would be their God, they would be His people. But: there’s a condition to be met in order to fully realise this, v5.
This, the Mosaic covenant, is what Hebrews 8:6 refers to as “the old one”. Its purpose was the preparation of God’s people for the arrival of the promised “seed of the woman” from their midst. And now He is here: and He mediates, brings about between God and us, a “superior” or “better” covenant, “the new covenant”.
The New Covenant: Salvation accomplished, v7-13
The New Covenant: Salvation accomplished, v7-13
It is the realisation of God’s salvation plan through Jesus Christ, v7-9, 13
The Mosaic covenant was always going to be temporary; cf. 7:18-19, 8:6, 13. It never brought about perfection, the eternal salvation purposed by God, nor was it ever meant to. This is what is “wrong” with this first covenant.
Fault with the people: they break the covenant! v8a, 9
God’s promise to restore His people, v8b, 9
Jeremiah’s context: return from Exile
“The days are coming … after that time”: when God restores His people
But it was a different kind of restoration: not the return of the Exile, but liberation through Jesus Christ, cf. Luke 4:16-21.
Jesus brings the fulfilment of God’s promise of salvation for His people. Do God’s plans ever fail? That’s when this covenant will fail, too: never.
It is unbreakable and assures God’s favour, v9
It is “not … like the covenant” God made through Moses, “because they did not remain faithful to my covenant”.
The Old Covenant was breakable. The possibility was there, because of the human element, that it will not result in the promised blessing for the people. This is why you have covenant curses, e.g. Deuteronomy 28:15-68. One of these curses is the following: Deuteronomy 28:64. This will be like going back to Egypt, Deuteronomy 28:68—in other words, God will reject them, turn away from them.
“and I turned away from them”: hence, the Exile. They broke the covenant, and they lost God’s favour, reaping His wrath expressed in the covenant curse.
What is clearly taught is that the New Covenant is unbreakable, v9a. The New Covenant assures God’s favour. He will never reject those saved through Christ.
God transforms everyone in the New Covenant, v10-11
It was possible to be in the Old Covenant, but not in the eternal covenant
This is because belonging to the covenant was through physical descent from Abraham. To be an Israelite made you be in the Old Covenant, but not all Israelites were elect in Christ. But not all in Israel were true Israelites, in other words: spiritual children of Abraham, and ultimately of God. This is what Paul is expressing in Romans 9:6-9.
It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. For this was how the promise was stated: ‘At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.’
But in the New Covenant, all who are in it belong to God. This is because it is based on that eternal promise that moves the outworking of God’s saving plan on Earth. “the people of Israel” takes on the ultimate meaning: the people God eternally chose for Himself in Christ.
God’s law is written on the hearts and minds of each one in the covenant, v10
Note the reference to the Ten Commandments. The promise is that all in the covenant will have it written on their hearts: “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts”; the plural stresses that every individual in the people of God is meant.
It was possible to be in the Old Covenant but not actually have a transformed heart. This is because, as we saw above, not all in the Old Covenant were born of God spiritually.
On the one hand you could have David in the covenant, who wrote in Psalm 40:6-8,
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire— but my ears you have opened;— burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come— it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.’
and on the other hand, you also could have unbelieving Israelites about whom we read in Hebrews 3:7-11, who hardened their hearts.
But in the New Covenant, every member of God’s household has the law of God written on their hearts. This is why you desire to do His will; and if you don’t, chances are that you may not be born of the Spirit of God. For this is what Ezekiel 36:26-27 prophesied:
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
They all know the Lord, v11.
This is not against teachers (the writer of Hebrews is one!), but a personal, relational knowledge is in mind here.
Again, in the Old Covenant, regenerate and unregenerate could belong to the same people, and so there had to be exhortation for those who had the covenant sign (were circumcised), but obviously lived ungodly lives. They had the sign, but their heart was uncircumcised: they did not really know the Lord.
But in the New Covenant, all members know the Lord. Or you wouldn’t be in the covenant. This is how 2 Corinthians 5:17 puts it:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!
This, too is the work of God. Jesus taught in John 6:44-45,
‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: “They will all be taught by God.” Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me.
Again, outwardly it is possible to be christened or baptised even today—so: to have the sign of the covenant—, but if you live like an unbeliever, it shows that you are an unbeliever. You are not in covenant with Christ. Your life shows it. You don’t know the Lord, as far as I can tell. Currently, there is no sacrifice for your sin. Repent, know the Lord, is what I will say to you—but I will pray to God to reveal Himself to you.
God removes the sin of those in the covenant, v12
This is the basis of all of the above, the fulfilment of Genesis 3:15, 20-21.
As we shall see, Old Covenant sacrifices served as reminders of sin, and thereby prepare the way for the One Sacrifice that would take away our sin, once and for all. This has happened through Jesus Christ.
This is why we can never lose our salvation. Our sins are gone: there is nothing on our account any longer. What a salvation. What a Saviour. What glorious promises.