Hebrews 8:1-13 - The New Covenant of Grace

Hebrews 8:1-13

The New Priestly Service

1 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.

3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. 4 For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; 5 who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

A New Covenant (Jer. 31:31–34)

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

13 In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

The New Covenant of God’s grace in Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, was ushered in and ministered by Himself for our salvation and reconciliation of redemption.  Our High Priest sits in heaven at the throne of sovereign rule over all creation and ministers the heavenly sacraments of grace from the true temple and tabernacle of the heavenly kingdom, not from the temporary copy which once was erected on earth in Jerusalem for shadow sacrifices and worship.  He ministers gifts for us as well as the sacrifices for forgiveness of sins.  The gift of eternal life that cannot be lost, forfeited, or taken away is the gospel we praise!  The temple that was a copy of the heavenly one was drafted by God to Moses according to this plan of the real and eternal temple as he was shown on the mountain where the Ten Commandments were etched by God’s finger on tablets of stone in the first covenant of works.  The New Covenant is now etched on our hearts (2 Corinthians 3:3) by His Spirit living in and sealing us with His spiritual signet mark of eternal ownership (Ephesians 1:13-14)!  The first covenant faded away because it was not perfect due to our unresolved sin nature problem.  In this New Covenant agreement made by the LORD, we find His Laws written with the finger of God’s Spirit on our heart tablets and filling our minds with understanding and hearts with desire to do all God has told us before that we were unable to work on our own with such feeble efforts.  He has done the works to earn our salvation and He alone makes us accepted and acceptable as His one people in Christ, both Jew and Gentile as promised through Abraham by that same faith which he displayed in trusting enough to offer His only son which God provided instead.  Because He put His Spirit and laws into our fabric of being, we now know Him and learn from His word (John 6:45) as was not possible before.  God’s great mercy in Christ as the New Covenant provides is what saves us from our unrighteousness by His and ensures our eternal forgiveness and release from the penalty of sin.  This is the New Covenant of Grace which replaced the Old Covenant of our inadequate works attempting to appease God as sinful and imperfect men and women.  Such grace!