Hebrews 8 began with the affirmation that the priesthood of Jesus is now functioning (v. 1). The writer declared that Jesus has sat down on “the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, is a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man” (v. 2), and while he briefly paused to comment that every high priest was appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices and that Jesus also had something to offer, he returned to his declaration that Jesus was a minster of the true tabernacle. He furthermore did not serve in a tabernacle (as the Aaronic priests did) of something which was just a copy, shadow, and type of what Moses had seen on the mount: God had commanded him, “See that thou make all things according to the pattern that was shown thee in the mount” (v. 5). Rather, Jesus is serving in the heavenly, true tabernacle of God. By the sacrifice of Himself Jesus obtained a more excellent ministry; He is the mediator of a better covenant which was established on better promises (v. 6).
David had prophesied, “Thou art a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 5:6), and that prophecy has been fulfilled: Christ is now our High Priest. Next the writer will give attention to the covenant (also prophesied) of which Jesus is the mediator of. Clearly God knew that a new priesthood would require a new law and so He moved Jeremiah to write, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then would no place have been sought for a second, for finding fault with them he saith, behold the days cometh, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers …” (Hebrews 8:9).
There was fault with that first covenant. Some object to this conclusion, saying the fault was with the people, not the covenant. There was fault with the people as the writer showed: “For they continued not in my covenant and I regarded them not saith the Lord” (Hebrews 8:9). But, there was also fault with the covenant. The fault lay not in that it failed to do the things it was given for and had promised to do; the fault in that covenant lay in the fact that it could not permanently remove sin. In Hebrews 10:4 the writer made this point, “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Just as the writer had earlier shown that the sanctuary the priests served in was just a copy of the true sanctuary in which Jesus entered and serves, so now he shows that it is equally true that the blood offered in that earthly tabernacle was just a shadow, copy, and type of the blood of Jesus. The first could not remove sins, but the blood of Jesus can.
The New Covenant “would be made to the house of Israel and Judah,” just as the old was. But the “house of Israel and of Judah” was a “new Israel,” those from every nation who have come to believe that Jesus is the Christ and are His followers. Paul wrote to Galatian Christians, most of whom were Gentiles but whom he identified as “Israel”. He said, “Ye are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for as many as you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female, for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus. And if ye are Christ’s then are ye Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:26-29). He concluded his epistle to those who were Abraham’s seed saying, “For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:15-16). This was Jesus’ point to Nicodemus when He had told this ruler of the Jews early in His earthly ministry, “Except one be born anew he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
In the New Covenant which God would make, He would “put his laws into their mind, and on their heart also will I write them” (Hebrews 8:10). Obedience to God’s laws is essential, but is useless if that obedience does not come from a heart and mind upon which God’s laws are put, placed, and written. To those upon whose heart God’s law is written, “God will be their God; they shall be his people.” Such people will not speak to his brother or fellow citizen and say, “Know the Lord. For all shall know Him, from the least to the greatest of them.” Those who have been “born anew,” born of the “water and spirit” do not become members of this New Covenant by virtue of a physical birth; they become members of the new covenant when they are able to clearly understand what that covenant commands and promises, and which have obeyed those precepts from a true heart of faith.
In that New Covenant God would make with the “house of Israel” after those days, God promised, “And I will be merciful to their iniquities and their sins will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12). Many years ago, Fanny Crosby captured this thought and promise well when she wrote, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.”
Jim McDonald