His Superior Covenant

Jesus inaugurated the superior New Covenant through his Death and Resurrection, rendering the old covenant obsolete – Hebrews 8:6-13. The definitive “Word” that God has spoken “in the Son” surpasses all past revelations made in “the prophets,” including Moses, the Great Lawgiver. Only Jesus “achieved the purification of sins,” therefore, he “sat down” at the right hand of God as our Great High Priest and instituted the long-promised “New Covenant.”

The Letter to the Hebrews contrasts the perpetual priesthood, New Covenant, and once-for-all sacrifice of the Son with the multiple priests, obsolete covenant, and repeated animal sacrifices of the Levitical code, all of which proved incapable of purifying us from sin or “cleansing our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” – (Hebrews 9:14).

[Dawn Photo by Remi Yuan on Unsplash]

God promised a new priesthood “after the order of Melchizedek.” This promise demonstrated that the Levitical Priesthood would never achieve the “purification of sins”; otherwise, there would have been no need for a new priesthood.

Under the “former” legislation, the people received the Law with its regulations for sacrifices, the calendar, and priesthood. The promise of a new order of priests also meant “a change of law” was necessary - (Hebrews 7:11-14).

The Levitical Priesthood depended on lineal descent and multiple generations of priests since all men die. In contrast, the priesthood “after the order of Melchizedek” is perpetual since it is based on the endless resurrection life of the “Son.” Jesus did not become “our High Priest” until his sacrificial Death and Resurrection.

The Son was installed by the oath of God (“The Lord swore and will not regret: You are a priest everlastingly”); therefore, his priesthood is not “transmissible,” there will never be another priest “after the order of Melchizedek.” Jesus is our one and only High Priest.

Moreover, the Son is the “Guarantor of a better covenant,” and Jesus is well able to save his “brethren” to the uttermost since he “lives evermore to intercede for us” - (Psalm 110:4, Hebrews 7:15-25).

Unlike his predecessors, the Son “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens” and became the minister of “the Real Tabernacle,” and not of a temporary tent “made by hands.” He intercedes continually for us in the greater and true “tent pitched by God.”

The animal sacrifices of the Levitical Legislation constituted only “glimpses and shadows of the heavenly realities,” therefore, they could never cleanse the sinner’s “conscience” of the stain of sin - (Hebrews 8:1-6, 9:14).

HIS BETTER COVENANT

Having attained a more distinguished ministry, Jesus became the “mediator of a better covenant legislated on better promises.” If the “first covenant” had been faultless, there would be no need for a second covenant to replace it. Having found fault with the former covenant, the Lord announced that He would “conclude a New Covenant” with His people, one that would never require modification or replacement - (Hebrews 8:7-13).

In the Letter, the “New Covenant” is expressly stated not to be “according to the covenant” made at Sinai. It is not a “renewed” version of the Law given through Moses, but an entirely new covenant designed to achieve the “purification of sins” and inaugurated by the Son himself rather than another in a long line of prophets, priests, or even the angels of God:

• “For to which of the angels said he ever, ‘You are my Son. This day I have begotten you?’ And again, ‘I will be to him a Father, and he will be to me a Son’?” – Hebrews 1:5).

Under the “New Covenant,” all citizens of the Kingdom know God since His righteous requirements have been inscribed on their hearts by the “Spirit of the living God.” As promised, God has “circumcised our hearts” rather than our “foreskins” so we now love Him with all our heart and soul as promised in the Law of Moses - (Deuteronomy 30:6, Jeremiah 31:31-33, Ezekiel 36:22-27, 2 Corinthians 3:1-3).

By establishing the “New Covenant,” Jesus “made the first one obsolete.” This means the covenant established at Sinai ceased to be in effect for us because of the superior sacrifice, covenant, and priestly office of the “Son.”

Since the “New Covenant” achieved the “purification of sins” and “cleansed our conscience,” its benefits far surpass those of the old Levitical Code. To return now to that outdated system would mean abandoning the supreme benefits of the New Covenant established by the Son of God through great personal sacrifice.

Not only so but forsaking the Assembly after we have received the knowledge of the truth would amount to “trampling underfoot the Son of God and the blood of the covenant.” The Lord will judge His people, and in the end, the apostate will discover just what a “fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of a Living God” - (Hebrews 10:31).

The Letter to the Hebrews makes clear that returning to the Levitical System means abandoning the superior New Covenant established by the Son of God. If we “drift away” from this foundation, we will “receive just recompense” far worse than any punishment received under the Mosaic Law for “disobedience and transgression.”

Instead of abandoning the Son, we must continually “look away unto Jesus, the Founder and the Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” as our Great High Priest who unceasingly intercedes for us in the very presence of God – (Hebrews 12:2).

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SEE ALSO:

• Distributions of the Spirit - (Followers of Jesus must cling to the word of the Son that has been confirmed by signs, wonders, and the impartations of the Holy Spirit)

• Do not Drift Away! - (Followers of Jesus must hold stubbornly to the Word spoken in the Son or they will drift away from God’s gracious salvation)

• His Superior Priesthood - (Jesus is the High Priest of the greater sanctuary “made without hands” foreshadowed by the Ancient Tabernacle)

• One Spirit, One People - (By his death, Jesus formed one covenant community - One New Man - based on faith in him, not ethnicity or nationality – Ephesians 2:11-22)