Let’s take our Bibles together and turn to the Book of Hebrews. We are continuing our series today, “Christ Supreme in All Things.” And we turn our attention now to the new covenant, what Charles Spurgeon affectionately calls “the covenant of grace.”

I remember a few years ago, Sanja was watching this period piece drama on TV, and at first I wasn’t interested. But about half-way through, I started to get interested. And I kept asking her, “Who’s that guy?” And “Who’s that lady’s husband?” And “Why are they angry at each other?” Eventually Sanja was like, “How bout we just start this over from the beginning and then you can watch it with me.”  And I said, “No, just summarize it for me.”

Well now is a good time to summarize what we’ve been studying since September of last year in the book of Hebrews. In many ways, this passage today is a kind of summary statement. The author even says in 8:1, “Now the point in what we are saying is this.”  In other words, “Here’s the gist of what I’ve been saying so far in seven chapters.” 

The author is going to summarize what he’s been talking about, but he’s also going to present what many people call the central idea of this book—the new covenant. John MacArthur says, “One of the key theological themes in Hebrews is that all believers now have direct access to God under the New Covenant.” And MacArthur directs people to Hebrews 8:1 as a summary sentence for the whole book:

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.

So let’s summarize, church. Let’s synthesize the message of Hebrews. Today I want to express the new covenant in a few succinct statements extracted from Hebrews 8. I’ll give you four. Here’s the first. Four summary statements about the new covenant. 

1) The new covenant is mediated by a better high priest (8:1-2)

The author of Hebrews says in verse 1,

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 [literally “pitched”], not man. 

Remember this is right on the heels of what the author said at the end of chapter 7, when he called Jesus “the guarantor of a better covenant” (7:22). That was the first appearance of that word and that concept “covenant” in the book of Hebrews. But it’s central to what follows. The reason we have a better covenant in Christ Jesus is because he’s a better high priest offering up a better sacrifice from a better position. He’s at the right hand of the throne of Majesty in heaven. 

If you have an ESV Bible, you’ll notice that “Majesty” is capitalized there. That’s appropriate. This is the Greek word μεγαλωσύνη, which means “greatness” “preeminence” or the “Majestic One.” It’s a term that is only used for God. And the reference here is to the right hand of God the Father where Jesus is seated after his ascension. This is where Jesus sits and operates as an Intercessor, interceding for us. This is where Jesus sits and functions as our Mediator, mediating for us. Christ’s atoning work for us is done, but his mediating work continues.

By the way, Jesus “seated” in verse 1 is significant. There’s no chair in the OT holy of holies. There’s lots of furniture in the tabernacle. There’s lots of stuff for the high priest to do. They had very impressive rituals. They had holy robes and pure white linen garments. They had a golden altar and the menorah. They had fire and smoke and incense. They had sacrifices to offer. Their rituals were extravagant and impressive. And the high priest did a lot of things. But one thing he never does is sit. And that’s because his work was never finished. Jesus sits at the right hand of God the Father, because his work is done. It’s finished. There’s no need to stay standing.

Notice in verse 2, Jesus is referred to as a “minister.” That’s interesting. Oftentimes pastors like me are called ministers, because we minister to the people. And that’s appropriate. But I don’t minister like this. The Greek word is λειτουργός, which we get our English word “liturgy” from. The point here is that Jesus ministers in a totally different place from other ministers. He ministers in the “holy places,” literally the “holies.” He also calls this place “the true tent” which was pitched by God. 

The OT priests didn’t have access to that place, and I don’t have access there either. Jesus ministers, “in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.” What’s that a reference to? Well, that’s a reference to the tabernacle in the heavens. That’s a reference to the throne room of God. 

The tabernacle and the temple of the OT were meant to be replicas and facsimiles of God’s true abode in the heavens. And the priests ministered to the people in that facsimile. Well, Jesus doesn’t minister in that facsimile. In fact, ironically, he’s not qualified to minister in that facsimile, because he’s not a Levite. But that’s okay because he goes straight to the original. He ministers in the “true tent” in the “true tabernacle” that the Lord set up, not man. The old covenant had a flawed priest ministering for the people in a tent set up by man. The new covenant takes our minister, Jesus Christ, right into the throne room of God. And that’s what makes him a better priest. 

Go ahead and write this down as #2. The new covenant is mediated by a better priest. But also, 

2) The new covenant is ministered in a better place (8:3-5)

We’ve alluded to this already. But now the author expounds on this idea. He says in verse 3, 

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.

Engineers engineer and accountants do accounting. Teachers teach and doctors practice medicine. But high priests offer up sacrifices. That’s what they do; that’s their job. And a priest who doesn’t have something to offer as a sacrifice is like a carpenter without wood. It’s like a bricklayer without bricks. 

And in terms of gifts and sacrifices, Jesus, as our great high priest, doesn’t offer up the blood of lambs and bulls. He offers up himself. That’s part of this new covenant dynamic. 

According to the church father Augustine, whenever a priest offered up an offering, there were four components: 1) the offering, 2) the offerer, 3) to whom it was offered, and 4) for whom it was offered. In the new covenant, Jesus becomes both the offering and the offerer. And he offers a sacrifice up to God the Father on behalf of us, those who benefit from the offering.

And think about what Jesus said when he instituted the Lord’s Supper. Jesus took the cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (see Matt 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:18-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-25). That cup that we take at communion is a symbol of Jesus’s blood, the blood of a new covenant. We celebrate this new covenant every time we take communion. 

Look at verse 4.

 4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all

Now just to clarify, the “he” here is Jesus. Interestingly, the Name “Jesus” (Greek: Ἰησοῦς) only shows up like fourteen times in the book of Hebrews. And one of those is a reference to Joshua in the OT (4:8). But Jesus’s pronoun “he” and other references like “the Son,” “the Great High Priest,” show up constantly in this book. So let me just fill in these pronouns to clarify.

4 Now if [Jesus] were on earth, [Jesus] would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. 

Jesus is a Judahite. Judahites don’t do priestly work according to the law. That’s what Levites do. But Jesus is not on the earth right now. That’s already been said. He’s at the right hand of God the Father in heaven. So those earthly rules don’t apply to him; he transcends them. 

And besides those earthly sacrifices weren’t meant to be permanent anyway. Look at verse 5.

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.” 

In other words, why would you want the facsimile when you could have the real thing? Why settle for the copy and the shadow? Why settle for representation on earth, when you can have heaven?

The Scripture reference here is Exodus 25:40. In Exodus, Moses went on top of Mount Sinai, and he met with God. And after he came down the mountain, he helped establish a covenant between the people and God. And part of that covenant involved this construction of the tabernacle. God gave Moses intricate and detailed instructions on the building of the tabernacle including all its furnishings: the ark, the table, the lampstand, the bronze altar (see Exod 25-31).  

And this tabernacle was a pattern. It was a type of what was shown Moses on the mountain. The tabernacle in the wilderness was a kind of heaven-on-earth. God dwelt with his people. The Israelites built a replica of God’s throne room. 

And that was all well and good. But what the author of Hebrews is saying now is that the replica has passed away. There’s no need now for that old covenant and that old tabernacle with those old priests. There’s a new covenant in the heavenly tabernacle with a permanent, heavenly priest. Why would you want the replica when you could have the real thing? Why would you want 2D when you can see it in 3D? Why would you want the blueprints after the actual building is built? At that point the blueprints become passe! 

When I was a kid, I used to collect football cards from the local gas station down the street. And my favorite card was this second-year card of John Elway in that old orange broncos jersey with the powder blue helmet. I loved those jerseys. And I loved the Denver Broncos. And John Elway was my favorite player. And I had his football card. And all my friends were jealous of me. 

But let’s say John Elway gave me a call and said, “Hey Tony, you want to come to a game sometime? Come watch the Broncos play. You can be my special guest.” And I said, “No thanks, John, I’ll just stick with this football card. I’d rather have this. I’d rather have the replica than the real thing.”

Of course, I wouldn’t say that! And yet, that’s what we have with these Jewish Christians, to whom the author of Hebrews is writing. They are fixated on the replica. They are obsessed with the types and the shadows and the patterns. They are trading the new covenant back in for the old covenant, an inferior covenant. 

You know in our day, some people like “their idea” of Jesus, better than the actual historical Jesus. They’d rather have social justice warrior Jesus. Or they’d rather have alt-right Jesus. Or they’d rather have prosperity gospel Jesus. Or they’d rather have poverty gospel Jesus. 

Look, here’s my take on all that. I don’t want a replica of the real thing, and I don’t want a counterfeit either. I want the new covenant that the author of Hebrews writes about here. I want Jesus sitting at the right hand of God the Father, in the heavenly throne room, interceding on my behalf. That’s the Jesus that the Bible truthfully speaks of, and that’s the one I want as my Great High Priest.  

And speaking of the new covenant. Write this down as #3. 

3) The new covenant is enacted with better promises (8:6-12)

Now what we’re going to see here is a prophecy uttered approximately 600 years before Jesus’s incarnation by the prophet Jeremiah. And this section of Hebrews includes the longest quote of the OT in the entire NT. Hebrews 8:8-12 is a mostly verbatim quotation of the LXX of Jeremiah 31:31-34.   

But first let’s look at verse 6. The author says, 

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.

The word “mediates” is the Greek μεσίτης. And it has the idea of an arbitrator or a go-between. A mediator brings two parties together to remove a disagreement or reach a common goal. Moses functioned as a mediator between God and the Israelites in the OT. He told God to kill him, not the people. He spoke for the people. He represented the people of God in the old covenant world. But Jesus is a better mediator, because he mediates a better covenant enacted on better promises.  

Listen, the old covenant was a faulty covenant, because it was what you might call a bilateral covenant. Moses came down from Mount Sinai with a litany of rules and obligations. And the gist of a bilateral covenant is this, “You do your part, and I’ll do my part. You fulfill your end of the bargain, and I’ll fulfill my end of the bargain.” Israel had their obligations, and God had his. But Israel constantly reneged on the covenant. Even when they promised to fulfill their obligations, they couldn’t fulfill their own promises. 

This new covenant that is prophesied in Jeremiah isn’t a bilateral covenant, it’s a unilateral covenant. It’s an unconditional covenant, not conditional like the Mosaic covenant. The only person that is obligated in this new covenant is God. The only person who follows through with promises is God, so it’s enacted or legislated, on better promises. 

You know we have modern-day parallels to the idea of a biblical covenant. When two parties sit at a table and exchange documentation for the sell of a house, this is a kind of binding agreement that is entered into. Honestly I think it’d be easier to kill an animal than sign that book full of documents, but I digress. 

Also, there are weddings. I’m a pastor, so I have the privilege of officiating weddings quite regularly. And when I do that, I walk people through a bilateral covenant. “Do you, [Bill, Bob, or Jack] take this woman to be your wife?” “Do you, [Jill, Jane, or Susie] take this man to be your husband?” “Do you covenant together to stay faithful to each other till death do you part?” That’s a bilateral agreement. Both parties make promises! 

And by the way, the marriage covenant is apropos when we speak of God and the OT Israelites. God is oftentimes talking about the unfaithfulness of the Israelites as a kind of adultery. They were repeatedly prostituting themselves before other gods (see Jer 2:1-3:25; 29:23; Ezek 16:1-43; Hos 1:2-2:23; see also James 4:4).  

The Mosaic covenant was a bilateral agreement. Not so, the new covenant! That’s the paradigm shift in Jeremiah 31:31-34. The Lord makes unilateral promises as part of his unilateral covenant. What are those promises? Well, let’s keep reading. Look at verse 7.

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

That’s true. If the people of God could have kept their part of the bilateral covenant, we wouldn’t need Jeremiah 31:31-34. We wouldn’t need a second covenant. We wouldn’t need a new covenant and a new testament. But the truth is that we do need a new covenant enacted on better promises. What are those promises? Well, look at verse 8. There are four of them.

8 For he [that is, God] 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. 

God says, “I will.. I will… I will…” Do you see that in this section? When Moses delivered the Covenant to the Israelites at Sinai, they said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do” (Exod 24:3). But they couldn’t keep those commands! They almost immediately started disobeying them. The new covenant isn’t a “we will” covenant. It’s a “God will” covenant. God says, “I will do these things.” This covenant is based upon God’s promises and God’s faithfulness not ours.

Here’s the first promise. God says, “I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts.” No more laws of stone. No more laws of pen and ink. These laws will be written on their very being. On their minds and on their hearts! What does that mean? I think that’s a reference to the Holy Spirit who indwells us. The Holy Spirit directs us and convicts us. The Holy Spirit will renew us and teach us to love what we formerly loathed, and to loathe the sin that we formerly loved. The Holy Spirit motivates us to live in ways that please God. The Holy Spirit reminds us that we belong to God. Therefore we cry out, “Abba Father.”

The second promise is like that. The Lord says, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” This was true of the OT Israelites too, but again it was bilateral not unilateral. Hosea called one of his children לֹא עַמִּי meaning “Not My People” (Hos 1:9). And that was a symbol of the Israelites who were unfaithful to the Lord. Their faithfulness resulted in them being called לֹא עַמִּי, that is “Not My People.” That won’t happen among the new covenant people of God.   

Here’s the third promise in verse 11.

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. 

They won’t need to be told, “Know the Lord,” for they will already be saved. They will already “know” him and the power of his salvation. Once you are saved, you know him. And one day, you will know as you are known (1 Cor 13:12). 

And here’s the fourth promise. Verse 12 says, 

12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”  

Can I interest you in that, church? Can I interest you in a God who promises to be merciful towards your iniquities and remembers your sins no more? Warren Wiersbe said once, “The Old Testament sacrifices brought a remembrance of sins, not a remission of sins.” The new covenant offers you now a chance to have your sins remitted forever and never remembered.

How is that possible? How can God forget? It’s not that God forgets or even is able to forget. God knows everything that ever happened everywhere. It’s that God remembers your sins in the light of Christ Jesus’s death for them. They are atoned. They are acquitted. They are removed. 

And it’s not that God shows us a mercy and acts unjustly towards our sins. God doesn’t work that way. Sins have to be punished. That’s justice. The idea here is that mercy and justice meet at the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus paid for your sins, so that you don’t have to. 

Till on that cross as Jesus died

The wrath of God was satisfied

For every sin on Him was laid

Here in the death of Christ I live

Six hundred years before Christ, Jeremiah prophesied this new covenant. Six-hundred years! And by the way, Jeremiah prophesied in a time when Israel’s failures before the Lord were ubiquitous. At first there was promise, because early on in Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry, King Josiah and his priests found the law buried away in the Temple (see 2 Kings 22:1-23:30; 2 Chron 34:1-35:27). And when they found these Scriptures, they immediately called for a time of national repentance. And they recommitted themselves to the covenant. But that fervor didn’t last. And Josiah had three wicked sons (Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah) who served as kings over Judah. 

At the time of Jeremiah’s prophecy, the Northern Kingdom of Israel had already been taken captive by the Assyrian. After Josiah’s untimely death, the Babylonians began attacking Judah. And eventually they took the Southern Kingdom captive. Jeremiah kept repeatedly pleading with the people to repent, but nobody listened to him. Jeremiah is a very bleak book in a bleak portion of Israel’s history. 

But it was during that time, that the God of the Universe says, “Something new is in the works. Something new is going to happen. I’m going to establish a new covenant with a new people, and it won’t be dependent on them at all. It’ll be utterly dependent on my work and my promises. And I’m going to send my Son to be the great Mediator of this covenant. And unlike the previous covenant, this one is permanent. This one will be forever.”

Finally, write this down as #4. 

1) The new covenant is mediated by a better high priest (8:1-2)

2) The new covenant is ministered in a better place (8:3-5)

3) The new covenant is enacted with better promises (8:6-12)

4) The new covenant is established for a better timeframe (8:13) 

In verse 13, the author says, 

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. 

That “ready to vanish away” language is fascinating. Because at this time, in roughly the late 60s AD, the tabernacle hadn’t been in use for a thousand years. Not since Solomon jettisoned it for the temple. And the temple had been in use off and on since the days of Solomon. And at the time of this writing, the temple in Jerusalem was very much still in use. But it was “ready to vanish away.” It was about to be destroyed completely. Did the author of Hebrews have some inside knowledge to that face? If he did, that shouldn’t surprise us. Both Jesus and Stephen predicted the fall of the temple (see Mark 13:2; John 2:19; Acts 6:14). 

And maybe that’s part of the issue that the author is addressing. Maybe his Jewish audience at this time were being drawn back to the temple sacrifices because they were tangible and visible. They could actually see the temple and the high priest at work. But you can’t see Jesus at the right hand of God the Father ministering in that holy sanctuary. That requires eyes of faith. And so the audience that the author of Hebrews was writing to, may have been captivated by that which is seen instead of that which is unseen. And part of his warning here is all that “seen stuff” in the temple is coming to an end. Every brick of the temple will be cast down and demolished. 

But even so, the first covenant as a whole has become obsolete, because the new one had superseded it. Why mess around with animal sacrifices, when you can go straight to the once-for-all sacrifice in Jesus? Why bother with a Levitical high priest, when you can have the Great High Priest, Jesus? Why settle for a bilateral covenant, when you can have a unilateral covenant? And why hassle with a temporary covenant, when you can have an eternal one? 

And here’s why this is important. Let me just speak applicationally for a second. I heard once that in some developing countries, they don’t even bother with landlines anymore, because landlines have become passe. They are expensive and an eyesore. So some countries have gone straight to cell towers and cellphones. That makes sense to me. 

Some of you, I know, you didn’t come to Christ because someone told you that Jesus is a better high priest establishing a better covenant than what we have in the OT. You didn’t do that. You just kind of backdoored your way into faith in Christ. That’s okay. I’m not saying you need to know the idiosyncrasies of the OT in order to come to faith in Christ. 

But once you come in that backdoor, you have an opportunity to explore the richness and the beauty of that new covenant world that you have embraced. And maybe now, halfway through the book of Hebrews, you can say, “I’ve got a better high priest, who ministers on behalf of me in a better place, with better promises, established for a better timeframe, namely eternity. Hallelujah!” That’s the new covenant. That’s what Jesus has provided us. 

Let me close with this. I want to close today with the immortal words of the great British Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon—a man of both ample girth and ample mirth. Some of you might be asking this morning, “Can my sins really be forgiven? Is it true what the Bible says in Hebrews 8:12?”

12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”  

Does God really do that? Yes, he does. And yet, I know how it is. We still continue to struggle with sin and with doubt on this side of eternity. So what do you do about that? Well, here’s what Spurgeon says. “Suppose that you are under a sense of sin. Something has revived in you a recollection of past guilt, or it may be that you have sadly stumbled this very day, and Satan whispers, ‘You will surely be destroyed, for you have sinned.’ Now go to the great Father, and open this page, putting your finger on that twelfth verse, and say, ‘Lord, you have in infinite, boundless, inconceivable mercy entered into covenant with me, a poor sinner, seeing I believe in the name of Jesus. And now, I ask you, have respect unto your covenant. You have said, ‘I will be merciful toward their wrongdoings’—O God be merciful to mine. [You have said], ‘I will not remember their sins any longer’—Lord, remember no more my sins: forget forever my iniquity.’ That is the way to use the covenant: when under a sense of sin, run to that clause which meets your case.” That’s the new covenant, church. That’s what the new covenant does for us.