Theme: Remain
Confident in Christ
A) Reasons
2) Because He is a better
priest (4:14 - 10:39)
B) Priest of a better Covenant
(8:1-13)
Verses 1-5 conclude Christ is a
better priest because His work is a finished work, and because
He ministers in the heavenly tabernacle rather than the one on
earth (2-5). More will be said about these facets of Christ's
priesthood in the following chapters. Verse 6 introduces the
subject of chapter 8, i.e. Christ is priest of a better
covenant.
There are several reasons the
promise of the New Covenant is Christ mediates, is better than
the MOSAIC covenant of Law.
1) Because it changes your
heart (8-11).
Romans 7 indicates the OT
Law cannot incline you to obey God. When you hear God's will
in the Law, it compels your fallen nature to rebel. This
shows your inability to meet God's standard in the strength of
your flesh, and that you deserve condemnation. As such,
Galatians 3 says this Law was a tutor to lead us to Christ so
we could be justified by faith rather than personal merit.
Under the New Covenant, God imparts a new regenerate nature (2
Cor. 5:17). When you trust Christ, the Holy Spirit indwells
you, and faith in Christ's death and resurrection empowers you
to yield your members as instruments of righteousness to God
(Rom. 6:1ff.)
2) Because it gives you
understanding (11).
1 Cor. 2:6-16 says the Holy
Spirit takes spiritual truths from the word of God and reveals
them to the understanding of those who trust Christ. As such,
every believer, under the New Covenant, has "the mind of
Christ" (16 NAS). This is better than the Old Covenant, which
required the people to "teach everyone his fellow citizen, and
everyone his brother, saying, 'know the Lord' (Heb.
8:11).
3) Because it removes guilt
(12).
The Law reminded people
of sin as the offerings had to be repeated day by day. As
such, you could not serve God with a conscience clear from
guilt. By contrast, the New Covenant includes a provision
whereby God "will remember their sins no more" (12 NAS).
Christ's once for all atonement satisfies all God's righteous
demands against all sin of all time (1 John 2:2), giving God
a righteous ground for forgetting one's sin altogether.
To forget sins does not mean that God has no recollection
of them, but that He no longer holds them against us,
because Christ's death satisfies all His righteous demands
against them. As such, the New Covenant enables you to serve
God with a clear conscience.
God has declared the Old Covenant
obsolete by introducing the New Covenant, which changes the
heart, imparts understanding, and removes guilt. Christ is a
better priest because He is priest of this better
covenant.
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