New Covenant Blessings

There are sacerdotal Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches today with priests who follow after the pattern of the Levitical priesthood, which Jesus Christ came to abolish. They do not preach the bright light and life of the gospel, but function as shadow and symbol, even though the reality has now come in Jesus. Then there are Protestant churches that exist, not as shadows, but as deep darkness, in their refusal to preach and practice the clear word of God. By divine grace, we were able to come out from the shadow into the marvelous light of the gospel.

Due to persecution and suffering, the church of the Hebrews was tempted to go back to Judaism with its animal sacrifices and the perceived dignity of the Levitical priesthood. Similarly, we hear today of prominent evangelicals returning to the shadow of sacerdotal churches. They are enamored by the rituals of Mass, vestments, bells, incense, candles, traditions, and beautiful buildings.

In this letter, the author shows the foolishness of going back to the symbol and shadow of the Aaronic priesthood with its bloody sacrifices after experiencing the reality to which the shadow pointed. That reality is the superior priesthood of Jesus Christ, who ministers in a superior sanctuary as the mediator of the new covenant. It is utter mindlessness to abandon substance for shadows-shadows that are cast by the new covenant blessings that flow from the ministry of Christ. Jesus Christ made the Aaronic priesthood obsolete. This system was aging and decaying when Christ came and completely disappeared, as Jesus predicted, in A.D. 70.

I. The Superior Priesthood of Christ

In Hebrews 8:1-2, the author summarizes the chief point of this passage, declaring that in Jesus we have a superior high priest after the order of Melchizedek, the guarantor of a better covenant. Hebrews 7 told us that the priesthood of Aaron was weak and useless, for it never made anyone perfect, it did not solve our sin problem, it did not open the way to the Holy of Holies, and it could not help a sinner to have fellowship with God. So the sinless Son of God, by his one sacrifice of himself once-for-all offered, made atonement for the sins of God’s people. This high priest is mighty to save completely and for all time all those who come to God through him.

The writer says, “We do have such a high priest” (v. 1). He speaks in the present tense, which means we possess him now. This high priest is with us and is for us. He said, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). He is in us, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). Yet he is also with the Father, interceding before him in our behalf on the basis of his atonement. What is the posture of this distinguished high priest? The author says he is seated. Notice, the Levitical priests never sat down; in fact, we find no mention of chairs in the tabernacle or temple. The reason is that their work was never finished. Hebrews 10 tells us the Aaronic sacrifices were an annual reminder of the sins of the people, but they could never make effective atonement for the sins of the people because the priests themselves were sinners, subject to death, offering unconscious and unwilling animals as their substitute.

Jesus Christ, the sinless, perfect Son of Man, finished the work by offering himself in our place once for all. He cried from the cross, “Tetelestai – It is finished!” Having finished forever the work of atonement, Christ sat down. Hebrews 1:3 tells us, “After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” In Psalm 110 we read, “The Lord says to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet'” (v. 1). He sat down as both king and priest. Paul says this royal priest is seated “far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything, for the church, which is his body, and the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:21-23).

Jesus Christ, as sovereign lord and priest, sat down, and we also, in one sense, are seated with him. Hebrews 8 says he is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven (v. 1), meaning he is given the seat of privilege, honor, and all authority. All things are subjected to him.

He is the head of the church and fills the church with blessings. On the right hand of the Father, the seated Christ “must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (1 Cor. 15:25). All our resistance to the will of God can never succeed.

Christ is seated, he reigns, and he intercedes in the heaven that is far above all heavens, in the presence of God himself: “For Christ did not enter a manmade sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one. He entered heaven itself now to appear for us in God’s presence” (Heb. 9:24). Jesus ascended to heaven to the Father’s right hand to minister in a superior sanctuary. He returned, not as he came as Son, Lord, and King, but also as Son of Man, high priest, Savior. He returned as one person in two natures, God-man.

The sanctuary he serves in is unlike the tabernacle on earth. The earthly temple was only a copy, a shadow cast by the true heavenly sanctuary. The tabernacle Moses built was according to the pattern shown to him on the mountain, but it was imperfect and impermanent. It was simply a type and symbol of the heavenly sanctuary. It pointed to the heavenly country, the city with foundations whose maker and builder is God. It pointed to the unshakable kingdom of God, to heaven, and to God himself.

The Jewish people took pride, first in the tabernacle and then in the temple, thinking these places of worship guaranteed their own security and salvation. But the earthly tabernacle was destroyed and the temple burned. But the heavenly sanctuary, where our Lord Jesus Christ serves as the great high priest, lasts forever. When Christ was on earth, he was a layman, not a priest, and was prevented by law from ministering in the temple. Now, however, he ministers in heaven in the real sanctuary not made with human hands-the sanctuary pitched by the Lord himself.

The time of shadow is over and the age of reality has come in Jesus Christ. It is foolish to yearn for symbols, vestments, incense, candles, gold, silver, Gothic structures, and the clergy-laity distinction. Away with such carnal things! We have a seated-in-heaven high priest who ministers in the heavenly, God-built sanctuary.

Hebrews 12 gives us a glimpse of the spiritual nature of this sanctuary and of New Testament worship: “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (vv. 22-24). We left the old way of worship and have come by the Spirit and faith to the heavenly Jerusalem, where we worship God in the light of the gospel.

II. A Superior Mediator

In the heavenly sanctuary the Lord Jesus serves as our mediator of the new covenant. When Jesus Christ guarantees our salvation and mediates between God and us, we have nothing to worry about.

A mediator is a go-between, an arbitrator between two estranged parties-in this case, between holy God and sinful men. Defending the interests of both, he brings about a win-win situation. Jesus Christ defended God’s justice and holiness even as he secured the eternal salvation of us sinners from God’s wrath: “For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance-now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant” (Heb. 9:15). We may never come short of our eternal inheritance, the saints’ everlasting rest.

Jesus Christ is our “atonemaker,” a term used by William Tyndale. He made atonement by keeping God’s law fully in his life and in his death. He thus defended God’s justice and holiness, so God now justifies sinners, not in spite of his holiness but in harmony with it. Christ lived and died to defend God’s holiness and to save us sinners.

Christ died for our sins: “But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb. 10:12). Every high priest must offer a sacrifice. What did Christ offer? He offered himself (Heb. 9:28), he shed his blood (Heb. 9:12), and he offered his body (Heb. 10:10).

So Jesus offered one sacrifice-himself-once for all, defending the interest of God and the interest of us, and God is just in justifying everyone who believes in him. In the heavenly sanctuary, he now makes intercession in behalf of us based of the singularity of his own sacrifice, and the Father’s answer to his Son’s intercession in our behalf, based on his effectual sacrifice, is always “Yes” and never “No.” He is our guarantor and mediator.

Our salvation does not depend on anything in this world, especially not on our feelings, which change like the weather. Our salvation rests on Christ’s mediatorship and atonement, based on his vicarious sacrifice.

III. The Superior New Covenant Blessings

The old covenant was faulty, imperfect, and temporary; but God himself had instituted it. The fault is not in God but in us. Paul said, “What the law was powerless to do because of our flesh, [our sinfulness]. . .” (Rom. 8:3, author’s translation).

The Sinaitic covenant had an emphasis on Israel’s obligation. God established this covenant with Israel on Mount Sinai and they agreed to keep it, declaring, “Everything the Lord has said we will do. . . We will do everything the Lord has said: we will obey” (Ex. 24:3, 7).

But notice what God says about his people: “They did not remain faithful to my covenant” (Heb. 8:9). It was not the problem of the covenant; it is the problem of human sinfulness. The unbelieving rebel Israelites were destroyed. During the forty years in the wilderness, most of them were killed by God. After they entered Canaan, God destroyed some and cast others into exile.

It was always God’s plan to bring about a new priesthood after the order of Melchizedek and a new covenant, as we read in Psalm 110 and Jeremiah 31. It was not an afterthought. By design, then, the Aaronic priesthood and the law were temporary. The purpose of this temporary Sinaitic covenant was to bring consciousness of sin and of our moral inability, that we may be brought to realize that we need Christ.

In the seventh century B.C. God declared through Jeremiah his intent to bring about a new covenant which would be permanent, effectual, and not superseded. This new covenant was established by our mediator, Jesus Christ. It solved our sin problem once for all and enabled us to enter the presence of God that we may worship him in spirit and in truth and fellowship with him forever. The Hebrews author quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34 in full, which is the longest Old Testament quotation in the New Testament. This new covenant is an authoritative declaration of God. Three times we are told: “declares the Lord,” and seven times God says: “I will,” indicating he will perform it. So we read, “I will accomplish,” “I will establish,” “I will put,” “I will write,” “I will be,” “I will forgive,” and “I will not remember their sins.”

Blessings and Characteristics of the New Covenant

There are three new covenant characteristics and blessings emphasized in this quote from Jeremiah 31:31-34.

1. Implanting God’s Law in Our Hearts

The first characteristic is that God’s law is implanted into our hearts, so that it will be our nature to love God and his law and to do his will. If we do not delight in doing God’s law, we must call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.

The law given on Sinai was written on stones. Man’s problem is that he is a sinner and rebels against it. He hates God’s law in his heart and his mind refuses it, exchanging truth for a lie. His will always chooses evil and his affections are always for evil.

We read about this total depravity of man in Genesis 6:5, “Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time,” and Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (KJV) Jesus located sin, not outside but inside our human nature: “From within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly” (Mark 7:21-22).

Paul also spoke about the total depravity of the human heart: “As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.’ ‘Their throats are open graves, their tongues practice deceit.’ ‘The poison of vipers is on their lips.’ ‘Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.’ ‘Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.’ ‘There is no fear of God before their eyes'” (Rom. 3:10-18).

Our problem is never external and environmental. Our problem is internal rottenness. The solution is a new heart, a new mind, a new will, and new affections. We need nothing less than to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit. This is not a decisional salvation, but a salvation based on God implanting his law in our hearts. We need spiritual resurrection, the life of God in the soul of man. We need God to write his moral laws on a new heart.

When we are regenerated, we will naturally delight in God’s laws and do them. We will eagerly study God’s law with our minds, we will gladly choose with our wills to do them, and we will wholeheartedly love God’s law and hate evil. Salvation does not mean we get rid of God’s law and become antinomian. There is nothing wrong with the law. In fact, it is the transcript of God’s nature to which he wants us to conform. God wants us to be like him.

So God implants the law in us, that we may know it, will it, and love it. When we are born of God, our minds want to know God, our wills will be yielded to God’s will, and our affections will love God and hate evil. Grace enables us to do God’s law and thus honor God. (PGM) Anyone who disobeys God’s law dishonors God. We can never disobey God’s moral law and glorify God because the law is God’s nature.

Before, we lacked ability, but now the new covenant makes us able to love God and keep his commandments. God’s law is now our inner principle. The Lord spoke about this through the prophet Ezekiel: “They will return to it and remove all its vile images and detestable idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God” (Eze. 11:18-20). Our problem is the wicked, deceitful mind, will, and affections. We need nothing less than a new heart. God himself performs that miracle in his people: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ez. 36:26-27). There is no antinomianism. Our problem is moral depravity, and God’s answer is regeneration. He himself gives us a new heart, a new attitude, a new nature, a new spirit, and a new power.

True Christianity is not anti-law. Paul wrote, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not covet,’ and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself'” (Rom. 13:8-9). Christianity is not saying to forget about the law; rather, it enables us to love doing the law.

In Hebrews 13 the pastor tells his church how they should live: “May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus the great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will and may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Heb. 13:20-21). Paul speaks similarly: “Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Phil. 2:12-13). We please God by keeping his moral law.

2. Giving Us Knowledge of God

Second, in this new covenant God gives us knowledge of him. This means new covenant people will know God directly and enjoy fellowship with him. They will love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. There is an initial experiential knowledge brought about Spirit’s regeneration, followed by a continuing desire to know God and have fellowship with him. Our desire is to know God from the Scriptures, as taught by the Spirit.

We are told all people will know and love the Lord-Israel and Judah, Jews and Gentiles, the least and the greatest. They will have intimacy with God and worship him. Such delight in God is a sign of the new covenant.

The Lord says, “I will be their God and do for them what only God can do for them, and they will be my people, loving me, doing my will, and fellowshipping with me.” He said elsewhere, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

God delights in his people, and his people delight in God. There is no more idolatry, no more golden calf. The hearts of the saints have found their everlasting rest in fellowship with God.

3. God Blots Out All Our Sins

What makes it all possible? “Because I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and I will remember their sins no more” (Heb. 8:12, author’s translation). The third blessing is that God blots out our sins. David declared, “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit” (Ps. 32:1-2). He also prayed, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions” (Ps. 51:1).

In this new covenant that the Lord himself establishes based on the high priestly ministry of Jesus, all our sins are blotted out. Not even one remains, whether it is a sin of the past, present, or future. No longer do we experience a crushing load of sin on our back. There is no more slavery to sin and bondage of the will. No longer are we found guilty and subject to the wrath of God. From now on, a new day of God’s favor is dawning and we are entering into an eternal spring season of God’s smile: “I will be merciful to their wickedness.”

On the basis of blood being shed on the mercy seat, the publican cried out, “Be mercied to me, the sinner” (Luke 18:13, author’s translation). Now we know it is not the blood of animals, but the blood of Jesus Christ himself that is sprinkled there. Because Christ has satisfied God’s justice, God now says, “I therefore will be merciful to their wickedness.”

Then we read, “I . . . will remember their sins no more” (Heb. 8:12). “Remember” in this context means to act against the sinner on the basis of his sins and send him to hell. But God is saying, “I will never remember their sins.” They are saved forever.

God has washed, sanctified, and justified us because of the person and sacrifice of our mediator, Jesus Christ, in our behalf. Throughout the Old Testament the Lord spoke of this glorious blessing from the new covenant: “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake” (Is. 43:25, italics added). The new covenant is fulfilled by God himself, not because of anything in us that is commendable or good. For his own sake he blots out and remembers our sins no more. In Isaiah 44 he declared: “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. . . Sing for joy, O heavens, for the Lord has done this” (Is. 44:22-23). And Micah asks, “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:18-19).

God will blot out all our sins and remember them no more. So we read in Isaiah 1: “‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool'” (Is. 1:18). What is the reason? “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Is. 53:5). Now we enjoy a better priesthood, a better covenant, better promises, and a better sanctuary. All our sins are blotted out, not in spite of God’s justice and holiness, but in harmony with it by the work of our mediator.

Do you belong to this new covenant that Jesus ratified by his blood? Jesus said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (cf. Matt. 26:28; Mark 14:24; 1 Cor. 11:25). This new covenant made the old obsolete. When Christ was crucified, the veil that prevented people from coming to the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom.

Does he say to you, “I will forgive your wickedness and remember your sins no more?” Have you trusted in Jesus Christ alone for your eternal salvation? Jesus came to fulfill the covenant in our stead, that those who trust in him may partake of it. Such people have a new nature that delights in God and his law; thus, they glorify God by loving and doing God’s will by grace. The Holy Spirit dwells in them, enabling them to love God. They have a new heart, a new mind, a new will, and new affections.

What, then, shall we do? Consider Jesus. Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, the apostle and the high priest of the new covenant. He died for us, was buried, and was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated on the right hand of God the Father. As royal priest, he is given all power and authority. He rules and reigns as royal priest in God’s presence, the heavenly sanctuary.

Consider him who lives forever to intercede for us before the Father. His answer is always yes. In him is forgiveness and salvation. Consider him as our guarantor and mediator and you shall be filled with all hope, power, and peace to live for God’s glory in joy inexpressible here and hereafter.