Topic(s): Old Testament, Bible Study, Bible Infallibility

Bob Prichard

The letter to the Hebrews goes to great lengths to show that Jesus and His ministry are superior to all that preceded Him, greater than even the prophets and angels, because God “hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:2). In chapter eight, the writer said that Christ is our high priest, “who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (Hebrews 8:1). Even compared to Moses, the writer argues, Christ has now “obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises” (Hebrews 8:6).

A “better covenant” implies that the old covenant had faults. “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second” (Hebrews 8:7). In other words, if the first covenant had been perfect, without faults, there would have been no need of the second, better, new covenant. God had long promised through the prophets to make a new and better covenant.

Hebrews 8:8-12 quotes from Jeremiah 31, where God promised to make this new covenant. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when 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 in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. . . . For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:8-12).

The chapter concludes with the statement, “In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13). The first covenant served its purpose, and then was done away with. Paul said that “the law [the first covenant] was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster” (Galatians 3:24-25). In His crucifixion, Jesus was “blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross” (Colossians 2:14). The “handwriting of ordinances” was the old covenant, taken out of the way by his cross.

Since the old covenant was not faultless, and has been taken away, we turn to the New Testament, the new covenant, to find God’s will for us*how to be saved, how to worship, how to live, and how to die. The old covenant has served its purpose, and is no longer binding upon us.