Chapter 8
A Mediator of a Better Covenant
Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.
Here the Apostle gets to the heart of the matter. He tells us that Jesus is a High Priest who is seated at the right hand of God. No one else could ever occupy that coveted place. Jesus is the minister of the true and perfect tabernacle that God made in heaven and not by the hands of imperfect men as was the case with the earthly tabernacle.
3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. 4 For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; 5 who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
Every earthly high priest is appointed to offer sacrifices. Therefore it was necessary that Jesus also have something to offer as our High Priest. If He were on earth He would not be a priest because there were priests already offering sacrifices according to the law. However, the earthly tabernacle was just a copy of the heavenly tabernacle given to Moses to be constructed by the people. Jesus is a mediator of a better covenant which was built upon better promises.
The New Covenant in Christ
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 9 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 did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD.
God made a covenant with His people through Moses when He led them out of bondage in Egypt yet they failed to obey His commandments. So God promised to make a new covenant with them because of their weakness to keep His law and because of His love for them.
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.
God would show His mercy by giving the Israel of God, His chosen people of all nations without regard to rank, a new covenant in which He would literally write His laws in their minds and hearts by the power of His Holy Spirit. That day arrived through the New Testament or New Covenant in Jesus Christ. God does not show partially among national or ethnic peoples. Everyone who follows Jesus Christ is accepted by God. This promise is a fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy of Jeremiah 31:31-34. The Old Covenant was written on tables of stone but the New Covenant was written in the hearts of men by the grace of God.
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 13 In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
God would be merciful to His people even in the face of their unfaithfulness to Him because of His boundless love for them. He would not remember their sins which meant He would not cast them away because of their transgressions. The Old Covenant became obsolete, old, and was ready to fade away to be replaced by the far superior covenant established by Jesus Christ.