AIM: Jesus is the signatory for man and the executor of the new covenant of God’s forgiveness
I. Everything about the earthly priesthood is but a copy/shadow of Jesus
1. Summary: Our High Priest sat down @ the Right Hand of God
2. And He serves in God’s sanctuary
3. High Priests offer gifts & sacrifices
4. Jesus would not be just another earthly priest
5. Earthly sanctuary is a copy/shadow of the heavenly
6. New covenant is better => Jesus is better in every way
Truth
- High Priest Jesus sat @ right hand of Throne
- High Priest Jesus also serves in heaven’s tabernacle
- High priests offer gifts and sacrifices / Jesus offers His gifts and His sacrifice
- Priesthood & sanctuary are copies/shadows of heavenly holy place
- Jesus is superior in every way
Applications:
- I will praise Jesus for His sacrifice and renew the offering of His gift to me
- I will thank God for making a new covenant
- I will pray for Jesus to remove the burden of my sins and to fill me with the spirit of righteousness
II. Man, through unfaithfulness, did not execute the old covenant – God made a new covenant through the Christ Man, Jesus.
7. The old covenant was not perfectly executed by sinful man
8. “Time coming for a New Covenant
9. Not like Exodus covenant: Man failed: unfaithful
10. New Covenant: laws in heart & mind, they My people, I Am their God
11. All will know God
12. God will forgive”
13. New = Old is obsolete & will disappear
Truth:
- God found fault with man in the covenant
- Man’s unfaithfulness diminished the covenant
- In the New Covenant, all will know God
- The New Covenant is a promise of forgiveness
- The New makes the Old obsolete
Application:
- How am I living as a “people of” God? Would others see the colors of my flag in everything I think, say and do?
- How do I continue to try to provide for my own justification before God even though I know that any good acts of mine are but copies/shadows of the ultimate act of my Lord?
Summary: The old covenant (the law and priesthood before Jesus) are a copy/shadow of God’s New Covenant: Jesus Christ
Additional comments:
In comparing old vs. new there are 2 main approaches: “break/fix” or “new/improved”. Was the old broken and thus a new one is needed or is a newer/better version available as an upgrade/improvement. The writer of Hebrews has anticipated both interpretations of the Old vs. New Covenants of God and seeks to shed additional light and clarity.
The Old Covenant, the covenant of the law from God through Moses was a perfect covenant. There was no imperfection in the design or writing of the covenant of the law. There were no “manufacturer’s defects” in its design. The problem with the old covenant was that man, having received the covenant and having committed to it, turned around and immediately broke it. The breaking of the covenant wasn’t because God’s craftsmanship of the law was imperfect or that God was imperfect, but that man chose sin over faithfulness.
In this regard, the writer of Hebrews paints the picture that it is right to think of the Old Covenant as broken and the New Covenant as the replacement/fix.
But the New Covenant is not just a re-do of the Old Covenant. It is not a warranty replacement. It is not even an incremental improvement. The author of Hebrews explains that in every way the “replacement” covenant is so much better than the old covenant that the old is but a shadow. It would be like comparing the stone wheels of our earliest ancestors to modern transportation (while understanding that is still an inadequate comparison to the order of magnitude that Jesus provides).
Looking at this highlights how amazing God’s love is for us. No human would provide you with something perfect, watch you break and trample it in his presence and then not only replace it, but replace it with something so much better as to be incomparable. Not only that, but to prevent the same issue from arising again, God provided His only Son to become a man to sign the new covenant as a man for all mankind and then to perfectly execute our side of the covenant through His blood. He then to ascend to heaven and returned to the throne, while also continuing to serve on our behalf in the temple of heaven for as long as heaven and earth continue.
The Notes are Good 