Please forgive the poor audio quality…
Introduction
We’ve got a lot of ground to cover today, so we’re going to jump right in. But before we do, I want you to keep something in mind. The primary goal of this sermon series that we’re finishing up today (Lord willing) has been to help you understand who we are as the Family of God and why we practice things like paedobaptism. But, whether you are convinced of paedobaptism or not is not my primary concern. My primary concern is that you understand that we are whole Bible Christians. The Old Testament applies just as much now as it ever did, unless it is expressly changed in the New Testament. And some things do change, like the Ceremonial Law, as we’ll see in a bit. But, by and large, the Old carries over to the New, except that in the New the principles and blessings of the Old are expanded to a greater degree. What was given to Israel, one nation under God, is now given to the church, made up of all nations. And what is given to the church is to overtake the world. There is continuity across God’s Word, and as God’s Word goes its reach expands more and more. God’s Covenant of Grace keeps expanding out until all things are made new. So, with that in mind, look with me at Hebrews 8:6-13.
Context
The book of Hebrews is more of a sermon than a letter… And its addressed to a church made up of primarily Jewish Christians who are under persecution and threats of persecution, likely from Rome as well as the Jews. The Romans didn’t like that Christians believed, proclaimed, and practiced that Jesus is Lord, not Caesar. And the Jews didn’t like Jesus at all, nor His followers, because many of the Jews believed He was a blasphemer who belittled the Old Covenant and the Patriarchs. But He didn’t belittle them, He fulfilled them. He wasn’t a blasphemer, He was God in the flesh. Nevertheless, because of this persecution, these Hebrew Christians were thinking about leaving the faith for a skewed version of Judaism. Even though that totally misses the point of Judaism. Jesus has always been the point of all of it. The Old Covenant was always meant to give way to the New Covenant. So, though going back to some faulty version of Judaism might stop the persecution, it would eventually lead to far greater suffering and despair. You don’t leave Jesus for the things that pointed to Jesus. Come to think of it, you don’t leave Jesus for anything.
Hebrews 8:6-13
Last time I preached we began looking at this passage in Hebrews. And what the author has been doing, and continues to do in this passage, is to explain that Jesus and the New Covenant are much more excellent than the Old. That’s what we started to see last time. The Old Covenant was all pointing to and working towards Christ and the New Covenant; and now the New Covenant is our present reality. That’s what verse 6 is getting at when it says, “But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.” Through who He is as a person and the work He did—God the Son who came in the flesh as a man and lived the perfect life of obedient faith that we have failed to live, died the wrath absorbing death we deserve to die for our sin, and rose from the grave in a justifying resurrection so that all who look to Him by faith will be saved—Jesus showed Himself to be our perfect Prophet, Priest, and King, and in so doing He obtained and provides a ministry as our Great High Priest, Prophet, and King, who sits at the right hand of the Father ruling, reigning, and ever interceding for us, so that we can live by and in the grace of God under His Lordship in the New Covenant. Because of Jesus this is our present reality.
Though the Old Covenant was also excellent, having Law and gospel, justice and mercy, and the very substance of the glory and grace of Christ administered through the means God ordained, nevertheless the New is much more excellent because in the New Covenant the very fulfillment of all of those things, the very God who is all of those things came in the person and work of Christ. The greatest good of the Old was only a type and shadow of the good that is throughout the New. And the New Covenant gives clarity to and expands the Old.
Last time we saw that when verse 6 speaks of Christ’s ministry and mediation it’s primarily addressing His priestly service as our Great High Priest who is at the right hand of God ever interceding for us. And it says that His ministry and mediation is better since it is enacted on better promises. The Greek word translated better in verse 6 could also be translated power or strength. And the Greek word translated enacted actually means to impose or give laws. So, what verse 6 actually says in the Greek is that the covenant that Jesus mediates—with His priestly service—is stronger and more powerful since it imposes and gives laws based on stronger and more powerful promises. Essentially, Jesus is being contrasted not just with the Old Covenant, but with the priestly service of the Old Covenant. In other words, Jesus is better than the Levitical priests and the services they offered, because who He is as our Great High Priest and the service He offers through His life, death, resurrection, ascension, rule, reign, and ongoing intercession is stronger and more powerful than anything the Levites ever did. His service actually provides forgiveness for sins. His service actually reconciles us with God. And His service gives us free access to the throne of grace. He doesn’t just do things for us, but He brings us into them and the befits of them.
The Old Covenant was the gospel in shadow form. The Levitical Priesthood interceded for the people and sought to give them reconciliation with and access to God. But they could only do so much and go so far. The promises connected to the Ceremonial Law and the Priesthood were indeed good gospel promises, but not good enough. However, they did point to the One who is good enough, Jesus Himself. And that was by design. The Old laid the groundwork and paved the way for the New. Which is why it says in verse 7, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.” The Old Covenant was never meant to be the end all / be all Covenant. Clearer, bigger, and better was always the plan.
When the author speaks of the first covenant he’s speaking of each administration of the Covenant of Grace in the Old Testament: God extending mercy and grace to Adam and his household, Noah and his household, Abraham and his household, Moses and the whole household of Israel, and David and his household. Salvation has always ultimately been by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. That has been at the heart of God’s covenant dealings with His people since Genesis 3:15. But with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David that reality, that substance of the gospel and the grace of God in Christ, has been administered in ways that was more fitting for the people of God as they were at the time. From infancy to adolescents, the people of God have needed pictures, illustrations, and strict laws to point them in the right direction and keep them in line. And that ultimately was the fault with the Old Covenant.
Verses 8 and 9 tell us, “For he finds fault with them when he says: ‘Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.’” So ultimately we see that the fault is not with the Old Covenant itself, but with the people. The people of God needed to grow up. The fault is in the people, not the Covenant (Romans 8:3). We are the problem. But God knew that was the case… Indeed, it was always a part of His plan. In His patience He designed the Covenant to help and train the people of God in their infancy, and that was part of the clue that it was not meant to be permanent. Like children who need strict rules when they are young to protect them, so Israel needed the Ceremonial Law and the like in the Old Covenant… But, it was all pointing towards Jesus, which is why they should have always known they were looking for a better covenant in Christ.
So, after stating that the fault is with the people, not with the Covenant itself, the author of Hebrews begins to quote Jeremiah 31:31-34, where God says the same thing. The people were at fault. God graciously led them out of Egypt and committed Himself to keep covenant with them, yet they did not continue in covenant with Him. They constantly turned away from God, and when they did God would turn away from them. He would show no concern for them, likely meaning leading them into exile and the like. Israel was like a young child in need of strict rules and detailed illustrations and object lessons. But, like a young child they kept getting themselves into trouble anyway. Though the Law was a tutor teaching them of and leading them to Christ, still so many did not continue in obedient faith, but turned away. But, God had a plan to lead His people into salvation and greater obedience and joy.
The context of Jeremiah 31 is very similar to the context of Israel rebelling against God after the Exodus. Israel and Judah were in exile for breaking God’s Law. But, starting in Jeremiah 30 God tells His people that they will be restored, and they and the nations shall serve the Lord their King. Israel went into exile because they had not served the Lord their God as they ought to have done, with joyfulness and gladness of heart (Deuteronomy 28:47). And in their exile they served the nations. But, God promises to restore them rightly to His service; and He says in Jeremiah 30:9 that means service to the King who sits on David’s throne as well… Which means Jesus. God would bring His people out of service to the nations and back into right service to Himself in and through and to Jesus. And as we well know, God not only goes after Israel and Judah, but He goes after the nations themselves. This is a major part of what is much more excellent about the New Covenant: not only does God promise that His people will no longer serve the nations, but Christ, He also promises that the nations will serve Christ. God isn’t simply going after a remnant, He’s going after the world. And if you doubt that, simply look in the mirror. Because in many ways, as far as the house of Israel and Judah are concerned, we are the world. We are Gentiles. We are the nations. Or at least we were. Now, primarily, by God’s grace, we are citizens of the Kingdom of God.
In Jeremiah 30:11 God promises to make an end to the nations among whom Israel was scattered. And though that can and often does mean a literal end, many times it means an end to who they are in their rebellion. After all, God made an end to who we used to be in our sin, and made us alive together with Christ. And, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away (it has been brought to an end); behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). And so it is and can be for nations. Indeed, in speaking of His saving of Israel, God has already said in Jeremiah 16:19-21 that the nations will come from the ends of the earth one day and say to Him, “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit. Can man make for himself gods? Such are not gods!” [And God says in response] “Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord.” This seems to be saying that the nations will come to the Lord in repentance and the Lord will grant them redemption and reconciliation. This is why God is often called the King of the nations in Jeremiah.
In Jeremiah 3:15-18 it speaks of the days of the New Covenant, when reconciliation in Christ will happen in full. There God says, “And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the LORD, they shall no more say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the LORD, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.” What that’s saying is that the presence of the Lord that was with the ark and the temple will now be with His people, who are the New Jerusalem. And the nations will come to Christ in and through His people. This is the New Covenant reality that comes after great exile. And this is the context to Jeremiah 31:31-34 that’s quoted in our passage in Hebrews.
In Hebrews 8:8, when it first quotes Jeremiah 31, there the Lord promised His people that He would establish, that is complete and fully realize (that’s what’s actually being said in the original language), a New Covenant. And even that word New in Hebrew means renew, or renewal. And this makes sense in the grand scheme of things. Adam was supposed to take what is true, good, and beautiful and advance it to the ends of the earth, being fruitful and multiplying, and having dominion over the earth and subduing it. But he failed. And God’s people under all of the Old administrations of the Covenant of Grace failed as well. Indeed, except for a small remnant in each generation, most failed to even walk in obedient faith at all. But now, in Christ, God is fully realizing and completing what He ordained to come to pass. And in so doing He is renewing His covenant with His people so that, in Christ, we can walk in obedient faith and accomplish the mission He gave us, to disciple the nations, and see the knowledge of the glory of the Lord cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:8, Matthew 28:18-20).
Again, in Jeremiah 3 God says that in the days of the New Covenant God’s people would be fruitful and multiply in the land. And though the land in the Old Covenant appears to just be Israel, in the New Covenant we see that it’s actually the whole earth. Paul tells us in Romans 4:13 that Abraham was not just promised the land of Canaan or Israel, but the whole world. And so, in the New Covenant in Christ, being fruitful and multiplying means taking what is true, good, and beautiful and advancing it to the ends of the earth, being fruitful and multiplying physically and spiritually, and having dominion over the earth and subduing it, until every area of life is in joyful submission to the Lordship of Christ. In other words, it’s a renewal of all things through Christ and His bride the church. And what we see here is that God starts this renewal process with the households of Israel and Judah, but then it is to go out to the Gentiles, to the nations. Instead of merely pulling the people out of a Gentile land and bondage only to have them not continue in His ways, now God will have His people so walk in His ways that they will be a people made up of every nation and generation. God’s ways will overpower the ways of the world… which, as Jeremiah 16 already said, are nothing but lies anyway. Indeed, that’s what the ways of the world are: lies. And the truth of the gospel always conquers lies. And that’s made clear in the rest of our passage.
In Verse 10 we read, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” When he says, “after those days,” He means after the days of exile, after the days of Israel following the nations, and after the days of the Old Covenant itself. He’s speaking of a New Day, a New Covenant Day, a Day marked not primarily by the Ceremonial Law, the Levitical Priesthood, and sacrifices, but a Day marked by Jesus, our Great High Priest, who is our all-sufficient sacrifice. Notice the repetition of the phrase, “I will.” Though God’s grace has been active since the beginning, the sovereign grace of God is what is majored on all the more in the New Covenant. Though we fail and constantly fall short of the glory of God, in Christ God will do what we can’t. And indeed He has. And that’s what the New Covenant is all about… Jesus!
The fulfillment that Jesus brings as He establishes, as He fully realizes and brings to completion all the old administrations of the Covenant of Grace, and renews the Covenant in a much more excellent way changes things, but not everything. In fact, many of the things mentioned here existed and were in full function under the Old Covenant. For instance, God putting His laws into the minds and on the hearts of His people. Notice first that He doesn’t say that He’s going to put new laws in their minds and on their hearts. In other words, He’s speaking of His same Law that is rooted in and flows from His nature and character. Many argue that each covenant has its own laws, and therefore the New Covenant brings with it new laws, but that’s not what the text says. As we’ll see, the Ceremonial aspects of the Law changes a bit, at least the upholding of it does… but the Law as a whole remains the same.
This passage was originally written to the households of Israel and Judah who were in exile because of their failure to keep God’s Moral Law, Ceremonial Law, and Judicial Law. Indeed, they failed to trust and obey God’s Word as a whole. And in many ways that’s what’s being spoken of here, the Word of God as a whole. God’s Word is often referred to as God’s Law in the Bible. Sometimes it means strictly God’s commands, sometimes it means the first five books of the Old Testament, sometimes it means the whole Old Testament, and sometimes it means the whole of God’s Word. And in one way or another all of those things are being addressed in this passage.
But, this isn’t exactly new. Romans 2:15 tells us that the works of the law are written on the hearts of all of humanity. Everyone, regardless of their covenant status, because they were created in the image of God, has the works of God’s law written on their heart, meaning they have a basic understanding of justice, and what’s right and what’s wrong. That doesn’t mean they live in line with what is right, but that they know what’s right regardless of what they say or do. A person may not appear to know what is right because of how they live; for instance, they might be a thief or a murderer… But even a thief doesn’t think it’s right when people steal his stuff; and even a murderer doesn’t think it’s ok for someone to try and take his life. They may be woefully inconsistent, but make no mistake, they do have a basic understanding of right and wrong, and this is because they were created in the image of God with the works of the law written on their heart.
The famous atheist, Christopher Hitchens, once said that his standard of morality came from an innate sense of what is right and wrong. And in saying that he wasn’t far off. Again, that’s basically what Romans 2:15 says. But, this is not enough, because we often get things wrong, or ignore or suppress what we know to be right. And indeed, a major problem with simply leaning on our own innate sense of what we think is right is that we are bias towards what we like and desire. So, all too often one person’s emotions, feelings, and innate sense of what is right and wrong contradict another’s. And even a self-professed atheist like Christopher Hitchens would admit that humans aren’t perfect. We get things wrong all the time.
The world says that the Bible is an outdated book that the modern world has no use for. However, the Bible speaks to this problem in a more timely fashion than anything else. In Jeremiah 17:9 God’s Word says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” If imperfect people simply follow their heart they will often deceive themselves and find themselves on the path of despair and destruction. As God’s Word says in Proverbs 16:25, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” And that can be and often is true in more ways than one. Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death. And sin is what typically comes from following our hearts. So, whether it’s the murderer who follows his heart, leading to physical death, or the adulterer following his heart, leading him to cheat and bring death to his marriage, or the practices of the people claiming to be LGBTQ+ that lead to despair, destruction, and even extinction… All are following their heart and it’s leading them down the wrong path.
Now, I’m sure some would argue that its not right or fair of me to put murderers in the same list as those who simply want to love who they want to love (as they often put it), but I would venture to say most of those same people don’t think pedophiles should be allowed to love whomever their heart desires. So, what’s the difference? They are both simply leaning on their own innate sense of right and wrong and following their hearts after all… The difference is one thinks they are right and the other is wrong… But that’s true on both sides. And both sides are claiming to follow their hearts—their own innate sense of right and wrong. And that tells us that their standard is flawed. So, what I’m arguing is that we are all sinners, and our hearts cannot be trusted. Therefore, we need a standard that can be trusted. A standard that is always right and doesn’t change. And that standard is God and His Word, because only God is perfect, and only God does not change. So, as Jerry Bridges once put it, “Don’t believe everything you think. You cannot be trusted to tell yourself the truth. Stay in the Word.” We need more than the works of the Law written on our hearts, we need the standard of God’s Word and God’s Law, a mind to understand it and an attitude that wants to submit to it from the heart. And that’s what God promises His people who trust in Him.
So, the covenant promises spoken of here are talking about more than just the basics of being created in the image of God; they are talking about being able to understand God’s Word with our minds and embrace it and submit to it with our hearts. But, even then this reality existed before the New Covenant. In fact, this reality was at the heart of the Old Covenant. Deuteronomy 6:4-6 says, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.” Or as the Psalmist says “The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip” (Psalm 37:31). He says in Psalm 40:8, “I delight to do your will, O my God; your Law is within my heart.” Heart religion has always been the point. Indeed, as we read earlier in Deuteronomy 10:12-17, God’s people were to love the Lord from a circumcised heart, or a heart that has been made new. The covenant sign of circumcision pointed to that reality. Circumcision was never primarily about something external or national, but something internal, the spiritual reality of a circumcised heart. God’s people who are enabled to look to Him by faith, are also given the desire and the ability to understand, trust, and obey God’s Word, and thus truly be God’s people.
This reality is truly beautiful. As the text says, God will be our God and we will be His people. This is the core of our identity. This is who we are. Everything we are flows from who God is and the fact that we are His people. We are not our own. For we have been bought with a price. Therefore, we are to glorify God in our body (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). And by His grace we can. This is what circumcision pointed to in the Old Covenant, and this is what baptism points to in the New Covenant. God has laid claim to you and your life. Just as He laid claim to the households of Israel and Judah, so too has He laid claim to the household of every believer, and every individual who has been baptized into His covenant people. So, regardless of how you feel, this is who you are and how you are called to live.
Just as when a husband and a wife say “I do” and are committed to one another and are no longer two but one, even if they don’t feel like it, or even if they don’t always live up to it, so too are all who have been baptized, and all who are a part of believing households one with Christ covenantally, and are therefore called to live for the God who has laid claim to them…. Friends, you may not feel like an American, but if you were born here, or if you are a citizen now, it makes no difference how you feel… you are in fact an American under the laws of America. You may not have asked America into your heart, but it got there anyway. And now you have to deal with that reality. And so it is with God’s covenant people and His laws. But again, this is not new to the New Covenant. This is consistent with all of God’s dealings with His covenant people throughout the whole of God’s Word.
To understand what’s new here we have to look at the next two verses. In Hebrews 8:11-12 we read, “And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” Now, many people point to this as the text that shows we shouldn’t baptize someone until they are older and professing faith, because they believe that this is saying that all the members of the New Covenant are born again and truly know God in a saving fashion. They claim that’s what’s primarily new about the New Covenant. But I don’t believe that’s the case.
For every true believer throughout all time, God has been merciful toward their iniquities and remembered their sin no more, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. This is not new. But, the Ceremonial Law of the Old Covenant, the sacrificial system and the Levitical Priesthood, were designed in such a way that even as sacrifices for sin and intercessions for sinners were being made, the people of God were being reminded that they were sinners who could never measure up in and of themselves. Which also means those things were pointing them to Christ. But in the New Covenant we have no need for animal sacrifices, just as we have no need for the Levitical priesthood, because the substance that was pointed to and administered in and through those things has come in Christ. And Christ has changed everything. The Old Covenant emphasized that our sins are many, while the New Covenant emphasizes that His mercy is more. So, the Old was in large part a reminder of sin, while the New in large part is a reminder of the One who saves us from our sin. And what this One, this Christ, this Jesus has done is what is being spoken of here.
When it says that in the New Covenant there will be no need for any to teach another to know the Lord because they shall all know Him, from the least of them to the greatest, we have to understand that in light of how the Old Covenant people were to know God, and who taught them such things. Sure, there were scribes, Pharisees, and Rabbis, but in terms of the covenant this was a priestly service. The Levitical Priesthood and the Ceremonial Law were the ways by which God’s people knew the Lord. They had to come to the temple where the presence of the Lord was, they had to offer sacrifices through the priests, and the priests had to intercede and mediate for the people. For only they could go into God’s presence and really know Him. And only the High Priest could truly do that, going into the Holy of Holies once a year on the Day of Atonement. But now, in Christ, perfect atonement has been accomplished as Jesus has lived for us, died for us, rose again for us, and ascended to the right hand of the Father where He ever intercedes for us. He is now our Great High Priest. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is how we are reconciled and truly come to and know the Father (John 14:6). Which is why Hebrews 4:16 says that we can now, “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” In Christ we can go into the presence of God and truly know Him and be known by Him, and instead of wrath we receive mercy and grace to help us. And this is part of what is fundamentally new about the New Covenant.
Remember, this is what we saw in the beginning of this passage. “Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.” Through who He is as a person and the work He did—God the Son who came in the flesh as a man and lived the perfect life of obedient faith that we have failed to live, died the wrath absorbing death we deserve to die for our sin, and rose from the grave in a justifying resurrection so that all who look to Him by faith will be saved—Jesus showed Himself to be our perfect Prophet, Priest, and King, and in so doing He obtained and provides a ministry as our Great High Priest, Prophet, and King, who sits at the right hand of the Father ruling, reigning, and ever interceding for us, so that we can live by and in the grace of God under His Lordship in the New Covenant. Because of Jesus this is our present reality.
Though the Old Covenant was excellent, having Law and gospel, justice and mercy, and the very substance of the glory and grace of Christ administered through the means God ordained, nevertheless the New is much more excellent because in the New Covenant the very fulfillment of all of those things, the very God who is all of those things came in the person and work of Christ. We don’t need the types and shadows of the Old Covenant anymore, for now we have Christ and His priestly service as our Great High Priest who is at the right hand of God ever interceding for us. Again, His ministry and mediation is better since it is enacted on better promises. And remember that what verse 6 actually says in the Greek is that the covenant that Jesus mediates—with His priestly service—is stronger and more powerful since it imposes and gives laws based on stronger and more powerful promises. Again, the whole context here is Jesus being contrasted not just with the Old Covenant, but with the priestly service of the Old Covenant.
The author of Hebrews isn’t talking about how certain people are now kicked out of the covenant. In context he’s telling people who are thinking about committing apostasy, breaking covenant, and going back to the Levitical Priesthood that they would be fools to do so because Christ is the Great High Priest we all truly need. In other words, Jesus is better than the Levitical priests and the services they offered, because who He is as our Great High Priest and the service He offers through His life, death, resurrection, ascension, rule, reign, and ongoing intercession is stronger and more powerful than anything the Levites ever did. His service actually provides forgiveness for sins. His service actually reconciles us with God. And His service gives us free access to the throne of grace. He doesn’t just do things for us, but He brings us into them and the befits of them by faith. And obedient faith was the condition of the Old Covenant just as it is the condition of the New. That has not changed, though some things have.
You see, part of what’s being communicated in this New Covenant passage is that the Ceremonial Law and the work of the Priesthood is now written on the hearts of God’s people because we are in Christ and Christ is in us. Christ fulfilled God’s Law perfectly in every way—in perfect faith, obedience, and sacrifice. He was the spotless Lamb of God slain for the sin of the world. He provided atonement, and in so doing tore the veil of the temple, providing access to God for His people. And not only that, He ascended to the right hand of the Father and sent the Spirit to regenerate us, indwell us, and empower us, making us the very temple of God on earth where His presence dwells. For all who are in Christ the whole of the Old Covenant Ceremonial Law and the sacrificial system is now written on our hearts, making it so that we don’t have to go to Jerusalem to the temple and to a priest to know God, but now have been transformed into the temple, and have become the New Jerusalem where God the Holy Spirit dwells. We don’t need a Levitical Priest to know God, because now, in Christ, we are a Kingdom of priests who have free access to God. And this is truly New.
Our passage closes in Hebrews 8:13, saying, “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” The Old sacrificial system, Levitical Priesthood, and Ceremonial Law was then vanishing away, and has now totally vanished away, and given way to something so much better. It’s given way to Christ and His New Covenant Church. Don’t get me wrong, we still need teachers and leaders. We see that clearly throughout the New Testament. We need pastors, who are very much like priests. And we even now have a Ceremonial Law in Christ. But because Christ has fulfilled all the Old, in the New our Ceremonial Law is Covenant Renewal Worship, where we gather together with God’s people to worship the triune God of the Bible by reading God’s Word, praying God’s Word, singing God’s Word, hearing God’s Word taught and preached, tasting and seeing God’s Word in baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and being sanctified and commissioned by God’s Word in and through all of that so that we can trust and obey Christ. And the whole structure of our worship, the whole layout of our liturgy is patterned after the sacrificial system… But, instead of offering sacrifices for sin we confess our sin and profess our faith in the all-sufficient offering for sin in Christ. And indeed, every aspect of our worship gathering, along with every aspect of the Christian life is in union with Christ, and therefore tied to the Law that He has perfectly fulfilled. But, Christ’s fulfillment hasn’t made every aspect of the Old vanish away.
Remember, this New Covenant was first made with the house of Israel and Judah—Jews who knew that through circumcision and the like their whole household was in covenant with God. And God’s Word here is showing that God was patient with the Jews, allowing them to still go to temple and continue to practice some of the Old Covenant Ceremonial Law, like circumcision and the like, though it was no longer necessary in Christ. Change is hard for people, but God was patiently waiting for the temple to fall in AD 70, at which time the Ceremonial Law and the sacrificial system would fall completely as well, and fully and finally vanish away (as it did). But, until then He allowed for some overlap, as long as they understood and embraced the fact that all of those things were giving way to Christ and the New Covenant.
But, notice what it doesn’t say… It doesn’t say that from now on God no longer works through households, but just individuals. Notice it doesn’t say that from now on the children of believers are no longer a part of the covenant community. In fact, it stresses that all will know Him, from the least to the greatest, meaning no matter one’s age or class. God is not getting more exclusive in the New Covenant, but more inclusive. He doesn’t kick out the children, but instead He brings near every age and class of people. Which is why we see multiple household baptisms in Acts after Peter calls the men of Israel to repent and be baptized, and then declares in Acts 2:39, “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” God’s promise is for and lays claim to believers and their children. And though they should be baptized because of this, they will only be saved if they live up to that baptism by faith. But, as God promised in Deuteronomy 7:9, He is the “faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.” And that promise did not become null and void in Christ and the New Covenant. If anything it has been emphasized and expanded all the more.
Some argue that though there are household baptisms in the New Testament, but there aren’t specific details given about the ages of the members of those households, that we therefore shouldn’t baptize infants. They say that since there aren’t clear examples of infant baptism we shouldn’t do it. But, you have to be very careful when you interpret the Bible like that. For instance, there are no examples of women taking communion in the New Testament. Does that mean they shouldn’t? Absolutely not. Biblical theology, and good and necessary consequence of the whole biblical narrative tell us they should. And so it is with infant baptism. The children of believers were circumcised in the Old. And as we have seen with Noah and his household, and Moses and the households of Israel, believers and their children were even baptized in the Old. And a major part of what’s happening in the shift from the Old to the New Covenant is an expansion of who is brought in, not an exclusion.
Indeed, as we saw earlier Christ is bringing in every nation and generation. Every tribe, tongue, nation, and generation is now able to know God in Christ, not just the tribe of Levi. In fact, all in Christ will now be a kingdom of priests, who are in such a great covenantal union with their Great High Priest, Prophet, and King, that they will now be able to rightly embrace and live out the mission they’ve been called to. In Christ we are able to understand God’s Word with our minds and embrace it and submit to it with our hearts. By grace we are enabled to look to Jesus by faith, and we’re also given the desire and the ability to understand, trust, and obey God’s Word, and thus truly be God’s people. And because we are God’s people in Christ, because we are the very bride of Christ in true union with Him—the new and true better Adam—we can now take what is true, good, and beautiful and advance it to the ends of the earth, being fruitful and multiplying physically and spiritually, and having dominion over the earth and subduing it, until every area of life is in joyful submission to the Lordship of Christ.
Conclusion
We are not in the same place as these Hebrew Christians. We know the temple has fallen, and the Son has risen. And now we see that Jesus has indeed renewed His Covenant in a new administration with new ceremonial laws. But, everything about the New is more inclusive and even more gracious, because it is all based on the better promises of the finished work of Christ. And the finished work of Christ is to overtake everything… Indeed, the finished work of Christ in the New Covenant is to make all things new.
The New Covenant isn’t merely about the salvation of individuals. The New Covenant isn’t merely about rescuing a small remnant from the world. Indeed, that’s exactly what the Old Covenant did, and God never meant the Old to be the end all / be all point. The point was always Jesus, and every tribe, tongue, nation, and generation coming to know Him, love Him, and live for Him. The New Covenant isn’t about a rescue mission out of the world, the New Covenant is about a take over mission of the world. This is our Father’s World, and our Father has promised to give His perfect Son the nations as His inheritance. And that’s what’s happening in and through His New Covenant and His New Covenant people. We, as a Kingdom of Priests, are now going out into the world and seeking to bring every area of life into joyful submission to Christ. We are those who know God and are seeking to make Him known, until all creatures of our God and King fall on bended knee. That’s what we’re after. And that’s what God has promised will happen in Christ. So may we remember who we are and whose we are, as we seek to live faithfully in this world, knowing that one day the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.