"A new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah"
Greetings Steve, John and other brothers in the faith. Thank you for
the honor and privilege of studying God's Word together that we may
all grow into the knowledge of Him. May our teacher and Comforter be in our midst as we explore the holy manna.
Chapter: Heb.8
1: Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on 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 pitched, and not man.
Jesus has becomes the eternal high priest ministering in the heavenly sancturary.
Jesus is the high priest of the new covenant people and has set up his kingdom upon a foundation and "sceptre" (symbol) of righteousness (Heb. 1:8) and reigns at the right hand of God the Father. He ministers in the heavenly sanctuary that eternal tabernacle which is the substance of the temporal and earthly tabernacle.
Simply stated, Paul is telling the Hebrew Christians in particular and the Church in general that Jesus and the heavenly sanctuary has replaced the need for a worldly priesthood and Temple.
Jesus was not qualified to offer animal sacrifices according to the law because he was a son of Judah, not Levi.
3: For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.
4: For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law:
5: Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
Since Jesus as a Melchizedek priest was not qualified to offer animal sacrifices in the earthly temple according to the Mosaic law, he offers his eternal sacrifice in the heavenly tabernacle. This is helping the Hebrew Christians understand how Christ had become their
High priest sacrificing himself for their sins.
Jesus is the mediator of a new and better covenant.
6: But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
7: For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
Jesus becomes the mediator of the new covenant by sacrificing himself for the sins of mankind. Through this sacrifice, Jesus reconciles God the Father and man and restores the privileges and rights of man as the sons of God. These are the better promises.
The old covenant had:
promises of covering of sin by animal sacrifices,
promises of worship by formulas and in geographical locations; promise of the Shekinah glory in the holy of holies,
promises of and inheritance of geographical land,
promises of protection from worldly enemies,
promises realted to circumcision of the flesh etc. etc.
The better promises under Jesus are:
Promise total forgiveness and elimination of our sins through the blood of Jesus instead of just a covering by the blood of animals;
The promise of righteouness through faith.
The promise of recreation of man's spirit by being Born Again; The promise of baptism of the Holy Spirit in the temple of each son's heart, rather than the presents of the Shekinah glory in a temple made with hands;
The promise of worshipping God in spirit and truth rather than through formusals and animal sacrifices;
The promise of the circumcision of the heart rather than the circumcision of the flesh.
Jesus establishes a new covenant with the son of Jacob.
8: For finding fault with them, he saith, 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:
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 continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
10: 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:
Through the sacrifice of Jesus, God establishes a new covenant with the son of Israel by putting his Holy Spirit in them so that they can have the laws of God written in the hearts and minds. This is not like th cold animal sacrifices and endless statutes and ordinances that were only a shadow to demonstrate the impossibility to please God by law. This was not obedience by necessity but obedience by love.
Man would desire to obey and love God because that's what he felt in his hearat. Jesus had establish the new covenant of righteouness through faith and made the old covenant of righteouness by law obsolete. The new coveanant people of God would now be a people circumcised in heart and not in the flesh.
This relfects the words of Paul in his epistles to the Romans, Galatians and Phillipians written several years before the epistle to the Hebrews.
Rom.2
28: For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
29: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
Gal.
24: Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25: But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.(the old covenant)
26: For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
27: For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.(the laws written on their hearts and minds.)
28: There is neither Jew nor GreekM, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
29: And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.(when the law are written on your heart
and mind you become a son of God.)
Phil.3
3: For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit,(laws written on their hearts and mind) and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
The knowledge of Jesus can only come through a revelation of Jesus.
11: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
12: For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
We can present the Gospel to people, but only the Holy Spirit can help and individual Know the Lord. Our preaching has to be by the power of the Cross and not by words of hunman wisdom. If men are presented with the cross of Christ, it is up to the Holy Spirit to bring the spiritual revelation of Jesus.
Through faith in Christ, men receive righteouness under the new covenant.
Now that the New is established, there is no need of the old.
13: 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.
The old covenant was a school to teach man, through the shadows and symbols represented in the religion and nation of ancient Israel, the way to the eternal and everlasting covenant in Jesus's blood.
Through this new covenant, man is restored to fellowship with God as a son. All the promises of God to Abraham are ye and amen in Christ Jesus, the new and eternal covenant.
May the Lord give us grace to enter into the fullness of his new and eternal covenant established upon the blood of his son jesus.
In the love of Christ
Emile
|
