Hebrews 8

CHAPTER 8

The High Priest of a New Covenant (8:1-13)

1-2 The Jewish priests ministered in a sanctuary made by men. But Jesus serves in the true tabernacle set up by the Lord—a tabernacle which is in heaven at the right hand of God. The Jewish priesthood was of the world; Jesus’ priesthood is ofheaven. It is a spiritual priesthood.

3 Priests of the world are appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. In order to come into the presence of God, the Jewish high priest had to present an offering to God. Jesus also needed to offer something to God. Therefore, He offered up His own body.

4 According to the Jewish law and according to His ancestry, Jesus could never have been a Jewish priest. He was not of the tribe of Levi, from which all Jewish priests came. But Jesus’ priesthood is not of this world; it is of heaven.

5 The Jewish priests ministered in a sanctuary¹⁴ made by men. However, that earthly sanctuary was not the true sanctuary; it was only the copy and shadow of the true sanctuary which is in heaven.

At the time the ancient Jews were building the first sanctuary in the Sinai desert, God gave this command to their leader Moses: “… make everything according to the pattern shown you on the moun-tain”—that is, according to the pattern of the heavenly sanctuary. The writer quotes this command from Exodus 25:40.

Worldly men suppose that the only real and true things are the things which they can see or feel. They think that heavenly things are only imaginary and don’t really exist. But the man who is spiritual knows that this world is passing away. He knows that only heavenly and spiritual things are ultimately real and lasting. This is why the writer says here that the earthly sanctuary built by the Jews is only a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary built by Jesus.

6 In Chapter 7 and in the first five verses of this chapter, the writer has shown that Jesus’ priesthood is superior to the Jewish priesthood. Now the writer adds something newto his thoughts above. He says that Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant, a covenant which is founded on better promises. Just as Jesus’ ministry is superior to the ministry of the Jewish priests, so the new covenant is superior to the old covenant.

What is that old covenant? A covenant is a formal agreement between two parties. According to the old covenant, God agreed to make the descendants of Abraham (the Jews) His own special people and to bless them (Genesis 12:1-3). That was God’s part of the agreement. The Jews’ part was to obey God’s law (Exodus 19:5; Jeremiah 7:23). If the Jews did not obey, the covenant would be canceled.

The old covenant was not successful, because the Jews stopped obeying God (Jeremiah 7:24-26). The Jews did not remain faithful to their agreement; therefore, God turned away from them (verse 9). Under the old covenant, the Jews had neither the strength nor the will to obey God. They were unable to find freedom from the bondage of sin. Even though the Jewish priests every year offered sacrifices for the sins of the people, the people could not become pure and righteous in their hearts. Therefore, as a result of their impurity and unholiness, they could not come into the presence of God.

The new covenant between man and God is the covenant of Jesus Christ. The writer calls Jesus the mediator ofthis new covenant. Jesus stands between man and God. It is through Jesus that we receive the new covenant promises given by God. God says: “If you believe in Jesus, I will give you salvation, eternal life” (see John 3:16). God has promised to give us salvation, eternal life, the Holy Spirit, and adoption into His family; that’s His part. Our part is only this: to believe in His Son Jesus.

The writer here says that the new covenant is founded on better promises, promises given by God to those who believe in Jesus. The writer mentions three of these better promises below, in a quotation from the prophet Jeremiah. The first of these promises of God is this: “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts” (verse 10). The second promise is: “… they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest” (verse 11). The third promise is: “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (verse 12). In brief, the meaning of these three promises taken together is this: God makes each believer in Christ a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). He sends His Holy Spirit to dwell within each believer’s heart. God said: “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezekiel 11:19-20).

Therefore, the “new covenant” between man and God is as follows. God gives us the promise of eternal life in heaven. Together with that, He gives us a new spirit, by which we are enabled to overcome sin and to recognize Him and to love and obey Him. For the covenant to be fulfilled, only one thing is necessary: a person must believe in Christ. Truly, this new covenant is far superior to the old covenant!

7 If nothing had been wrong with that first covenant (old covenant), there would have been no need to make a new covenant.

8 But there was something “wrong” with that first covenant:¹⁵ the Jews did not remain faithful; they did not fulfill their part of the covenant.

In verses 8-12, the writer of Hebrews quotes God’s words as written down by the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31:3134. God says: “I will make a new covenant with the house of ISRAEL and with the house of Judah.” In Jeremiah’s time, the nation of Israel (the Jewish nation) was divided into two kingdoms: Israel in the north, and Judah in the south. Thus from this verse we can understand that God’s new covenant is meant for “both kingdoms”—that is, for all true descendants of Abraham through faith. The true descendants of Abraham are all those who put their faith in Jesus Christ (see Gal-atians 3:7-9 and comment).

9-10 The new covenant is not like the old covenant. The old covenant was written on two stone tablets (Exodus 31:18). The new covenant is written on men’s hearts. Men did not have the power to obey and remain faithful to the old covenant. But under the new covenant, men receive the Holy Spirit, who gives them the power and the desire to obey God. We can now say with the Psalmist: “I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8).

11 The Jews taught one another about God and His word according to what was written in the Old Testament. But under the new covenant, each believer knows God personally through the Holy Spirit dwelling within him. Just as children know their human fathers, so we believers can know our heavenly Father. Jesus Himself said that to know God in this way is to have eternal life (John 17:3).

12 Under the new covenant, our sins are forgiven; they are erased completely. Through Christ’s perfect sacrifice of His own body, we have been made pure. Having been made pure, we can now enter God’s presence. Only through Christ can man be made holy and acceptable in God’s sight. In this way Christ is the mediator of the new covenant (Hebrews 9:15).

13 Thus, from what is written in verses 812, we can now see what this new covenant is like. It is a covenant of the Holy Spirit written on men’s hearts. This is why Paul calls himself and his fellow apostles ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:6). And if a new covenant has come, the old covenant is now obsolete and will soon pass away. The old covenant is like the light of a candle; when the sun rises, it is no longer needed.

The old covenant was confirmed by the shedding of blood (Exodus 24:8). In the same way, the new covenant was also confirmed by the shedding of blood—Jesus’ blood. This is why Jesus, at His last supper, took the cup and said to His disciples: “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. … This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20).