Such a Superior Covenant

Just north of us, along Snelling Avenue, is the area known as Midway, which “gets its name from its location: midway between Minneapolis and Saint Paul.” Minneapolis is about 3 miles west; Saint Paul, 3 miles east. According to visitsaintpaul.com,

“The key Midway intersection of University Avenue and Snelling Avenue is one of the busiest in all of the Twin Cities — a far cry from a century and a half ago, when the area was a giant prairie between Minneapolis and Saint Paul.”

I mention Midway because we have come to the midway point in the letter to the Hebrews. Chapter 8, verses 1–2, is the seam that runs down the middle of the book. This is the halfway point. Now chapter 1 is three miles behind us; chapter 13 is three miles ahead.

So this may be a good time to say more about the structure of this book than we have so far. Let’s start right here where we are, at the midpoint, and move outward to get a sense of the whole landscape.

Structure of Hebrews

The heart of the letter is chapters 5–10. These chapters focus on the person and work of Christ — or who he is as high priest and then what he does. Chapters 5–7 (with the aside in chapter 6 to warn sluggish hearers) make the case, as we’ve seen, for Jesus as the great high priest. He is not a priest in the Levitical line, under the terms of the first covenant. Rather he is a priest of a different order, a king-priest, like that enigmatic king-priest figure in Genesis 14 named Melchizedek. So, chapters 5–7: Jesus is the climactic, final, great high priest to which the whole old-covenant system pointed and anticipated. 

Before moving on, Hebrews wants to make sure we’re clear on that. So he says in 8:1,

“Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest.”

Got it? Chapters 5–7: Jesus is the great high priest. And we have such a high priest! Already. No more waiting. We have him now — the “one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places.” So, not only is Jesus a new kind of priest, but as a priest he must have some work, some ministry, to do. That’s what chapters 8–10 are about: Jesus’s work as high priest.

That’s the heart of Hebrews, chapters 5–10, with 8:1–2 in the middle. And standing guard around the heart of this letter is two important and similar exhortations in 4:14–16 and 10:19–23. Both passages, like 8:1, say “we have a great (high) priest” (4:14; 10:21), and both name him as Jesus (4:14; 10:19) and say he has passed “through the heavens” or “through the curtain” (4:14; 10:20) into God’s presence. And both give this double exhortation: “let us hold fast our confession” (4:14; 10:23) and “let us draw near” with confidence (4:16; 10:22).

Then, still working outward, 3:1 and 12:1–3 bring to the exhortation the specific language of “consider Jesus” (3:1; 12:3), that is, look to him, attend to him, meditate on him; don’t ignore him, or forget him, or drift from him; but remember him, ponder him, contemplate him — and in doing so you will hold fast to your confession of faith in him and draw near to him.

Between the exhortations to “consider Jesus” and the pillar exhortations (in 4:14–16 and 10:19–23), we have the negative example, in chapters 3–4, of the wilderness generation not enduring in faith, and we have honor roll in chapter 11 of positive examples of pre-Christian saints who persevered in faith, culminating with Jesus himself.

Chapters 1–2, then, are a kind of extended introduction, which doesn’t make them any less important. Chapters 1–2 tell us about the exaltation and incarnation of Christ, leading up to that first charge to “consider Jesus” in 3:1. And chapters 12–13 are, in many ways, a kind of extended conclusion, following the highpoint of Jesus as the grand finale of the faith honor roll.

So Hebrews:

Ch. 1–2: introduction: Jesus as exalted, incarnate, reigning

Ch. 3:1: consider Jesus; look to Jesus; contemplate him

Ch. 3:3–4: negative example (of unbelief): Israel’s wilderness generation

Ch. 4:14–16: we have a great priest; hold fast, draw near, to him

Ch. 5–7: who Jesus is: the true priest

Ch. 8:1–2: midway — “Now the point in what we are saying is this…”

Ch. 9–10: what Jesus does: the true sacrifice

Ch. 10:19–23: we have a great priest; hold fast, draw near, to him

Ch. 11: positive examples (of faith): from Abel to Jesus

Ch. 12:1–3: consider Jesus, look to Jesus, contemplate him

Ch. 12–13: extended conclusion

Hebrews communicates, again and again, that Christian faith perseveres as we look to Jesus. As the patterns of our lives, and the gaze of our souls, return again and again to contemplate Jesus, and draw near to Jesus, so we hold fast to him and our faith in him perseveres. 

So, having established Jesus as the superior priest in chapter 7, and made this transition from his person to his work in 8:1–2, we turn in Hebrews 8:3–6 to three more superiorities of such a superior priest.

1. Jesus Serves in a Superior Place (vv. 4–5)

Verse 2 introduced the notion of place. Jesus is now in heaven and “a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.” Verses 4–5 then expands on the location:

“Now if [Jesus] were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, ‘See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.’”

The last part of verse 5 quotes Exodus 25:40. As Moses and the people of Israel went about constructing the old-covenant tabernacle, they were not to just design it as they saw fit. Nor did God just make it up on the spot. Rather, God showed Moses a pattern. He gave him a pattern to follow. 

Which means that this tabernacle wasn’t the original; it was based on something else. The earthly tabernacle was patterned after the original place of God’s presence, namely, heaven itself, the true tabernacle. And so, according to Exodus 25, the holy place of the old covenant was not the original or final holy place. The tabernacle was a copy and shadow. And now, the risen Christ, has ascended into heaven itself, the superior place, and sat down at the right hand of Majesty.

And lest we assume, as many do in the modern world, that the superior place is down here — this world with its sights and sounds and smells and tastes and pleasures — and that heaven is the shadowy, ethereal, bland place, Hebrews confronts us with another way of thinking. Jesus isn’t less effective for us as king and priest because he’s in heaven, but more.

“It is to your advantage that I go away.”

The upshot is not that we would think any less of the realness of our world, but that we would reckon all the more with the realness of heaven, where Jesus is more real than our problems and obstacles and anxieties, and heaven is far more real, in the immediate presence of God, than this fallen world in all its many glories and sorrows.

Heaven is the superior place, where our superior high priest ministers for us, right now. And a day is coming when he will return, and bring his superior place with him, and remake this world into his new heavens and new earth.

2. Jesus Makes a Superior Offering (v. 3)

Verse 27, at the end of chapter 7, hinted at Jesus’s superior offering: “once for all . . . he offered up himself.” Now verse 3 says, 

“every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.”

Remember, chapters 5–7, his priesthood; chapters 8–10, his offering. Verse 3 begins the focus on his offering. What do priests do? They make offerings and sacrifices. If someone is appointed a fireman, what do you expect he will do? Put out fires. If someone becomes a mailman? Deliver the mail. So, when Jesus is exalted, in the words of Psalm 110:4, to the position of priest, what should we expect him to do? Have something to offer.

In the old covenant, the work of the priests was endless. They had to “offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people” (7:27). With each new dawn, more sacrifices awaited. The work never finished. So too, throughout the day, priests were on their feet; there were no chairs in the tabernacle. They had offerings to make according to the law.

But now Christ has come, as the true priest, and of a new order. And since he’s a priest, we ask: What does he offer? What work does he do?

Chapters 9 and 10 will have much to say about the offering. Next week we’ll look at the second half of chapter 8, which is the longest Old Testament quotation in the New Testament, from Jeremiah 31. Chapters 9 and 10, then, will expand on Christ as the superior and final sacrifice. And there we’ll learn more about the old-covenant place and offerings (plural) in contrast with the new covenant place and offering (singular).

Which leads to one last superiority of Christ over what came before.

3. Jesus Mediates a Superior Covenant (v. 6)

This is verse 6:

“But [now, in contrast to the past], 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.”

So, if we want to know how much better is Jesus’s new covenant, than the old covenant that came before, it might help to put them side by side. In some sense, the whole of Hebrews — but especially this passage — turns on the comparison of old and new. Consider the contrasts just in Hebrews 8:

First covenant — New covenant

Earlier — later

On earth — in heaven

copy and shadow — original and actual

earthly tent — the true tent 

man set up — God set up

directed through Moses — prophesied by David and Jeremiah

enacted by sinful priests — enacted by a sinless high priest

imperfect, incomplete perfect, complete, final 

Ready to vanish away — will not end

Good — (far) better, much more excellent

The end of verse 6 says that the reason Christ’s new covenant is “much more excellent than the old” is that “it is enacted on better promises.” What might those be? What are the “better promises” of the new covenant, compared to the old?

Chapter 7 already has spoken of “a better hope” and “better covenant” related to the oath and promise of Psalm 110:4:

“The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind,
‘You are a priest forever.’”

So, we might first say, the promises are final and forever. Final: God has sworn; he will not change his mind. Forever: Christ was raised from the dead, to never die again, with indestructible life, and will continue forever as the permanent high priest. Which means (more promises) 

He always lives to make intercession for us, and he is able to save us to the uttermost. 

And as we’ve seen, in Hebrews 8, the place of his priesthood is better, and his offering of himself, once for all, is better. And next week we’ll see more “better promises” in Jeremiah 31. That God will put his law in our hearts by his Spirit, and we will know him, and he will remember our sin no more.

How New Is the New Covenant?

But let’s end this morning with a question, and some implications for our lives related to this new covenant, in contrast with the old.

The question is this: How new is the new covenant? 

Look at verse 7:

“If that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.”

Do you see that word second? A second covenant. And see that word first. Hebrews, here and throughout (like Jesus and Paul and John), speaks of two covenants, a first and a second, old and new. And when he says new, it’s plain he means new. Actually new. Not an update. Not an expansion. Not an appendix. Not a renovation. New. There was old; now there’s new. There was a first. Now there is a second. And in enacting a new covenant, through his death on the cross, as we’ll see in chapter 9, the old is brought to a glorious end — its God-appointed consummation.

Change the Priesthood, Change the Covenant

This contrast between covenants in chapter 8 is an outworking of what we saw two weeks ago in Hebrews 7:11–12: if you change the priestly order, you change the whole covenant.

“Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood [for under it the people received the law], what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well.”

Many Christians do not tend to think this way, but verse 11 says that under the priesthood the people received the law-covenant from Moses. In other words, the priesthood is not founded on the law. The law is founded on the priesthood. And now, in Christ, there has been a change in the priesthood. A priest of a new order has arisen. And verse 12 says,

“when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law-covenant as well.”

Brothers and sisters, know your covenant. Cherish your new covenant. In Christ, you are under a new covenant. Not renewed, not tweaked, not updated, not expanded; new. It is another covenant. Another priest has arisen, and with him, a new covenant. There was a first; this is a second; there was old; this new. 7:18 said the old has been “set aside.” 10:9 will say that Jesus “does away with the first in order to establish the second.” 

And as we’ll see next week, verse 13 says that Jeremiah, in prophesying of a new covenant, has made the old one obsolete. The language must stand in some sense. Obsolete. If there is no real sense in our theology in which “obsolete” can stand, we have a problem.

So, the new covenant is such a superior covenant. It is not the same old covenant newly enhanced, improved, renovated, or expanded. It is new. You cannot do justice to the argument of Hebrews if our covenant is not new.

Let’s close, then, with three implications for us living under this new covenant.

New-Covenant Habits

First, we read the Bible as new-covenant Christians. Which means we distinguish between the Old Testament as our Scripture and our covenant. All the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is our Scripture. But the old covenant is not our covenant. Our spiritual heritage, yes. Our Scripture, yes — and critical for understanding and appreciating our covenant. But the old covenant is not our covenant. 

Ours is the new, enacted and mediated by Jesus Christ, our covenant head. And so every Sunday, at the Commission, we repeat his words about “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” As we read the Bible as new-covenant Christians, we take the commands of Christ and his apostles as commands to us, in our covenant, in a way that we do not directly apply the commands of Moses, say, to those under the old covenant.

In Christ, we love the Old Testament and its types and prophecies and hints and foreshadowings, because they help us to better understand and appreciate the antitypes and fulfillments and substance we now have in Christ.

Second, we pray as new-covenant Christians. We pray to a heavenly Father, as Jesus taught us. And we pray in Jesus’s name. And we pray as those indwelt by the Spirit of Christ who:

“helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26).

What a glory it is to pray as a Christian. Don’t throw away “Father” at the beginning of your prayers, or “in Jesus’s name” at the end, or the opportunity to now speak to the living God at any moment.

How unspeakably great it is to “have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens” that we may “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:14, 16).

Finally, we belong to the body of Christ as new-covenant Christians. We are not in the new covenant alone. We have fellows. And so, very practically, local church membership matters. And we covenant with each other, as an extension of our new covenant in Christ by faith, to be the church to each other in this time and place. Which means that we, of necessity, establish certain terms of this local membership.

Our formal fellowship, this particular local church, requires what we call “a credible profession of faith” for baptism and church membership. We realize, and own, that those are (at least temporarily) exclusionary terms. That excludes adults, and children, whose profession is not yet credible, or who are not yet able to profess faith. And we have established these terms, in part (among other reasons, including our understanding of New Testament commands), because this best corresponds to the reality of the new covenant, in contrast with the old, as we’ve seen in Hebrews 8.

The old covenant, at its core, was ethnic and tribal. There were provisions for proselytes (Exodus 12:48–49; Deuteronomy 29:10–13), but by and large, the covenant members were born into the covenant. The locus was a particular ethnicity. So, applying the rite of initiation, circumcision, at physical birth was fitting.

But now Christ has come, and brought to an end the old, with its ethnic and bodily focus. The new covenant is not tribal and ethnically centered. Jew is an ethnicity; Christian is not. And we, as Christians, are under a new covenant. Today the covenant locus is those who have experienced new birth. And so, in this locality, we give effort to make our church membership, as best as we can, more proximate to God’s new-covenant people, rather than less.

We sure hope — in fact, we intend to make it sure — that being born into a Christian family is a priceless, inestimable grace: to be near to the life-saving and life-giving word, to be cared for by parents who have the Holy Spirit, to be part of a larger church community. And in accordance with the terms of the new covenant, we do not presume that birth into a Christian family means eventual new birth. We do not believe that physical birth into a Christian family is the proper occasion for baptism or church membership, but rather new birth by the Spirit. And so we want our church’s membership to be as similar to new-covenant reality as we can reasonably discern. Which means baptizing and receiving new members based on a credible profession of faith in Jesus.

As we’ll see next Sunday, at the very heart of the new covenant, according to Jeremiah 31, is personally knowing God. And so at Cities Church, and in light of Hebrews 8, for belonging to this body, we confirm the knowledge of God in Christ in view of a credible profession. Which is also what we call for, and nurture, at this Table.

Have Him at the Table

The glory of Hebrews 8, and the new covenant, is that we can say, right now, we have Jesus as our great high priest and our once-for-all sacrifice. That is not a prayer, or hope, or longing for a reality that will only one day be true. It’s true right now. We have such a high priest.

And what did Jesus say on the night before he died?

“This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20).

We not only have him now as our great high priest, but he has offered himself, shed his own blood, to enact and welcome us into his new covenant.