Heb 8:7–13 — The New and Better Covenant

Today we are looking at a crucial passage in this letter, the letter to the Hebrews. This is the part where the author is quoting from the Old Testament, from Jeremiah chapter 31. This extensive section here that is highlighted in your text, some Bibles will put it in all caps, some will put it with quote marks and using indentation. To indicate that this is a quotation from the book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament. This is a key quotation. It is one of the longest quotations of an extended passage in the entire New Testament.

The author of Hebrews is going to spend the next several chapters, chapter 9 and 10, expounding this passage, looking at all of the implications of it and drawing out the significance of it for us as Christians today. One of the key issues that we have to address, though, right from the very beginning, is that there is a stumbling block in our text, and that is that it seems to be addressed to only the house of Israel and the house of Judah. The text 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. And it is understandable that some people take this literally as referring to a future covenant that will be made with the people of Israel, with the Jews, according to the flesh, perhaps someday in the future when Christ returns in the future millennial kingdom, as some interpret this.

And they say, look, the text right there says this is referring to a covenant that is made with Israel. It is not a covenant that is made with the church. It is not a covenant that is made with Christians. It is a covenant that is made with National Israel.

That does seem to be what the text says at first glance. But we have to recognize that the author of Hebrews does not interpret it that way. Clearly, the author of Hebrews, by quoting this passage, sees this prophecy from Jeremiah 31 as something that is presently in force, not something that is going to happen way off in the future, in a future millennial kingdom. He makes no mention of that.

In fact, he quotes it here in this passage directly to his audience who are Christians. Now it is true that they are mostly Jewish Christians, but he applies it now. He is saying this prophecy is in force now. It is a covenant that is made with all who confess Christ. Not only with ethnic Jews who confess Christ, but with all who confess Christ.

Notice as well that the author of Hebrews makes a big deal out of the last part. So verse 12 in our text says, “…for I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” Of all of the parts of this prophecy that the author of Hebrews focuses on, that is the one that he highlights. He does mention some of the other parts of the prophecy like putting the laws into their minds and so on. He will quote that again later in chapter 10. But his main thrust, his main focus from this is to say, if it is true, according to this prophecy, that God will remember their sins no more, then that must mean that the final sacrifice has been accomplished. Because in the Old Testament, When the sacrifices were repeated, that indicated that God had not completely forgotten their sins.

He will make this argument later in chapter 10, if you want to just look at it briefly. We are kind of skipping ahead to the argument, but you can see the point that he is making in chapter 10 verse 2. Let us begin at verse 1. He says that the law, that is this whole ceremonial system of sacrifices, had but a shadow of the good things to come and not the very true form of those realities.

So it can never buy the same sacrifices, the sacrifices of bulls and goats and so on, can never buy the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, Would they not have ceased to be offered since they would have no longer any consciousness of sins. But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. Every year at the Day of Atonement, they would have to confess their sin and offer the sacrifice and the high priest would go into the inner sanctuary and sprinkle the blood upon the mercy seat. And so every year, the people of Israel were reminded of their sins.

But the prophecy in Jeremiah 31 says that I am going to make a covenant, God is saying, when I will not remember their sins anymore. And so the author of Hebrews is then drawing from that and saying, this proves the fact that we have the final sacrifice of Christ. This proves that the prophecy in Jeremiah 31 has been fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Christ. It is not something only in the future. It is something that has been fulfilled now in the person and work of Christ.

There is no need for Christ to continually offer sin year after year because he is offered himself once for all. And he has given us complete and perfect forgiveness. And He has cleansed our conscience from sin. We do not need to continually offer sacrifice again and again as if we need to somehow deal with our sin. We are forgiven once for all because of the final sacrifice of Christ.

So the point is clear. The author of Hebrews thinks that this passage from Jeremiah has been fulfilled in Christ. And that we, as the people who believe in Christ, are the recipients of this new covenant. We are in this new covenant now. That is why he says there at the end of the passage, in verse 13, 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.

It is a little bit surprising from our point of view historically to think about this, but according to the author of Hebrews, this was the case even in Jeremiah’s day. So already in the day of Jeremiah, Jeremiah lived through the exile. He was a witness of it, and he was the one that was prophesying to the people and warning them that the exile would come. And then in the midst of that, as the exile was happening, as God was sending them away into Babylon because of their sin, Jeremiah said, there is this wonderful prophecy that someday, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant.

So the author of Hebrews says that already in Jeremiah’s day, let us say, five or six hundred years before Christ, the old covenant was already on the way out. Because as soon as Jeremiah says there is going to be a new covenant, has not happened yet, but it is coming, the fact that he is already announcing that it is about to come, and that it will come, he has already made the old covenant obsolete. It is already on the way out. It is already growing old and ready to vanish away.

This kind of explains a little bit about that time period in the Old Testament, which is after the exile. Remember, after the exile they came back to the land under Ezra and Nehemiah, and they rebuilt the temple, and they tried to restore things the way they were before the exile? But when you go and you look at that part of the Old Testament, it is Ezra, Nehemiah, or even the book of Esther, which is set back in Persia. But it is still in this post-exilic time, after the exile, but before the coming of Christ.

It does not seem like the New Covenant has happened yet. It seems like, okay, maybe they are coming back to the land a little bit. There is some people back there and maybe they have rebuilt the temple. But the temple, it is that not big. It is kind of small compared to Solomon’s great temple. And that period of time when God’s people are living after the exile, but the Messiah has not yet come, it is a very discouraging time for God’s people. There is some degree of blessing, but it is not great. It is this not glory that you would expect from all the prophecies in Isaiah and Jeremiah looking ahead to the glorious restoration.

It seems somewhat like a struggle. The people of God are still under foreign domination. The Persian Empire and then later the Romans. There is all this foreign domination of the people of God. There is a lack of true piety within the people of God. There is a sense that the people of God are struggling, they are beginning to intermarry with the nations, they are beginning to become compromised again. And so it is a time of discouragement, it is a time of small things, it is a time where people are wondering.

You even see that in the book of Luke, in the Gospel of Luke, when Luke tells us that there were these godly, pious remnant who were looking forward to the redemption of Israel. They were the ones who knew that something was not quite right, and they are looking forward to the fulfillment of all these great promises. I think this passage here helps to explain that.

Verse 13, already from Jeremiah’s day, as soon as he announced that God is going to make a new covenant, already the old covenant is beginning to become old. It is beginning to grow weary, and there is a sense of obsolescence to it. It is like the I do not know, like what happens with all of our devices. We have a cell phone or a tablet or a computer that is like five years old and it is getting kind of sluggish and infected by viruses and it just feels like it is obsolete.

That is how the Old Covenant was beginning to feel at this time. And it was already intended. It was already intended that from God’s point of view, what God was doing during that post-exilic period under Ezra and Nehemiah, was not the fulfillment. And that made God’s people even more longing. Even more wondering, when is God going to truly restore and do what he promised? When is the new covenant going to come? Of course, we know the answer to that.

Jesus came, baptized in the river Jordan, and the Holy Spirit came upon Him in the form of a dove, and the voice said, this is my beloved Son. This is the One who is going to bring about the fulfillment. And Jesus proclaimed that the time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand. And He spoke of that New Covenant at the Last Supper. When he was with his disciples in the upper room. He said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Here it is. It is finally about to happen. All of God’s promises are about to be fulfilled.

So how do we understand this word Israel and this word Judah in our text? I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Does that, does that mean, does that word Israel there mean the church? Does the word Judah mean Christians? We do not have to take it that starkly as a radical, allegorical interpretation. All we have to do is look at the history of how things developed.

When Jesus established the new covenant in his blood, who were the first Christians? And you look in the book of Acts, the first Christians were all Jewish believers. They were the godly remnant. They were the ones who first received this new covenant promise. God is making the new covenant with His people. He is restoring all the promises with this remnant of Jewish believers in Christ.

But then as you keep reading in the book of Acts, what happens? God says, the Gentiles are also going to be brought into this body. They are going to be brought into the commonwealth of the restored Israel. And the author of Hebrews understands that. He understands that basic theological point that the Gentiles are also included in the people of God. As Paul says in Ephesians chapter two, we Gentiles, we were once aliens to the commonwealth of Israel.

But now through Christ and through the preaching of the gospel, we have been brought in so that now we are full members of the household of God and members of God’s people. Now it is true that we have gotten used to speaking of the church as the new covenant form of the people of God. But the word church just means the gathered assembled people. And it is even used in the Old Testament to refer to the gathering, the congregation of Israel. So when we use the word church, we tend to think of it as the new covenant form of the people of God that includes the Gentiles. But in reality, the word church itself simply means the assembled people of God. At this particular time in the prophecy of Jeremiah, five or six hundred years before Christ, the inclusion of the Gentiles was merely a prophecy. It was merely a hope, and had not yet been revealed in fullness.

Although there are hints of it, especially in Isaiah. Isaiah talks about that in Isaiah 49 verse 6. It is too small of a thing, God says to the servant. It is too small of a thing that I would restore the lost tribes of the house of Israel. I will also go to the Gentiles so that my salvation may come to the end of the earth. And Jesus, of course, quotes that in Acts 1 verse 8, when he tells the apostles in the original Jewish church there in Jerusalem that you will be my witnesses, beginning in Jerusalem, but also in Judea and Samaria and to what?

The end of the earth, quoting from Isaiah 49 verse 6. And so therefore, it is appropriate then to understand this prophecy, even though it seems to be applied only to Israel, to understand this prophecy as being fulfilled in the new covenant people of God, and that the Gentiles would also be recipients of these blessings. You may not be an ethnic Jew by heritage, but you, as a Gentile believer in Christ, are able to look at this precious promise of God in Jeremiah 31, quoted by the author of Hebrews in Hebrews 8, and you can see yourself in the text, and you can see that you too are a recipient of these wonderful benefits and blessings.

Now there is something really exciting about our text that I would like you to think about. And that is, remember the previous paragraph from last week? I did not read it just now at the beginning of the sermon. But it is good to be reminded of what the previous paragraph is saying before we transition into Jeremiah 31. The previous paragraph is saying this.

That we do have a great high priest who is in heaven right now. And we explained what heaven is. It is that invisible realm of God and his angels. And Christ is there now. And the author of Hebrews makes a big deal out of the fact that he is presently in the heavenly realm.

He is a minister in the holy places, in the true tabernacle. Not the earthly tabernacle. That earthly one that was made by the Israelites was simply a picture and a copy of the true tabernacle, which is heaven. He is a minister in the holy places, in the true tabernacle that the Lord set up.

Referring to God set it up at creation. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. So he created the true tabernacle at the very beginning. Not the one that was set up by man. By the people of Israel, but the one that God set up at creation.

The Better Promises

He is there now in the holy places, in the heavenly realm. And He is there with a ministry. Notice verse 6, 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. Having said that then, the author of Hebrews then quotes from Jeremiah 31 and says, well, what is this new covenant? What are the terms of it? What are the blessings and the promises that are included in it that this heavenly high priest is mediating to God’s people? I think that is a wonderful thought just to think about for a moment.

We know that Christ is not on earth anymore. We know that he ascended into heaven. And that he is in heaven, but we tend to think of him as being so distant, we do not really see him face to face, and so we kind of forget about him, but he is in heaven, and do not ask where exactly is that, in terms of some sort of physical place. You cannot look at it in a telescope and say, oh, there is the right hand of God. Okay, you cannot do that, because it is an invisible realm. The heavens and the earth, it is an invisible realm, But what is he doing there?

He is not idle. According to our text, Christ is in heaven, but he is not idle. He is in heaven and he has a ministry. He has an active ministry. He has obtained a ministry. He obtained it when he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. He has obtained a ministry that is so much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better.

Remember, the old covenant had priests who were the key to making that covenant work. The priests, especially focused on the high priest, who was Aaron and his sons, the high priest was the one who mediated the covenant to God’s people. There is no way that a sinful people could have a covenant relationship with God and for God to be their God and for them to be God’s people unless they had a priest to mediate that covenant because of their sins. That is why they needed the priest to go into the inner sanctuary every year and to put the blood upon the mercy seat in order that God’s people might be able to dwell in the presence of God and to be able to be God’s people and not be immediately cast aside as they were at the end of the story when they were sent into exile. Because that old covenant could not really fully mediate God’s presence. But that was the point, was that the priesthood, as weak and insufficient as it was, and as those mortal men were succeeded by their sons, yet the whole point of it was to provide a mediation of a covenant relationship, so that God would be their God and they would be God’s people.

According to the author of Hebrews, that is what Christ is now doing. He is not in heaven just idle, waiting for, okay, when is the second coming going to happen? Let us wait around. No, he is actively in heaven mediating the covenant, but it is a new covenant. He is mediating a better covenant than the old.

Christ has obtained a ministry that is so much more excellent because it is founded upon better promises. What are the better promises that it is founded upon? That is why he quotes Jeremiah 31, because Jeremiah 31 tells us what those promises are.

The New Covenant People

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers in 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 I showed no concern for them. For this is the covenant, and here are the blessings, and here are the promises, okay? This is the covenant, here is the character of it, that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.

A New Heart and a New Record

So here we have it, here are the better promises that are referred to back in verse six. Number one, 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. 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.

There are a number of different things in that passage, in verses 10 through 12, the last part of the quotation, but we could summarize it as two main promises, two main blessings. Number one is heart transformation, and number two is complete forgiveness. Heart transformation is in verses 10 and 11, and complete forgiveness in verse 12. Now that second one, complete forgiveness in verse 12, that is the one the author of Hebrews is the most concerned about, and that is the one that he is going to spend the most time on, showing us how that has happened through the once for all sacrifice of Christ.

But the author of Hebrews also does pick up on the first promise of heart transformation as well. He does quote it in chapter 10 and verse 16. This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days declares the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts. And write them on their minds. So 1016 is another looking back to that first promise, heart transformation. And then also at the end of the letter in Hebrews chapter 13 in the benediction. Hebrews 13 verses 20 to 21.

The Eternal Covenant

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the everlasting covenant. Everlasting covenant is just another term for new covenant. Okay? Because it is everlasting because there is no subsequent covenant to come after it. So it is new, meaning that it is better than the old, but it is also the last covenant, and therefore it is the eternal covenant. What does he say, though? Through the blood of the everlasting covenant to equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight.

That is, again, picking up on the first major blessing of the new covenant, which is heart transformation. These are the twin blessings of the new covenant. Heart transformation and complete forgiveness. One is a work of God in our hearts to change us, to change our heart of stone, to take away that flesh within us and to give us a new heart that loves the Lord. And the other is not a change to us, but it is a legal declaration by which we are completely forgiven and we have this assurance that we are justified and accepted before God because of the work of Christ. The complete forgiveness is focused upon the objective work of Christ and his death upon the cross. The heart transformation is a result of that and focuses upon what? The work of the Holy Spirit to transform us and to change us.

We know that the Spirit is involved here because even though the Spirit is not mentioned in Jeremiah 31, the Spirit’s work is mentioned in Ezekiel. So all of the big prophets, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, they all have their own version of this new covenant prophecy. And Ezekiel’s version of it, in Ezekiel 36, specifically mentions that. That he is going to pour out the Spirit upon them and take away their heart of flesh and give them a heart that is soft and that is responsive and that desires to do God’s will and to obey the Lord. The work of the Spirit within us, that is the first major blessing, heart transformation, and the objective work of Christ for us to atone for our sins and justify us and give us complete forgiveness is the focus of the second blessing in verse 12.

And there is also a relationship between those two things. Okay, those two things are not just equal benefits. It is not as though, there are some people who say this, that the way we understand salvation is that we just have these two equal and equally ultimate benefits. One is heart transformation, the other is justification or complete forgiveness. And they are just side-by-side equally ultimate benefits that we get.

That is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that there is a hierarchy, there is an ordering of those two things. That the legal aspect of being justified, of being fully accepted in Christ because of His perfect sacrifice and work, is the foundation for the transformation. Jesus himself said that. Remember he said in Acts chapter 2 verse 33, well it was Peter who said it, but Peter is describing the work of Christ. He says, having therefore been exalted to the right hand of God, Christ has received the gift of the Spirit which he has now poured out upon the church. Christ has received the gift of the Spirit to transform us within because he has finished the objective work, because he has legally satisfied the justice of God, fulfilled the law. And granted us forgiveness and justification.

So there is a hierarchy between these two benefits. You might say, well then why does it start off with the transformative benefits first in this passage? Why does it mention the heart being changed first before it mentions the objective? Because he is giving us the primary result of the work of Christ, which is that we now have this heart transformation, and then at the very end in verse 12, he begins with this one little word for, Whenever the word for, you should always think, why is it there? Because it is telling us something important. It is giving us the logical ground. It is giving us the basis.

For I will be merciful to their iniquities. In other words, the transformative benefit is grounded upon this final, conclusive, climactic statement that we have complete forgiveness in Christ because of his finished work. And that is what the author of Hebrews is going to focus on. He is not denying the transformative, but in this whole part of Hebrews, especially in nine and 10, the chapters to come, he is going to say over and over and over again, what?

Christ has offered the once for all sacrifice that truly puts away sin, that deals with our guilt, that deals with our legal standing before God. And then as a result of that, we receive the gift of the Spirit to transform us and to apply it to us and to change us and work within us. That first benefit, though, is so important. The heart transformation. That is really the main thing that stands out in this passage, is it not? He does mention the legal aspect at the very end, remembering their sins no more, but really the passage is focusing upon this contrast between the way in which the old covenant people of God were so, at least, in terms of numbers.

They were so untransformed. They did not have hearts that loved the Lord and wanted to obey Him. The majority of Israel, different parts of Israel’s history, were unbelievers. They were hostile to God’s law. They did not hunger and thirst after righteousness. Of course, God always had his godly remnant. Who did love the Lord and sought to please Him. You can read about that in the Psalms. Psalm 119 is a great example of a godly Israelite who loves God’s law and who is desiring to keep it and wants the Lord to help him to work within him so that he might be obedient to God’s law.

But nevertheless, overall, in terms of the overall picture you get of the Old Testament people of God is that they were not transformed, that they were rejecting God’s law. That they were rebelling against God. And that is, of course, why it ended up that they had to be sent into exile in the 6th century. They were corrupt. Their hearts were resisting God’s law. But the great blessing of the New Covenant is that God is going to write the law upon their hearts Apart from this transformation of God, we are corrupt. We hate God’s law. We do not desire to keep it. We hate God’s law.

But God, by His grace, by the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of His elect, gives us a new heart so that we are transformed from within, so that we desire to please Him, so that although we do not keep the law perfectly, yet we hunger and thirst after righteousness and we seek to love Him. And to be in a relationship with him.

He also mentions there knowing the Lord. Knowing the Lord is another way of talking about this heart transformation in verse 11. They shall all know me. Knowing the Lord means to be in covenant with God, to commune with him, to worship him, to love him. We see this language of knowing the Lord in the Old Testament, especially in the book of Hosea.

In Hosea, Very similar to Jeremiah, dealing with all the problems of Israel, the national apostasy, the fact that the majority are in rebellion against God. But then at the same time, also speaking of a future hope that God is going to one day restore God’s people. Hosea 2 verses 19 and 20 uses the marriage analogy. Right now, because of their sin, it is as if they are an unfaithful wife that is not faithful to Yahweh, that is not exclusively devoted to Him. They have gone after other gods.

But, Hosea says, one day, I will betroth you to me forever, and I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. There is that language of knowing the Lord in that heart way, in that transformed sense of being in a covenant relationship with God. Hosea uses the analogy of the marriage covenant as an analogy to understand the new covenant. Of course, that is picked up by Paul in Ephesians 5, when he says that just as Christ loved the church, so also Husbands should love their wives, but he is using the analogy of marriage to describe the new covenant relationship as a marriage of faithfulness in which the spouse is not unfaithful, not wandering around and looking at other spouses, but is exclusively loyal to and devoted to her husband.

That is what it means to know the Lord. So that is the first main benefit of the New Covenant, is this heart transformation. Where the law is not simply coming to us from the outside and convicting us of guilt, but is also written on our hearts so that we desire to keep God’s law. And we desire to know the Lord and to be in communion with Him. The second main benefit, of course, we have already touched on it, is this complete forgiveness.

It is a wonderful way that the author of Hebrews describes it. He does not simply say, I will forgive their sins. After all, they had that already in the old covenant. If they offered the sacrifice, their sins could be forgiven. What he says here is a little bit different. He says, I will remember their sins no more. Now that is taking it to the next level. I will remember their sins no more. It is as if God is saying to Israel, looking back at their whole history of apostasy and rebellion and unfaithfulness, God is going to delete all of that from his memory. I will remember their sins no more.

Of course, the author of Hebrews says that is only possible because of the death of Christ as the once for all sacrifice that conclusively and permanently deals with our sin and our guilt. The author of Hebrews also brings out the fact that there is not only an objective justification by which our sins are dealt with and our guilt is erased, but it is also a subjective element to that, which is that our conscience also needs to be cleansed. We experience that all the time in the Christian life, where we know that our sins are forgiven, but we still feel that nagging sense of guilt and shame. God says that is one of the blessings of the New Covenant is that even that is also being dealt with. We have a sacrifice that not only objectively puts away our guilt so that we are not condemned before God legally, but also that deals with that lingering sense of guilt and shame that purifies our conscience.

He says that in Hebrews 9 and verse 13 to 14. He says, if the blood of goats and bulls referring to the Old Testament sacrifices. And the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh. How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience so that you might serve the living God.

Purify our conscience from dead works to serve The author of Hebrews there is not directly quoting from that part of the Jeremiah 31 prophecy, but I think it is implied. He is drawing out the implications of it, that God will remember their sins no more, meaning that he is going to purify our conscience as well.

Now there is one last thing we have to address, and that is in what sense are all these blessings of the new covenant different from the old? Because from another point of view, we recognize that the Old Testament believers, those that were elect within Israel, did have these benefits. I already mentioned the author of Psalm 119. He had that benefit already of the law being written on his heart. Or King David, he sinned and yet he confessed his sin and in Psalm 32 he recognized, how blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven and whose iniquities are covered in the sight of God. And Paul quotes that in Romans 4 and says that David’s justification and sense of knowing that there is no condemnation because of the work of Christ, that is the same as ours.

New in Fullness and Assurance

So they had the same benefits as we do, so why is it that the new covenant is different from the old? How is it different? The answer is that it is not different at all in terms of the underlying content, the heart transformation and being justified and forgiven. It is the same blessing and the same benefit.

However, in the New Covenant, we have greater assurance of it because of the fact that Christ’s work is in the past and has already been accomplished. Whereas the Old Testament believers, it was still to come and they were looking forward to it in type and shadow. The gospel was present and it was proclaimed to the Old Testament believers in all of the sacrifices and types and shadows and all the ceremonies and outward washings that they had to do. But it was a type. It was a shadow. It was not really the fullness.

The repeated sacrifices, as the author of Hebrews points out. The fact that the priests themselves were mortal men, and also sinners, and not the pure high priests that we have in Christ. All of those things pointed to Christ, and to those that were elect, those things were a means of grace to strengthen their faith in Christ. But Christ had not yet come. The reality had not yet come. They were still living in the time of the shadow. And so what we have in the New Covenant then is greater assurance, greater efficacy, greater fullness of assurance because we know that Christ has accomplished it all.

And furthermore, another dimension of our text that we could bring out is the fact that the Old Covenant was a national covenant, was it not? It was made with an entire nation of people. And so, as a whole, it was a national covenant that included many who were not elect, many who did not truly believe in the Messiah to come. It was a national covenant that led ultimately to the exile because they broke the covenant as a nation.

Even though the individuals who were elect within the nation, whether Jeremiah himself or some of the prophets and the godly remnant, even though they themselves were true believers, yet they also had to go through this temporal judgment of the exile.

The author of Hebrews mentions this in verse nine. At the end there, he says, they did not continue in my covenant, and so as a result, I showed no concern for them. He is referring there to the exile, when he sent them into exile. And at some points in the history of Israel, the number of the unregenerate was greater than the number of the remnant that were regenerate and that did believe in the Lord.

So the author of Hebrews is saying this is one of the benefits of the new covenant is that it is no longer going to be a national covenant where there is lots of unregenerate people. It is going to be a covenant in which they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest. It does not mean that every single member of the new covenant people of God is elect. The author of Hebrews mentions that because he warns against apostasy.

Draw Near through the Mediator

But it does mean that in comparison with the way the national covenant existed before the coming of Christ, it is much greater fullness of God’s blessing upon God’s people. Individual members may fall away, but the new covenant people of God will never be sent into exile again. The new covenant people of God know that we have the final sacrifice, the true high priest, and so we can draw near to God through this mediator and enjoy this covenant and these wonderful blessings that we have in this covenant. How wonderful it is that you, brothers and sisters in Christ, you can draw near to God through this mediator. That you can know and trust that Christ is not idle in heaven.

That He is mediating to you these blessings. He is giving you these blessings. He is working in you. He is writing the law upon your heart. He is assuring you of your forgiveness. He is helping you to understand that you are accepted in Christ, even though your conscience testifies against you. He is purifying your conscience. He is strengthening you. He is the high priest of this covenant who is actively, he has an active ministry there in heaven to mediate these blessings to you.

And you in turn can go to him at any time, as it says in Hebrews 4 verse 16. We can go to him through this great high priest who is sympathetic with us, who is there for us. We can go to him at any time to find grace to help in time of need. In time of need means whenever you have that need, go to the Lord, go to him and believe in him and trust that he is presently mediating to you all of these wonderful benefits and blessings.