The New Way-It's Better
We cannot keep the first one.
Covenant that is.
The fault is in us.
It’s sin.
The people “chosen “ by God broke the first covenant.
At first view, it would seem that keeping an agreement with 10 statements would be easy. They fit on two stone tablets when first given. Yet we are told the covenant was broken before Moses got the tablets down from the mountain.
There is nothing wrong with the first covenant.
The fault is in us.
Read it again-It’s sin.
But God…gave the world a NEW COVENANT…founded on Perfection…He…
“…So loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
God spoke the words in this Hebrews passage to the prophet Jeremiah 626 years before Jesus (the new and living covenant) was born in Bethlehem! God is not willing that any should perish for their sins.
Lord God, enable us to understand your great love. Enable us to comprehend your infinite compassion as we read these words from Jeremiah in the New Testament book of Hebrews.
Hebrews 8:7-13
[7] For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
[8] 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,
[9] 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.
[10] 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.
[11] 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.
[12] For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.”
[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.
This is truth: God ALWAYS KEEPS HIS PROMISES.
What promises are in this passage?
1. “ I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts…
2. I will be their God,
and they shall be my people…
3. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall ALL KNOW me…
4. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.”
The first covenant required doing…In the new covenant the “doing” is done. The new covenant is beyond human comprehension. There is a depth in it we often fail to see. Because of Jesus, there is another word in which we find comfort and hope. It fits the context this Hebrews passage. It is the word sufficient. Jesus is our sufficiency. Here are the words of Paul from 2 Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 3:5-6
[5] Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, [6] who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."
You and I are sufficient to be "ministers of a new covenant." It is superior in all ways to the old. Once more, it is Jesus who “has freed us from our sins…” The new covenant is about unspeakable riches that are only found in Jesus.
God’s New Way is infinitely better.
FATHER IN HEAVEN give us faith to believe.