I grew up in a family that did not hunt. I was never exposed to killing animals. The only blood was the frequent times that one of us crashed our bicycles or skateboards.  In college a teacher showed a movie on modern Middle Eastern culture, and one scene showed an actual slaughter of a goat. One of the students became nauseous and ran out of the class: It was not pleasant to see them cut the goat’s throat, and to watch the blood spurt out, and see it thrash on the ground while it died.  The scene was very different than what I experienced growing up in this country.

When we read a book like Hebrews, or the Old Testament commandments about sacrifices, a couple of factors emerge. First, the ancient culture was so different than ours that we have very few parallel concepts. Second, even if we do understand the broad concepts of the rituals and their general meaning, our culture is not built upon those rituals; this is the culture the New Testament writers built their arguments upon.  Finally, we find ourselves asking, "Who cares? I believe in Christ and that He saves me, so what else do I need to know?"

A wise teacher once quipped, "Truth is simple. It is error that is complex."  That may be true, yet error is complex to expose and to refute. This and the above reasons are why the book of Hebrews seems complex to us and difficult to comprehend. The writer was countering an erroneous thinking and had to build a case as to why the "old" was obsolete, and demonstrate that the "new" was superior in every way and that it was the truth that was foretold many ages before. Books like it, Romans, and Galatians were not only establishing truth, but were of necessity refuting errors and false doctrine.

Luke records that people were insisting that the new Gentile Christians (that’s you and I) needed to become circumcised and to observe the Law of Moses (Acts 15:1,5).  To them this was a logical argument. God gave His laws as an expression of His unchanging will. What was truth 1000 years ago was no less truth today. Yet, Paul and Barnabas, joined also with the elders of Jerusalem, James and Peter, insisted that this was unnecessary and contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Peter observed:

The law of God was not given as a means of salvation, but rather to point out sin, to make the whole world accountable to God, and to drive us to Christ. (Rom. 3:19,20; Gal. 3:24) Yet, the Pharisees actually thought themselves righteous before God, because they thought that they kept the law. The "rich young ruler" came up to Jesus and inquired what (in Jesus’ opinion) he needed to do to be saved. Jesus replied with a sample of the Ten Commandments, notably, those pertaining to how we treat other people. I can almost see the exuberance of this young man: "All these things I have kept from my youth!" Jesus, however, would yet knock the wind from his sails with His reply. "One thing you still lack…"  And Jesus repeats exactly what He has just said to the young man, but with more depth: "…sell all that you possess, and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come follow Me."

The nature of the law is such that none of us could ever hope to reach its high standard, not even with a little boost from Heaven. Oil and water do not mix.  It’s like the 4 year old who eagerly wants to help Mommy clean the house.  His attempts at dusting only smear around the dust, his attempts at washing windows leaves them more dirty, and Mommy ends up having to do more work to fix his "cleaning".  Is it any wonder that Isaiah records:

In Hebrews 7-10 there is a clear message of an old "something" becoming obsolete, and a new "something" replacing it.  The old appears to be weak and inefficient, and never able to cleanse the worshiper while the new appears to be powerful and able to fully transform our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Heb. 9:14).

At some point the question comes up – "So what is the old and what is the new?"  In Hebrews, the word "covenant" is used to describe both the old and the new: the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. What, then, are these covenants?

Here is a quick survey of passages speaking of God’s covenants:

These passages, then, clearly are talking about a "covenant", and by their age, they certainly appear to be very old. Is this the "old covenant" that the writer of Hebrews is referring to?

In Galatians 3 there is a contrast between two methods of salvation.

Here "works of the Law" are contrasted with "hearing with faith". Immediately in the next verse the answer is given:

Two points emerge from this answer. First, we want to be "of Abraham", and want to receive the blessing of the promise of the Spirit. (vss. 6-9,14)  Second, it is those who are "of faith" who are "of Abraham" – his descendants and those who inherit the promises made to him.  We receive them through Christ (v. 14)

On the other side is the Law which was given 430 years after the promises were made to Abraham. The giving of the law did not invalidate those promises. God did not make promises, and then later add attached strings or requirements for receiving them. (v.17) This is why, back in Hebrews 9:15-17 the writer emphasizes that the new covenant is established since a death has taken place – the parallel is the use of "covenant" as a last will and testament. The promise was made, and a death has occurred, and now the promises of the testament are activated because of that death.

We are left still wondering when this "old covenant" was given, and what it is.  As a reminder, this is being written to the Hebrews shortly after Christ’s work on Earth was completed.

As Israel was brought out of Egypt and into the wilderness, God established a covenant with them. He designed a house in which He would dwell among them, and in a fearful and impressive ceremony at the foot of Mount Sinai He dictated his covenant to them.  Deut 4:13 is absolutely explicit: the covenant with Israel was written on the tablets of stone, the Ten Commandments.[1] And so, in Deut. 11:

The "old" covenant of God, made with Israel, was a covenant of commandments. His rules were clearly and fearfully set before the people, reinforced by a flaming mountain, thunder and earthquake. How terrifying this must have been! Years later, when Joshua is old and the children are in the promised land, he calls the people together. Read Joshua 23 and 24. He reads the law once more to the people and sets before them again the blessing and the curse. Wise and insightful, he asks the people which they will choose – he and his family will serve the Lord. They respond as one voice, "We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God."

Then Joshua says something strange:

"You will not be able to serve the Lord"  Their reply? "No, but we will serve the Lord!"  Their determination was solid – they truly wanted to serve the Lord, and those standing there, the Bible records, did indeed serve the Lord. Yet, two chapters later in Judges 2 we see that when that generation was buried, there arose another generation that did not know the Lord, "Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals" (Judg. 2:11) Joshua knew something of the nature of mankind – that out best effort and most determined decisions were worthless when it comes to keeping the perfect and eternal will of God. Living to His holy standard is (for us) impossible, and if we approach God with our own righteousness based on the keeping of the law, we come with filthy rags at best (Isa. 64:6). Joshua also knew that human nature would eventually lead Israel away from God and they would even stop trying to keep His laws.

The old covenant is a set of laws, prominently displayed and widely applauded. Yet, Paul insists that the purpose of the law was to reveal sin, and to make the whole world accountable to God. In Rom. 7 Paul declares, "I would not have come to know sin except through the Law." (Rom 7:7)  The law, in commandments, in regulations, in days, in festivals, in sacrifices, in rituals, the law can never make the worshiper righteous. The law is weak because of our inability to keep it (Rom. 8:3) "…because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God." (Rom. 8:7-8)

Is it any wonder that there was a need for a better means of salvation for a dying and hopeless world?  The writer of Hebrews is not writing a dissertation on cleansing the sanctuary, or even on how sin is removed. Rather, he is declaring the old covenant obsolete, and that it was never intended as a means of salvation.  He proclaims the superiority of the new, and teaches salvation "new covenant style".

Rather than post laws and declare that mankind should work for it, God justified the whole world through the cross of Christ, and then declares the new method of speaking His law. Formerly the laws were written on tablets of stone; now they are written on our stony hearts. The method announced from old (Jer. 31:31) has arrived:

In Christ we are made complete. Our relationship to the law? We are no longer under it. It is obsolete. Does this mean (for our worrying legalistic reader) that we can party and continue in sin? Romans 6 reminds us that we who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death, and that we are to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ. In Christ all the promises made to Abraham are completed in us, and our Champion and Advocate sits at the right hand of the Father in the Heavens above.  As we praise His name among the nations, He (as promised) writes his laws upon our hearts with the transforming of our minds.

How are we to know sin, then, if we are not under law and our total focus is on Christ? John 16 reveals the simple answer that corresponds to this "new covenant" outlined in Hebrew 8 and 10. "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you;" (v.7) Jesus continues by saying that this Helper will, "convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment."  There is no danger that we who are in Christ, and not under the law, will not know what is right or what is wrong. If the nature of the law is such that the letter only begins to reflect the true nature of righteousness then we definitely need a Helper to illuminate our minds as to what is Christ’s true character and His will for our lives. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

It is my prayer that you would fully understand the message in Hebrews and come to fully understand the fullness of what we are given and have become in Christ.

Postscript

It is common for Evangelicals today to use the phrase "the law was done away with". While from a certain perspective this is true, only with qualification. God’s method for saving us was not to abolish the Law in order that we no longer fall under its condemnation and death penalty. In Romans 7 Paul explains that we share in the cross of Christ in order to be removed from the claims of the law and to be joined to Him. When Christ died, Paul says we all died (2 Cor. 5:14). We were crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:19, 20). The result is that when the Law accuses us and demands our death we reply that we are dead. Rather than abolish the Law for our salvation, the penalty of the Law is performed on us in Christ.

The laws are abolished in Christ because they are fulfilled in Him. All the sacrifices point to His death. The penalty of non-compliance with the law is death, and that penalty is fulfilled on the Cross for all of us by faith. We now are alive to God in Christ and are no longer under the law because the "transaction" is complete.

Topics

• Adventism
• Theology
• Gardening

Snapshot

“Identifies and discusses what the Old Covenant is.”

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5

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