A Tale of Two Covenants
A Tale of Two Covenants
A Study of Hebrews 8:7-13
We’ll begin our study of Hebrews 8:7-13 in Exodus 24. In this passage we find Moses delivering the Law of God to the Hebrew people. Let’s drop in at Exodus 24:3 “And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.” (KJV 1900)
Moses told the Hebrew people the terms of the covenant, or testament, God had drawn up for them. This would define the terms of their relationship with God and it specified blessing and an inheritance that would come to them (the Promised Land) if they kept those terms.
After hearing the terms, the Hebrew people verbally committed themselves to their side of the agreement by responding “All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.”
Continuing in Exodus 24 at verse 4, “And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD.”
Just as blood was shed to establish God’s covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, blood was shed at the institution of this covenant.
Exodus 24:6 “And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.”
Here, for a second time, the Hebrew people agree to the terms of the covenant. Having done so, the covenant could now be ratified.
Exodus 24:8 “And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.”
“Behold the blood of the covenant.” Blood guarantees adherence to the terms of the covenant it secures. These days, we guarantee our performance of the terms of agreements by placing our signature at the bottom. At risk may be our finances, our property, or both. Ancient covenants were far more weighty. Blood secured them. If the terms were not kept, more than merely money or property was at risk. Life would be forfeit. A covenant is serious business.
One need only read the record of the Hebrew nation in the Old Testament to see that they failed time and time again to keep the covenant to which they had so heartily agreed at Sinai. Indeed, Peter acknowledges this fact in Acts 15:10. When the Jews wanted to require Gentile Christians to observe the Law of Moses, he said, “Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?”
Indeed no one could keep the Law because the Law ultimately required perfection. Jesus, in His great teaching we call the sermon on the mount, pointed this out clearly. He spoke of cutting off hands and plucking out eyes as examples of the extent to which one who truly hoped to keep the Law might need to go to prevent failure. His clearest statement of the righteous requirement of the Law was in Matthew 5:48 where He said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
Paul too makes it clear that no one can keep the Law. In Romans 3:19–20 he says, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
The Law makes it clear that everyone has sinned and fallen short. That is its purpose. It shows that everyone is guilty and shuts their mouths about how righteous they are. So, if the Law points out sin and if no one can keep the Law, a question arises.
Paul addresses that question in Galatians 3:21–22 “Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.”
Do you see it?
The Hebrew scriptures bring us to one inescapable conclusion: there is none righteous, no not one. (see Psalms 14:3 & 53:3) No one can make themselves righteous by adhering to the terms of the Law because the Law requires perfection.
That no one can make themselves righteous points out the need of every individual on earth to be rescued. No one can save themselves. Everyone requires a rescuer, a savior, and that rescuer, that savior, must deal with the weakness of the covenant of the Law.
That weakness is us.
Father knew this all along, of course. Listen now to His promise in Jeremiah 31:31–34
31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, That I will make a new covenant With the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers In the day that I took them by the hand To bring them out of the land of Egypt; Which my covenant they brake, Although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, And write it in their hearts; And will be their God, And they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: For they shall all know me, From the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: For I will forgive their iniquity, And I will remember their sin no more.
Here, Father graciously describes His plan to rectify the problem with the agreement to which the Hebrew people so eagerly agreed at Sinai. He says that the new covenant He will establish is different from the old one. He points out the weakness. It’s the people. They broke the covenant and because they had, their lives were on the line.
Under the old covenant, God had written His commands in cold unbending stone. There could be no violation. There could be no change. In the new covenant He describes, He declares, “I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts; And will be their God, And they shall be my people.”
I want us to pause a moment and notice something here. In this promise, Father says that He will put His “law” in His people. He says He will write “it” in their hearts. It is important to notice that the verbiage He uses is in the singular. The Law handed down by Moses was made up of 613 rules, yet it is not called the laws, but the Law.
The Apostle James understood this when he wrote in James 2:10 “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” Paul likewise makes this clear in Galatians 5:3 where he says, “For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.”
With the background we’ve established, let’s look now at the passage that is the subject of this study, Hebrews 8:7–13.
Verse 7, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.”
Charles Ryrie says in his commentary on this verse, “The prediction and promise of a new covenant in Jer. 31:31–34 proves the inadequacy and temporary nature of the Mosaic Law.” –Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Ryrie Study Bible: New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, Expanded ed., (Chicago: Moody Press, 1995), 1954.
The truth of that statement is plain from what we have already read.
Pressing on; Hebrews 8:8-9 “For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.”
This should sound familiar. It is a quote from Jeremiah 31, which we just read together. The quotation continues in Hebrews 8 through verse 12. Let’s take a careful look at verse 10, however.
Hebrews 8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.”
If we just read this quickly we will miss a very important detail. Did you notice the difference in the verbiage from the same statement in Jeremiah 31? Don’t feel badly if you didn’t it’s very easy to miss.
In Jeremiah 31 Father said, “I will put my “law” in their inward parts, And write “it” in their hearts.” In Hebrews 8:10, the Holy Spirit through the writer of Hebrews says, “I will put my “laws” into their mind, and write “them” in their hearts.”
In Jeremiah, as we saw, Father used the singular form, but in Hebrews He uses the plural.
I know, it seems unimportant. I thought so too, but here’s the thing. We know that God does not make mistakes. We also know that all scripture is “God-breathed.” That means that He inspired the writers, carrying them along as they wrote. He was ensuring that His message would be faithfully recorded and preserved through the ages.
We also know from scripture that the Law of Moses is a singular unit. It cannot be broken apart or taken piece by piece. People don’t get to pick and choose which parts they will obey and which they will neglect. It’s all or nothing.
So, what does the Spirit intend for us to understand here? Why did He inspire the use of plural verbiage here?
Let’s begin with the words of Jesus in John 6:29 “Jesus answered and said unto them, ‘This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.’” And in John 13:34 He said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”
The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 3:23 “And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.”
We know from abundant passages throughout the New Testament that belief on Jesus as our only hope of righteousness is the response to His love for us that results in our rebirth. We know that God is love, and that loving one another, loving our neighbor as ourselves, is the natural response to His great love that has been poured into our hearts.
These laws are not the 613 stipulations of the Hebrew Law, but they do summarize that law. Paul put it this way in Romans 13:10 “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” And in writing to the church at Galatia, he said, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Galatians 5:14 – KJV)
So, we have two commandments under the new covenant. We are to believe, and we are to love. We will see in the next segment that there is more to this than simply “believe” and “love”, however.
We’re looking at the use of the words “laws” and “them” in Hebrews 8:10 Here’s the verse again: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.”
There is more in view here than simply “believe” and “love.” When we are reborn, we are taken out of Adam’s lineage and placed into Christ. He has, “delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.” (Colossians 1:13 – KJV) This is profound. In 1 Corinthians 6:17 we are told that, “he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit [with Him].” Peter says it this way in, 2 Peter 1:4 “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
We are profoundly joined with the Lord, and we participate in His nature. That doesn’t make us deities, but it does mean that when we are born of the Spirit of God, we inherit traits from our heavenly Father just as we inherited traits from our earthly parents.
Some of those are laid out for us in Galatians 5:22–23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” These are the traits of godliness. Such things characterize God, and they characterize those who are in Him.
Like the laws requiring that we believe on the Lord Jesus and love one another, godliness is what we were made for. It is written in our minds and on our hearts. Titus 2:11–12 says, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.”
It's one thing for the Spirit of God to teach us by His grace to behave in this way. It’s another for us to find this manifested in our day-to-day attitudes and actions. Here’s where God’s laws written in our hearts comes into play. Philippians 2:13 tells us that, “it is God which worketh in you both to will (desire) and to do of his good pleasure.”
We know we should behave in godly ways, but we don’t always do that. The fact that we have any idea what godly attitudes and actions are is evidence of God’s laws in our hearts. Gloriously, He is working in us by His Spirit changing our desires as well. His work in our hearts to “will,” or to desire, godly attitudes and actions draws us increasingly to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this world.
Another promise Father made sheds light on this. In Ezekiel 36:26–27 we find this magnificent promise. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”
This is all about our hearts. Our cold, hard, deceitful hearts were removed and replaced by pure, soft, and loving hearts. Father’s Spirit was put into us, and He “causes” us to walk in godly ways, keeping His laws and succeeding at it.
It’s no wonder that Father can tell us in the final three verses of our text in Hebrews 8:11-13 “And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.”
How could anyone in whom Holy Spirit lives and who lives in Christ Jesus need to be taught to know the Lord? How could we not know Him at the deepest level of our being? How different this is from what was required in the earlier covenant. No longer is it necessary to memorize lines and lines of statutes. No longer is the penalty for every failure death.
No wonder Holy Spirit could tell us through the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:2–4 that, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Instead of all that the Law required, under the new covenant He says, “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” The Spirit put it another way in 2 Corinthians 5:19 “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” According to this, Father is not counting your sins against you!
Hebrews 8:13 ends our study with this glorious truth, “In that he saith, “A new covenant,” he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” What magnificently good news this is. The work Jesus finished at the cross brought to an end the oversight of that harsh schoolmaster called “the Law” and replaced it with the laws of God being permanently installed in our hearts.
The demands of the Law are replaced by the loving prompting of Holy Spirit within us changing us from the inside out to want what He wants and do what He does. Truly, we participate in the divine nature and we can agree with the Psalmist, “I have not departed from thy judgments: For thou hast taught me. How sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through thy precepts I get understanding: Therefore I hate every false way.” Psalm 119:102–104 (KJV)
