November 10, 2011

The key word of the Book of Hebrews is “better.” It was written to show Jewish people the need and role of the New Covenant in God’s unfolding plan for mankind. While reading through the first chapters of this book, it is very important to remember that while it describes various aspects of the New Covenant as “better” than the Old Covenant, it does not call the Mosaic Covenant “bad.”

God did things through Moses that were a very important part of His plan and that were exactly what was needed at that time. The Apostle Paul points out in his Epistle to the Galatian Christians that “…the the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. (Gal. 3:24 KJV)” The New Living Translation renders that verse this way: “…The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith.”

Having a guardian is not a bad thing when you need one! Simply put, what Paul is getting at is that God gave the Law through Moses as one of His means of preparing His people to receive the Messiah. How did that happen? Among other things, continually being confronted with the multitude of commandments in the Law made it very clear to every Jewish person how sinful they were and how much they needed a Savior. This set the stage for them to receive the message that Jesus the Messiah had died for them with great openness and joy.

In our reading from Hebrews chapter ten today, the author zeros in on the tremendous contrast between the sacrificial system set up by the Law and the perfectly full and complete sacrificial work of Jesus Christ through His death on the cross. Old Testament priests had to offer sacrifices over and over again for the sins of the people, time after time after time. Jesus, on the other hand, offered His own blood once for all time. He died once and will never need to die again. In a sense, the blood of bulls and goats could only cover sin for a defined period of time. The blood of Jesus Christ has the power to take away sin forever! In other words, the death of an innocent animal was enough to appease wrath of God for a few days or weeks or months, but the death of Jesus the spotless Lamb, God’s own Son, was enough to satisfy God’s righteous fury forever!

Furthermore, through the New Covenant, God not only deals with our sin, He also deals with our tendency to sin by putting His laws in our hearts and writing them upon our minds! When we open our hearts to Jesus, the one who died for us and who alone can cleanse our guilt, we also open our hearts to the one who rose again, victorious over death itself and who gives us the precious Holy Spirit who is ready and able to help us overcome temptation. When we turn from our sin and trust Jesus as our sacrifice – the one whose death in our place satisfied the righteous demands of the Law on our behalf by paying our penalty – we become a new type of person, what the New Testament calls “a new creature” or “a new creation.” Old things, i.e., our former life and way of living, pass away and Jesus makes everything new.

I don’t know about you, but thinking about this wonderful reality causes me to want to lift my voice in praise and thanksgiving to God for sending Jesus and establishing the New and better Covenant on our behalf…! Why don’t you take a moment and thank the Lord right now for setting you free from both the penalty and the power of sin…!

Pastor Mark