His Superior Covenant

The definitive “Word” that God has spoken “in the Son” surpasses all past revelations made in “the prophets,” including Moses, the Great Lawgiver. Jesus of Nazareth exceeded every one of his predecessors. He alone “achieved the purification of sins,” therefore, he “sat down” at the right hand of God and inherited “all things.” Moreover, his exaltation signaled the commencement of the “New Covenant.”

The Letter to the Hebrews contrasts the perpetual priesthood, New Covenant, and once-for-all sacrifice of the Son with the multiple priests, obsolete covenant, and repeated animal sacrifices of the Levitical code.

[Dawn Photo by Remi Yuan on Unsplash]

God promised a new priesthood “after the order of Melchizedek,” demonstrating that the Aaronic priesthood could never achieve the “purification of sins.” Otherwise, there would have been no need for a new priesthood and accompanying covenant.

Under the “former” legislation, the people received the Law with its regulations for sacrifices, the calendar, and priesthood. But the promise of a new order of priests also meant “a change of law” was necessary - (Hebrews 7:11-14).

The Levitical priesthood depended on lineal descent and multiple generations of priests since all men die. In contrast, the priesthood “after the order of Melchizedek” is perpetual since it is based on the endless resurrection life of the “Son.” Jesus did not become “our High Priest” until his sacrificial Death and Resurrection.

Moreover, the Son was installed by the oath of God (“The Lord swore and will not regret: You are a priest everlastingly”); therefore, his priesthood is not “transmissible.” He is the “Guarantor of a better covenant,” and Jesus is well able to save his “brethren” to the uttermost since he “lives evermore to intercede for them” - (Psalm 110:4, Hebrews 7:15-25).

Unlike his predecessors, he “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens” and became the minister of “the Real Tabernacle,” and not of a temporary tent “made-by-hand.” He intercedes continually for his people in the greater and true “tent pitched by God” in the very presence of God.

The animal sacrifices of the Levitical system constituted only “glimpses and shadows of the heavenly realities,” therefore, they could never cleanse the sinner’s “conscience” of the stain of sin - (Hebrews 8:1-6).

BETTER COVENANT

Having attained a more distinguished ministry, he became the “mediator of a better covenant legislated upon better promises.” If the “first covenant” had been faultless, there would be no need for a second one to replace it. Having found fault with the former covenant, the Lord announced that He would “conclude a New Covenant” with His people. This vastly superior covenant would never require modification or replacement - (Hebrews 8:7-13).

In the Letter, the “New Covenant” is expressly stated NOT to be “according to the covenant” made at Sinai. It is not a “renewed” version of the Law given through Moses, but an entirely new covenant designed to achieve the “purification of sins.”

Under this “New Covenant,” all citizens of the Kingdom know God since His righteous requirements have been inscribed on their hearts by the “Spirit of the living God,” thus “circumcising their hearts” rather than their “foreskins” to love Yahweh their God with all their heart and thy soul as promised in the Torah - (Deuteronomy 30:6, Jeremiah 31:31-33, Ezekiel 36:22-27, 2 Corinthians 3:1-3).

By establishing the “New Covenant,” Jesus “made the first one obsolete.” This means the covenant established at Sinai ceased to be in effect for God’s people because of the superior sacrifice, covenant, and priestly office of the “Son.”

Since the “New Covenant” achieved the “purification of sins” and “cleansed the conscience” of the believer, its benefits far surpass those of the old Levitical code. To return now to that dated system would mean abandoning the supreme benefits of the New Covenant established by the Son of God through great personal sacrifice.

Not only so but forsaking the Assembly after we have received the knowledge of the truth would amount to “trampling underfoot the Son of God and the blood of the covenant.” The Lord will judge His people, and, in the end, the apostate will find just what a “fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of a Living God.”

The position of the Letter to the Hebrews is that returning to the Levitical system means abandoning the superior New Covenant established by the Son of God and apostatizing from the “salvation” provided by God “upon the last of these days.” Any man or woman who “drifts away” from this foundation will “receive just recompense” far worse than any punishment received under the Mosaic Law for his or her egregious “disobedience and transgression.”

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