Hebrews 7:22 8:13 // Jesus is better than the Old Covenant
Series: Greater than >
Title: Better than the Old Covenant
Scripture: Hebrews 7:22-8:13
Date: 9.11.2025
Priests and Promises Everywhere
If today’s reading from Hebrews has left you a bit spun out, you’re not alone. Over the last month or so we’ve been looking at the book of Hebrews and it’s all about angels, priests, sacrifices, and covenants. Words and concepts that we don’t really talk about day to day.
Today’s reading for example says:
‘Now the main point of what we are saying is this: we do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being.’
(Hebrews 8:1-2)
Now this is a glorious passage but it can be lost on us in 2025 when we don’t really talk about priests, sanctuaries, or tabernacles today.
And yet reflecting on this passage, if you’ve got eyes to see it, we still live in a world of priests and promises today.
For instance if I want to live in a house (a sanctuary), I will go to a real estate agent (who functions as my priest or mediator), and as long as I offer the correct sacrifice (rent or some sort of payment), I will get to sign a lease (which functions as a covenant), which promises (covenants) that I will continue to offer such sacrifices until I die or own my house.
There are priests and promises all around us. Politicians are our political priests, making promises, and offering us their version of the good life (heaven), if we sacrifice our votes for them. Even the check-out person at the supermarket is a little priest who comes to fix my mistakes when I don’t scan my groceries the right way!
We live in a world surrounded by priests and promises but the good news for us is that Jesus, our great high priest, has offered himself on the cross, to give us the promise of the best future imaginable, both now and into eternity.
Old Covenant
Priests and covenants have existed in different forms throughout humanity. As Christians, we speak of the Old Covenant, and the New Covenant. So let’s think briefly about why the Old Covenant should matter to us. At first glance Hebrews 7-8 seems critical of the Old Covenant, but it’s not.
• Pros
Throughout the great story of the Bible God repeatedly makes promises with his people. The main covenant God made with the people of Israel is sometimes called the Mosaic Covenant. After freeing the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, God led the people to the foot of a mountain where he appeared before Moses and gave him the Law. Part of this Law was cut into stones on which were written the Ten Commandments.
This was a covenant cut by God, and it was designed to show these free slaves how to live in the land God that was freely giving them. It was a good covenant. There were also other covenants throughout the Israelite story – with Abraham, Noah, Moses and David.
Another good thing was the tabernacle and the priesthood. These were tangible reminders of God’s presence among his people. The tabernacle was built to specific measurements because it was a little model of heaven. God camped in the middle of his people and this majestic tent reminded people of heaven.
The priests likewise served to provide atonement (at-one-ment). When the people sinned, they would get a bull, a sheep, or a pigeon to sacrifice and they’d bring it to the priest who would kill it, as an atoning sacrifice. This was a reminder of the seriousness of sin, but also how God provided a way for his people to be forgiven. The animal would take the punishment, so I could be forgiven, and be at one with God again. Bad for the animal, good for me.
All these pros are hinted at in Hebrews 7 and 8 and you can see why Jewish Christians would have been tempted to go back to living as Old Covenant people. The early church didn’t have a sacrificial system, priests, or even any buildings! People just met in houses, broke bread together, and suffered a lot of persecution for it. It felt like they had an agreement with God, but no security, like a tenant without a lease. So why stay?
- Cons
Well one of the reasons Hebrews gives is because of the shortcomings of the Old Covenant. Hebrews 8:7 says:
‘For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.’
(Hebrews 8:7)
The old saying goes, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. But the old covenant wasn’t foolproof. So what were the cons?
Well v.8 tells us:
‘But God found fault with the people’
(Hebrews 8:8)
At Mt Sinai God gave the people the Old Covenant and told them to keep it. The people shout back: ‘We will do everything the LORD YAHWEH has said’ but sadly they didn’t. Generation after generation of Hebrews broke covenant with God. Some did better than others, but ultimately all of them fell short of the glory of God. The people were flawed.
Another reason the Old Covenant could never save the people was because the priests were flawed! Hebrews 7:23 notes how the priests died, which prevented them from continuing office! Their role as mediators was temporary. V.27 points out that Old Covenant priests had to make sacrifices for their own sins as well as the people’s sins, because they were sinful. V.28 notes their weaknesses. If the priestly system could have saved the people, it would have, but even the priests turned away from God.
Friends this is a good moment to acknowledge my flaws. I try to answer all my emails, calls, and texts. I try to visit all the sick people in the parish, arrive early to all my meetings, and volunteer at every working bee. I try to go to events put on by the bishop, community events, and parties I’m invited to. I try not to sin, or get grumpy with people, and be impatient, but I don’t.
While I want to be perfect priest, I’m not and I will let inevitably let down. For this I’m sorry, but I’m thankful for God’s grace and yours.
Fortunately God doesn’t need us to be perfect, because the Old Covenant priesthood was temporary, and was always designed to be a shadow of something much greater to come.
The Old Covenant was plan A and God had to think up another way. Jesus spoke of new wine and new life. While the Old Covenant was cut on stone tablets, God promised that a new one would be written on the hearts of his people. The Old Covenant was like a nanny, teaching people right and wrong and caring for them until such time that the great high priest would come, making all things new.
The New Covenant
And this is where the joy of the New Covenant bursts from the pages of the Bible and into our hearts.
Hebrews chapter 8 v.1 says:
‘Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being.’
(Hebrews 8:1)
The main point of this section, and the main point of the whole book is that Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God and that knowing him is better than anything else!
The new covenant is all pros and no cons! But how?
First of all, the New Covenant is governed by God, guaranteed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and energised by the Holy Spirit. It’s simply a better covenant.
Because God initiates and sustains this covenant, it cannot fail because it doesn’t depend on the righteousness of broken human beings. While the sacrificial system allowed temporary atonement, the priests had to pile up more sacrifices on the altar because the people kept sinning!
V.26 tells us that in Christ we have a High Priest who truly meets our need because he is ‘holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens’ (v.26).
No earthly priest comes close. Jesus is the Greatest Of All Time (the GOAT).
The law exposed sin and its effects but in Christ we have grace.
Vv.8-12 of chapter 8 give us the longest Old Testament quote in all the New Testament. It comes from the book of Jeremiah who was called the weeping prophet, but the quoted section is part of what’s often called ‘Jeremiah’s little book of hope’.
By quoting this section the book of Hebrews helps us see that the New Covenant was promised well before Jesus and was always God’s plan.
It begins:
‘The days are coming, declares the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the people’
(Hebrews 8:8)
While the Old Covenant was broken by the people over and over again, God hasn’t abandoned them.
With this New Covenant God promises in v.10:
‘I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts’
(Hebrews 8:10).
How will God do this? By his Spirit who he sends into the hearts of his people so that they might became little temples of his presence.
It was easy to turn away from the old laws etched in stone, but this one will be written on a soul levelled into our very hearts.
This covenant will not require priests to be the middlemen between God and the people. Instead, we can all go straight to the source and will know God personally.
See v.11:
‘No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.’
(Hebrews 8:11)
Friends this is awesome news, in a special way if you’re not Jewish. The prophet Zechariah echoes this prophecy from Jeremiah and speaks of a day when: ‘ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.’
(Zechariah 8:23)
While non-Jews were barred from the priestly system, at Pentecost the Holy Spirit is poured out on all people and God makes himself known to all who come to him. Even those people from outside the old covenant!
This is amazing love and powerful forgiveness that allows us into God’s presence. For me, v.12 is the cherry on top of this whole chapter. God says:
‘I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more’.
While the Old Covenant gave partial forgiveness, it was only a shadowy photocopy of the forgiveness that Jesus won for us on the cross.
Melbourne theologian Peter Adam writes: ‘This adequate and complete forgiveness of sins of the new covenant is its most significant achievement; all other blessings of the new covenant flow from this forgiveness.’
As we saw last week, through Jesus’ perfect and sufficient sacrifice for us, we can boldly approach God’s throne room of grace!
New Covenant People
Because of this gospel truth, followers of Jesus now live as New Covenant people. This is never something we should take lightly or see as a licence to sin. Instead, it’s a privilege to live out, something that like new wine should bubble up and flow into every aspect of our daily lives. It’s the most important feature of who we are.
So how do we live as new covenant people?
Well first it’s important to note that while the old covenant was full of duties, the new covenant speaks only of God’s actions fulfilled in Christ.
Christianity is not primarily about our obligations; it’s about God’s grace. So it’s worth asking ourselves, do I feel like I have chores to do before God will love me? Do I tend toward old covenant religion where I need to uphold my side of the bargain? Or do I live in the freedom of knowing Christ and not needing a middleman to access him?
Secondly, it’s vital that we remember that the New Covenant is about forgiveness. Does God’s forgiveness sit at the heart of why I live the way I do, or do I have some other motivation? Am I looking toward my heavenly home with God, sharing his forgiveness in the here and now, knowing I will one day see him face to face?
Friends we live under a better covenant established by our great high priest – Jesus Christ. Let’s embrace life as New Covenant people, walking in his power every day. Amen.