We're studying in the book of Hebrews at the moment, and we're looking at the particular subject of Why Jesus? And we've gone about to answer the question. In fact, I believe we've answered it satisfactorily as the Hebrews writer has answered it satisfactorily in the first three verses of chapter one, and we've been looking at the various proofs throughout the rest of the book. As to the demonstration of that particular answer, Jesus is Better. He is a better Prophet, Priest and King. Jesus is better than the angels, Jesus was also the one who brought about a better hope, we looked at this morning. Now, what we're going to do—and we kind of introduced it toward the end of the lesson, and I didn't make any big deal about it because I knew that's where we were going tonight.
Why Jesus? Because He Authored a Better Testament.
Now, there's two words you're gonna find in the book of Hebrews, and they're from the same Greek word; one is covenant and the other is testament, and they mean the same thing. They might emphasize maybe some different aspects or some various elements of importance in the various contexts in which you find them, but they're from the very same Greek word, and so we're talking about the same thing.
Don't be worried if you find, or if the translation that you read from has covenant in one place and testament in other, or if I say testament and yours says covenant—they're the same word. But Jesus is the answer because we have a better testament.
Jesus the Surety and Mediator of a Better Testament
“By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.” — Hebrews 7:22
- Hebrews 8:6
We're gonna look at this idea of better promises.
- 2 Corinthians 3:6
The letter he was talking about was, of course, the Old Testament law. It couldn't bring about life, it couldn't bring about the real forgiveness of sins, but it identified what sin was. It showed the people, and it demonstrates to us through our reading of the Old Testament, God's view of sin and what it means to Him and how it completely separates man from God.
That's identified, that's laid out in the Old Testament very specifically. But if we're relying on the Old Testament now to save us, it is exactly like what Paul says there in 2 Corinthians chapter three and in verse six: the law's gonna kill us. The law will kill us because it's not in force, it has no effectiveness to it.
There's no punishment that we can receive based on the Old Testament law and where there is no punishment, there is no law. But there is a law that is in place and one that is better.
The Prophecy of the New Covenant
Now, the Hebrews writer in Hebrews chapter eight, what he does—and very expertly does he do this—he takes from the prophet Jeremiah.
If you turn to Jeremiah, it is a prophecy concerning a new covenant that God was going to establish with Israel. Notice the words of Jeremiah.
- Jeremiah 31:31-34
What a wonderful prophecy that is laid out for us to consider. The Hebrews writer here in Hebrews chapter eight quotes this particular prophecy word for word. And parts of it again are mentioned in chapter 10 as well. The part about their sins and iniquities God will not remember, but that's just one of the reasons why this is such a great testament.
All of this hinges on one key point. We've talked about in the lesson on hope, and we explained some things about the priesthood of Jesus. We have a new law because Jesus is a High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
- Psalm 110:4
With Jesus as our eternal High Priest, and the setting aside, the putting away of the Old Testament law, there had to be the establishment of a new law. A New Testament, a new covenant that was going to then mediate our salvation back to God.
That's what Jesus set out to establish. He is the mediator of a better covenant, Hebrews 8:6.
What a Mediator Does
Well, what does a mediator do? Well, you think in business terms, in today's world, a mediator sits down between two parties and drafts an agreement that both parties are going to follow. And if both parties follow the agreement, then there is peace.
Can we be at peace with God today? We absolutely can be. But only if we follow the covenant that Jesus established, because outside of the covenant that Jesus established, there is no peace because it's not honored by God. It's not recognized by God. It does not matter what man thinks of it. If it's a covenant not recognized by God, then there is no peace, no forgiveness, no satisfaction for the penalty for sin.
- Romans 5:9
We think when we talk concerning redemption—and I get off just a little bit here—when we talk concerning redemption, we think we're saved from sin. We're not actually saved from sin. That's not actually correct factually. Why? Because you and I can still sin. We can sin even as members of the church, as those that are in the kingdom as part of the body of Christ.
But what is it that Jesus on the cross did for us? What is it that redemption means to us? It means you and I are saved from the wrath of God. You and I are saved from the penalty that sin is going to bring to our lives.
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” — Romans 6:23
What Makes the New Testament Better?
So what is this New Testament and what makes it better? Some of these things obviously will be a review. Like I said, we've talked about some of these already, but what makes this new covenant better?
1) It Is Written On Our Hearts
According to the prophecy of Jeremiah, it's going to be a law that's written on our hearts. We're gonna want to follow what this Old Testament law could not, or we're gonna follow what the New Testament wants us to do because it's in our hearts to do so.
They had rituals and they had traditions and they had things that their fathers did that they passed down as being right in the eyes of God. But God wants us to follow Him because it's the right thing to do and not because we're trying to check some box of offering sacrifices or going to the tabernacle or the temple certain hours of the day in order to offer prayers to God and being that regimented—though there are certain things that would not be harmful for us to engage in.
But external sacrifices are done away. We talked about this idea this morning that Jesus was the last sacrifice, the only sacrifice that we're ever going to need to bring us into a right relationship with God. But that doesn't mean that we're not without any sacrifices according to the New Testament.
- Romans 12:1-2
Through the sacrifice that Jesus made, you and I now—we don't have to offer the sacrifices of bulls and goats. We don't have to offer sacrifices of unwilling animals that we force onto an altar. You and I as priests in God's kingdom offer sacrifices of ourselves. And we offer the sacrifice of our time. We offer the sacrifice of our thoughts. We offer the sacrifice of our speech. We offer the sacrifice of our good works and our good behavior and so on and so forth.
These are what's meant by offer living sacrifices unto God. And we don't get to take any days off. There's no offer sacrifices five days a week, and then we rest on the seventh day. There is none of that. We offer living sacrifices, and when we offer our living sacrifices unto God, it is our reasonable service. It's what we ought to do for the one who was our mediator, who gave us the way back to God.
2) A Personal Relationship with God
Then, what makes the New Testament better? You and I can have a personal relationship with God that maybe those in the Old Testament times, they really couldn't have—and I say that because they were in some ways prevented from coming before their God.
They had to go through the priesthood in order to worship God. They had to go through the high priest once a year on the Day of Atonement in order for their sins to be rolled back for another year. There wasn't anything really outside of obeying the Mosaic law that the people could do to develop a personal relationship with God. Was there? Did they have the opportunity to have faith in the Old Testament? Yes. Did they have the ability to obey in the Old Testament and to be and for that obedience and faith and works to be counted unto them as righteousness? Yes, they had that, but they lacked to a degree that personal relationship with God.
You and I don't lack that anymore. Why? Because we as New Testament Christians are priests and we can come before God directly through prayer, through the avenue of Jesus Christ who is our high priest. We have complete and total access to God.
- James 5:16
And we ought to take advantage of that particular avenue. The high priest was the only person who could enter the holiest of holies.
Turn to Hebrews chapter nine. The differences in the priesthood is laid out for us over a couple of chapters beginning with chapter eight, chapter nine, and kind of throughout chapter 10.
- Hebrews 9:7
In the previous verses leading up to this is talking about the Old Testament style of worship and the word tabernacle is used and it really made no difference whether you were talking about the tabernacle or the temple. They both had two main rooms. One was a holy place, one was a most holy place, and through the veil was the most holy place, and the only one that could go in there was the high priest. And he couldn't go in there every day. He couldn't go in there any day that he wanted to. According to the Old Testament law, he could only go in there one day of the year on the Day of Atonement, and he had to bring a blood sacrifice, but before that, he had to cleanse himself of his sins.
You and I have direct access to God. We can go to our Heavenly Father in prayer because Jesus is our High Priest and He continually mediates for us, sitting at the right hand of God, meaning our prayers are heard, and he relays those prayers, He intercedes on our behalf.
Are there times when you want to pray to God but you don't know what it is that you need to say?
- 1 Peter 5:7
Are there things you want to give over to God to handle and do? But you don't know how to word it. We have an intercessor. We have two intercessors.
- Romans 8:26
Romans chapter eight talks about the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. Other passages talk about Jesus being our intercessor as well, [Romans 8:34, Hebrews 7:25, & 1 John 2:1]. We don't know what to say. God says, tell me anyway. Tell me what you can, and the Spirit and the mediator will take care of the rest.
We have the ability to have a personal relationship with God.
- Hebrews 10:19
We should have boldness in our lives to stand before God and offer prayers of various kinds based on whatever needs we have, based on the needs of our family, based on the needs of our congregation that we serve in, that we work with. God wants to hear those from those that are in His kingdom.
3) Universal Knowledge of God
The importance or what makes the New Testament better is universal knowledge of who God is.
The fact that we have revealed to us through inspiration a completed mind of God that is suitable. That's not all the thoughts of God. Let's not go wild here and say that we have everything that God has ever thought about. We wouldn't be able to comprehend it even if we had access to it. But we have everything that we need.
- 2 Peter 1:3
God has given us His mind in particular, and we can all go to one source for truth.
- 2 Timothy 3:16-17
There's not a single thing that's necessary for us to obtain salvation or us to live a life in service and righteousness to God that cannot be found in the Bible—more specifically in the new covenant.
Now, are there great lessons that we can learn from the Old Testament? Absolutely. The Old Testament, as one person said, is the New Testament concealed. The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed. There's so many prophecies and tellings of the future that are going to come about as because of the kingdom that if we don't understand the Old Testament, certain parts of the New Testament are really difficult to get a handle on.
And for some people, Hebrews is that way. Because there's so many references to various elements of the Old Testament and law that we don't always go back and consider. We think of high priests as being Old Testament stuff, but we need to understand the office and the function of a high priest because we have one.
The high priest is very much a New Testament doctrine, and we need to know how to rightly be able to teach it because there's many that have gone way off when it comes to high priests and the priesthoods that are in existence today.
4) Full and Complete Forgiveness
A fourth way that the New Testament or the new covenant is better: the forgiveness of sins is full and complete.
We talked about this a little bit this morning, and I won't belabor the topic necessarily, but they didn't have that. And some people are not able to wrap their minds around this very easily. Well, they'll say, well, does that mean that nobody in the Old Testament was saved? No, that's not what it means at all.
Every single one who was righteous in the eyes of God—and we have no idea what that number is or looks like—but all of those that upheld the Old Testament law, we would say are saved. And we can say that because of the blood of Jesus, their sins were forgiven in prospect of Jesus dying on the cross.
That is one proof in and of itself that Satan is not all-knowing. You ever think about that? Satan wanted to destroy the coming of the church. He wanted to destroy the Son of God. He wanted to make it to where man could not be reconciled to God. And so he figured if he killed the Son of God, man could not be reconciled to God.
When killing the Son of God is exactly what brings reconciliation to God. The devil is not all-knowing. The devil does not have all power because in killing the Son of God, he fulfilled the plan of God.
That was for free. That wasn't in my notes at all. It was just something to consider. I find it funny to think about those things from time to time.
In the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:34 there at the end: “their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”
One of the hardest sections of scripture for us may be to personally understand: Romans chapter six through eight. Now, I know that because of so many different ways people have taught Romans, it's hard for many people to grasp it.
The whole point of Romans chapter seven is this very thing right here, the verses that we read in the King James, and it ties up our tongue where Paul says the things that I want to do I did not do, and the things that I didn't want to do, they're the things that I did do.
And he is—and it reads like he's a man that is not at peace with himself because he was living under the Old Testament law at the time, and he would sin and he would offer sacrifices, and he found no relief for the sins that he committed.
The greatest blessing of the day of Pentecost is for the first time in the history of mankind since sin entered into the world, the 3000 that gladly received the word.
- Acts 2:41, 47
They were baptized, they were added to the kingdom, verse 47, and for the first time in history, their sins were not remembered by God and they knew it. They knew it.
Sin is completely forgiven. God will not remember the sins that we repent of to Him, and we take care of those with those that we've sinned against as we have the ability to do that. There's some things you can't take back. There's some things you can't undo. I get that. You can say you're sorry till you're blue in the face, and it's not going to help that other person, but trust that God has removed the stain of sin from your life.
When you go to Him and you say, “Father, I've sinned,” and you turn away and you don't go down that road again. It's a promise that He made. It is part of what's in the New Testament. God has removed the stain, and we need to be able to handle our grief that comes with sin, and that's going to be different for each one as how that is handled.
5) Secured by Jesus, Not Our Ability
In a fifth way that the new testament is better: the covenant is secured by Jesus, not our ability to keep the law.
As long as Jesus remains our high priest, this mediated law is in effect. The New Testament remains the law of the land, if you will—if you want to put it in that particular vernacular—until Jesus no longer is Prophet, Priest, and King.
But Jesus is always going to be Prophet, Priest, and King until such time as He comes again and He receives those that are His to Himself, and then He will deliver those same ones, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, back to the Father, a glorious church, one that is pure, one that is without spot.
Jesus is faithful, and so it is held up by the power of the promises of Jesus. Who, when you go back to chapter six, Jesus cannot lie. One of the greatest aspects of the God that we serve is we can trust when He says, “I forgive.” We can trust when He says, all you have to do is follow in the steps of the Lord and Savior Jesus, and do the things that He did. We can trust that and we can live it in our lives.
6) Indestructible Priesthood and Direct Access
Number six: we have an indestructible Priesthood. We've brought it up several times now, but I can't help but bring it up again, just very briefly. The Old Testament priesthood failed over and over and over again. Why? Two main reasons. They grew old and they died. They did things that put them at odds with God and they were unprofitable at times. And they died. There were so many priests over and over and over again, but now there's only one, one who will be forever our high priest.
Number seven: we have direct access to God. We've talked about that already. Jesus removed or replaced the veil that stood between the holy place in the tabernacle and the temple and the most holy place.
- John 14:6
The only thing that stands between us and God is the one who delivered the plan to get us back to God, and He's not standing there to prevent our entry. He's standing there with open arms welcoming us into the kingdom as long as we follow the directions of the word, as long as we follow what we find in the New Testament.
7) Eternal Inheritance Guaranteed
And finally, we have an eternal inheritance guaranteed in this new covenant.
We talked about from chapter four—we kind of glossed over it a little bit—this idea of rest, the idea that if everything was made perfect by the Old Testament law, then why was it spoken of that there was another rest waiting for them?
If the promises of the Old Testament law—the physical land and the continual dwelling, if you will—if that was all there was, why was there any need for anything else?
In Hebrews chapter four, we find that there is still a rest that is coming. There is a rest that we're never going to have to worry about ending because it's going to be eternal.
Maybe you're reading (or listening to) this, a member of the body of Christ, but you are not fully trusting in the mediated covenant that is so much better than anything the Old Testament could offer.
There are those today that want to still—just like the Hebrews of the first century that this book, this epistle was written to—they want to abandon New Testament Christianity as we find it in the pages of our New Testament today, and they want to go back to Judaism still to a law that cannot save them, and they're wanting to offer burnt offerings again. Why? It's an inferior system where the burnt offerings of bulls and goats—Hebrews 10:4—never had the ability to remove sin.
Why would we leave?
Why Jesus? Because He authored a better testament for you and for me, for the sole purpose of bringing us back to God through the process of redemption, and He paid the price for our sins.
Maybe you're one who's outside the body of Christ, and you need to take advantage of the promises that are in the New Testament because outside of the body of Christ, those promises of an eternal kingdom, those promises of the forgiveness of sins being remembered no more, the promises of having an inheritance—they don't exist. They don't exist. They're only going to be in the covenant that Jesus mediated between God and man.
Having heard the word, are you willing to believe it? Are you willing to repent of your sins and confess your faith in Jesus as deity, and to submit yourself to a watery grave and have your sins washed away by the blood of Jesus?
If we can help you, we encourage you to contact us. We would be thrilled to study with you and help you to come to know this better testament.
