Passage: Hebrews 8:6

The Big Idea

Jesus is the Mediator of a better covenant, established on better promises. The law had its promises and abilities, but grace has better ones, because Jesus Himself guarantees them. He’s a better priest who never dies or tires, offering a better sacrifice, His own blood, once for all, which actually takes away sin and gives us continual access to God’s presence. The law was only a shadow; Christ is the substance. The Law depends on man; grace depends on God. And the promises are breathtaking: a new nature, the Holy Spirit and abundant fruit.

A Better Covenant

Jesus has obtained a more excellent ministry, as Mediator of a better covenant, established on better promises. If the first covenant had been faultless, no second would have been needed (Hebrews 8:6-8).

The New Covenant is simply a better way to relate to God.
The law had promises and abilities. Grace has better promises and better abilities.
We set aside the old for the new.

Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant (Hebrews 7:22).

Why is it so much better? Because Jesus is the power behind it. He provides all that the New Covenant promises.
Jesus is the proof that God will make good on these wonderful, almost unbelievable promises.

A Better Priest

Melchizedek, king of righteousness and king of peace, appears without recorded genealogy, beginning or end, made like the Son of God, he remains a priest continually. If perfection had come through the Levitical priesthood, why would another priest need to arise in the order of Melchizedek? And Jesus is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:1-3, 11, 25).

Grace is better than law because Jesus never stops being our priest. He never dies or gets tired. He lives forever, always providing what we need by grace.
The priests under the law died. They failed. They sometimes got it wrong, and sometimes betrayed the people.
Jesus saves to the uttermost. There’s no need or problem He can’t completely handle.
He remains a priest continually. He doesn’t get scared off by our failures or tired of our weakness. He delights to be your High Priest.

A Better Sacrifice

Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12).

Compare the blood of animals with the precious blood of Jesus.
The high priest could enter the Most Holy Place only once a year, with animal blood. Access to God was severely limited.
Jesus brought His own blood into the true Most Holy Place in heaven and bought an eternal, permanent redemption, paying everything required for us to have unlimited access to God.
He earned it; we receive it as a free gift of grace.

He doesn’t need to offer sacrifices daily, like those high priests, first for their own sins and then for the people’s, for He did this once for all when He offered up Himself (Hebrews 7:27).

The priests’ work never ended. They always had to give more and do more.
Jesus ended that way of relating to God by offering the perfect sacrifice. There’s nothing to add.
Our lives are now free from the burden of “making up” for our mistakes. Jesus took care of it all.

Every priest stands ministering daily, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins (Hebrews 10:11).

The New Covenant is better because Jesus’ sacrifice actually takes away our sins.
He provided what all the bulls and goats only foreshadowed.
The priests under the law kept going back to the sacrifices and could never remain in communion with God. Now nothing else needs to be done.

Better Access

In the tabernacle, the high priest entered the second room, the Holiest of All, alone, once a year, not without blood (Hebrews 9:1-3, 7).

Access to God’s life-giving presence: once a year!
Do we really want to go back to a system where we make our own way by effort? Access to God is severely limited there.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19).

The New Covenant gives us perfect, continual access to God’s presence.
Whatever our need, provision has already been made and is available through Jesus.
We need to boldly take hold of the grace Jesus offers. How? Humility and faith.
Jesus’ blood is so powerful that it brings us right into the presence of our holy God.
Every believer should know and enter into everything God has purchased for them.

The Law Is a Shadow

The law has only a shadow of the good things to come, not the reality itself, and can never, by the same sacrifices offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near (Hebrews 10:1).

Our attempts to keep God’s standard could never transform us into truly good people. We can try, but we’ll always fail: “Without Me you can do nothing.”
There’s a better way to be made complete: the finished sacrifice of Jesus, just waiting to be trusted. Will we be humble enough to see our need for it?
No one comes home hoping their spouse will kiss their shadow. It’s silly to be devoted to a shadow.

Let no one judge you in food or drink, or regarding a festival, new moon or Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ (Colossians 2:16-17).

The New Covenant is better because it isn’t a foreshadowing; it’s the real thing.
Our life with Jesus is everything the law pointed to, so we’re free to leave the shadow and abide with the substance: Jesus Himself.
Every failure leads us to His throne to live in His mercy and grace.
Every success leads us to His throne to praise Him for His power at work in us.
He becomes all in all, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega.

Why It’s Better

Jesus is Mediator of a better covenant, established on better promises (Hebrews 8:6).

The New Covenant is started and powered by the life of Jesus Himself.
It’s a better ministry because He’s a better priest who made better promises.
It’s better because it doesn’t depend on us and our weakness, but on Him and His strength and faithfulness.
The law depends on man; grace depends on God. The difference is as great as God is higher than man.

What Exactly Is Promised?

A new nature. God has given us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world (2 Peter 1:4). An endless supply of grace producing a new life within.
The Holy Spirit. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, so that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (Galatians 3:13-14). Not by works or effort, but through faith alone.
Fruit. “Whoever abides in Me and I in him bears much fruit” (John 15:5). Jesus promises to produce fruit in your life.

Grace Takeaway

Why would anyone go back to the shadow when the substance has come? You have a better Priest who never tires of you, a better sacrifice that actually takes away sin, better access straight into God’s presence, and better promises guaranteed by Jesus Himself. The law depended on you; grace depends on God. Come boldly, and take hold of everything He has purchased for you.

For Discussion

What is so great about the promises of grace? Why are they better?
What exactly is promised in the New Covenant of grace?

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Grace Discipleship 10: Better Promises