You Have a Better Covenant With Better Promises

One of the issues that keep resurfacing in Christian circles today is covenants. Many believers still do not have a fundamental grasp of which covenant they are under today in Christ, or why they cannot have both Mosaic and the Messianic covenants (The Law and Grace). It’s interesting to note that while there were many different covenants in the Bible, only the Law of Moses, only the Mosaic Covenant has seemed to persist and be a point of confusion and an area of stumbling for many believers today. Of-course this is not a coincidence, Satan knows all too well, that the strength of sin is the Law which brings about the sting of death as mentioned in 1^st Corinthians 15:56. As long as the enemy can keep believers in confusion about their place and position in Christ Jesus, then they will always be weak and vulnerable due to plain and simple ignorance of the truth. And God does not want that.

That’s why in this study today, we will be taking an in-depth look at the covenant which we are under today, the Messianic Covenant of Grace in Christ, and we will also be addressing the common areas of confusion that many believers have today regarding the Mosaic Covenant of the Law and how it relates to us today in Christ. By seeing these truths, you will be set free from confusion, able to freely enjoy the Covenant which Jesus has placed you in today.

As we begin today, we are going to be looking at a section of scripture which many will be familiar with, but we are going to delve deeper in order to see some details which are commonly overlooked. Turn to Hebrews 8:6-13:

“But now has he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

For finding fault with them, he said, Behold, the days come, said the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, said the Lord.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, said the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

In that he said, A new covenant, he has made the first old. Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away.”

The first thing here for us to see is that in verse 6, Jesus has obtained a more excellent ministry. His ministry is vastly superior to that of the ministry of the law of Moses. Jesus Christ is a vastly superior High Priest, and offered the perfect sacrifice of Himself for the sin of the entire world, past, present and future.

We also see from verse 6 that He is the mediator of a better covenant which was established on better promises. This is an area that many believers still do not grasp or understand. Many believers still have this idea that the covenants can be intermingled, or that there is somehow a benefit to mixing both Law and Grace… to have some of Moses and some of Jesus – and by thinking that, they completely miss the point of what this verse is saying. It is a sad state of Christianity when believers fail to realize that Jesus has done a complete work that does not need to be added to; it is quite pitiful when I see that believers do not recognize that Christ has made them complete in Himself, but they fail to receive that truth and instead try to complete themselves by adding to Christ with other things; things of much lesser value than Christ!

Yet what we see in this verse is that Christ is the mediator of a better covenant. I have spoken with many professing Christians who still think that the Law and Christ hold equal place with one another. They forget that Peter was rebuked by the Father with a thundering voice from Heaven for trying to put Jesus on an equal level with the Law and the prophets in Matthew 17:4-6. It is a dangerous thing to lower Jesus to the same level as the Law. The covenant that Jesus mediates is better than the Law, because the Law cannot save us, the law cannot justify us, and the law cannot make us holy (Galatians 2:16, Romans 3:30). This is actually quite a large area of stumbling for believers today. Many of us are trying to do some kind of spiritual balancing act between Mt. Sinai and Mt. Zion. We are trying to mix elements of two different covenants, not realizing how grievous an error that is. Jesus says in Matthew 9:16-17 that you cannot put a new patch of cloth onto an old garment, or they will tear worse than before. You also cannot put new wine into old wineskins or the wine will ferment and both will be lost. Yet we have many believers trying to do exactly that!

Every day I encounter people who are trying to reintroduce, reinforce or otherwise insert the Law of Moses into their lives under the New Covenant, and it simply cannot be done. They are very creative in their attempts, but the result is always the same – exactly as Jesus said, it ends up spoiling their faith in Christ, it ends up tearing their righteousness apart and ruining their joy.

Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant, because He is able to do what the law was never designed to do. The Law was given so that the offense might abound (Romans 5:20). Remember what happened way back in Exodus 19:8, all of the people boasted together with one voice saying “all that the Lord has spoken we will do” – which in the original Hebrew text is a very prideful statement. They boasted in their own ability, strength and power to obey God… and so God gave them 10 commandments, not to justify them, not to make them holy or righteous, but to show them that they need a Savior. This is the exact same reason why Jesus asks the Samaritan woman at the well to give Him a drink in John 4:7 (which she never did)… His reason for asking her was to reveal to her that she actually had nothing to give Him – He was the source of living water!

As Galatians 3:24-25 so eloquently states: the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, it shows us that we need a savior; but after that faith [in Christ] has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

We cannot live a victorious life in Christ with one foot on Mt. Sinai and the other foot on Mt. Zion. Yet that is what many believers are trying to do today. And as I said, people are very creative in coming up with new ways to try and argue in favor of the Law, but none of them hold up in the light of the finished work of Christ found in the scriptures. As we continue with our main text of Hebrews 8 what we also see from verse 6, is that this new and better covenant mediated by Jesus Christ, also contains better promises.

Now I want to specifically draw your attention to this phrase “better promises” because a lot of believers go astray right here, because they don’t actually believe that the promises in Christ are better!

I know, it’s shocking… but it’s true. I have spoken with people who have told me that Jesus is the Law, and that the Old Covenant promises to Israel are what they has in Christ. Now that may sound good, until you start to read the scriptures, because our verse in Hebrews 8:6 does not say that we have the promises given to Israel under the old covenant, it says we have a better covenant established on better promises.

Furthermore, Jesus is most certainly not the Law of Moses! The scriptures very clearly state in innumerable places within the Bible that Jesus is much greater than the Law! To lower Jesus down to the level of the Law is very egregious! The Law was given by Moses, but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17). Jesus did totally fulfill the Law, but to say that the Beloved One and only Son of God is a set of rules, is to terribly misrepresent Him!

Now for this study today, I am not going to cover verses 7 and 8 because we studied them in-detail previously (Boldly Embrace the Gospel of Grace). Suffice it for this study to say that God found fault with the Mosaic Covenant, because God wanted to bless man, but man’s inability to keep the Law forced God in His holiness to curse man instead. So, because God is merciful and has always desired to bless mankind, He cuts a New Covenant with man, one not based on mans’ ability, but based on Christ and His perfection. This is precisely the point of verse 9… this New Covenant mediated by Jesus is not according to the covenant that God made with their fathers when He took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt, that again is reference to the Law. This New Covenant is not according to that one.

Then in verse 10, God continues to explain how this New Covenant is different, and here is where we find another common argument for the Law, because people get confused when they read verse 10… God says:

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, said the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:”

Now when people see the word “laws” there, they immediately want to think of the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, because we are religiously conditioned to always think of the Ten Commandments whenever we see the word commandments or laws in the Bible – and that is a very sad thing. However I want to open your awareness to the truth of scripture, because upon close inspection, the laws being refereed to in this verse cannot possibly be the Ten Commandments.

In verse 11, God says that:

“And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.”

And the details in the Greek text here are very important to proper understanding of this verse and the verses surrounding it. The two uses of the word “know” in this one verse, are actually two entirely different Greek words, with two different meanings. The first word, used when the verse says “They shall not teach… know the Lord…” is the Greek word ginosko, which means: to know someone by self-effort or works.

The second word, used when the says says “… all shall know Me…” is the Greek word eido which means: an inward knowing by the spirit.

So with this understanding, we can see what God is saying here is that under the New Covenant of Grace in Christ, no-one will teach anyone to know the Lord through self-effort or works, but all people will come to know the Lord through an inward knowing by the Spirit. By this truth you can begin to see how the commonly held belief that the “laws” from verse 11 are the Ten Commandments is not supported in scripture.

Furthermore in verse 12, God continues by saying that He will be merciful to our unrighteousness, and our sins and iniquities He will remember no more. Here we see one of these better promises for us in this New Covenant. God has promised to no longer remember our sins or our iniquities – and many believers don’t even believe this! If God has promised that He will not remember your sin, why do you still live in fear of punishment? If God is not remembering your sin, why do you still remember it and beat yourself up about it? This verse here is further proof that the “laws” written on our hearts from verse 10 cannot be the Ten Commandments because whatever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23) and the Law is not of faith (Galatians 3:12); why? Because under the New Covenant, you are to have faith in Christ alone, and you cannot add to or take away from this glorious covenant of faith in Christ (Galatians 3:15).

So these laws that God puts in our hearts and writes on our minds cannot be the Ten Commandments, because they are in the Ark, covered by the Mercy Seat of Christ! God is not going to remove the Mercy Seat in order to engrave again those laws upon us which bring back the strength and knowledge of sin! 2nd Corinthians 3:7-9 says that the Law is the ministry of condemnation and death, yet there is no condemnation to those in Christ, and we are called to the ministry of the Spirit of life!

Many believers try to dance around this point by saying that we don’t use the Law for justification, but we still use it for holiness. But I must call baloney on that answer! To say that we don’t use the law for justification, but we use it for holiness is a conflicting statement; it is meaningless double-talk! It makes absolutely no sense to claim justification by faith but holiness by works; especially since everyone receives God’s Holy Spirit when they are saved! (Romans 8:9), Also the scriptures are very clear on the fact that we are sanctified (made holy) by faith in Christ alone. We do not need to do anything to be sanctified beyond trusting in Christ. (Acts 26:18, 1^st Corinthians 1:30, Hebrews 10:10)

No my friend, these laws that God puts in our hearts and writes on our minds, are the laws of faith in Christ. They are the laws that God spoke from the Mercy Seat in Numbers 7:89-8:4, they are the laws about how every candle in the candlestick is to constantly be facing toward and fed from the Servant Lamp which is Christ. They are laws about how the candlestick is made of beaten gold, representing how Christ was beaten for our righteousness. The entire focus is on Christ and Him alone! That is the law which is being placed in our hearts and written on our minds, to always look toward Christ and to have faith in Him alone for our complete sufficiency in all things! It is not the Law of Moses, it is the Law of the Spirit of Life, the law of faith in Christ alone (Romans 3:27, 8:2).

We have a New and Better Covenant with New and Better Promises. To try and mingle the covenants together will cause you to lose both as Jesus warns. To say that we still need the Law after coming to Christ, is to secretly admit that we don’t believe that He supplies all that we need! To try and add the Law of Moses onto Jesus’ covenant, is to sell very short the work of the Holy Spirit that is in you!

So I encourage you today. Stop neglecting the marvelous promises of the New Covenant which Jesus has placed you in today! He paid for you to have this marvelous covenant established on the better promises of His Divine Righteousness and Holiness. Romans 8:11 says that the very same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you and even quickens your mortal bodies (that’s healing and divine health right there!)

This New Covenant in Christ needs no addition or help from the Old Covenant. Everything you need has been supplied by Christ. Believe it, receive it, and rest in the truth of His finished work for you.