City Life Starter

Written by Nate Warren

The Word

⁶ But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. ⁷ For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

⁸ For he finds fault with them when he says:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
    when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
    and with the house of Judah,
⁹ not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
    on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant,
    and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
¹⁰ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
    after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
    and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.
¹¹ And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
    and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest.
¹² For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
    and I will remember their sins no more.”

¹³ In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Hebrews 8:6-13

Reflection

The New Covenant is greater than the Mosaic one, according to the author of Hebrews, because it is based on greater promises. He includes a large section quoted from the prophet Jeremiah, contrasting the “obsolete” Mosaic covenant, one based on ritual and rule-keeping, with the New under Jesus. This beautiful passage opens a window into the good life, the eternal life, under the New Covenant with God. The promises of the New Covenant mentioned here are:
God will put His law in our minds, and write it on our hearts. – It is God’s plan to fill your mind and heart with an intrinsic understanding of what is good and evil, and an effortless will to do what is good and deny what is evil. In submitting ourselves to Him, we permit this renewing of our mind (Romans 12:1-2).
I will be their God, and they shall be my people – Provision, protection, purpose. God is taking good care of you, you have dignity in His Name, and you have an important role in the administration of His Kingdom.
We need not teach, because everyone knows Him – There is no need of a hierarchy of mediators to explain what God is like, because God makes Himself available to everyone. We will one day talk to Him face-to-face. but even now, you can be sure that we have a direct and unfettered access to God through the Spirit.
I will be merciful toward their iniquities; I will not remember their sins – God’s amazing love is poured out in joyful forgiveness through the blood of Jesus to rescue each of us from the destruction we’ve chosen, and deliver us to the heart of a righteous, loving God.

Application

The author’s direct point is to explain to first-century Jews that their habituated faith in the ritual practices of the Mosaic covenant have been superseded by the New Covenant established by Jesus. I doubt you are often tempted to gain righteousness through a sacrifice made at a temple in Jerusalem, since that temple was destroyed nearly two-thousand years ago, and no Mosaic sacrifices have been made since. However, perhaps you are tempted to discern good from bad, to live a good life, or eradicate evil through capitulation to a fleeting covenant – according to a worldly perspective.

Remember Paul’s thoughts about his “prestigious” pedigree within that Old Covenant, from Philippians 3:

^4b If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. ⁷ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. ¹⁶ Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Philippians 3:4b-16

Paul completely turned away from the Old Covenant because the New Covenant under Jesus is simply awesome. If you’re banking on any ideology, approach, revenue stream, family, nation, faction, or philosophy that isn’t this, you’re missing out.

Prayer

Father,
I confess my desire to “make it” by lesser arrangements than what You have given me. Thank You for Your mercy in welcoming me despite my immature, rebellious, and short-sighted choices. Please allow me to know You more today than I did yesterday, and help me to discern good and bad through Your enabling. Put in me a pure heart, Oh God.
Amen.