(Heb 8) “Mediator of a Better Covenant”

But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. (vs6)

The Lord Jesus mediates a better covenant, bringing God's promises of salvation to us.

This covenant is established upon better promises (vs6); it is God doing for Christ's sake, rather than us being judged by our performance. The old covenant was based upon a typical system of shadows pointing to the substance of Christ. The sacrifices and priesthood pointed to His shed blood and intercession, and the conditional promises Israel failed to obtain pointed to the God-fulfilled promises that we assuredly get in election and predestination. We read, “"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people (vs10).” God promises us good based upon Christ's obedience and His power to perform, which is His faithfulness instead of ours. He even promises that our faithfulness will be included.

When you get at salvation's core, it is God doing what He has promised for Christ's sake, according to the word, goodness, and justice of His love.

Secondly, the new covenant REPLACES the old, so that we are not under both. We read, “In that He says, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away (vs13).” The old, by being called “old”, gives way to the new, even as an old garment, which has served its purpose, gives way to a new cloth, even as what COULD NOT save gives way to what assuredly does.

Don't try to be under part merit and part grace, where it is up to you, instead of TOTALLY conditioned on Christ. We read again, “Behold, the days are coming, says 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 did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD (vs8-9).” Maintain freedom in the promises. Maintain your PRESENT right to God's GRACE by the blood of Christ, and by faith alone. Don't move aside to any other hope, worshiping God any other way than receiving PROMISED blessings by the merit of the Mediator who died for you. Receive the promises by God's power to do what He's said!

Thirdly, the new covenant is only experienced by people born of God. We read, “"None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds. I will remember no more (vs11-12)." The old covenant was national, so that a man is a Jew by birth, and upon circumcision, his place in the nation was sealed. In the new covenant, the new birth brings us into the family, for all of His children are God taught.

Do you know His love by experience, believing on Him? Do you know God by obedience, being led, received, recovered, and powered by Him? Do you know the removal of sins, not because you are “barely” a sinner, but because God is gracious beyond imagination and pardons repeated sins of vile offenders, even you? Do you know God?

Finally, the gospel is God's way. He says, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second (vs7).” He has not given us two ways. He's given the old way to prove that we need the new.