Riff's Christian Journal

Heb 8:13

In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first obsolete. Now that which is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

It is amazing how many Christians, Pastors and individuals, are enamored with the Old Testament Covenant. Listening to Pastors on radio and television, one hears more sermons on Old Testament scripture than on scripture from the New Testament.

The Old Testament Covenant was a man-centered works based system of religion. It was a cause and effect religion, as is the New Testament Covenant, the difference being who is the cause and who is the effect.

The Old Covenant was a system based on laws, commandments, rules, regulations, ordinances and rituals that man was to do in order to receive favor from God. It was a blessings and a curse system like what is found in Deuteronomy 28 where you have Blessings for Obedience and Curses for Disobedience.

In this system, the cause was Israel. By entering into a Covenant with God, and doing what God required, the effect was God giving blessings for obedience. The same worked if Israel was disobedient; a curse was brought by God because of their disobedience.

Therefore, in a man-centered works based system all Israel had to do was to prove that they could be obedient as God wanted. Israel tried and failed.

In Hebrews 8: 8, 9 we read this:

Heb 8:8  For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 

Heb 8:9  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, saith the Lord.

Do you see it? God said, “they continued not in my covenant and I regarded them not.” Because of their failure to be obedient, God dis-regarded Israel.

At this point God said that because of their failure to be obedient to the Old Covenant this is what He would do; continuing in Hebrews we read:

Heb 8:10  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith 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: 

Heb 8:11  And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. 

Heb 8:12  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. 

Heb 8:13  In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first obsolete. Now that which is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. 

(Note: to find out about whom is the Israel mentioned in verse 10, read Romans 9: 6, 7 and Galatians 4:28. The new Israel is Christians.)

God intended, from the beginning of time, to replace the Old Covenant with a New Covenant; a Covenant of Grace where God’s works would be the cause and man’s response would be the effect, just the opposite of the Old Covenant, a covenant of failure.

In the New Covenant, man is born again by the will of God, and man is kept saved by the will of God and man is given eternal life in Heaven by the will of God. 

No longer would God require man to be justified by his works of the Law as we read in Galatians 3: 11

Gal_3:11  (KJV)  But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

We also read this in Galatians 2: 16

Gal 2:16  Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

However, as mentioned at the beginning, man still thinks he can be justified by his works and still tries to do what is in the Old Covenant. That is why many sermons are based on Old Testament scripture. It is amazing. Maybe that is why Paul wrote to the Galatians when some of them were trying to do this and he told them:

Gal 3:1  O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? 

Gal 3:2  This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 

Gal 3:3  Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? 

Verse 3 above is exactly what being justified by the Old Covenant was to do – being made perfect by works of the flesh.

Yes, one can find history in the Old Testament scriptures, also some promises of God looking ahead to the covenant of grace and not of works, as well as beautiful poetry of the English language. Other than that, Christians should be focusing on the New Testament scripture verses, learning from them like:

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 

Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 

Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 

Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 

Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast. 

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 

2Ti_1:9 (KJV) Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

These are but a few of the gems, the nuggets that can be found throughout the New Testament Covenant of grace.

As a Christian, you have but two choices when it comes to pleasing God. You can try to be obedient to the works of the Law found in the Old Covenant, which no one has ever been able to do, except for Jesus who did so for those who are saved, or you can do what the New Covenant of grace says in living by faith.

Gal_3:11  (KJV)  …no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

 

Remember…

Heb 8:13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first obsolete. Now that which is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.