New Priest, New Covenant, New Life

10Feb09

Hebrews 8:

The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man. Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”  But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.

 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: 
   ”The time is coming, declares the Lord, 
      when I will make a new covenant 
   with the house of Israel 
      and with the house of Judah. 
 It will not be like the covenant 
      I made with their forefathers 
   when I took them by the hand 
      to lead them out of Egypt, 
   because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, 
      and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. 
 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel 
      after that time, declares the Lord. 
   I will put my laws in their minds 
      and write them on their hearts. 
   I will be their God, 
      and they will be my people. 
 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, 
      or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ 
   because they will all know me, 
      from the least of them to the greatest. 
 For I will forgive their wickedness 
      and will remember their sins no more.”

By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.

 

What was it like to live under the Old Covenant? Well, due to the sacrificial system and the numerous laws and rules laid out for them, every Jew knew how seriously God took sin. Every Jew knew that they had fallen so short of God’s standards. The thought that they could die unrepentant and God would forgive them because ‘that’s his job’, or that they would get to heaven because ‘I’m a good person’ would not have crossed their minds! 

Our culture is so far removed from that. And it is amazing that we are no longer under the bondage of that Old covenant, but I think as 21st century Christians we can often take it for granted because we never had to live through a time when we had to sacrifice an animal every 5 minutes. As a result we do not appreciate the seriousness of sin or how it cuts us off from God, or how urgently it needs to be paid for. Whilst the Jews were acutely aware of their sin, we are brought up in a culture where we do not have to be accountable to anyone and sin is trivialised. The ‘God of the Old Testament’ is seen as harsh because he takes sin seriously. Unfortunately, much of this complacent culture has slipped into Christianity. Christians ignore bits of the Old Testament they don’t like, or when challenged by an atheist about a verse which seems to entail a particularly harsh punishment for something seemingly trivial they brush it off – ‘That was because of the culture and times that they lived in…it was normal back then…excuses, excuses’.  When actually God was demonstrating that he can NOT let sin go unpunished and therefore sin is never trivial. The ‘God of the New Testament’ seems much more friendly and loving, and acceptable, and politically correct. But God didn’t change. He just poured out all of his wrath and punishment that we deserved onto Jesus.

What a humbling thought. 

Imagine you are a Jew in the time of Jesus. You’ve been repeating over and over again the never-ending circle of ceremony and ritual and sacrifice since you were born. And then Jesus. And that’s it. You don’t have to sacrifice any more. And, even better than that, you can ‘approach the throne of grace with confidence’. You can go straight to God through Jesus. At any time. Anywhere. This message would have been truly mind-blowing. Good news.

I was thinking about this, and thinking about how life changing that would have been. Even though it was liberating, it may have been hard to give up that life of religious ritualism and sacrifices which would have been all you had ever known.  And I think that we also have a tendency to be legalistic and religious, clinging onto what culture tells us and throwing our freedom back in God’s face. 

All our ‘good deeds’ should be motivated by love of Jesus and the desire to glorify and serve him. But we respond to many other kind of motivation:

I will share the gospel because it is my duty to

I want my friend to become a Christian so that they are on ‘my side’ 

I will go to Church/prayer meeting to avoid judgement from others

I will put a lot of time and effort into running an evangelist event so I look good

I will frequently speak up about Christianity in public so I appear really godly

If I sin, I’ll do something ‘good’ to make up for it

I feel too guilty/ashamed to go to God – I need to clean myself up first.

All of these are examples of how we can act in legalistic and religious ways. Let’s celebrate the freedom we have through the cross and serve out of love, not duty.

Filed under: Bible, Cultural Strongholds, Living for Jesus, Theology, World & Culture   |  1 Comment
Tags: Bible, Christianity, covenant, cross, God, good news, good works, gospel, hebrews, high priest, Jesus, Jews, judgement, legalism, love, New Testament, Old Testament, religious, ritualism, sacrifice, sin