Hebrews 8:1-6
“How are you?” This is a question we often ask to start a conversation with another. Typically, we are asking how your day is going or how is life in general, and we are generally met with the response, “I am okay” or “I am good.” But are we okay? Are we good?
However, most people rarely think about asking those questions about God. In fact, many people go through life thinking that God is rather pleased with them. It doesn’t occur to them for a moment that their relationship with God might actually be broken.
The biblical story is that every human being is born sinful and alienated from God. So, if anyone goes to God on their own merits and asks, “Are we okay?” the answer will be “No, we’re not okay.” God is holy, and we are sinful. The relationship is broken, and we cannot do anything to fix it, at least not on our own.
In Hebrews 8–10, we see very clearly that there is a better way for us to fix our relationship with God. Our author has already discussed how Jesus is a better priest than any previous priest. He now develops that by describing how Jesus brings in a whole new way of relating to God. By comparing the old covenant under Moses with the new covenant in Christ, he shows that the law and the sacrificial system were always intended to point to Jesus.
Now, this doesn’t mean that people weren’t saved by Jesus under the old covenant. They were saved in the same way as we are saved now: by faith alone in the sacrificial work of Christ alone. They looked ahead to Christ—through the types and shadows of the sacrificial system—and we look back to Christ. While the blood of bulls and goats does not, in and of itself, take away sins (Hebrews 10:4), it does point toward the thing that does: the sacrifice of Christ.
Join us this Sunday as we look at Hebrews 8:1-6 where our author points out that Jesus’ heavenly priesthood shows He is the mediator of a better covenant.
In Christ,
Chad
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