A BETTER COVENANT

The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, but He became a priest with an oath when God said to Him: ‘The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind: You are a priest forever.’ Because of this oath, Jesus became the guarantor of a better covenant (Heb. 7: 18-22).

Why was the old covenant weak and useless? It had no power to effect what it required. There was nothing wrong with what God asked them to do. In fact, the law was a reflection of God’s character. He not only asked, He required that they obey His teachings because there was no other way to live that would satisfy His holiness. The problem did not lie in the measure or standard God set for His people but in their inability to carry it out.

Then there was a second problem – the priests who represented the people to God were just as unable to measure up to God’s standard as the people were. They were as sinful, rebellious and corrupt as the people they represented. God’s requirements were just and righteous. What He demanded of them was exactly according to who He was, but the whole system fell flat because of the corruption of the people’s hearts. They had no desire or power to do what God required.

God’s intention was never to accept them on the basis of their perfect obedience to the law because they couldn’t do it. The priesthood was His special gift of grace to show them His solution for their sinfulness. He provided blood sacrifices to atone for their sin, and a priesthood which would mediate for them so that God would accept their sacrifices.

All this was just a picture of what He had already done for them. Before He even put breath into the first human being, He had already provided His sacrifice – Jesus, the perfect lamb sacrificed before the creation of the world. He was the only acceptable solution to the problem of man’s sin. Every time an animal was killed and its blood sprinkled on the altar, the offerer was supposed to be trusting in God for the forgiveness of his sins because God’s lamb was the real sacrifice of which the animal was a picture.

So deeply was the nature of man corrupted that the people used their sacrifices as an excuse for sinning since they thought that, no matter what they did or how wicked they were, they could always offer sacrifices for their forgiveness. They thought that it did not matter how much they sinned. They could always offer a sacrifice and be forgiven.

Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for sinning (Hos. 8: 11).

If the system was intended to provide a solution for the corruption of the people’s hearts, it was doomed to failure from the beginning. It could tell them what to do but it could never enable them to obey. It could only show up the depth of their sinfulness and bring the judgment of God down on them, priests and people alike.

God’s solution was already written into His book before man ever fell from his state of perfection. He had prepared another priesthood – not taken from among the people by reason of their ancestry, but one whom He sent from heaven to be a man, to uphold and live by His standards to perfection and then to die in their place as a sacrifice for sin. This priest would be raised to life again by reason of His sinlessness and become forever the high priest His people needed.

Why was Jesus, in the order of Melchizedek, the perfect replacement for the Aaronic priesthood?

Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office but, because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood. Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest truly meets our need – one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens (Heb. 7: 23-26).

He is the high priest we need, and He is always in the presence of the Father to represent us before Him. Not only does He present His blood as the perfect sacrifice but He also provides the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts. We are no longer rebels but beloved sons and daughters, at home and at peace with the Father.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.