The Substance of God's Plan Part 1

A note about the Scripture links I provide. The links go to the Bible Gateway site, a good place to find many bible study tools. The link goes to the King James Version (KJV) because that is my study Bible of choice. However, if you look at the box on the right you’ll see that there are multiple translation available to you. If you prefer one more readable for your tastes feel free to select one. After all, the best translation is one you can read and comprehend.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

We concluded the article “The Shadow of God’s Plan” with the promise given to Israel through Jeremiah that He was going to do a New Covenant with them. Verses 21 -32 tells us that this Covenant would be different from the Mosaic Covenant that the people had broken. It would be different in that it would not be a Covenant of promise but a Covenant of fulfillment. Not a Covenant of covering of sins but a Covenant of forgiveness and cleansing from sin. A Covenant not of shadow, but of substance.

Why a New Covenant?
Hebrews 1:1-8

If the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament had to be summarized in a single word it would be “better”. The author, who some including myself believe to be Paul (while that is debated I will refer to the author as Paul), tells us that Christ is better than the angels, better than the Law, and better than the sacrifices of the Old Covenant. We’ll be looking at several passages from Hebrews in this article as we focus the “why” of the New Covenant. In Part 2 we’ll look at the “how”.

Paul states the reasons why the New Covenant was needed:

1. A better priesthood was required
   (Hebrews 5:5-6, Hebrews 7, Hebrews 8:6-13 )

The Mosaic priesthood was flawed because before the High Priest could enter into the Holy of Holies to offer sacrifice for the nation, he first had to offer sacrifice for himself. He is a sinner the same as the people that he is offering sacrifice for… and he cannot be anything else because he is a human being born into the human sin nature. So, God established a new priesthood, not after the order of Aaron but after the order Melchisedec. This was also necessary because Messiah was not promised to come from the line of Levi but through Judah. A new type of priest would require that the One holding it must be without sin because the sacrifice offered was insufficient.

2. A New Covenant was needed because the sacrifices of the Old were insufficient. (Hebrews 10:1-4, 16-19)
   The sacrifices of the Old Covenant could do nothing about sin. They provided a covering by faith of those sins but not forgiveness of them. As Paul says in verse 4 “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” It was a temporary covering that had to be repeated every year or the person would still be accountable for their sin in God’s eyes. It was established as a “shadow” that looked forward to the fulfillment at the Cross. Paul makes it clear that keeping all the ritual and all the regulations of the Mosaic Law saved NO ONE. As he said at the end of the “Faith Hall of Fame” in Chapter 11 in verses 39-40 “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” This “better thing” is outlined in Chapter 10:16-19 where he quotes the Jeremiah verses above…providing not a covering of sin but complete forgiveness. Not a sacrifice accomplished once a year, but one time for all time.
3. Finally, a better guarantor was needed

The Old Covenant was based on keeping rules and regulations (such as circumcision) and fulfilling the Feasts and the required sacrifices. That was the “guarantor” of that Covenant. But Paul says we have a better Guarantor now…the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ shed on the Cross for their sins and also for ours. “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” (Hebrews 9:28)

The New Covenant was also needed to provide fulfillment of both the Abrahamic Covenant and the Davidic Covenant. Through it, Abraham became, not the father of Israel, but of many nations as God had promised him. Since the Lord Jesus, through the Blessed Mother, was of the lineage of David, He also fulfills the promise that God made to David that one of his line would sit upon the Throne forever. In the next part we will look at this fulfillment when we examine the “how” of the New Covenant.