We are a society in love with the new. Manufacturers anually make new models of computers and cars and vacuums and TV’s just so we will have the desire to make another purchase. Of course, the reality is that new is not always better. Late in the 1990’s, I bought a new computer with lots of bells and whistles. My intent was to replace an outdated model that I sold to a friend. I have to be honest. I missed the old computer. It didn’t have the features of my old one, but it had one endearing quality: it worked. In used car terms, my new computer was a lemon. I had to replace the monitor twice. It locked up. It overheated. Some of the new features stopped working within a week. Old is sometimes better than new.
In Hebrews 9, the author of Hebrews reminds us that new is better when it comes to the New Covenant established in Jesus. In that case, there is no comparison between old and new. Hebrews 9 highlights 3 ways that the New Covenant surpasses the Old:
1. The new covenant cleans outside and inside. All the Old Testament Law did was really give us a moral appearance. The Ten Commandments didn’t change our heart. In fact, in Romans, Paul says that our sinful natures were actually enticed by the Law to sin. (He also says that is not a knock on the Law. It is a knock on how wicked we are that God’s perfect law would entice to do evil!) Under the New Covenant, though, we are made new on the inside. Verse 14 says that through Jesus are “consciences are cleansed from acts that lead to death.” The New Covenant changes our nature, allowing us the power and desire to live in obedience.
2. The new covenant gives us unlimited access to God. Under the Old Covenant, the message from God was “Danger! Keep away!” Only one man, the high priest, could go directly into the presence of God. And He could go only one time a year after having offered a rigorous round of sacrifices. Under the New Covenant, we have unlimited access to God through Jesus. Verses 23-24 say “It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence” (NIV). Christ appears for us in the presence of God. We have unlimited access.
3. The new covenant is once for all. In Old Testament, offering sacrifices was sort of like doing laundry. Have do laundry again and again because things keep getting dirty. Under the system of sacrifices, sacrifices had to be repeated again and again as acts of cleansing. (And even then, sacrifices weren’t really effective. See 10:4). But under the New Covenant, there is no repeating of sacrifices. Verses 25-28 say: “Nor did [Christ] enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (NIV). The sacrifice of Jesus is a “one and done” act. We can rely on it in perpetuity.
New things aren’t always better than the old. But in the case of the New Covenant, there is no comparison with the Old. New is better.
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