Christ, High Priest in the True Sanctuary, superseding the Levitical Priesthood—The
New renders Obsolete the Old Covenant. (80) Heb. 8: 10-13.
“And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord.” In the last century before Christ, there was an external teaching of the Law, which the people trusted and rested in without any regard for God’s teaching by the inward circumcision of the heart. These rival schools and sects, such as the Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, Essenes, etc., has made void the Word of God through their traditions Mk. 7:13. “The Lord will cut off … the master and the scholar out of the tabernacles of Jacob” Mal. 2:12. Furthermore, in the Mosaic economy, God revealed Himself under types and shadows, and was known through “parables and dark sayings.”
“For all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest.” This is the revelation in the person of His incarnate Son: Jn 1:18. 1Jn 5:20 says, “…the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding …to “know Him” in the sense that we recognize, own, and practically obey Him as God. Is. 54:13, Jer. 24:7, Eze. 34:30, Hab. 2:14, from the Jer. 6:13; 44:12. This spiritual, experimental, vital, saving knowledge of God is now communicated unto all His elect. “They shall be all taught of God” Jn 6:45: taught His will and all the mysteries of godliness, which by the Word are revealed. This “knowledge” of God cannot be imparted by any external teaching alone but is the result of the Spirit’s operations.” Pink A. W.
“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” v. 12. Ps. 65:3, Is. 43:25, Jer. 50:20, Mich. 7:19, Act. 13:38, 39, 1Jn. 2:1, 2. “This is the great foundational promise and grace of the new covenant. What I have spoken, saith the Lord, shall be accomplished, ‘For I will be merciful,’ etc., without which there could be no participation of the other things mentioned in this verse…This is a reason also, or on what grounds, He would bestow on them those other mercies” John Owen. In v. 12 a reason is given why God bestows the wondrous blessings enumerated in vv. 10, 11. The word here rendered “merciful” is grace shown on the ground of a propitiation: cf. Rom. 3:24, 25. Christ died to render God propitious toward sinners Heb. 2:17, and in and through Him alone is God merciful toward the sins of His people. Just so long as Christ is rejected, the sinner is under the curse. But as soon as He is received, the blessings described in vv. 10–12 become his. Note there are just seven blessings named, which exemplify the perfection of the new covenant. It is to be noted that no less than three terms are used in v. 12 to describe the fearful evils of which the sinner is guilty, thus emphasizing his obnoxiousness to the holy God, and magnifying the grace which saves him. “Unrighteousness” signifies a wrong done unto God, against man’s sovereign Ruler and Benefactor. “Sin” is a missing of the mark, the glorifying of God. “Iniquity” has the force of lawlessness, a setting up of my will against God’s, a living to please self rather than for His glory. This is another contrast between the covenants. That which characterized Judaism was a reign of law and justice: that which distinguishes Christianity is the “Throne of Grace.” Note that no “conditions” are here stipulated. But does not the new covenant require repentance and faith? Assuredly: Mark 1:15. But He who requires these has promised also to work them in His people: Acts 5:31. Pink A. W.
“In that He saith, A new, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away” (v. 13). Mat. 24:35, 1Cor. 13:8, 2Cor. 5:17. From what God had said through Jeremiah, he singles out one word, “new,” and because Christianity is the “establishment” of the new covenant, then the preceding economy must have grown “old,” and “old” is significative of that which draws near its end! “Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” Here is the conclusion, If the first covenant had been adequate no place had been sought for a second (v. 7). The old covenant had continued for fifteen hundred years, from Moses to Christ; but its purpose had now been served. Israelites were told that the law would not last forever, they were carried down into Babylon. Upon their return from captivity, neither the temple nor its priesthood were ever restored to their pristine glory. This epistle was written, in less than ten years before Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed. That covenant was abolished because it was “old,” how much more ought the “old man” to be put off Eph. 4:24, and the “old leaven” purged out 1Cor. 5:7!
