The New Covenant Is A Better Covenant!

The book of Hebrews describes the new covenant of grace as a better covenant than the old covenant of law (Hebrews 7:19, 22).

It is better because grace draws us close to God in an authentic relationship where we can be transparent and honest with God, assured of his love, kindness, and forgiveness.

Because of grace, we can come into the presence of God, the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16), without guilt or condemnation, fully assured God keeps no record of our sins, since our sins have been forgiven forever through the death of Jesus.

The law could not draw us close to God.

The law could not bring eternal forgiveness.

The law could not eternally remove our guilt and shame.

The law remembered our sins by keeping a record of them.

The law only covered the payment for our sins temporarily, but never removed it eternally.

Consequently, under the law, people lived in constant condemnation, guilt, and shame, afraid to go into the presence of God.

The old covenant of law was like going out to eat with a friend, and, after eating the meal, realizing you had no money to pay for your meal.

So your friend covers the amount of your meal until you can pay him back.

He pays for your meal, but you still need to pay him back.

He didn’t remove the payment for your meal, he covered it.

Now, rather than owing the restaurant money, you owe your friend money.

The payment you owe was simply transferred from the restaurant to your friend.

You still owe a debt.

This is a description of the old covenant.

We have a payment for our sin called death.

Rather than making the payment, an innocent animal covered the payment for the sins of people under the old covenant when the payment was transferred to the animal.

The animal was then sacrificed, covering the death penalty for the sins of those living under the law.

The animal did not remove the sin debt; it only covered it until Jesus came.

The payment still needed to be made.

Now imagine you are eating a meal in a restaurant with another friend.

Once again, you do not have any money to pay for your meal.

Your friend says he will completely pay for your meal, telling you not to worry about paying him back.

The meal then was free to you because it was purchased by someone else.

By faith, you receive the free meal provided for you by your friend, telling him “Thank you.”

That is what Jesus did for us.

He did not cover the payment for our sins temporarily until we could pay him back.

Instead, he completely and eternally paid our sin penalty, laying down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

John, when seeing Jesus, said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

1 John 2:2 says that Jesus took away the punishment for the sins of the whole world by being punished for us through his death.

This is the story of grace! And we simply say, “Thank you.”

Through the new covenant, Jesus died for all people, for all sin, for all time when he sacrificed himself for our sins (Hebrews 7:27; 9:26; 10:10, 12).

Through his blood, he eternally and completely paid for the sins of all (Hebrews 9:12).

He then took his shed blood into the very presence of God, heaven itself, as the final, full, and forever payment for our sins (Hebrews 9:12, 26).

This is an excerpt from Brad’s Book - Available on Amazon: The Story of Grace