Hebrews 8:6 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Hebrews 8:6

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By contrast Christ’s ministry is far more excellent, it far surpasses the ministry of the Aaronic priests who dealt only with types and shadows, and furthermore it belongs to a better covenant, the covenant of grace, founded on better promises, the promises made to Abraham. They had an altar, but they didn't have the cross, the true atonement. They had the beasts to offer on the altar, but they didn't have a Saviour who had come from heaven, who was God as well as man, who gave himself for his people. The covenant established through Moses with the Jews of old was a covenant of obedience and works like the covenant in the Garden of Eden. That covenant was made between God and the first man Adam, and it was a covenant of works because it depended upon Adam and his wife Eve keeping one simple command: that they would not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If Adam obeyed this one simple command he and his posterity through him would be greatly blessed. But there was that terrible calamity: Adam fell and the whole of his posterity fell in him, so the covenant failed and it was broken forever. It could never be restored; mankind was irretrievably lost. He was a hopeless sinner, a sinner by nature, a sinner by choice now. Following the fall came the curse and the contamination of everything in the universe. And yet there was another covenant arrangement that God made for the benefit of man, a better covenant, and although it is called in the Bible a new covenant, it is actually the oldest covenant. It was made between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit before the foundation of the world. Together they held a divine council, in which the God the Father, gave to God the Son, a multitude of people whom no man can number to have for his eternal possession in glory. The Father would give these people to the Son, if Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, would for his part enter into the world, take human flesh, and suffer and die for them, making an atonement for them and taking their eternal punishment on their behalf. They would then be his, and the Holy Spirit would work in their hearts and convict them of their need and their sin, and lead them to Jesus Christ. That covenant was made between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. So it was really the first covenant, the oldest covenant, but it is called new because in the order of the divine plan it was ratified in Christ after the Mosaic covenant. As soon as Adam fell, the first promise of the new covenant was announced in Genesis 3:15, and then it was repeated again to Abraham and to others after him. Abraham was told that a great descendant would come, and through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. After the fall, possibly even Adam and Eve were saved as they trusted in the mercy of God and confessed their sins and were given life. How could that be, since their covenant with God been shattered and broken? Well, it was this covenant of mercy: we call it the covenant of grace. Throughout the Old Testament people are offered salvation and mercy on the basis of this covenant of grace.It is a much better covenant than the covenant in Eden, because the covenant of works relied on Adam’s obedience, and Adam was a fallible man. But the covenant of grace is not between God and man, but it is between God and God; it is between the Father and the Son, between the members of the Godhead, and we are the beneficiaries. The Father in effect determined to give the Son a people for his own possession eternally – to bless them, to be Lord over them – if the Son would live a perfect life on their behalf, if he would go into the world and demonstrate his holiness and fulfil the law of God in human nature, and earn heaven for those people, and at the same time suffer and die to bear away the punishment of their sin. Because the covenant is between God the Father and God the Son, it is infallible. Christ kept the covenant and he honoured it to the full and, as his people, we come into the covenant under the wing of Christ. If we trust him then we are joined to him. If we were still under the covenant of works, it would be hopeless. God would be saying to us, ‘I will save you if you live a perfect life, if you earn it, deserve it’, and we cannot do that. But under the covenant of grace we say, ‘Christ who lived a perfect life on earth was the unblemished Lamb of God. He suffered and died on Calvary to bear the punishment of my sin. He earns the covenant relationship for me; I go in as a beneficiary under Christ, which is so much better.’ If the covenant was with us, it would fail, but it is with him. He is our surety and our God, and we are his property, his saved people. That is why salvation is secure: because this covenant can never be broken, and it stands for ever. This covenant was established upon better promises. What does that mean? John Owen notes a number of differences between the promises of the two covenants. He says that the writer refers only to those promises by which the New Testament was legally ratified and made a covenant, promises of pardoning mercy to those who trust in Christ, and the renewal of our natures. The old covenant was legally established on promises to do with the land of Canaan, but the new covenant speaks directly of heaven. The old covenant promised eternal life only on condition of perfect obedience, but the new covenant promises eternal life freely to those who believe. The Mosaic covenant had attached to it the ceremonial law, which by representing heavenly things had the nature of a promise, but the ceremonial itself had to do with types and shadows, and that old covenant did not go beyond these.

Application

Questions

Why do we say that the covenant made with Moses was a covenant of works? The Bible tells us that on Sinai, because of sin, God restated, re-expressed that old broken covenant of the Garden of Eden, and in a sense he brought it back. [Many Christian teachers do not look at it in this way, but this is how our particular Baptist and independent traditions see it.] The covenant of works was given again on Mount Sinai to Moses: ‘Do this and live.’ Why would God reiterate that broken covenant? Because even though it was hopeless as a means of salvation – man had already failed to keep the condition of obedience – yet it was still in force in condemning the human race. Israel needed to be reminded that if they would not trust in the promises given to Abraham, then there was no alternative but to remain under the covenant of works, which could only condemn them. They had to understand that being the descendants of Abraham did not benefit them in any way as long as they failed to exercise faith. The same is true of all men and women. Therefore, to make this very clear, Sinai spelled out the Ten Commandments. It acted as a schoolmaster to drive us to Christ. People should have said, ‘These commandments, I do not keep them. I need the mercy and the help of God; I cannot earn or deserve God’s favour.’ Without the law we do not know what sin is. So the law was given as though God was saying to the Jews first and to all humanity, ‘If you will not have mercy, if you will not have grace, if you will not repent of your sin and have a free salvation, then you must face the full rigour of the law.’ So God brought back works, not because it can save us, but to humble us, and to show us our need of grace. In particular he did so with the Jews, to emphasise that although God had made a covenant with Abraham, as his physical descendants they only benefited from the physical side of that covenant – the land promises and so on – but they had no part in the spiritual side of the covenant unless they believed as Abraham believed. Until they exercised faith they remained under the law, the covenant of works, in spite of their physical ancestor.

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Introduction

Hebrews 8:6 Commentary and Bible Study