Hebrews 8:7 Commentary and Bible Study

Again, God does not do anything unnecessarily, therefore if the covenant was changed and God brought in a new covenant, it is because there was some fault with the first, otherwise there would have been no room, no place, for another. The Lord does not discredit his own work or his own arrangements. To replace the covenant unnecessarily would suggest that he had not thought through the original arrangement in the first place. If the first covenant, the covenant of the law given on Sinai, had been perfect it would not have been replaced. It would have been perfect if it was able to do all that a covenant of life is supposed to do: to make atonement for sin, to reconcile the people to God, and to guarantee eternal life and blessing to those included in it. In this case the word ‘faultless’, or ‘without defect’, is used in a limited sense. It does not mean that God regretted ever having given it, nor that there were mistakes in it that were not originally noticed, so that afterwards God realised that he could have done better, and put it right by issuing an improved version. The word ‘fault’ could mean that, but in this case it certainly does not. We are talking about Jehovah, the perfect teacher, the one who makes no mistakes, and who knows the end from the beginning. The ‘fault’ in the first covenant was a weakness that was always seen by the Lord, and was deliberately intended by him. That first covenant fell short; it could not save, and it was never designed to save. It was a covenant of works, which depended on man’s performance, and was therefore hopeless as a means of salvation. It couldn't make you holy. The Ten Commandments stand forever, but they cannot help us to keep them. They can tell you what God's standards are; they can give you the standards that God requires, and if you try to keep them they can humble you, because you soon find you fall in so many respects. But nothing in the Ten Commandments tells you how you can improve, how you can gain power for holiness. Nothing in the ancient manner of worship could impart spiritual life. So there were inadequacies in the old covenant and the ancient law. It could tell you about God; it could tell you about a way of salvation; it could tell you that God will pardon you if you come to him sincerely. But by itself – by the shedding of the blood of animals – it couldn't secure your cleansing. That's going to be gone into in detail in the following chapters. The old covenant served another purpose which was preparatory to the covenant of grace promised to Abraham and ratified by Christ. It served the purpose of bringing men and women under conviction so that they would give up trying to earn salvation and instead receive life as a gift from God. The ceremonial law had pictures of grace in it, but these were only pictures, and so it pointed away from itself to the work of Christ in the new covenant.But whatever does the word ‘sought’ mean? It is a mysterious expression, almost picturing God struggling, which of course he cannot do; he is infinitely powerful and knowledgeable and wise. Did God have to seek a covenant? Was it hard for him to devise a better covenant than the covenant of law? Oh no, it was not hard for God to devise it in that eternal counsel before the foundation of the world. Father, Son and Holy Spirit devised the covenant of grace: that Christ would come and suffer and die to atone for the sins of those who would be saved, and offer up his perfect righteousness to be credited to them. The Godhead could devise that in an immeasurable fraction of a second – if they operated in time, which they do not. God knows all things all the time; he is the infinite divine genius. But when Christ came to pay for the covenant, to suffer and die, then even God had to struggle. If we may say reverently, what a terrible thing for the holy One, the eternal Second Person of the Trinity to enter into human flesh, to take our guilt upon him and receive the punishment for our sin, and to sense alienation from the Father. What a terrible thing for the punishment of sin to be visited on the pure and holy eternal Son of God. So a place was sought for the covenant of grace. The choice of words reflects Christ as a man, wrestling with the punishment of sin for his people.