The Writer of Hebrews Explains the New Covenant

Hebrews 9:11-22

GOLDEN TEXT: “Having been made perfect, He became unto all them that obey Him the author of eternal salvation.”—Hebrews 5:9

THE apostle in this epistle was addressing Christian Hebrews, of whom many, after coming into Christ and accepting Him as the Redeemer, felt that somehow they must still maintain their relationship to the Law Covenant and its ordinances. In his endeavor to make this matter plain (Heb. 9:13,14), St. Paul points out that before the Law Covenant went into effect, it was necessary that blood should be shed; saying, “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Here is a contrast between the institution of the law dispensation and covenant, and the institution of the New Covenant.

The first effect of this better blood which is to seal the New Covenant is to cleanse our consciences from dead works. The apostle does not here refer to it as having been for all Israel. It was for those Jews who had become Christians, who had been bound by the law previously, that they might see that now the true sacrifice had come; that this was sufficient to satisfy all the claims of justice and put away from their minds all consciousness of sin, and to assure them that all their sins were thus covered and that they might now render acceptable service to the living God.

He continues saying, “And for this cause [that is, because His blood was sufficient to cancel all sin] He is the Mediator of the New Testament.” He has not only purged us from a consciousness of sin, that we may serve God and become members of the body of Christ and accept Him as our Advocate and trust in His finished work on our behalf, but He has by the same sacrifice made such an arrangement with God and, with Justice as will constitute, Him the Mediator of the New Covenant for all Israel. The apostle is not here saying that the New Covenant is operative now, nor that we are under this Covenant. Quite to the contrary; he is speaking of the Jewish nation, as we shall see.

The remainder of the 15th verse declares, “By means of death for the redemption of transgressions which were under the first testament [or Law Covenant], they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” We do not understand that the ones here mentioned as called are those who receive the high calling to joint-heirship with the Master, and the spiritual seed of Abraham, but rather that the apostle is here referring to the Jewish nation which was also called—or all members of that nation who would come into accord with the divine arrangement.

The same apostle (Rom. 11:27) says, “For the gifts and calling of God are not to be repented of.” That is to say, God having called the Jewish nation to be His peculiar people, having made them definite promises respecting the blessing of all nations, has no thought or intention of abrogating those promises. Every covenant, every promise that God has ever made and everything that He has ever done, He has foreknown its full import and its results, and He has done nothing hastily. Israel, therefore, is a nation which He has foreknown or “called” to be the one He will use in connection with His work of blessing all the families of the earth; as the apostle says, “For this is My covenant with them when I shall take away their sins.”—Rom. 11:27

God is now gathering out only a special few of the Jews and a special few from all nations to constitute the spiritual Israel, to whom are granted the opportunity to constitute with Jesus their Head the Prophet, Priest and King—the Deliverer. This will be the fulfillment of the promise that “the Deliverer shall come forth out of Zion and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob,” for this is God’s covenant with them, with the seed of Jacob; as we read (Jer. 31:31), “After those days, saith the Lord, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” The foregoing is confirmed when we consider the fact that the Gospel church were not all under the first testament or first covenant, but only the Jewish nation.

Since the Mediatorial work of the Millennial Kingdom is to be accomplished through natural Israel, and since all the families of the earth are to be blessed through them, it follows that nothing can be done until Israel shall have been recovered from their present outcast condition. Then the blessing of the Lord will go forth and His Mediatorial work will be accomplished through natural Israel.

Before applying His blood, the blood of the New Testament, for the world or for Israel, Jesus applied it first for the church, and thus made it possible for them to offer an acceptable sacrifice, to follow in His footsteps, to be dead with Him, to suffer with Him. The sufferings of Christ began with the Head and have continued all the way down in all the members of His body; and as soon as these sufferings shall have been finished, the Christ will be crowned with glory, honor and immortality beyond the wail. Then will come the opportunity for all the families of the earth to receive the promised blessing of reconciliation to God and full restoration to human perfection, in accordance with the New Covenant.

QUESTIONS:

Is the apostle’s discussion of the New Covenant in the book of Hebrews intended to show that it is now in force, and that the church is now being developed under it?

What is the relationship of the church to the New Covenant?

With whom will the New Covenant be made?

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