A Better Covenant

When Becky and I were newlyweds, we lived in an ordinary two-bedroom apartment in a complex on a hum-drum, suburban road in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was nice enough, but there was no view, nothing of particular interest about it, nothing we would ever want to go back to experiencing again.

When we left Charlotte, we moved to Redondo Beach, California. We lived on the Esplanade directly across from the Pacific Ocean. With our bedroom window open at night, we could hear the crashing of the waves. By day, we could see the sunlight glinting off those pearly waters of the Pacific from the large front window in our living room. Living where we did in Redondo Beach wasn’t perfect, but it was a huge step up from where we had lived in Charlotte.

In our Scripture passage for today, the writer to the Hebrews shows us how much better the new covenant (or new deal) in Jesus is from the old covenant (or old deal). It is so much better that the thought of going back to the old is unthinkable, just like the thought of going back to Charlotte was unthinkable for Becky and me once we had experienced Redondo Beach.

So, let us listen to what the writer to the Hebrews tells us about this better covenant, this better deal, in Hebrews 9:11-14. Listen for God’s word to you…

But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come,^[a] then through the greater and perfect^[b] tent^[c] (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), ¹² he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. ¹³ For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, ¹⁴ how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit^[d] offered himself without blemish to God, purify our^[e] conscience from dead works to worship the living God!

So, in this passage the writer to the Hebrews shows us three ways that the new covenant, or new deal, is better than the old. First, it is better in terms of the tent or tabernacle or Temple it uses. The priests of the old covenant entered daily into an earthly sanctuary. The high priest entered yearly into the Holy of Holies, but that too was an earthly construct.

According to John 2:20, King Herod spent forty-six years refurbishing the Second Temple in Jerusalem, the one that Jesus and his disciples knew. Herod’s Temple, as it was called, was one of the largest construction projects undertaken in the first century. According to the people who saw it, it was indeed beautiful. (Luke 21:5) 

However, in Hebrews 8:5, our writer tells us that the earthly sanctuary in Jerusalem was but a “sketch and shadow of the heavenly one”.  Then, in chapter 9 he tells us that Jesus entered into that more perfect tabernacle, one that is not of human creation, not of this world at all. Jesus entered the very presence of God in the heavenlies. So, the heavenly tabernacle in which Jesus serves is better than the earthly tabernacle in which the Old Testament priests served.

A second way in which the new covenant in Jesus is better than the old covenant is in terms of the sacrifice offered.Instead of an animal sacrifice, Jesus offered his own blood.

This is shocking in terms of Old Testament thought. Nowhere in the Old Testament is there any suggestion that God desires or even approves of a human sacrifice.

Of course, there was the incident of Abraham being willing to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. However, the important point there is that God stopped Abraham from offering his son Isaac as a sacrifice. 

Then there is the mysterious suffering servant of Isaiah 53 who offers himself as a sacrifice on Israel’s behalf.

These two incidents are the closest that the Old Testament comes to suggesting any sort of appropriateness in human sacrifice. And there is never any suggestion in the Hebrew Scriptures that any of the priests under the old covenant might becometheir own sacrifice.

Thus, the writer to the Hebrews leads us very carefully, step-by-step, into completely new territory. Tom Wright points out, that to understand what the writer to the Hebrews is saying here, we must understand that under the old covenant, there were three elements in the offering of sacrifice…

1. There is the sense of humans offering to God something valuable and pure as a sign of their grateful offering of their whole lives to him and his service.
2. There is a sense of the life of the sacrificial animal, symbolized by the blood, being poured out in death as a sign that, though our lives are indeed forfeit because of our wickedness and impurity, God will rescue us by providing a life-given-in-death instead of ours.
3. There is a sense that through these two signs our present state of uncleanness can be washed away so that we can start afresh, cleansed and fit for God’s service.

Who knows how much of this theology was present in the mind of ancient Israelites as they went about their worship? Perhaps the symbolism of it all penetrated more deeply into their lives than they ever could have articulated with their lips.

But when we consider these three elements of Israelite animal sacrifice, we can begin to see how Jesus’ sacrifice might be considered better than the sacrifices of the Old Testament. As the representative human being, Jesus offering his life acts as an offering up of the whole of humanityin gratitude to God. His life given in death, truly functions on our behalf; he died, therefore we need not do so. And just as animal sacrifices outwardly cleansed the worshipper under the old covenant in a ritual way, just so, Jesus’ sacrifice cleanses more deeply; it goes right to our hearts, right to our consciences, and cleanses us in a more real way.

William Barclay outlines four ways in which the sacrifice of Jesus was better than the sacrifices of the Old Testament:

1. The sacrifice of Jesus was voluntary. The animal’s life was taken from it; Jesus gave his life. He willingly laid it down for his friends.
2. The sacrifice of Jesus was spontaneous. Animal sacrifice was entirely the product of law; the sacrifice of Jesus was entirely the product of love. We pay our debts to a tradesman because we have to; we give a gift to our loved ones because we want to. It was not law but love that lay behind the sacrifice of Christ.
3. The sacrifice of Jesus was rational. The animal victim did not know what was happening; Jesus all the time knew what he was doing. He died, not as an ignorant victim caught up in circumstances over which he had no control and did not understand but with eyes wide open.
4. The sacrifice of Jesus was moral. Animal sacrifice was mechanical; but Jesus’s sacrifice was made, through the eternal Spirit.This thing on Calvary was not a matter of prescribed ritual mechanically carried out; it was a matter of Jesus obeying the will of God for the sake of men. Behind it there was not the mechanism of law but the choice of love.

So, the new covenant is better than the old in terms of the tabernacle, in terms of the sacrifice, and thirdly, in terms of the cleansing it offers for the human conscience. Just as Jesus went right into the heart of the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies in heaven, and offered the perfect sacrifice of his own blood, so also, he enters right into the sanctuary of our hearts to “clean house” as it were.

I imagine you have seen some of those home makeover shows on television. We saw one where the home makeover crew completely demolished the old house a family had been living in, and they constructed a new, grand, almost palatial structure on the old property. Every room met the specifications for perfection detailed by the family beforehand.

If you were offered such a gift, can you imagine rejecting it? Why would you not want to move house to something that is better in every way?

The new covenant Jesus offers to us is like such a better house. In fact, it is perfect in every way. It meets the deepest desires of our hearts, both those spoken, and the desires we can barely articulate for ourselves. Why would we reject such an offer?

Perhaps the only reason we would reject it is because of the pain involved in accepting it. After all this new covenant is not something to be delivered outside our front door. Rather, it is to be brought to completion inside each of us.

At one time, I led a church in Pennsylvania where some major renovations to the building were carried out under my leadership. Becky was part of the refurbishment committee. On the way to one of the committee meetings one evening, Becky said to me, “I think we could gain more efficient use of our space at the church if you would move your office from one side of the building to the other.”

I responded, “Move my office from one side of the building to the other? You’ve got to be kidding! I’m comfortable where I am. Besides, that would mean moving all my books and constructing new bookshelves and…it would be too much work. Forget it!”

Well, in the meeting Becky did not “forget it”; rather, she shared her idea of me moving my office.

I would have kicked her from under the table, but she was sitting across the room!

You know what happened?

Everyone loved the idea! And so, uncomfortable as it was for me, I had to move my office.

And you know what? Becky was right. The new arrangement was better. Not just for everyone else, but for me as well.

C. S. Lewis uses a similar illustration which he borrows from his literary mentor, George MacDonald…

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

That is what the new covenant is all about, and why it is so much better than the old one. In this new deal Jesus offers us something both wonderful and painful. But it is something so wonderful, that if we really understand it, we will be willing to go through any pain to have it happen in us.