Commentary - Hebrews 8:7-13

Bird's-eye view

In this pivotal section of Hebrews, the author drives home his argument for the superiority of Christ's priesthood by demonstrating the superiority of the covenant Christ mediates. Quoting at length from Jeremiah 31, he shows that the old covenant, the one given through Moses at Sinai, was never intended to be the final word. Its built-in "fault" was not in the law itself, which is holy and good, but in the weakness of the people who were supposed to keep it. The old covenant operated externally, with laws written on stone, but it could not provide the new heart necessary for true obedience. God's solution, promised centuries beforehand, was a new covenant. This new covenant would be radically different, characterized by internal transformation (laws on the heart and mind), a universal, personal knowledge of God within the covenant community, and founded upon the complete and final forgiveness of sins. The author concludes with a logical hammer blow: the very fact that God called it a "new" covenant renders the first one "obsolete." At the time of writing, that old system was in its death throes, "ready to disappear," a prophecy fulfilled just a few years later in the cataclysmic destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in A.D. 70.

This passage is the theological heart of the book, explaining why the old sacrificial system had to give way. A better priest (Christ) ministers in a better sanctuary (heaven) on the basis of a better covenant, one that actually accomplishes what the old covenant could only point toward: the creation of a redeemed people who obey God from the heart because their sins have been decisively and eternally dealt with.

Outline

Context In Hebrews

Hebrews 8 is the central pillar of the entire epistle's argument. The first seven chapters have painstakingly established the superiority of Jesus Christ's person and priesthood over the angels, Moses, and the Levitical order. Chapter 7 culminated by showing that Christ is a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek, a priesthood superior to Aaron's. Now, in chapter 8, the author explains what this superior priest does. He mediates a superior covenant. This chapter, with its long quotation from Jeremiah, provides the divine rationale for the entire transition from the old covenant to the new. It sets the stage for chapters 9 and 10, which will detail how Christ's sacrifice in the heavenly sanctuary accomplishes the forgiveness and cleansing that the old covenant's animal sacrifices could only symbolize. Without the argument of chapter 8, the rest of the book would lack its foundational premise. The new priesthood of Christ is necessary because God had always planned to inaugurate a new covenant.

Key Issues

An Obsolete World

One of the central tasks of a Christian is to learn how to read a clock, and I mean God's redemptive-historical clock. The original readers of this letter were being tempted to turn the clock back. They were thinking of returning to the temple, to the sacrifices, to the shadows. The author of Hebrews grabs them by the shoulders and tells them in no uncertain terms that the time for all that is over. The old world is done.

When God introduces something "new," it necessarily makes the previous thing "old." If you buy a new car, your previous car becomes your old car. This is simple logic. The author applies this logic to God's covenants. By the mouth of Jeremiah, God Himself announced a "new covenant." In that very announcement, He signed the death warrant of the old one. It was placed on the shelf, designated for obsolescence. And the author, writing just before the destruction of Jerusalem, adds that this old system is not just obsolete in principle, but is "growing old" and "ready to disappear." The temple was still standing, but it was like a great, hollowed-out tree, rotten on the inside, just waiting for the final storm to push it over. That storm came in A.D. 70, and the entire world of Old Covenant Judaism vanished from the earth, just as this passage said it would.

Verse by Verse Commentary

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second.

The logic here is straightforward and unassailable. If the first tool for the job had worked perfectly, you wouldn't need to design a new one. The very existence of a divine promise for a second covenant is proof that the first one had a problem. Now, we must be careful. The "fault" was not with God's law. Paul tells us the law is holy, righteous, and good (Rom 7:12). The fault was not in the moral character of the commands. The fault lay in the structure of the covenant itself as it was applied to sinful people. It was a covenant of works that revealed sin, magnified sin, and condemned sin, but it did not have the power to remove sin or change the sinner's heart. It was designed to be a placeholder, a tutor to lead us to Christ (Gal 3:24). It was faultless in doing what it was designed to do, which was to prepare the way for what was coming next.

8 For finding fault with them, He says, “BEHOLD, DAYS ARE COMING, SAYS THE LORD, WHEN I WILL COMPLETE A NEW COVENANT WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH;

Here the author clarifies where the fault lay. God found fault "with them," that is, with the people. The law written on stone tablets met hearts of stone, and nothing happened. The problem was not the software, but the hardware. So God, in His grace, announces a solution. He doesn't just offer to patch the old system; He promises to replace it entirely. The announcement of a "new covenant" is a thunderclap in redemptive history. This covenant is made with the house of Israel and Judah, which is to say, with the people of God. In the new covenant, this promise is fulfilled in the true Israel of God, the Church, which consists of both Jews and Gentiles who are united to the Messiah.

9 NOT LIKE THE COVENANT WHICH I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS IN THE DAY WHEN I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND TO LEAD THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT; FOR THEY DID NOT CONTINUE IN MY COVENANT, AND I DID NOT CARE FOR THEM, SAYS THE LORD.

God explicitly states that this new covenant will be qualitatively different from the Mosaic covenant established at the Exodus. The old one was like a marriage contract that the bride, Israel, immediately and repeatedly violated. "They did not continue in my covenant." Their history, from the golden calf onward, was a story of covenant-breaking. The result was judgment: "and I did not care for them." This is stark language. It means God turned away from them in judgment, allowing them to experience the curses of the covenant they had broken. The old covenant was conditional on their obedience, and because they were disobedient, it ended in their ruin.

10 FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS, AND UPON THEIR HEARTS I WILL WRITE THEM. AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.

Here is the glorious difference. The new covenant is not external, but internal. God's solution to the heart-of-stone problem is a divine heart transplant. He promises to perform spiritual neurosurgery. Instead of writing His law on tablets of stone, He says, "I will put my laws into their minds, and upon their hearts I will write them." This is the promise of regeneration, the new birth. The Holy Spirit changes our very nature, our desires, so that we begin to love the law of God. Obedience is no longer a matter of grim-faced duty, but of Spirit-empowered delight. And the result is the fulfillment of the ultimate covenant promise: "I will be their God, and they shall be my people." This relationship, which was only shadowed under the old covenant, is now realized in its fullness.

11 AND THEY SHALL NOT TEACH EVERYONE HIS FELLOW CITIZEN, AND EVERYONE HIS BROTHER, SAYING, ‘KNOW THE LORD,’ FOR ALL WILL KNOW ME, FROM THE LEAST TO THE GREATEST OF THEM.

This verse describes a radical shift in the makeup of the covenant community. Under the old covenant, you were an Israelite by physical birth. The community was a mixed multitude of believers and unbelievers. Consequently, there was a constant need for evangelism within the covenant community: "Know the Lord!" But the new covenant community, the Church, is different in its essential nature. It is a community defined by regeneration. "All will know me." This doesn't mean we stop teaching. We teach one another because we all know the Lord. We are exhorting, encouraging, and building up fellow believers. The fundamental evangelistic task of introducing someone to God is no longer necessary within the house. The entrance requirement for the new covenant is knowing the Lord, from the least to the greatest. It is a community of the redeemed.

12 FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE.”

This is the foundation upon which the entire new covenant rests. How can God perform this heart surgery and establish this intimate relationship? Because He has dealt with the sin problem once and for all. The old covenant had sacrifices that were offered year after year, which was a constant reminder that sin had not been finally dealt with. But the new covenant is based on a perfect, final atonement. God promises not just to forgive, but to forget. "I will remember their sins no more." This is not divine amnesia. It is a legal declaration. It means that because of the blood of Christ, our sins will never again be brought up as a charge against us. The file is closed, the debt is paid, the record is expunged.

13 When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

The author now draws the inescapable conclusion. God's own words have rendered the Mosaic system obsolete. The Greek word for "obsolete" means to declare something old and out of use. But he goes further. He says it is "becoming obsolete and growing old." This is a process. At the time of writing, the temple services were still going on. But they were an empty shell. They were like a dead man walking. The substance had departed. The author says this entire apparatus is "ready to disappear." This is a direct, short-term prophecy. Within a handful of years, the Roman armies would arrive and be the instrument of God's judgment, leveling the temple and bringing the entire sacrificial system to a violent and permanent end. The old world was about to vanish in fire and smoke, just as God had planned.

Application

This passage is not just a lesson in ancient history; it is the charter of our freedom and the source of our assurance as Christians. First, it tells us that our relationship with God is not based on our ability to keep an external code. The old covenant proved that approach is a dead end. Our relationship is based on the Spirit's work in us, giving us a new heart that desires to please God. If you are a believer, you are not trying to obey God in order to get Him to accept you; you are obeying Him because He has already accepted you and has changed you from the inside out.

Second, it defines the nature of the church. The church is not a social club or a national identity. It is a supernatural community of people who have been born again and who personally know the Lord. This should shape how we view one another and how we conduct our lives together. We are a family of the redeemed, not a mixed bag of the religious.

Finally, it grounds our security in the finality of God's forgiveness. Under the new covenant, your sins are not just temporarily covered; they are gone. God has promised to remember them no more. This is not because our sins are small, but because Christ's sacrifice was infinitely great. When feelings of guilt or the accusations of the devil arise, we can point to this covenant promise. The case is closed. The old world of striving, failure, and temporary fixes is obsolete. We live in the new world of grace, regeneration, and permanent forgiveness, all secured for us by our great High Priest, Jesus Christ.