The Planned Obsolescence of a Glorious Covenant Text: Hebrews 8:7-13
Introduction: God's Upgrade
We live in an age of constant upgrades. Your phone is out of date the moment you walk out of the store. Your computer's operating system needs to be patched and updated every other Tuesday. The world understands the principle of planned obsolescence. Something is designed to be good for a time, to serve its purpose, and then to be replaced by something better. But when we come to the things of God, we moderns get squeamish. We like the idea of an unchanging God, but we want that to mean an unchanging administration, a static relationship. We want to treat the Old Covenant like a museum piece, to be revered behind glass, but not something that has been superseded.
Many Christians treat the Old and New Covenants like two different departments in the same store, and they feel free to browse in both. They want the sacrificial system for their sentimentalism, the dietary laws for their boutique piety, and the New Covenant for their forgiveness. But this is to fundamentally misunderstand what God has done in history. The writer to the Hebrews is making a stark and necessary argument to a group of Jewish Christians who were feeling the immense cultural pressure to go back, to retreat into the familiar shadows of the Temple, the priesthood, and the sacrifices. His argument is that you cannot go back. To go back is not to go to something good-but-old, but to go to something that God Himself has declared obsolete. God has issued an upgrade, and to refuse it is not piety; it is rebellion.
The transition from Old to New Covenant was not a mistake, not a patch for a system that failed unexpectedly. It was the plan from the beginning. Jeremiah prophesied it centuries before Christ. God built the Old Covenant with an expiration date stamped on it, not because it was bad, but because it was incomplete. It was a glorious, God-given, holy administration. But it was the black-and-white photograph, and Christ is the living, breathing, color reality. Here in our text, the author of Hebrews lays out the divine logic for this upgrade, showing us why the first covenant had to give way to the second, and what the glorious benefits of that new arrangement are.
The Text
For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. 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; 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. 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. 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. FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE.” When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.
(Hebrews 8:7-13 LSB)
The Logic of Replacement (v. 7)
The argument begins with a piece of unassailable logic.
"For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second." (Hebrews 8:7)
The very fact that God, through Jeremiah, promised a "new" covenant is proof that the first one was not the final word. If your car is running perfectly, you don't go shopping for a new one. The search for a replacement implies a deficiency in the original. Now, we must be careful here. Where was the fault? The author of Hebrews is not saying that the Mosaic Law was sinful or wicked. Paul is emphatic that the law is "holy and righteous and good" (Rom. 7:12). The fault was not in the law itself, but in its design and in the people with whom it was made.
The Old Covenant was designed to be a ministry of condemnation (2 Cor. 3:9). It was designed to reveal sin, to provoke sin, and to show the utter inability of man to save himself by works. It was a perfect tool for the job God gave it. The fault, therefore, was its inability to provide a perfect conscience, to give life, and to secure perfect, heartfelt obedience. It could command righteousness, but it could not create it. It was like a perfect mirror. A mirror can show you that your face is dirty, and it does that job flawlessly. But you cannot wash your face with a mirror. The Old Covenant was a perfect mirror, but it was never intended to be the soap and water.
The Faulty Party and the Promised Remedy (v. 8-9)
The writer immediately clarifies where the fault lay. It was not with the covenant's character, but with its recipients.
"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; 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.'" (Hebrews 8:8-9)
God found fault "with them," with the people. The history of Israel under the Mosaic Covenant is a story of relentless covenant breaking. From the golden calf onward, they were a stiff-necked people. The covenant was written on stone tablets, but their hearts were stone as well. The external law met an internal rebellion. And because of their unfaithfulness, God says, "I did not care for them." This is stark covenantal language. It means He turned them over to the consequences of their sin, to the covenant curses of exile and judgment.
So the problem was the human heart. Any solution, therefore, had to address the heart. This is why the new covenant would be "not like" the old one. It wouldn't be another external code that depended on man's fickle willpower. God was promising a radical, internal transformation. And notice with whom this covenant is made: "with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah." This is crucial. The New Covenant is the fulfillment of the promises made to Israel. The Church does not replace Israel in the sense of God discarding one people for another. Rather, the Church is the true, reconstituted Israel, made up of both Jews and Gentiles who are united by faith in the Messiah, the true King of Israel. We Gentiles are wild olive branches grafted into the cultivated olive tree of Israel (Rom. 11:17). The New Covenant is profoundly Jewish.
The Internal Upgrade (v. 10)
Here is the central promise, the great engine of the New Covenant.
"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." (Hebrews 8:10)
This is the heart of the matter. God promises to do what the old covenant could not. He promises regeneration. Instead of stone tablets, He will use the fleshy tablets of the human heart. The law will no longer be an external accusation, but an internal disposition. The Holy Spirit will be poured out, giving God's people a new nature, a new desire to obey. This is not the eradication of the law, but the internalization of it. The moral law of God, which reflects His character, is now what we want to do. It is written into our very being.
This is why the New Covenant is a covenant of grace. The basis of our obedience is not our effort, but God's prior, sovereign work in us. He is the one who puts, who writes. Our obedience is the fruit of His initiative, not the root of our acceptance. And the result is the great covenant refrain that echoes throughout Scripture: "I will be their God, and they shall be my people." In the New Covenant, this relationship is secured not by our performance, but by His promise and His power.
The Result: Universal Covenant Knowledge (v. 11)
The consequence of this internal work is a radical change in the nature of the covenant community.
"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." (Hebrews 8:11)
This verse is a favorite for our Baptist friends, who use it to argue against infant baptism. But they are reading it with modern, individualistic eyes. The point is not that there will be no more teaching in the New Covenant. The New Testament is filled with commands to teach! The point is about the fundamental nature of the covenant community. The Old Covenant community was a mixed multitude. It was a national entity into which one was born physically. As a result, you had to constantly exhort your fellow Israelite, "Know the Lord!" because many, if not most, of them did not. You had to evangelize your neighbor within the covenant.
But the New Covenant, in its essence, is a regenerate community. Its defining characteristic is the possession of the Holy Spirit. "All will know me," from the least to the greatest. This is a description of the ideal, the spiritual reality toward which the visible church strives. It speaks of a qualitative difference. The driving engine of the Old Covenant was birth; the driving engine of the New is re-birth. This is a glorious, postmillennial promise. As the gospel advances through history, this knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea (Hab. 2:14). The day is coming when the baseline assumption of human culture will be the knowledge of God.
The Foundation: Atonement (v. 12)
What makes all of this possible? How can a holy God write His law on sinful hearts and dwell with a sinful people? The answer is the foundation of everything.
"FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE." (Hebrews 8:12)
This is the bedrock. The New Covenant is built on a better sacrifice. The Old Covenant had the blood of bulls and goats, which could never truly take away sin (Heb. 10:4). They were promissory notes, pointing forward to the one, final, perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Because Christ has offered Himself, God can be "merciful to their iniquities." He can be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:26).
To "remember their sins no more" does not mean God has amnesia. It is legal, forensic language. It means He will no longer hold our sins against us in a court of law. They have been paid for, dealt with, and cast into the depths of the sea. The double jeopardy principle applies. Christ was punished for our sins, and God will not punish them again in us. This total, complete, and final forgiveness is what clears the way for the Spirit to indwell us, to write the law on our hearts, and for us to be His people.
The Verdict: Obsolete (v. 13)
The author concludes with a final, devastating summary.
"When He said, 'A new covenant,' He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear." (Hebrews 8:13)
The moment Jeremiah uttered the words "a new covenant," the old one was put on notice. It was declared obsolete, like last year's technology. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was the moment the new model was officially released. But the writer here, likely writing before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, says it is "becoming obsolete and growing old" and is "ready to disappear." The old structures, the Temple, the priesthood, the sacrifices, were still standing. They were like a dead tree that hadn't fallen over yet. They were a hollowed-out shell. The glory had departed.
In A.D. 70, God, using the Roman armies as His axe, swung and felled that tree. The entire sacrificial system, the visible apparatus of the Old Covenant, vanished in a storm of fire and blood. God Almighty took a divine wrecking ball to the whole thing to make it unmistakably clear that there was no going back. The scaffolding had been removed because the building was complete. To cling to the Old Covenant now is to cling to a system that God Himself has judged and dismantled. It is to prefer the shadow to the Son.