From our Sunday service on March 8, 2026, Hebrews 8:1-10:18. This is part 6 of our Hebrews series. Watch the full message: A New and Better Covenant – Hebrews Series #6 on YouTube.
Today we cover a large stretch of Hebrews, but it is one argument, and I do not want us to lose the thread in the details. The new covenant is greater than the covenant of the Mosaic law. The old tabernacle, the old sacrifices, and the old priesthood were never the destination. They were the promise and the picture. God wants you to know that the fulfillment of the promise is greater than the promise.
The True Tabernacle and a Better Covenant
The writer begins with the main point of all he has been saying:
Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.
Hebrews 8:1–2
We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. The earthly sanctuary was never the final thing. The priests served unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was told to make all according to the pattern shown him on the mount. What they handled was real, but it was a copy. Jesus does not serve in a copy. He serves in the true tabernacle.
That is why this covenant is better:
But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
Hebrews 8:6–7
He is the mediator of a better covenant, established on better promises. If the first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for the second. The fault was not that God had made a poor promise. The first covenant could not finish what it pointed to. So God spoke of a new covenant, putting His laws into the mind and writing them on the heart, and saying He would be merciful to their unrighteousness and remember their sins no more. In that He said, “A new covenant,” He made the first old. That which is decaying and waxing old is ready to vanish away. The old was a promise and a picture. The new is the fulfillment of that promise.
This does not mean that every promise God ever made has been thrown aside. The Abrahamic promise still stands, because this passage is not discarding God’s faithfulness. The issue here is the Mosaic covenant, with its priesthood, sacrifices, and sanctuary, which was always meant to give way when the true Priest arrived. What was ready to vanish away was that old system of approach, not the character of the God who promised.
Blood That Cleanses Once for All
The writer then walks through the worldly sanctuary, the daily ministry, and the high priest who entered the holiest once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the errors of the people. The Holy Ghost was signifying that the way into the holiest was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. Those gifts and sacrifices could not make the worshiper perfect as pertaining to the conscience. They were a figure for the time then present, imposed until the time of reformation.
Then Christ appeared:
But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of 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?
Hebrews 9:11–14
He came as High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands. Not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption. If the blood of animals could sanctify 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? God does not want us to receive forgiveness and then simply wait to die. He wants us to serve Him here as a kingdom of priests, with a clean conscience.
A covenant, like a testament, takes effect through death. The first was dedicated with blood. Almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood is no remission. But those patterns were only patterns.
For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
Hebrews 9:24–28
Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. He has not offered Himself often, as the high priest entered every year with blood of others. Otherwise He would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world. He has appeared once in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and He will appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
Remembered No More
The law, having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year make the comers thereunto perfect. If it could, the offering would have ceased. Instead, there was a remembrance again made of sins every year. It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. That is why Christ came to do the will of God. A body was prepared for Him, and He said, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God,” taking away the first that He may establish the second. The will of God was not an endless line of animals, but a perfect obedience and a perfect offering in the Person of His Son.
For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
Hebrews 10:14–18
By one offering He has perfected for ever them that are sanctified. The Holy Ghost also is a witness: after those days, God would put His laws in their hearts, and their sins and iniquities He would remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. The old illustrations prepared the world for the real solution. Jesus is the true High Priest in the real heavenly temple. By His own perfect blood He accomplished what the law never could: the complete removal of sin. The old covenant is obsolete. Believers now have direct access to God, and we can rest in the finished work of Christ. There is no need for further sacrifices, because He has offered Himself once for all. God wants you to know that the fulfillment of the promise is greater than the promise. Will you rest in the fulfillment of His promises today?
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