Jesus Is…, 12

~ Jesus Christ Is A Guarantee of a Better Covenant ~

Passages  ~  “And inasmuch as He was not made priest without an oath (for they have become priests without an oath, but He with an oath by Him who said to Him: ‘The Lord has sworn and will not relent, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek”’), by so much more Jesus has become a surety [guarantee] of a better covenant” (Hebrews 7:20-22).

“For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices.  Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer.  For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle.  For He said, ‘See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.’  But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises” (Hebrews 8:3-6).

Significance  ~  The New Testament (literally New Covenant) is better in so many ways than the Old Testament (Covenant).  For example, no one was ever saved eternally by keeping The Law.  As the book of Hebrews points out we now have a better priest, a better sacrifice, and a better tabernacle—all through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came to earth in human flesh.

“For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.  Because finding fault with them, He says: ‘Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded 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 in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’  In that He says, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete.  Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:7-13).

the key question:  “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15).  This is the most important question you will ever answer.  If you do not answer it, or answer it incorrectly, you have made the biggest mistake anyone can make!

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

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