“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…” (Hebrews 8:8-9).
Change for the sake of change is never a wise plan of operation. Not all change is good. Not all change is bad. As explained in Hebrews 8:8-13, God’s change from the first (or old) covenant to the second (or new and better) covenant is a huge blessing.
In this passage, nine proofs are given to demonstrate the “better-ness” of God’s new covenant. The first three are:
The new covenant is better because of its inherently superior quality. The Greek word used by Jesus in Luke 22:20 and here in Hebrews 8:13—kainos—denotes the idea of new in quality. The old covenant was humanly impossible to keep perfectly. Using the old covenant’s requirements and provisions for addressing sin, God could always find fault with those living under its jurisdiction (v. 8). No so with the new covenant. Its requirements, along with the provision of Christ’s redeeming blood, are inherently superior in quality.
The new covenant is better because it fulfilled Old Testament prophecy. Every prediction of the Old Testament is an identification of something better. Just as Christ Himself is superior to any person or leader in Israel’s prior history, every Old Testament prediction—including Jeremiah’s prophecy of a new covenant—is a promise of something inherently better.
The new covenant is better because it is predicated upon greater redemption. The old covenant given and made at Mount Sinai was rooted in Israel’s redemption out of Egyptian slavery. The ransom given at Mount Calvary by Christ provides universal redemption out of spiritual slavery.
