Hebrews 8:9-13

Christ's priesthood and covenant excelled the old -- Hebrews 8:9-13: This new arrangement is different from that which was made with Israel when God brought them out of Egypt. It includes everyone and it relates more to the heart and inner man. Sadly the Jews failed to comply with the conditions of the covenant God made with them. We must do better than they did under our New and Better Covenant.

The New Covenant was not made with Israel and Judah as a national covenant, but as they were blessed to be part of the church of Christ. God has revealed His will and it is our obligation to reach a thorough knowledge and understanding of those laws. God's laws are now written on man's heart, not on tables of stone.

This great and fundamental promise of the New Covenant is the pardon of sin, "their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8:12) This is possible only by God's mercy. God does not forget that men are sinners, but by the blood of Jesus He treats them as if they had never sinned.

There is now a New and Better covenant. At the destruction of Jerusalem the old was finally folded up and put away forever. All the glory of the Temple and its service did gradually vanish, and at last it totally disappeared. Now we are blessed by the NEW! It is a new covenant, even that new covenant that God long ago promised Israel that He would make. (Jeremiah 31:31-32)