Hebrews 8:7

Heb. 8:7. For if that first (covenant) had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

An important discussion of this text on the relation between the first and second covenant is found in "Perseverance of the Saints."

§10. The first covenant failed of bringing man to the glory of God, through man's instability, whereby he failed of perseverance. Man's changeableness was the thing wherein it was weak. It was weak through the flesh. But God had made a second covenant in mercy to fallen man, that in the way of this covenant he might be brought to the glory of God, which he failed of under the other. But is is God's manner, in things that he appoints and constitutes, when one thing fails of its proper end, he appoints another to succeed in the room of it; to introduce that the second time, in which the weaknesses and defects of the former are supplied, and which never shall fail, but shall surely reach its end, and so shall remain as that which needs no other to succeed it. So God removed the first dispensation by Moses, Hebrews 8:7-13: "For if the first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that 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 - because they continued not in my covenant; and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, etc. - for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, a new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old, is ready to vanish away." So the priesthood of the order of Aaron ceases, because of the weakness and insufficiency of it to answer the ends of priesthood, which are, to reconcile God to man. Therefore God introduces another priesthood, of the order of Melchisedec, that is sufficient, and cannot fail, and remains for ever: Hebrews 7:11; Hebrews 7:12, "If, therefore, perfection were by the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need was there that another priest should arise, after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law." Verse Hebrews 7:15-19, "After the similitude of Melchisedec, there ariseth another priest, who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec. For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before, for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect; but the bringing in of a better hope did." - What the law failed of, being weak through the flesh, Christ performed: Romans 8:3; Romans 8:4, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, that walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." So the old heavens and earth are destroyed, because of their defects, and a new heaven and earth introduced, that are to remain for ever. Hebrews 12:26-28, "But now hath he promised, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of those things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we, receiving a kingdom which cannot be removed," etc. - So Moses, the first leader of Israel, failed of bringing them into Canaan; but Joshua, the second leader, did not fail. The kingdom of Saul, the first anointed of the Lord, did not continue; but the kingdom of the second anointed remains for ever. The first sanctuary, that was built in Israel, was a movable tabernacle, and therefore ready to vanish away, or be removed finally: - and God forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh. But the second sanctuary was a firm building, an immovable temple, which was typically an everlasting sanctuary, and that which God would never forsake, 2 Samuel 7:10; 2 Samuel 7:11. So the first covenant that God made with Adam failed, because it was weak through the flesh, or through the weakness of human nature, to whose strength and stability the keeping was intrusted. Therefore God introduces another better covenant, committed not to his strength, but to the strength of one that was mighty and stable, and therefore is a sure and everlasting covenant. God intrusted the affair of man's happiness on a weak foundation at first to show man that that foundation was weak, and not to be trusted to, that he might trust in God alone. The first was only to make way for the second. God lighted up divine light in man's soul at the first; but it remained on such a foundation, that Satan found means to extinguish it; and therefore when God lights it up a second time, that it may never be extinguished.

Heb. 8:8-9