Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Thoughts on Hebrews 9: New covenant is superior to the old

In this chapter, the author of Hebrews really puts a lot of emphasis on the idea of the "new covenant" as being superior to the old and making the old covenant obsolete.  There is a lot of theological controversy over how far "obsolete" extends (is the OT still relevant in matters of law and morals, should signs of the new covenant mirror the signs of the old, etc).  We won't be getting into those.

What I do want to note is the superiority of the new covenant over the old.  The author of Hebrews briefly described the rarity and difficulty of entering the Most Holy Place, even if you were a priest.  That most holy place was designed as a mere copy of the throne room of God.  Priests had a hard time entering the copy of God's sanctuary.  Jesus stands in the real thing, mediating on our behalf.

Beyond this, we don't have a lot of clues as to what makes this new covenant better.  We do get a brief mention of it being enacted on "better promises".  We don't know exactly what these better promises are, but one thing that jumps out at me is the promise in the old covenant of a promised land vs. the promise in the new covenant of heaven.  I'd say that was a step up.

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