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 8:13 

Christ was plain about His purpose to supersede the old order of things with that which was new. He made direct reference to this when He said, ‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; or else the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.’ The writer of Hebrews goes to great lengths to show his audience how thoroughly Christ does supersede the old covenant. The elements of the old covenant were a means to an end. Once they fulfilled their purpose in the larger scheme they were no longer relevant. Hence, the sacrifices, ceremonial laws, and practices ceased over the course of time. This is altogether as it should be, although it was frankly not an easy sell. The Jews had clung tenaciously to the ancient traditions. It would take a remarkable movement of the Holy Spirit to convince them that God was making the old covenant obsolete. This is the inherent controversy that exists even today between Judaism and Christianity. It centers upon Who and What Christ is. According to the writer of Hebrews, He is the Mediator of the new covenant. This means the old covenant has grown old and is vanishing away. Christ makes all things new.  

Our Gracious God and our Savior, 
we rejoice that You do all things in due course of time. 
We praise You that You are  
removing the old and replacing it with the new.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. 

Hebrews 8:12 

Will there ever come a time when God somehow calls our sins again before us? According to our text the answer is, ‘no.’ Is this the only place we find such a statement? In the mercy of God there are other blessed statements with which God assures us. David declares, ‘As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.’ If God has removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west, how could He remember them against us anymore? Hezekiah, in the midst of his illness said, ‘For You have cast all my sins behind your back.’ He understood that once God is done with our sin, He is done with them forever. This brings us to dwell upon the permanent nature of the sacrifice of Christ. As the writer of Hebrews moves into the ninth chapter, he speaks of the sacrifice of Christ as the sacrifice far superior to any other ever offered by a High Priest of the house of Aaron. He says that if Christ had been an Aaronic priest, ‘He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.’ Thus, Christ is the ultimate High Priest Who has offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice, once for all. This is why God will remember our sins against us, no more.  

Our Glorious, Sovereign God, 
we rejoice that You deal with our sin. 
We praise You that because of Christ, 
You put them away forever.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. 

Hebrews 8:12 

We think of God as the One Who sees all, knows all, is all-powerful, and Who forgets nothing. All of these are true when we consider Him as the Sovereign, unchanging God. Having said that, we take Him at His word when He says there are things He consciously, willingly, refuses to remember. This touches on us personally. It is a matter of fact that we are full of unrighteousness, sins, and lawless deeds. The best people, by human standards, ‘fall short of the glory of God.’ As the psalmist put it. ‘If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?’ The psalmist goes on to answer the question he has raised by saying, ‘but there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.’ This brings us to the discussion of what God refuses to remember and why He does. The answer to this lies in Christ, the Mediator of the new and better covenant. As the Prophet, He has preached Himself to us. As the Perfect High Priest, He has offered Himself as the perfect atoning, substitutionary sacrifice for all our sins. Because God has imputed all our sins to Christ, and all Christ’s righteousness to us, God remembers our unrighteousness, sins, and lawless deeds against us no more.  

Our Great and Gracious God, 
we rejoice that You input to us the righteousness of Christ. 
We praise You that You have put away 
all our sins because of Him. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

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. 

Hebrews 8:10-12 

Salvation is all of grace and all of God. As the writer of Hebrews is explaining the superiority of the new covenant over the old one, he quotes the prophet Jeremiah. In the ancient context God was applying this spiritual transformation to the people of Israel. Because of what we know about the gospel, and God’s intention to draw to Himself people of every kingdom, nation, tribe and tongue we realize this work of salvation extends far beyond the nation of Israel. In the book of Hebrews, however, the people of Israel are still the primary focus of the discussion. The new covenant which God makes with these people is primarily spiritual. It does not have the rites, rituals, ceremonies, and laws the old covenant had. The writer is showing them the true spirituality of this new covenant. If God has done a work of grace in our heart, we relate to this experience he is describing. God had brought us to Christ. He has put His law in our mind and written it upon our heart. He is our God and we are His people. We do know Him and He has put our sins behind His back to remember them against us no more.  

Our Great God and our Savior, 
we rejoice at the way in which You deal with us spiritually. 
We praise You that You are consistently working in our own heart, 
to draw us after Christ.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

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.

Hebrews 8:10

There are marked differences between the old covenant God made with Israel and the new one. The old covenant involved rites, ceremonies, rituals, and many outward manifestations. In the plan of God, they had their place and served their purpose. They were a means to an end but not the end itself. They were in place as physical instructions to point Israel, and anyone else who embraced them, to Christ, the Promised One. The elements of the old covenant were something in which people might engage without having any true transformation of soul. Many in ancient Israel went through the motions of devotion to God without having any real heart for Him or for the Messiah to Whom the rites, ceremonies, and rituals pointed. Thus, not all who were of physical Israel were spiritually Israelites. With the coming of Christ there came a doing away with the old covenant and the advent of a new, essentially spiritual covenant. The outward trappings of the old covenant ceased to be necessary. God, through Christ, by the Holy Spirit now writes His laws on the hearts of His redeemed. They are the Israel of God. Christ is the Mediator of the new covenant.

Great God of Wonders,
we rejoice that You always have a plan.
We praise You that You carry out that plan
to its glorious end.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning