Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.  

Hebrews 8:1 

The writer of Hebrews wants his readers to clearly understand the main point of his message. To that end, he begins Chapter 8 with the words, ‘Now this is the main point of the things we are saying.’ He then points to Christ as the High Priest of His people. All the writer has set forth in the previous chapters has set the stage for this statement. He has spoken of Christ as the messenger Who has superseded the prophets. He has explained how Christ is a High Priest Who has superseded the priesthood of Aaron, the first High Priest of Israel. He has identified Christ as ‘a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.’ He has gone to great lengths to explain the critical role Christ occupies in order for his readers to grasp that the new order of things is better than the old one. To that end, he makes much of Christ as the High Priest Who supersedes the old High Priest as the perpetual Intercessor for His people and ‘is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.’ The main point is that this High Priest is our High Priest. This means Christ intercedes for us personally. This is a most blessed assurance.  

Our Gracious Master and our God, 
we rejoice that You live forever to make intercession for us. 
We praise You that because you intercede for us, 
we can come boldly to the throne.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. 

Hebrews 8:6  

Christ is the Mediator of a better covenant than the one God established with Israel in the ancient days. That covenant was full of types, symbols, and shadows. While, to the understanding ones, He was there, it would take His incarnation for the symbols to become clear. Once Christ did appear, He demonstrated the superiority of the new regime. Jeremiah prophesied that this day was coming. The passage of Scripture which the writer of Hebrews quotes comes directly from Jeremiah 31. This becomes important for us because it clearly shows us that Christ was the message from the very beginning. All the revelation of God from Genesis 3:15 onward was for the purpose of revealing Christ. Because of the peculiar position the Jews held, as the receivers of the old covenant, they were naturally strongly opposed to the changes Christ introduced. The writer of Hebrews artfully demonstrates that what Christ brings is the Divine substitute for the old rites, ceremonies and regulations. Thus the new covenant surpasses the old, and Christ is manifestly the Mediator of that covenant.  

Our Gracious God and our Savior, 
we rejoice that You have always had a plan. 
We praise You that You have brought that plan to pass, 
throughout the course of history. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

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