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

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

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

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