Hebrews 8:7-13
7 “For if that first covenant had been free of fault, no circumstances would have been sought for a second. 8 For in finding fault with the people, He says,
‘Behold, days are coming, says the Lord,
When I will bring about a new covenant
With the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
9 Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers
On the day I took them by the hand
To bring them out of the land of Egypt;
For they did not continue in My covenant,
And I did not care about them, says the Lord.
10 For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel
After those days, declares the Lord:
I will put My laws into their minds,
And write them on their hearts.
And I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.
11 And they will not teach, each one his fellow citizen,
And each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
For they will all know Me,
From the least to the greatest of them.
12 For I will be merciful toward their wrongdoings,
And their sins I will no longer remember.’
13 When He said, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is about to disappear.”
Free of fault: The Old Covenant was flawed because it could not save anyone. The law is holy, righteous, and good, but people could not keep it. This was the main problem. The New Covenant solution is the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.
I did not care for them: God did not care for them because they did not continue in obedience. Under the law, God keeps His end of the bargain if we keep ours. But in the New Covenant, God has promised to keep His end of the bargain regardless of our behavior. In the New Covenant, salvation is achieved entirely in Christ.
Put my laws into their minds…hearts: The author is not speaking of the Old Covenant law. God did not write the pork law, shellfish law, and sabbath law on our hearts. God has written a new command on our hearts: Believe in Jesus and love one another with the same love God has for us (1 John 3:23; John 15:12).
I will be their God: This is a declarative statement from God. He has rigged the system so that believers will belong to God because He has given His children new hearts that are predisposed towards Him, and He has removed all of their sins.
I will remember their sins no more: God has taken the record of our sins and disposed of it. The remembering of our sins is over. The finished work of Christ has made us perfectly cleansed (Hebrews 10:14).
Obsolete and growing old: The Old Covenant is obsolete having been replaced by the New Covenant. The New Covenant is a better covenant because it is founded solely on the finished work of Christ and God’s promise to save all who believe in Him. Because the New Covenant is better, we have no need for the law.
