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Mediator of a Better Covenant

Now the main point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, ²a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent that the Lord, and not any mortal, has set up. ³For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. ⁴Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. ⁵They offer worship in a sanctuary that is a sketch and shadow of the heavenly one; for Moses, when he was about to erect the tent, was warned, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” ⁶But Jesus has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted through better promises. ⁷For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one.

⁸ God finds fault with them when he says:

“The days are surely coming, says the Lord,

when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel

and with the house of Judah;

not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors,

on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt;

for they did not continue in my covenant,

and so I had no concern for them, says the Lord.

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 minds,

and write them on their hearts,

and I will be their God,

and they shall be my people.

And they shall not teach one another

or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’

for they shall all know me,

from the least of them to the greatest.

For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,

and I will remember their sins no more.”

¹³ In speaking of “a new covenant,” he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

7. For if that first, etc. He confirms what he had said of the excellency of the covenant which God has made with us through Christ; and he confirms it on this ground, because the covenant of the Law was neither valid nor permanent; for if nothing was wanting in it, why was another substituted for it? But another has been substituted; and from this it is evident that the old covenant was not in every respect perfect. To prove this he adduces the testimony of Jeremiah, which we shall presently examine.

But it seems hardly consistent to say, that after having said that no place would have been sought for the second covenant, had the first been faultless, he should then say that the people were at fault, and that for this cause the new covenant was introduced as a remedy; and thus it appears unjust, that if the blame was in the people it should be transferred to God’s covenant. Then the argument seems not valid, for though God might have a hundred times blamed the people, yet the covenant could not on that account be deemed faulty. The answer to this objection may be easily given. Though the crime of violating the covenant was justly imputed to the people, who had through their own perfidy departed from God, yet the weakness of the covenant is also pointed out, because it was not written in their hearts. Then, to render it perfect and valid, God declares that it needed an amendment. It was not, therefore, without reason that the Apostle contended that a place was to be sought for a second. ¹³²¹³² This apparent inconsistency is avoided by some by rendering the 8^th verse differently, “But finding fault,” that is, with the first covenant, “he” Chrysostom, Beza, Doddridge, our own version, as well as Calvin and the Vulgate, connect “them” with “finding fault with,” and more correctly too; for the Israelites are blamed in the very passage that is quoted. There was a double fault or defect, which is explained in Romans 8:3, “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,” etc. This double fault or weakness more fully sets forth the excellency of the new covenant. —Ed.

¹³² This apparent inconsistency is avoided by some by rendering the 8th verse differently, “But finding fault,” that is, with the first covenant, “he” Chrysostom, Beza, Doddridge, our own version, as well as Calvin and the Vulgate, connect “them” with “finding fault with,” and more correctly too; for the Israelites are blamed in the very passage that is quoted. There was a double fault or defect, which is explained in Romans 8:3, “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,” etc. This double fault or weakness more fully sets forth the excellency of the new covenant. —Ed.