When we speak of the New Covenant, the question by some might be “What was wrong with the Old Covenant?” The answer is there was nothing “wrong” with the old one. It served as a means of pointing to and preparing for the New Covenant in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The structure and furnishings of the tabernacle in the Old Testament had spiritual meanings. The priests served in the holy place, or outer tabernacle, twice every day.
Only the high priest, said the writer of Hebrews, went alone into the “holy place within the vail before the mercy seat.” This he did only once a year, but he did not go in without the blood of his sacrifice “which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people.”
As mediator, the high priest was required to offer blood for his own sins but Christ Jesus, our Mediator, was sinless and did not need to sacrifice for His sins. The blood He shed was for the sins of all mankind.
Because of Jesus, there is a spiritual sanctuary, the New Covenant sanctuary. Look beyond the world to heavenly things, the writer seems to say in verse 11. The tabernacle we read about in the Old Testament was made with hands, but this sanctuary was “not made with hands” nor with things we find on earth.
The earthly tabernacle had to be maintained because there was natural wear and tear, but the “greater and more perfect tabernacle” is eternal. Christ Jesus was conceived in the womb of a virgin under the power and authority of the Holy Spirit. Though He was flesh and blood, Jesus was not born as other men in this world.
There is no longer a need for the blood of animals to sacrifice for our sins, since the blood of Jesus is infinitely superior to the blood of an animal. The high priest entered the Holy of Holies with the blood of animals, and this was done again and again. When Christ Jesus died, “he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” He is the ultimate and final sacrifice for our sins.
There was nothing in the Old Testament tabernacle worship that changed a person’s heart, but under the New Covenant, there is the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts to “purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
The testament referred to in Scripture is a covenant, or last will and testament. It becomes active only when the one making the testament dies. “For a testament is of force after men are dead,” we find in verse 17.
It has always been God’s way that blood had to be shed in order for sins to be forgiven. “Without shedding of blood is no remission,” the Scripture tells us. Why did Moses sprinkle blood on the tabernacle and “all the vessels of the ministry?” Those things certainly did not sin. The blood sprinkled on the tabernacle and vessels demonstrated a change in the relationship between those objects and God.
Spiritually, the blood shed by the Lord Jesus Christ has changed our relationship with God, and for that we are forever thankful.
The Sunday School Lesson is written by Ed Wilcox, pastor of Centerville Baptist Church. [email protected].
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