The author of Hebrews says that Jesus is the “Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.” At first glance this sounds offensive to the old covenant, as if it was in error or was without effect but that is neither the truth about the covenant or about what the author is revealing. He goes on to quote from Jeremiah 31:31-34 where God announces “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah”. The reality is that the old covenant was always meant to point to the new covenant and then to make room for it when it arrived. Jesus was 100% clear that He did not come to the condemn the law but to fulfill it. What I believe He meant was that He came to finish the task the law could not finish, but it was not because the law failed it was because the law was created with limitation, not to provide salvation but to point to the Messiah as the Savior.
A new covenant is not an indictment on the old it is a fulfillment of it. All of the pieces, the tabernacle, the priests, the sacrifices, the law itself, they were all temporary for the purpose of revealing the eternal. The law should be celebrated in that it did it’s job and then it must be set aside because the new covenant, in Jesus’ blood, is now present “once for all”. I pray that as we study this passage that we will all loosen our grips on the things that are temporary and hold tightly to that which is eternal. It is not wrong or sinful to embrace the temporary unless we do so at the cost of the eternal. Let’s search our hearts, our lives and even our thoughts of God and be sure that we are holding fast to Jesus, the High Priest and “once for all” sacrifice and that everything else is held onto loosely so that when it is time we are willing and able to let it fade away and to find all of our pleasure in Jesus and Jesus alone.