As we walk through Hebrews in our reading plan, below are a few additional thoughts, questions, commentary, and quotes. These aren’t designed to substitute your personal study and reflectionon God’s Word, but they’re small supplements to your study. It’s always helpful to begin your study by reading the passage and making some basic observations. See the post “Making Observations” for basic questions to help you understand and apply what you’re reading.
Whatever is else is going on in life, there is great hope and comfort in knowing God is our God and we are his people. Throughout the Bible, God related to people through covenants, each leading us to the climax of the New Covenant. Christ is the better mediator of this better covenant, where we receive all the promises of God in Christ, though many we enjoy now await their complete fulfillment in the future. Consider the blessings true of you today if you are in Christ by grace alone through faith alone.
- We are made new from the inside-out by the Holy Spirit.
- God is our God and we belong to him as his people. He will be fully for us. Forever.
- Those in the covenant are kept in the covenant and preserved until the end.
- We get personal knowledge of God and direct access to him.
- Our sins are forgiven.
Study, Reflection, and Discussion Questions
- Based upon what we’ve seen in Hebrews so far, and Hebrews 8:8-9 (see Jer. 31:31-34), what are some of the insufficiencies of the Old Covenant? What could it not accomplish?
- Why are believers in Jesus recipients of the promises of the New Covenant? How do the promises of the New Covenant assure God will keep us and preserve us so we persevere in faith? Why is that comforting?
- How does the superiority and sufficiency of Jesus’ priestly ministry and the New Covenant he mediates encourage us to draw near and hold fast rather than drifting away?
- Read Jer. 31:31-34; 32:36-41; Ezek. 36:26-27; Luke 22:20. Why is the New Covenant effective and sufficient where the Old Covenant was not? What are some of the “better promises” (8:6) of the New Covenant that Jesus mediates? Why are these significant to our Christian walk?
- If God has made us his people, given us a new heart and the Holy Spirit so we can obey, and written the law on our hearts and minds, what does this tell us about the need to follow and obey Jesus, or to live in light of what God has done for us and in us?
For Further Study
- New Covenant: Jer. 31:31-34; 32:36-41; Ezek. 36:22-36; Luke 22:20 (1 Cor. 11:25); 2 Cor. 1:20; 3:6; Heb. 8.
- New Covenant: “9 Ways the New Covenant is Better than the Old” by Jesse Johnson at crosswalk.com; “You Asked: What’s New about the New Covenant” by Oren Martin at thegospelcoalition.org; “How Do Baptism and Circumcision Correspond” by John Piper at desiringgod.org; “Baptism and the Relationship Between the Covenants” by Stephen Wellum; Chapter taken from Believer’s Baptism.
Ideas for Response
- As you consider God’s work in you through the New Covenant, and the fact that he’s given you the Holy Spirit, turned your heart of stone into a heart of flesh, and enabled you to obey him, seek to walk in the newness of life and freedom Jesus purchased for you.
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