Jesus is Better

In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away (Hebrews 8:13).

The Mosaic covenant is obsolete. It is finished. It is over and done with. The author of Hebrews spends a lot of time emphasizing that point. Or, to say it positively, Jesus is better. Jesus is better than the Mosaic covenant. Jesus is better than Moses. Jesus is better than the angels. Jesus is better than the earthly high priest and the rites and services of the temple. Jesus is better. This is the over-arching point of the book of Hebrews: Jesus is better, so don’t return to the things which He made obsolete; this brings us back to the Mosaic covenant, which the author addresses in chapter eight.

If God knew, since He is God, that the covenant He was making with Israel through Moses would become obsolete, why make it? It seems like a bunch of unnecessary maneuvering for nothing. It’s confusing. Let’s spend a couple thousand years paying extra attention to this law; let’s ingrain it into every aspect of our society, and then abandon it one day. That seems like it should be pretty easy, right? Then the words of Romans 9:20 put me in my proper place: But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?”

No, God does what He does for His own reasons, and it is not our place to criticize, or even to understand. In terms of the Mosaic covenant, it’s purpose was not to be a permanent solution to man’s problem of sin and death. The Mosaic covenant was intended to show man his sin, and his need to be rescued, and it was intended to set apart the children of Israel from the nations of the world. It was to mark them as holy and special, and to refine them, until out of them would come the only permanent solution to sin, death, and the devil, Jesus. God wanted to set apart the Israelites, so He gave them different laws, rules, and customs than all the other nations. Specific and unique rules for their clothing; Specific and unique rules for cutting their beards; Specific and unique rules for what they could eat; Specific and unique rules for how they were to worship Yahweh.

We run into two equal and opposite errors, concerning the Mosaic covenant. The first one goes like this: If God prescribed all these specific rules for how to act, dress, eat, and worship, we had better get to doing them. God means what He says, after all. From this, you get things like the Hebrew Roots Movement, and a bunch of people who say they are Christians trying to please God and justify themselves by how well they keep the Law of Moses. They are Pharisees. The second one hits closer to home with me: the Mosaic covenant s obsolete, you say? I’ve been set free from my slavery to sin by the atoning death of Christ, you say? Delightful! Now I can do whatever I want. No more stuffy and outmoded moral restraints for me. All things are lawful for me, because Christ has made the Law obsolete! Anyone who tells me differently is a Pharisee… This is called antinomianism. Both of these errors are deadly.

So what are we to make of the Mosaic covenant? We are to make of it what God tells us through scripture. We are to understand that in the Law, the Mosaic covenant, there are three types of laws: 1) the moral law, 2) the ceremonial law, and 3) the civil law. The moral law tells man his duty toward God. It is written on the human heart from creation. This is how Cain knew it was sinful for him to murder his brother Abel, even before the Law was formally written down. It is how we know, before anyone tells us, that we are idolators, murderers, liars, thieves, and adulterers. It is how we know that we, despite all the things we do to look righteous before men, or to try and justify ourselves before God, don’t measure up to God’s standard. We have sinned against Him by our thoughts, words, and deeds, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved God with our whole hearts; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. The ceremonial law told the Israelites how they were supposed to worship Yahweh, from how to construct the tabernacle and implement the elaborate system of animal sacrifices, down to the clothing and movements of the high priest and his attendants. The civil law regulated how the Israelites where to act toward each other, as well as toward other nations, in accordance with the moral law.

In good Lutheran fashion we ask, “What does this mean?” It means that all human beings, since man’s fall into sin, have a responsibility to keep the moral law, which God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai, engraved by the finger of God into tablets of stone, which we call the 10 Commandments. This moral law was written on man’s heart from the beginning, and codified by God on Mt. Sinai. The ceremonial law and the civil law, however were given specifically to the nation of Israel, and for a different and specific purpose. That purpose was to set them apart from all the pagan nations of the world, and to mark them as His chosen people, from whom mankind’s savior would arise. The ceremonial and civil laws were shadows of the things to come. They are the symbols, fulfilled in Christ. The tabernacle, and later the temple, and all the worship of the sacrificial system of the Mosaic covenant points to Christ. It is fulfilled in Christ. It is made obsolete in Christ. This is the reason we can eat shellfish, and trim our beards. It’s the reason that sins like homosexuality are still sinful (because we’re still responsible for the moral law), but we are able to disregard the punishment prescribed in the civil law of Israel (because we’re not responsible for the civil law) which commanded that homosexuals (and various other offenders against the law) be put to death.

That is the point of Hebrews. All the sacrifices that ever were performed were imperfect types and shadows of Christ’s perfect atoning sacrifices for sin on the cross; it was perfect, therefore there is no need to repeat it. We fail to keep the Law. Christ has kept it. He is righteous and gives us His righteousness. In fact, Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God by the grace of God through faith in Christ. He needs only to deliver this gift to us. He does that in the preaching of His word. He does that when, according to His promise, we bring people, old and young, infant and adult, to the baptismal font, and they are joined to Christ and His death and resurrection by water and the word; where they are saved through baptism and their sins are washed away. He delivers it to us in the Supper, the eating and drinking of Christ’s own body and blood, for the forgiveness of our sins, with the bread and wine. The Mosaic covenant is obsolete. We have something better which will never pass away; we have Jesus, and His death, and His resurrection. And, because He lives, we also shall live.