In the Shadows Advent Week 1 December 1 Hebrews 8:1-13
When someone is casting a shadow, the shadow is a mere shape of the thing. What’s greater is the thing casting the shadow – or perhaps more so, the light that allows any of it to be seen.
The old covenant could not ultimately do what was needed, which in simplest terms is why the new is better. The new was the message becoming the messenger – the word become flesh. God’s full intention, His will, His word for us become incarnate for us. He was not a shadow of heavenly things He was heavenly. While being earthly. He was the Son of Man and He was the Son of God. He went where no other could go. He went into the holy of holies to become the payment for all sin. He went because only He could. Nothing from the old could do that. The things of the old covenant were a mere shadow of what was to become the fulfillment of all the patterns of the past. Jesus, in His body would become the very Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. He could do it therefore it was a better covenant. It was now the covenant of the Spirit as talked about in 2 Corinthians 3.
It was not laws that would be attempted to be fulfilled, only to always fail. It would now become the ministry of the Spirit who would meet the needs of every human heart in making a way for reconciliation with God. Whether everyone yet realizes it or not, the longing in their hearts was for this reconciliation. And in that ultimate reconciliation, came the possibility of reconciliation with others as well.
It is indeed a better covenant, one of the Spirit of Jesus, enacted on better promises - the only way it could happen.
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