The Need of a New Covenant
Read Hebrews 7:11–19. Why was a new covenant needed?
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According to Hebrews, the fact that Jesus was appointed Priest
according to the order of Melchizedek implied that a new covenant
had been inaugurated. The old covenant had been given on the basis of
the Levitical priesthood (Heb. 7:11, NASB). The Levitical priests acted
as mediators between God and Israel, and the law excluded anyone
else from the priesthood. The author concludes, then, that a change of
priesthood implies a change of the law of the priesthood, as well as the
change of the covenant (Heb. 7:12, 18, 19).
The issue with the old covenant was that it could not provide perfec-
tion (Heb. 7:11). Paul is talking about the Levitical priesthood and its
ministry (sacrifices, feasts, etc.). The animal sacrifices offered through
them could not provide true, total cleansing from sin, or access to God
(Heb. 10:1–4; Heb. 9:13, 14; Heb. 10:19–23).
The fact that a new covenant was necessary does not mean that
God was unfair with Israel when He gave them the old covenant. The
Levitical ministry and the services of the tabernacle were designed to
protect them from idolatry and also to point them to Jesus’ future min-
istry. Hebrews stresses that the sacrifices were “a shadow of the good
things to come” (Heb. 10:1, NKJV).
By pointing them to Jesus, the sacrifices should have helped the
people put their hope and faith in “ ‘the lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world’ ” (John 1:29, NKJV; compare with Isaiah 53). This
is the same point that Paul makes when he says that the law was “our
tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith” (Gal.
3:24, NASB) or that “Christ is the culmination of the law so that there
may be righteousness for everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4, NIV).
In other words, even the Ten Commandments, as good and perfect
as they are, cannot provide salvation (Rom. 3:20–28, Rom. 7:12–14).
They provide a perfect standard of righteousness, but they do not
provide righteousness, any more than looking in a mirror can erase
the wrinkles of age. For perfect righteousness, we need Jesus as our
Substitute.
Why can’t the law save us? After all, if we keep all the command­
ments, an