S20 || How Jesus Opens the Way to God || Hebrews 8:9 - 9:5 || Session 20

What if God’s law moved from stone tablets to your heart? We walk through the end of Hebrews chapter 8 and venture into the beginning of chapter 9 to show why Jesus is the better priest who brings a better covenant with better promises—and why that changes everything about how we know God, obey, and worship. We unpack Jeremiah chapter 31’s promise of an inner work of the Spirit, explore how the covenant speaks to Israel while blessing the nations, and clarify a key tension: the Mosaic Law is obsolete, yet God’s moral will is fulfilled in us through the law of Christ.

From there, we step into the tabernacle. Picture the outer court, the holy place, and the Holy of Holies sealed by a veil. Only the high priest entered once a year with blood for the mercy seat. Every detail shouted distance. Then the cross tore the veil. Jesus, our great High Priest, presented His own blood, opened a living way into God’s presence, and continues interceding for us. The smoke of incense that once hovered before the curtain now imagery-richly belongs inside, because our Advocate is already there.

This conversation connects theology to hope and practice. If the Spirit writes God’s ways on our hearts, obedience grows from desire, not fear. If the law of Christ guides us, we live led by the Spirit rather than by ritual. If access is open, we come boldly to the throne of grace. Along the way, we address Israel and The Body of Christ [The Messiah], the promise of future belief, and how Gentiles share in covenant blessings without erasing the text’s plain meaning. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves Hebrews, and leave a review telling us: what part of the new covenant gives you the most confidence today?

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage In Hebrews
• 2:24 Reading The New Covenant Promise
• 4:46 From External Law To Inner Change
• 8:20 Israel, Church, And Fulfillment
• 12:18 One Way Of Salvation In Christ
• 16:03 Is The Mosaic Law Obsolete
• 20:10 Enter Hebrews 9 And The Tabernacle
• 22:50 How The Tabernacle Was Arranged

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:20

The book of Hebrews mentions Jesus as a better priest that is ministering a better covenant based on better promises. And it speaks much of his personal characteristics and qualities. It's a fantastic explanation of how wonderful and how lofty Jesus is. The book is full of great theology about the person of Jesus Christ. If you have your Bibles, open them to the end of Hebrews chapter 8. If you were with us last time, we had introduced this idea of a new covenant and how it had fulfilled things in both the church and in national Israel. Well, we're going to go ahead and start where we left off. Just as a reminder, Steve, can you start at verse 8 and read through verse 13 at the end of the chapter?

SPEAKER_00: 1:12

For finding fault with them, he says, Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, for they did not continue in my covenant, and I did not care for them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all will know me, from the least to the greatest of them, for I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. When he said a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete, but whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

SPEAKER_01: 2:22

So what he's saying here is that the people of Israel had disobeyed the Mosaic Law. He says that at the end of verse 9. Therefore, there needed to be a new covenant. And the new covenant is going to be different in the sense that it's going to be an internal motivation and not an outward control. The Mosaic law had all these rules and regulations that were an outward control of people's behavior and their worship. This one, this new covenant, is going to be very different. He says, I'm going to put it in their minds and write it on their hearts. No longer will the law be there as an outward control on the outside of a person, but we're going to have an inner motivation to have a desire and a want to obey God. That's the greatest difference. Steve, in verses 10, 11, and 12, what are the promises that it says will happen from this new covenant? What are the benefits and the promises of this new covenant?

SPEAKER_00: 3:22

Well, the first thing he says there in 10 is that it's going to be a new covenant with the house of Israel, and he establishes the house of Israel as being both from the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah in the previous verses. So this is all 12 tribes of Israel, ethnic Israel, the nation. He says he will put his laws into their minds, and that he'll write those laws on their hearts, and that they will be his people. They won't have to be taught what the laws are. They won't have to teach their neighbors what the laws are because they will be written within the people themselves at that time. He says he's going to be merciful to their iniquities or to their sins, and that he will remember their sins no more. Those are the things that he lists as out in those verses related to ethnic national Israel and this new covenant.

SPEAKER_01: 4:21

And as we mentioned before, and is mentioned again here, this is a quote from Jeremiah 31. In Jeremiah 31, there's there's even a greater context than what the writer of Hebrew quotes here. In Jeremiah 31, which is where this is taken from, before this and after this quote, there's extensive sections that mention specifics about Israel, talks about Ephraim, talks about the Kidron Valley, talks about specific towers and gates on the walls in Jerusalem, and says all those things are going to be renewed, that there's not going to be any enemies anymore. What we cannot do is take things in isolation and read this through systematic theology glasses. We have to let the text speak for itself. What this says here, and the part it quotes, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. All will know me from the least to the greatest. It says no one is going to need to be taught, and their sins are going to all be forgiven. In this, I take that to mean that the group of people it's talking about, everybody's going to be saved and in a right relationship with God. He promises here to put his laws in people's minds and in their hearts. We have to then ask ourselves, as we were doing at the end of the previous session, how can we reconcile this with what it clearly says in Corinthians, for example, the apostles are the ministers of a new covenant. Jesus was clearly the fulfillment of this new covenant. He said so in the upper room. This is the new covenant in my blood. We take it that we need to make a clear distinction between national Israel and the church, and that these are fulfillment of this new covenant here is with Israel. It says so. As we pointed out last time, there's no doubt which Israel he's talking about. It's the one that he brought out of Egypt as slave, ethnic national Israel. But I think there is a sense, is there not, Stephen, which the church can benefit some of this simply because we as Christians have the law written on our hearts, and we have the Holy Spirit as an inner motivation and not an outward control.

SPEAKER_00: 6:40

I think that is how we are beneficiaries of it. Whenever we become believers in Jesus Christ, Christos means the anointed one, same thing that was used in the Old Testament to the depict the Messiah, Messiah means anointed one. Whenever we as Gentile believers become believers in Jesus Christ, then we're saying we believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Jewish Messiah, and that he has promised to give eternal life to all who would come and believe in him. He said, I'm the light of the world, I'm the bread of life. He says, I'm the truth, the way, and the life. No one comes through the Father but through me. While those things mean specific things to Jewish people, they also mean things to the Gentile nations. Whenever he gave the Great Commission, he said, Go to all nations, preaching and teaching them and making disciples and baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. It's very clear that Jesus, while being the Messiah, he is one to come to fulfill the promises and make this new covenant with the ethnic national Israel. But at the same time, he came for the world. He came for all nations. It fulfills the one promise that was made to Abraham that said, Through you, all the nations will be blessed. We are beneficiaries from that, Glenn, and that, like you said, Jesus' law is written on our hearts now. It's written in our minds. And we don't have to go and tell other people what Jesus' law is. We know what it is because it's written on our hearts and on our mind. We are participants in that. In this age, as Paul says, we have both Jew and Gentile together, but the covenant itself is still written specifically to the Jewish people, even though we are able to be beneficiaries of the eternal life and the gift and the mercy that God gives to us through belief and trust in Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_01: 8:46

We always have to follow this up and be clear because there's so much misunderstanding here. The Israel we're speaking of is the Israel that believes in Jesus Christ. As Romans 9, 10 and 11 clearly point out, all Israel that descended from Abraham is not who's being mentioned here. It's only the ones that are believers in Jesus Christ. The Bible talks about a Israel that is going to all of them believe. That's what it's talking about here, from the least of them to the greatest of them, he quotes here. So the Israel it's speaking out, the national Israel will all be ethnic Jews that believe in Jesus Christ. This is the fulfillment of this new covenant with the national Israel. They will all be believers in Christ. There's only one way of salvation, and it is through Christ. Even if you're an ethnic Jew, if you deny Christ, you are not part of the new covenant. You are not in a right relationship with God. And those that deny Christ will not be beneficiaries of this. What is he pointing out? He's pointing out that there will come a time when they all believe in Christ. There will come a time when the nation believes, and we're not there yet. We have to conclude that this new covenant is not nice and easy and simple in the sense that it's not multifaceted. It is multifaceted. There's multiple layers to it, in the sense there's a fulfillment in national Israel. There's a patching in of the Gentiles that get this. There's a present sense that right now we can say those that are regenerated in Christ have Christ's law written on our hearts, as it's quotes here. But there's also a future sense in the sense that it is not the case. As Hebrews 8.11 says, everyone does not need teaching. We still need teaching, even inside the church. We have here a multifaceted thing that is partially fulfilled here, now it's partially fulfilled in the millennium. Again, read the rest of Jeremiah 31. It becomes very clear the future fulfillment in the millennium, partially fulfilled with the church and partially with national Israel. To wrap up this chapter, verse 13, is the Mosaic law obsolete today? Because it mentions that. So, Steve, is the Mosaic law still in effect or is it obsolete?

SPEAKER_00: 11:17

It is not in effect. What he is saying here in 13 is that he made the first obsolete whenever he said there's going to be a new covenant. What he means, I believe, is in Jeremiah, whenever God gave this word to Jeremiah that there was going to be a new covenant, at that point in time, it made the Mosaic law obsolete. Not from the practical sense that the Mosaic law was still into effect, but there was an expectation that at some point that Mosaic law was going to be obsolete. It was going to go away. It was not going to be useful anymore. And that the expectation is going to be a new covenant. It's clear from Jeremiah that the old covenant that was going to be made obsolete is the one that God made with them when they came out of Egypt. So it's got to be that Mosaic covenant that he was talking about that's going to be made obsolete. Through this verse here in 13, he is saying just that.

SPEAKER_01: 12:45

That's exactly correct. Verse 13 is sort of a prophecy, if you will, because it was written prior to 70 AD. At the time this was written, the Jewish sacrificial systems were still there. So what he's saying is that this is about to come to an end. I'm reminded of Galatians 5.18 that says, quote, if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law, close quote. For my Christian friends that hold that we're still held to the Mosaic Law, Galatians 5.18 would disagree. Hebrews 8.13 would disagree. We are now held to not the Mosaic Law, but the law of Christ, according to Galatians 6.2. That brings us to the end of chapter 8. And starting chapter 9, it keeps going about a lot of detail about how Christ is superior to the Old Testament sacrificial ceremony. This chapter is contrasting the earthly tabernacle with the heavenly one. Steve, can you read the first five verses of Hebrews chapter 9?

SPEAKER_00: 13:50

Now, even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship in the earthly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one in which were the lampstand and the table and the sacred bread. This is called the holy place. Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, having a golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna, and Aaron's rod which budded, and the tables of the covenant. And above it were the cherubim of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat. But of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

SPEAKER_01: 14:37

This section of scripture is a little close to my heart simply because years ago I stumbled into a church and the pastor was explaining this exact section, and he had some diagrams that spelled out exactly how the temple was laid out and was explaining this. And that was the gospel message that caused me to be regenerated and become a Christian. Everything changed since then. I want to take the time here to at least explain how these things are laid out because it mentioned them. Steve, how was the tabernacle laid out? Later it was built into a building like a temple. The original tabernacle was a portable structure that was made out of skins and fabrics that could be transported. Later, the exact same design was put into a stone building. But how was it laid out?

SPEAKER_00: 15:28

We have a couple of graphics here, Glenn, and we'll describe these for the listening audience. This first one here is a depiction of the tabernacle that was used in the wilderness and also used up until the time that Solomon's temple was built as they moved into the promised land. But this is the outer portion of it. As we see here, we have a curtain that goes all the way around the outer side. Inside of that, we have tables where the sacrifices were slaughtered, and then the brazen altar where they were offered up. Then we see the temple or the tabernacle proper at the very back of that. And that was the holy place and the holy of holies.

SPEAKER_01: 16:15

Right there, that brazen altar, bronze altar, that's where there was a fire going continually all the time, the morning and evening sacrifices. That's really where the heart of the sacrificial system started.

SPEAKER_00: 16:28

Correct. And it depicts here the pillar of smoke that is coming up from the Holy of Holies in the back part of this tabernacle that's there. That was uh during the day at nighttime. It was a pillar of fire that would give light to all of the encampment. And all of the different tribes would encamp on all different sides of this around it. The thing before we move to the next slide is that not everybody could go in here. The people could go in and bring their animals up to the curtain to be sacrificed, but then the priests would take it from there, and they would be the ones that would operate in that might refer to as the outer portion there. Then there was only a small other section of priests that would operate within the temple itself. Then there was only the high priest that would go into the Holy of Holies. We're going to look at that particular illustration next. Then we go to the next illustration that gives an inner look at the temple or the tabernacle itself. Here are some of the things that are named off there in chapter nine. There is the lampstand that gives off light. There's the table of showbread, the altar of incense. That was all in what was called the holy place. And behind that veil was the holy of holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was. It says that it had the jar of manna there, the Aaron's rod that budded was inside, along with the Ten Commandments, the two tablets. Then above that ark were the cherubim that were over that in a guarding way, so to speak. And you see on the first part it has an outer veil, and then that veil. So once again, as we mentioned, only certain priests were able to operate on this holy place area where they would refill the showbread every day. They would make sure the lampstand was lit, had plenty of oil in it, the wicks had to be trimmed so there wasn't excess smoke. And the altar of incense was continually kept burning. The incense smoke and smell that would come up because it sat right in front of the veil, the smoke would permeate through into the Holy of Holies, and it was to represent the people and the prayers going up and to God, and it was pleasing to God as to the incense that was going up to God.

SPEAKER_01: 19:05

The picture that's being painted by the design of this tabernacle is that God is behind a veil. The Shekinah glory of God was hovering over the Ark of the Covenant behind the veil. Mankind was separated from God by the veil. Sin was taken care of out in the courtyard where the bronze altar was. The blood of the sacrifice was taken out there where the bronze altar was and the fire was going continually. Sin was outside and separated from God. Once a year, the high priest would take a basin of the blood and go behind the veil and sprinkle blood on top of the ark. On top of the ark, the lid was called the mercy seat. And the picture was that God was hovering over this and he. Would look down and see the Ten Commandments, which were inside the ark, and realize that all of mankind had violated all of the commandments. Before he saw that, he would see the blood. And the blood would be the blood of the sin sacrifice. So that's the picture is that the blood covers in between us that violated the law and a holy God. Of course, Jesus is the true sacrifice. When he died, the veil was torn. There was no longer a need for the sacrificial ceremony. There was a way made from mankind to God. That is the beauty of this design. Now, this section also in Hebrews talks about there being a jar of manna and Aaron's rod that budded, or his walking staff that budded. Numbers chapter 17 has the story of God choosing Aaron by having his walking staff come alive, grow flowers, and even grow almonds on it. Exodus 16, 32 has the story of the manna that was the food that God provided in the wilderness. The main point of the passages here at the first part of chapter 9 is that the earthly tabernacle was earthly, made of earthly things, and served an earthly purpose. We note here in Hebrews 9:4, the incense altar is described as being behind the veil in the Holy of Holies. Normally, the altar of incense is out in front of the veil, like we just showed in the diagram. The question then comes in is how could this be? Leviticus chapter 16 describes how the high priest was to go behind the veil once a year to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat. The high priest was to take a incense with him, a censor with him. When Jesus died, the veil was torn. Now we can describe the incense as behind the veil. Jesus also is our great high priest. So he went before the mercy seat, presenting his blood on our behalf as such, the incense is still there because our high priest took it back there and stayed.

SPEAKER_00: 22:24

How wonderful that is. Just to add a little bit to what you're saying before we move on, Glenn, is that there's also a picture of entrance into God that it was very limited to the people. The general people, as I mentioned before, didn't have access into where God was. It got a smaller group of people as you got closer and closer to God. And now through Jesus and his sacrifice, as Hebrews mentioned earlier, and now we can come boldly to the throne of God because Jesus is our intermediary to petition on behalf of us. And as you mentioned, God looks at Jesus as far as our righteousness and what our belief and trust is Him. Through this depiction of the tabernacle before, great restriction, and only one person could get into the holy of holy places because of all the restrictions that were there. Now, though, anybody can go in that has a belief and trust in Jesus Christ. We're able to enter freely, we're able to enter boldly, and we're able to have a direct relationship and conversant with God the Creator. And I think that's just such a tremendous thing that's opened up for us as believers in Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_01: 23:49

What's even more interesting is not only can we go boldly into the throne room, but our advocate, Jesus, our high priest, is already in there advocating on our behalf. He's already there making a case that we are his and that his blood has paid for our sin. That is the great thing that's mentioned here in the book of Hebrews. We're gonna stop here now because of time, but be back with us next time because chapter 9 is gonna continue this contrast between the earthly tabernacle ceremony and the heavenly one, showing how Jesus is a better example that brings a better sacrifice. How tremendous this is.

SPEAKER_00: 24:31

It really is. Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.