For finding fault, he says to them, Behold, days come, saith the Lord, and I will consummate a new covenant as regards the house of Israel, and as regards the house of Juda;
The writer of Hebrews has just said that Christ's ministry rests on a better covenant. Now he proves it from Israel's own Scriptures, quoting Jeremiah: God finds fault, and He names two houses.
One short phrase in this verse settles who is at fault:
The first covenant was not faultless, because it could win no blessing for those who broke it. And of course the people who received it proved themselves far from faultless. So there was ample room for a new covenant, and need of one. Notice that verse 8 says, "finding fault with them," not with the covenant.
That failure did more than expose the people. It brought the new covenant in.
But how could the old covenant, given by God, not be "faultless"? Because the fault lay with the sin and weakness of one party to the covenant: Israel. As with the law as a whole, there was no problem with what God had given (the law was good) but with the weakness of the flesh (Rom. 8:3). The new covenant was occasioned by the very failure of the old.
The promise of something new is itself the argument:
The argument is simple. A promised new covenant shows that the old covenant was not enough... It could not do what was in God's heart — to bring His people into the closest and nearest relationship with Himself.
A question follows: is God free to set aside what He Himself gave?
God is free to set aside the old and bring in the new. He never does this on a whim, but in goodness, wisdom, and holiness worthy of Himself... God is sovereign. That sovereignty is the blessed resource of His nature. It vindicates His name when men wrong and insult Him, and it delivers guilty man from his own evil and Satan's power.
The Greek word chosen here is not about recent date but about a different kind of thing:
The word used for "new" here is "kainos" — new in kind, fresh, in contrast with what has been before. It is the word used in most places where the term new covenant occurs. Another word, "neos", means new in the sense of recent or young. The new covenant is of a different character, marked by God taking all responsibility and promising blessing. This comes out beautifully in the "I will" in this verse (and throughout the new covenant section of Jeremiah 30–32).
Hebrews quotes Jeremiah with one small change, and the change carries weight:
Note that our verse (8:8) quotes from Jeremiah 31:31, but with a slight variation: instead of saying "with" it says "as regards" the house of Israel. This makes clear that Israel receives the good of the new covenant. Israel is not a party placed under an obligation by it (see also Heb. 10:16). Yet it is also clear that it is "as regards" the house of Israel and the house of Judah, and not the church.
The verse names two houses, not one, because the nation had broken in two long before:
Both are mentioned because of the division of the ten tribes from the two in Rehoboam's time. The new covenant will leave out no tribe: in that order of things God Himself will heal the division.
If the covenant is promised to Israel, what does it mean for a Christian today? Commentators answer by separating the covenant from its blessings:
The new covenant, as such, is made not with believers now, but with Israel. But all its spiritual blessings are ministered to us through the Spirit. That is why the apostle speaks of himself and his fellow-workers as "ministers of the new covenant."
This distinction matters in practice:
If you were under the new covenant in the letter, you would get into bondage again... Israel will then be ready to enjoy the reign of Christ. They will have the forgiveness of sins, and the Holy Spirit will be in them. But their blessing does not include the sense of sonship and union with Christ. We have all that they will have, and much more. We enjoy the blessings of the new covenant through the ministry of it, without being under it. We must always remember that all Israel's blessing in the coming day is on earth, while we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ.
- Fault — The blame falls on them, not on the covenant; the law was good, and human weakness broke it.
- Proof — A second covenant was promised. That alone shows the first could not do what God's heart intended.
- Freedom — God is not locked in by what He once gave. He sets aside the old and brings in the new in goodness and holiness, never on a whim.
- Kind — "New" here means new in character. It is a covenant of "I will," where God carries the whole responsibility.
- Reach — It is promised to Israel and Judah, and it heals their old split. Believers today are not under it, yet receive its blessings through the Spirit.
not according to the covenant which I made to their fathers in [the] day of my taking their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because *they* did not continue in my covenant, and *I* did not regard them, saith [the] Lord.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Because this [is] the covenant that I will covenant to the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord Giving my laws into their mind, I will write them also upon their hearts; and I will be to them for God, and *they* shall be to me for people.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And they shall not teach each his fellow-citizen, and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord; because all shall know me in themselves, from [the] little one [among them] unto [the] great among them.
Hebrews 8 sets out the promise of a new covenant, and this verse gives one of its terms. A day is coming when no one will need to urge a neighbour or a brother to know the Lord. That promise raises two questions. What kind of knowing is meant, and who is included?
Two different Greek verbs for knowing stand in this verse. Writers who study the words of Scripture explain the pair like this:
ginosko means "to come to know." It is used of knowledge picked up and passed on from outside, a true grasp of impressions received. oida is different. It comes from idein, to "see with the mind's eye," and means inward awareness, knowledge held in your own mind. We read in Hebrews 8:11 that there will be no need to say "know (ginosko) the Lord, for all shall know (oida) me" — awareness in oneself, inward knowledge.
The teaching stops because the need for it has gone:
There will be no more need to teach one another so that they know God from outside (that is, know about Him, Greek ginosko), because all will know Him from within, in their heart and intuition (eido).
Human teaching never brings everyone to the same level. So who makes this knowledge reach every last person?
In that day Israel's salvation illustrates Scripture so fully that the ignorant will need no knowledge from outside (gnosis), because all will already hold conscious knowledge within (eidesousi), from the little ones to the great ones among them. This result covers everyone, and that shows it is God who ensures it. Under human teaching, however good, we see every degree of progress, and at best knowledge far from perfect.
The order of the phrase runs upward — it starts at the bottom, not the top:
"They shall all know me, from the least to the greatest" — not "from the greatest to the least" — that is, Israel will know God not as a nation but as individuals. In the knowledge of God we have the love of God, and that is why Paul prays: "May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God."
This promise rests on two gifts, and it reaches the whole nation:
Forgiveness of sins for the conscience, and a new heart that may delight in God and walk in His ways! Because of this, there will be no need to say, "Know the Lord." God will be known and loved by all His people. "All your children shall be taught by the LORD." As a nation Israel will be born again, and not merely certain people in the nation.
Notice who does the promising in this covenant:
This new covenant depends entirely on the sovereign grace of God. It sets out the terms on which He can be with man according to His own holy nature and His own will. In setting out the blessing of the new covenant, again and again the Lord says, "I will." He says: "I will make a new covenant"; "I will put My laws into their mind"; "I will be to them a God"; "I will be merciful"; "Their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more." It is clear that the blessings of the new covenant depend not on man's doings or man's will, but on God's sovereign will. The heart of the new covenant is that the Lord Himself undertakes to carry it out.
So where does this leave believers today?
In Hebrews, while the writer shows the old covenant as "ready to vanish away" through the introduction of the new, he never presents its application as a present thing. The two blessings of the new covenant that we get as Christians are forgiveness of sins and direct teaching from God. Christians are not under a covenant in any way. They have to do with the Mediator while He is hidden in the heavens, before He renews His relationship with Judah and Israel, to whom alone the covenant belongs.
Teachers still have a place, and a duty:
There are teachers, and those who rule or guide, while Christ is on the throne of God. But they should be the first and the most earnest to guard the privileges of the simplest believer.
- Know, from within — Two Greek words meet here. One is knowledge learned from outside. The other is knowledge held within you. The verse promises the second, so the first is no longer needed.
- Known, not taught — Everyone will already have that inward knowledge. So no one needs to tell a neighbour or a brother, "Know the Lord."
- Known by all — The reach runs from the least upward. Israel will know God person by person, and the whole nation will be born again — not just a faithful few inside it.
- Known because God said "I will" — Every promise here is God's own undertaking, not a condition laid on man. That is why the result reaches everyone.
- Known already, in part — Believers today are not under this covenant. Yet they already have forgiveness and direct teaching from God. Every teacher's task is to guard that privilege in the simplest believer.
Because I will be merciful to their unrighteousnesses, and their sins and their lawlessnesses I will never remember any more.
This verse closes God's promise of a new covenant — not with a demand, but with mercy. The little word "for" ties everything before it to this last line: knowing the Lord, and having Him as your God, rests on sins dealt with and never brought up again.
Verse 11 says all will know the Lord. Verse 12 explains how that becomes possible.
For it is in saving mercy that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has revealed Himself to those who receive His truth. So the account of the new and better covenant closes with an unqualified promise of complete forgiveness... The carrying out of God's perfect work of truth and mercy is laid as the basis of His people's knowledge of Himself.
One writer takes the two clauses apart and shows how far each reaches.
God promises two things. First, mercy for unrighteousness. Second, an eternal forgetting of iniquities and sins. Both clauses are equally absolute. Looking at His people in themselves, God saw unrighteousness to be their born condition and their natural state. If their works are weighed in His sanctuary, they are found to be iniquities and sins. In the riches of His mercy He has met their personal unrighteousness with a complete forgiveness that carries no reproach.
The writers quoted here follow an older translation. In it, God is merciful to "their unrighteousness," and remembers "their sins and their iniquities" no more. Some copies of the letter also add a third term, "and their lawlessnesses."
Notice that the words "and their lawlessnesses" disappear. They are not in the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, any more than in the original Hebrew... In any case, grace meets souls who were once guilty but are now renewed. It comforts those who feel and admit their sinfulness with the assurance of divine forgiveness.
Notice who does the promising in this covenant. One phrase keeps coming back.
This new covenant depends entirely upon the sovereign grace of God. It sets out the terms on which He can be with man, in keeping with His own holy nature and His own will. In setting out the blessing of the new covenant, again and again the Lord says, "I will." He says: "I will make a new covenant"; "I will put My laws into their mind"; "I will be to them a God"; "I will be merciful"; "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." It is clear that the blessings of the new covenant depend, not on man's doings or man's will, but on God's sovereign will.
The promise is not that God's memory fails. One writer weighs the two words with care.
He can no more forget than He can change His mind; yet in a relative sense both terms can be used of Him. He does not remember our sins when He treats us, and is to us, as if they had never happened. He does not remember them when we can find nothing at all in His conduct toward us that shows He remembers them. Then they are no longer a cloud in our sky — not even a speck of dust in the sunshine of His perfect love.
Another writer pictures it as a debt.
I might owe a heavy bill to a tradesman, and he might forget all about it and never present it for payment. That does not cancel the debt. But if he presents it and I pay it, it is finished. He does not send it to me again. He remembers it against me no more. The sins were not forgotten; the full account of them was presented for payment at the cross, and the blood of Jesus has wiped out the dreadful record.
One writer draws out what follows for sacrifice.
Not only does God forgive, but — if I may use such an expression — He forgets. Not in the human sense, as if it had passed out of His consciousness, but in a divine sense, that it is no longer against His people. The apostle shows later that if there is no more remembrance of sins, there is no more need for a sacrifice. All is divinely settled.
The covenant is named as being with Israel and Judah, and commentators hold that its full form waits for a future day. But they also insist that the forgiveness it promises is already given.
There will be the mercy of the Lord. By it their sins will be dealt with so righteously that God will be able to say, "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." Into this great blessing every believer is brought today.
The practical effect reaches ordinary life. Human pardon rarely does this.
An earthly ruler once said when granting a pardon, "I forgive, but I cannot forget." If God acted like that, we could never be happy in His presence, but He says: "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." So we can live in liberty in His presence, and rejoice in His grace.
- Cause. The verse opens with "for" — mercy is the reason everyone under this covenant will know the Lord, not the reward for knowing Him.
- Gift. Every clause is an "I will." Nothing rests on what man does or wants.
- Meaning. God does not lose the facts. The cross paid the debt in full, so He never raises it again.
- Reach. Both promises are absolute — mercy covering what we are by nature, forgetting covering what we have done.
- Result. Where sins are remembered no more, no sacrifice is left to offer. God has settled the whole matter.
In that he says New, he has made the first old; but that which grows old and aged [is] near disappearing.
Just before this verse, the writer quotes Jeremiah's promise of a new covenant. Now he draws one conclusion from it: if God announces a second covenant, what happens to the first?
The whole verse turns on one word God used, not on any event.
An important inference is now drawn from a word. "In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away" (verse 13). So it is useless for Jews or anyone else to argue in theory that God's law must last for ever. His word has already decided the question.
English versions add a word here that the Greek sentence does not contain.
Something new, wholly and essentially new! Turn to Hebrews 8:13. "In that He says, A new covenant, He has made the first old," as the older English version reads. Yet the Greek is even more striking. There it is simply — "In that He says 'NEW'!" for there is no word in the original for "covenant."
The word chosen is not the word for something mended or refreshed.
The Greek word for "New" here does not mean repaired, or even renovated, the way you might renew an item that has worn out. It means what is absolutely and radically new, something that had not existed before. It is the same word we find in Colossians 3:10, the "new man."
Two consequences follow: the old cannot come back, and the new will never itself grow old.
The legal covenant could not bear the strain of man's condition, so something that endures had to take its place. The new covenant necessarily makes the first old, and it will never be revived. The new is not merely a way of patching the old: the old must be entirely discarded. And the new will give place to nothing else: it is perpetually new.
The problem was never with what God gave, but with the party who had to keep it.
The first covenant of law was not faultless, as verse 7 shows. There was no fault in the law, but the covenant was faulty because everything depended on faulty man. So it is set aside in favour of the second, which rests on God's purpose and God's work.
Notice the wording. The temple still stood when this letter reached its readers. The priests still served, and the sacrifices went on.
If we pay attention to Heb. 8:13, we see that the first covenant still had its rules for worship and its earthly sanctuary. Yet it "was becoming obsolete and growing old," and so was ready to vanish away. The system of priests and sacrifices had not yet disappeared. The Christian Jews learned this only at the close, just before the city and temple fell under public and divine judgment. A little later, in A.D. 70, Jerusalem fell, and not one stone of the temple was left on another. Then Judaism finally passed away. Its death blow had been given at the crucifixion.
Two moments matter here: the blow and the burial.
The cross fulfilled and annulled the legal covenant; the destruction of Jerusalem and of its temple was its grave.
The verse is not theory. The writer has a reason for pressing the new covenant on these readers.
But, as we have said, the time to make this covenant has not arrived. Why then is it mentioned here? And why does it get so much attention that the whole passage from Jeremiah is quoted here? The real object was to wean the Hebrews from Judaism. For why make a new covenant if the first was faultless? (Heb. 8:7). And if a new one is to be made, God has made the first one old… Why then stay tied to what is passing and ready to vanish away?
The covenant God announced belongs to Israel and Judah, yet believers today already share in what it brings.
So in Hebrews the writer shows the old as "ready to vanish away," because the new has come in. Yet he never presents the new covenant as something that applies now. As Christians we get two blessings from it: forgiveness of sins and direct teaching from God. Christians are not under a covenant in any sense. They deal with the Mediator while He is hidden in the heavens, before He renews His relationship with Judah and Israel. The covenant belongs to them alone.
- Word. God said "new," and that one word aged the first covenant before a single stone of the temple fell.
- Kind. The new is not the old repaired; it is a different order altogether, and it will never itself grow old.
- Fault. The law was not at fault — the covenant was, because everything hung on faulty man.
- Grave. The cross annulled the legal covenant; the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 buried it.
- Warning. There is no sense in staying tied to a system God Himself has dated as passing.