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The old law revolved around a system of animal sacrifices performed by chosen priests from the tribe of Levi. These Levitical priests had to make an offering for their own sins before they could offer sacrifices on behalf of anyone else. It is important to note that, there were many priests, who because of their sins and consequent spiritual death were prevented from continually offering the sacrifice. On the other hand, in the New Covenant our Mediator is a High Priest who being sinless, offered His own blood (for our forgiveness) for us and brought His sacrifice to Heaven itself as the only perfect offering to God. Because He has been raised from the dead, His perfect priesthood continues forever (Heb 7:23,24).
While the Old Covenant was written on two tablets of stone, the New Covenant is an Internal Covenant written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us "I will put my laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts" (Heb 8:10).
We knew sin through the Law "the Old Covenant" (Rom 7:7-11) and with the Law, there was no forgiveness but curse and wrath. However, through the New Covenant we have received the forgiveness of our sins: "For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more" (Heb 8:12).
The Old Covenant revealed the holiness of God in the righteous standard of the Mosaic Law and promised the coming of the Redeemer, but the New Covenant has shown the holiness of God in the righteousness of His Son.
The Old Covenant became obsolete with the appearance of the New Covenant which is eternal: "When He said, βA New Covenant,β He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear" (Heb 8:13).
From the above comparison between the old and new covenants, it is obvious that the New Covenant is a much better one because it establishes a new and better relationship between God and man⦠As St Paul says, "And for this reason He is the Mediator of the New covenant" (Heb9:15) because "⦠now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second" (Heb 8:6,7).
Through His incarnation, our Lord Jesus Christ became a Mediator of the New Covenant that was foreseen by Jeremiah the prophet, "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah--not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more" (Jeremiah 31: 31-34).
St. John Chrysostom explains the meaning of a Mediator, "What is a 'Mediator'? A mediator is not lord of the thing of which he is mediator, but the thing belongs to one person, and the mediator is another: as for instance, the mediator of a marriage is not the bridegroom, but one who aids him who is about to be married. So then also here: The Son became Mediator between the Father and us. The Father willed not to leave us this inheritance, but was wroth against us, and was displeased with us as being estranged from Him; He accordingly became Mediator between us and Him, and prevailed with Him."
(To be continued) ππΎ