Daily Dose of the Word of God - Hebrews 8: 10

Erin Pacheco, Director of Worship

Transcript

Erin Pacheco  0:10 

Welcome to Elmhurst CRC’s Daily Dose of the Word of God. It’s Friday, January 17, and Sunday is coming! I’m Erin Pacheco, Director of Worship here at ECRC.  Our scripture today comes from Hebrews 8: 10.

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This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

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The book of Hebrews is this elaborate, beautiful argument for how Jesus is the culmination and fulfillment of the whole story of the Bible. Written to first century Jews, who were torn between Judaism and their new faith in Jesus as Messiah, Hebrews continually comes back to this point: Whatever comfort you’re tempted to find in your old life, Jesus is better. And here, the writer of Hebrews is talking about how Jesus is better than the law. Better than priests and sacrifices and the temple. Better, because all along, they were pointing to him!  If the purpose of the old covenant – the laws of the Old Testament – had been to produce perfectly godly people, it clearly failed. Time and time again in the stories of the Bible, we see that humans are unable to fully obey God’s laws and live according to his ways. We just keep falling short. But the purpose of the law, says Hebrews, isn’t to make us perfect. The purpose of the law, all along, was to point to Jesus.

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Which is why, in our verse today, Hebrews quotes the prophet Jeremiah, who promises a day when God will establish a new covenant with his people. A covenant where his laws, his ways, are lodged in our minds and written on our hearts. We can’t get there on our own. It’s through Jesus that our sins are forgiven, and it’s through Jesus that our hearts are filled with the Holy Spirit, and our lives start to produce the fruits of the Spirit – love for God and love for others. It’s why Jesus, just before he was crucified, held up the Passover cup and said, “This is the new covenant of my blood. Do this in remembrance of me.”  It’s as the old song says – “What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” Any good we do is through him, and for him, and all out of thanks to him who sets us free and gives us a new heart by his Spirit, so that we want to live according to his ways.

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Let's pray. Jesus, thank you for your sacrifice, for paying our debt once and for all, and thank you for sharing your new resurrection life with me. Please fill me anew with your spirit today, write your law on my heart that I may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your name, amen, you.