anglican devotional

The Daily Fountain Devotional of the Church Of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) 12 March 2022 – Jesus Christ: A New And Better Covenant

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TOPIC – Jesus Christ: A New And Better Covenant

READ: Hebrews 8:1-13 (NKJV)

  1. Now [this is] the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,
  2. a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.
  3. For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore [it is] necessary that this One also have something to offer.
  4. For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law;
  5. who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See [that] you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”
  6. But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
  7. For if that first [covenant] had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.
  8. Because finding fault with them, He says: “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 —
  9. “not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD.
  10. “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 in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
  11. “None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.
  12. “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
  13. In that He says, “A new [covenant,”] He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

THE MESSAGE:

Our text today is a description of the Lord Jesus Christ as our High Priest of the New Covenant. The writer shows the difference between the Old Mosaic Covenant and the New Messianic Covenant. The Old was a shadow of the New. The priesthood was of the tribe of Levi and they made daily sacrifices for the remission of sins. In the New Covenant, the priesthood is of Jesus Christ who made by His one oblation of Himself, once offered, a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. He is now seated at the right hand of the Father as our Intercessor.

The Church today is the spiritual Israel and the New Covenant promises therefore belong to the body of Christ (Ephesians 2:11-22). The features of the New Covenant are no longer external laws but laws written on our hearts and in our minds by the Spirit of God who reminds us of them. Just as Moses built the tabernacle according to the pattern given to him by God, we should also build our lives according to the teachings on Christ.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank You that through the blood of Jesus we have a new and better covenant. Help me to live my life as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to You. Amen.