How does Hebrews 9:15 connect to the Old Testament covenant promises? Setting the stage: covenant promises at the heart of Scripture • Scripture narrates history through covenants—solemn, blood-sealed commitments God makes to His people. • Each covenant (Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic) carries forward God’s unbreakable promise to bless, redeem, and dwell with those He calls. • Hebrews 9:15 anchors Jesus squarely within that storyline, declaring Him the once-for-all Mediator who brings every earlier promise to its intended fulfillment. Hebrews 9:15 at a glance “Therefore Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, now that He has died to redeem them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” Key words that bridge old and new: • Mediator • New covenant • Promised eternal inheritance • Redeem • First covenant Old covenant background embedded in the verse • Mediator echoes Moses (Exodus 32:30–32) standing between God and Israel. • First covenant points to the Mosaic arrangement ratified with sacrificial blood (Exodus 24:3–8). • Transgressions reminds us that the law exposed sin but could not cleanse the conscience (Hebrews 10:1–4). • Promised inheritance traces back to Abraham’s seed receiving a land (Genesis 12:7; 17:8)—a down-payment pointing to something greater. From temporal inheritance to eternal inheritance • Abraham’s land promise foreshadowed “a better country—a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16). • Under Joshua the tribes occupied Canaan, yet the ultimate inheritance remained future (Psalm 95:11; Hebrews 4:8–9). • Hebrews 9:15 affirms that Christ now secures the final, never-ending portion—life with God Himself. Blood-sealed covenants: Exodus 24 foreshadows Calvary • Moses “took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant’” (Exodus 24:8). • Jesus lifts those very words in the upper room: “This cup is the new covenant in My blood” (Luke 22:20). • Hebrews links the two ceremonies, showing the Sinai pattern reaches its goal in the cross (Hebrews 9:18–22). Jeremiah and Ezekiel: the new covenant promised • “Behold, the days are coming … when I will make a new covenant” (Jeremiah 31:31–34). • Core elements promised: – God’s law written on hearts, not stone tablets. – Full, final forgiveness: “I will remember their sins no more.” – Intimate knowledge of the Lord for all His people. • Ezekiel 36:26–27 adds the gift of a new heart and the Spirit within. • Hebrews 9:15 declares these prophecies activated because Christ has died. Isaiah 53: the Servant who redeems transgressors • “He was pierced for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5). • Hebrews 9:15 identifies that substitution as the redemptive price freeing sinners under the first covenant and beyond. Why the first covenant needed fulfillment, not amendment • Repeated sacrifices could never perfect the worshiper (Hebrews 10:1). • Animal blood functioned as a temporary covering, pointing toward a once-for-all sacrifice (Leviticus 16; Hebrews 9:23–28). • The law served as guardian until Christ came (Galatians 3:24). Backward reach: Christ’s death covers Old Testament believers • “Redeem them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant” means His atonement is retroactive. • Saints like Abraham, Moses, and David were truly forgiven, looking ahead to a sacrifice God had pledged (Romans 3:25–26). Forward reach: securing our eternal inheritance • The same death that vindicated past believers guarantees present and future saints will “receive the promised eternal inheritance.” • 1 Peter 1:4 celebrates this inheritance as “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven.” Takeaway truths to rest in • Every covenant promise God ever made finds its “Yes” in Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20). • The cross is both the hinge of redemption history and the key that unlocks the everlasting homeland. • Because Christ mediates the new covenant, believers stand forgiven, Spirit-indwelt, and heirs of a forever kingdom—exactly as Scripture, literally and infallibly, said we would. |
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