Reading Plan:
Hebrews 8

Our Thoughts:
"This is going on your permanent record!" Throughout my years as a student, teachers and afterschool tv programs warned me that one bad mark on my permanent record had the potential of ruining my entire future. To this day, I have no idea if any of my childhood failings, including talking too much in class or being perpetually tardy to first period, affected my college applications, job interviews, or mortgage rates. Still, the very mention of a permanent record produces images of a stern office manager guarding a dimly lit records room lined with rows of metal filing cabinets, filled to the brim with over-stuffed folders containing confidential details of every kid who ever lived. The looming threat of a permanent record was a lot of pressure for a 4th grader!
Depending on the context, the word "permanent" might seem harsh or unforgiving. In Hebrews 8, the author speaks of how Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant, a permanent covenant. Permanent is a better promise, not a threat.
In the Old Testament, we can see God take steps in His redemptive plan through covenant relationships with His people, including Abraham, Moses, and David. The Old Covenant, the Law of Moses, was written by God on tablets of stone with the purpose of helping the Israelites recognize sin, to condemn it, and to set a "fence" around it. God provided a sacrificial system with priests and sacrifices to cover the sins of His people week after week, year after year, generation after generation. This covenant revealed the Israelites' need for a Savior the same way sin reveals our need for a Savior.
God made a better way through Jesus. The redemptive plan of God that was put into action in the Garden of Eden was fulfilled in the New Covenant through Christ. The New Covenant was not an amendment added to the old covenant, but a brand-new covenant with eternal promises and a better mediator, Jesus. The old covenant delivers an "if you" statement to the Israelites (Exodus 19:5) that was conditional on the Israelites' obedience.
With the new covenant, God promises three "I will" statements (Hebrews 8:10-12). First, God promised to write this new covenant on our hearts and minds. Through the Holy Spirit, He allows us to know Him, love Him, and experience Him now and for eternity. Second, God promised, "I will be your God, and you will be my people". This isn't just a promise for the Israelites, but for all people to the ends of the Earth (Romans 1:16, Acts 1:9). Last, we find the third covenant promise in verse 12: "For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." Because of Jesus' final, perfect sacrifice for our sins, God will remember our sins no more.
God's promises are permanent, eternal, and forever, but under the new covenant, our sins are not. God isn't an eternal office manager who keeps record of His people's sins away to use as punishment in the future. No! John 3:17 says, "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." No sin, no matter how permanent it seems, could ever be too big for Jesus' sacrifice. In His mercy, our sins are forgiven and remembered no more! The new covenant gives us a better way through Jesus, and we can place our hope in our High Priest and these permanent, eternal promises!

More Questions:
What are the permanent, constant, things in your life?
Are you holding onto shame from sin that has already been forgiven? Give it to Jesus today.

Prayer:
Lord, thank you for a better way. Thank you for your eternal, permanent promises that remind me who I am in You. My hope rests in the promises of eternal life with You. When I feel anxious or hopeless or ashamed, remind me of Your Words written on my heart and mind. Thank you for being my God and offering mercy, forgiveness, acceptance, love when I've done nothing to deserve it.

Author: Amy Fontenot