Focus for a moment on the message of Hebrews. Some Hebrew (Jewish) Christians are slipping back toward the Old Covenant. The inspired writer therefore emphasizes Christ as the Mediator of the New Covenant which is far better than the Old. Christ’s death marks the end of the Old Covenant and the beginning of the New Covenant. Hebrews 8 exposes old worship arrangements as merely pictures—“a copy and shadow” (Hebrews 8:5). Then it captures much of the message of Hebrews in this way:
Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant He mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises…. In speaking of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. (Hebrews 8:6, 13)
Christ’s new way is so far better that it makes the old ways outmoded and outdated—“obsolete… old… ready to vanish away.”
Hebrews expounds on this principle in many ways. Among them, Hebrews 13:9-16 contrasts Old Covenant arrangements with the new and better order. Apparently, some Hebrew Christians want to go back to the law’s altar and its ceremonial foods. But such foods have “not benefited” those who eat them. Instead, Christians are nourished by grace that strengthens the heart. Those who think and do otherwise are misled by “strange teachings” (Hebrews 13:9).
- The law has an altar from which worshipers eat fellowship offerings. But Christians “have an altar from which those who serve the [sacred] tent have no right to eat” (Hebrews 13:10). This new altar refers to Christ on the cross—an altar accessible to believers, not unbelievers.
- On the Day of Atonement, animal blood is taken into the Holy of Holies, but the body of the sacrificed animal must be burned outside the camp. This prefigures Christ’s death outside the walls of Jerusalem. It also applies to Christians: “Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured” (Hebrews 13:13). There was a time when Christians kept customs associated with the temple (Acts 3:1; 21:26; 22:17). But now the writer of Hebrews is signaling the end of relationships with Judaism and its old ways.