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1 The main point of what we're saying is this: We have just such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of God, who sits in majesty on his throne in heaven. 2 He serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle that was set up by the Lord and not by human beings. 3 Since it's the responsibility of every high priest to offer gifts and sacrifices, this high priest must also have something to offer.
4 Now if he was here on earth, he wouldn't be a priest at all, because there are already priests to present the offerings that the law requires. 5 The place they serve is a copy, a mere shadow of what is in heaven. That's what God told Moses when he was going to set up the tabernacle: “Be careful to make everything according to the blueprint you were shown on the mountain.”
6 But Jesus has been given a far better ministry just as he is the one who mediates a far better agreed relationship between us and God, which is based on much better promises. 7 If that first agreement had been perfect, then a second wouldn't have been necessary. 8 Pointing out their failings,* Making it clear that the failure of the “first covenant” was not due to a faulty agreement but that God's people did not live up to their responsibilities under the agreement. God told his people, “Pay attention, says the Lord, because the days are coming when I will make a new agreement relating to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 9 This will not be like the promised agreement I made with their ancestors when I led them by the hand out of the land of Egypt. For they didn't keep their part of the agreed relationship, so I gave up on them, says the Lord.
10 The relationship I promise to the house of Israel is this: After that time, says the Lord, I will place my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 No one will need to teach his neighbor, and no one will need to teach anyone in their family, telling them, ‘You ought to know the Lord.’ For everyone will know me, from the smallest to the greatest. 12 I will be merciful when they do wrong, and I will forget about their sins.”† Jeremiah 31:31-34.
13 By saying, “A new agreed relationship,” he makes the first agreement out-of-date. The one that's old and worn out has almost disappeared.

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*8:8 Making it clear that the failure of the “first covenant” was not due to a faulty agreement but that God's people did not live up to their responsibilities under the agreement.

†8:12 Jeremiah 31:31-34.

© 2018 Dr. Jonathan Gallagher