Hebrews 8:11-13

 

Heb 8:11 (KJB)
And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
 
This verse is teaching us that under the old dispensation, the people needed a priest to offer sacrifices for them and to teach them about the Lord. Under the new covenant, no such human mediators will be needed. This is not to say that public proclamation of the Gospel or bible teachers are to be done away with but what is implied here is that when a person becomes saved, the Holy Spirit will indwell each person, and the Holy Spirit will teach them the truth. (John 16:13 KJV) Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. All those who are saved will know the Lord and there will not be a requirement of any animal sacrifices before one approaches God. The penalty for the sins of the believer have been fully paid by the Lord Jesus Christ and that gives us the qualification to approach the throne of Grace. No longer would a human have to intercede before a true believer comes to God because they have the Lord Jesus Christ as their High Priest forever.
 
Heb 8:12 (KJB)
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
 
(Heb 10:17 KJV) And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews 8:12 is such a tremendous promise for the believers. The atonement of Christ on behalf of the believer was so thorough that every sin has been removed from their soul. (Psa 103:12 KJV) As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. This is why when Christians speak of themselves as sinners saved by grace, it is a false description. We were sinners who were saved by the grace of God, but now, since all our sins have been removed by Christ, we are now Saints. I once heard someone describe the Christian as “sainted sinners.” It sounds humble but it casts aspersions upon the sacrifice of Christ. If Christ went to the cross for the believer and all that was accomplished was that the believer still comes out a sinner, then something went drastically wrong. The truth is that Christ’s sacrifice completely cleansed the believer from sin, but in their soul, not in the flesh, that is why we still have struggles. When a believer dies, the body goes into the ground but they go directly to Heaven in their soul existence because the soul has been made pure from sin by Christ. When Adam sinned, God pronounced that he would die, he died spiritually and not physically. So Christ, the second Adam, makes us alive in our spiritual essence and those who have died before the return of the Lord will be reunited with their physical bodies on the last day and those who are still alive, will be changed. (1 Cor 15:52 KJV) In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Those bodies, in both cases, will be our new resurrected bodies without sin. There is one more verse which harmonizes beautifully with Hebrews 8:12. (Isa 43:25 KJV) I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. The promise that God would blot out our sins means they will be gone forever. This is why God will remember our sins and iniquities no more, because they are gone by the sacrifice of Christ.
 
Heb 8:13 (KJB)
In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
 
The new covenant is so sufficient to remove sins and ready a Christian for Heaven that the old covenant was totally incompatible with it. It had to be done away with and since the Jews would not cease the Mosaic rituals, the Lord finally ended it in 70 A.D. by sending General Titus to destroy Jerusalem. The Mosaic law officially came to an end when the veil of the temple was rent in two at the moment Christ died on the cross. The new covenant has completely overshadowed the old covenant and as a result has voided it. The law was meant to show that we could not keep it and grace enforced that idea by the Lord Himself saving those whom He planned to save before the foundation of the world. In both cases, man could never save himself and it was the Lord who took it upon Himself to effect salvation for His Elect.

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