Title: Jesus Is the Guarantee of Life
41) Jesus is the guarantee of life
(Hebrews 7:20-25)
God has given us two covenants. In Genesis 2:16, the covenant that one of them made with Adam, "The Lord God commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden you may freely eat, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you will surely die." You said. But in today's text, verse 22, it says, "Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant."
1. First Covenant
When man was first created, he was a living spirit. A living spirit is a body that may or may not sin. However, unlike the body, the living spirit is an immortal body. God declared that Adam would surely die if he sinned, so when Adam sinned, he became a living spirit and died.
Now that we are the descendants of Adam and live in the flesh, we have no choice but to live completely in sin because we live as slaves to sin. Adam had a free choice as to whether it was the word of God. However, Adam broke God's covenant by disobeying this choice. As a result, Adam fell as a slave to sin, and death reigned.
God set Adam as the representative of mankind and gave the covenant of life, so Adam's failure soon became the failure of mankind. That's why the Bible says, "Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in the same way death spread to all men because all sinned."
Some say that the law is the covenant of life. But the Bible keeps emphasizing that if there was anyone who could reach life through the law, God would never have sent his Son into the world. Galatians 3:21 also says, “If a law had been given that was able to live, righteousness would have come through the law.”
God told Adam that he would die for disobedience. This death sentence is divided into two parts. One is the death of the body. Because Adam sinned, the living spirit has now been reduced to the flesh. Soil must return to dirt. But physical death is not God's judgment. It is just a process that leads to God's judgment. The perfect judgment for sin is judgment on the soul. Therefore, Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” Hebrews 9:27 says, “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” Therefore, the Bible makes it clear that God's judgment on sin is not in the death of the body, but in the judgment of the soul after death.
2. A Better Covenant
Then, when Jesus says that he is the guarantee of a better covenant, what does a better covenant mean? This covenant refers to the new covenant that God established through Christ. Just as God made a covenant with Adam, He made a covenant with Christ, and it is said that this covenant is a new covenant, a better covenant.
All mankind, who became sinners in Adam, always had to live in a sense of condemnation under God's law. Man has to bear the penalty for Adam's sin because he does not keep the law. The fact that we are sinners is made clear from the fact that we cannot keep the full corporate law of God. In that sense, God gave the law to man.
Then, let's learn a few things about how Christ is our guarantee of life. In verse 21, this covenant was established as an oath of God. In verses 23 and 24, it is said that his priesthood is not divided because he lives forever. Then he offered himself up to God once for all, so that he didn't need another sacrifice. Verse 25 says that he always lives to intercede. Also, those who have the blood of Christ can come to God through Christ, and in verse 25 it is possible to save completely those who come to God through him.
Conclusion: Those who are in Christ have the assurance of a better covenant through Christ, regardless of the first covenant that Adam failed. This covenant is the covenant that God made with an oath to Christ. And to make His Son the surety of this covenant, He shed His atoning blood on the cross. We hope that we can know and be thankful that we are God's blessed people of this covenant.