Romans 3:21

"But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets:" So everything is a progressive revelation and Hebrews is one of those sections of Scripture that, even though it's not directly addressed to the Gentile body of Christ, it shows us the fundamental truths that were so necessary for our Gospel to come about. We also find that in all of Hebrews there is this constant comparison of that which was good (was in the past), to that which is better (is now). In fact, back up to verse 6 - what's the first two words?


Hebrews 8:6a

"But now..." In other words, that which was past is past but now, see?


Hebrews 8:6b

"...hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, (see, that constant comparison and ) by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, (Better than that which was before, the old covenant) which was established upon better promises." I really love this! Yes, the Law was good. Judaism was good as far as it went, but now, that has faded off and folded up like an old garment and now we've got things that are far better. Now verse 7.

Hebrews 8:7

"For if (conditional) that first covenant (the Covenant of Law) had been faultless, (if it had been perfect) then (there) should be no place have been sought for a second." That stands to reason doesn't it? Again, "If it ain't broke - don't fix it." It's only when something is amiss that we dive into it and make corrections. So Paul says: "if the first had been perfect, there'd be no need to correct it." But it wasn't. It was fleshly and weak.


Hebrews 8:8

"For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when I will (future) make a new (better) covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:" Now that's not addressed to the Church. The new covenant, even in Jeremiah (we're going to look at it after a bit), was never addressed to the Gentile Church; it was addressed to Israel and we'll look at that. Oh if only people could separate Israel and the Church, how the Scriptures would just open up to them.