Why has legalism always been so attractive? Because it promises us one thing that human beings have craved since the time of Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden: control. Legalism tells us the lie that we can be in charge of our relationship with God. It insists that if we observe certain rituals or avoid certain behaviors then we have nothing to worry about. Legalism thus leaves us in charge of our salvation.

But today’s passage proves that legalism can’t deliver on its promises. Even an attempt to save ourselves by keeping God’s Old Testament Law is doomed to failure. After all, as our writer quotes from Jeremiah in verses 8-12, even an Old Testament prophet could see that a new covenant was needed for God’s people. That’s because the Old covenant by itself, with all its rules and rituals, was insufficient, incomplete. It was never intended to save anyone, but instead only to illustrate our sin problem and point to the way God was going to solve it. The Law simply couldn’t make people want to obey God from the heart.

But that’s the good news – Jesus has come to fulfill everything which the Old Testament predicted. The system of animal sacrifices offered day by day has now been replaced by Christ’s perfect, once-for-all sacrifice of Himself on the cross (7:27). Moreover, Christ has come to deal with the root of sin itself, which Jeremiah saw so clearly in verses 9 and 10. After all, we all turn away from God and His covenant promises because we want to, because after the fall of Adam, the human heart is naturally inclined away from God and towards all sorts of other things.

But by rising from the dead, Jesus offers all who trust in Him a new sort of life, a life free from bondage to sin and self, a life that is oriented toward God, a life that finds its meaning and purpose in loving and serving God alone. As Jeremiah predicted in verse 10, in the power of the Holy Spirit, God now writes his law on our hearts. Instead of the fearful and grudging obedience of legalism, Christ changes us from the inside out. He not only pardons us from our sinful rejection of Him, but also draws us to ever greater fellowship with Him, igniting true love for Him within us, and giving us a desire to serve Him and obey Him in everything we do.

So, which sounds better? Trying to save yourself by keeping the Law, but never being sure that you measure up to God’s expectations? Or letting Christ save you, so that you can keep the Law because you want to, giving Him all the thanks and praise that He deserves?

Hebrews 8:6-13 (ESV)

6 But as it is, 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.
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
8 For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
13 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.