Having established that Jesus is Mediator of a better covenant, we note the necessity of this New Covenant. Seeing it is better shows the old covenant to be lesser, or as stated, faulty. (Only in that it had no provision for mercy. Thus, could not bring redemption to man. That was not God’s intent in establishing it).
The fault ultimately being with sinful man, God designed provision from before the world began for this second covenant, with Jesus as that means of providing mercy and redemption. This is seen from a prophetic declaration from Jeremiah 31:31-34, which the Hebrew writer quotes in verses 8-12. For our point, note the following words: “Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant… For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
This new covenant was ratified and established by Jesus’ death on the cross. As is true with covenants (testaments), the ratification of the new makes the old obsolete. These Jewish Christians needed to know what they were pining for was obsolete and “ready to vanish away.”
