“He has made the first obsolete” (Heb. 8:13).
These words follow an extensive quotation from Jer. 31 in which the prophet foretold the replacement of the covenant made with Israel at Sinai with a better covenant (cf. Heb. 8:7-13). The writer would go on to say that the “better covenant, which was established on better promises” (Heb. 8:6) was put in place by the death of Jesus (Heb. 9:15; cf. Matt. 26:28 and His “blood of the new covenant”). When we put Heb. 8, 9 together with Rom. 7:1-4, Eph. 2:11-18, and Col.…