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Transcript 288B — Understanding Hebrews 8:11
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Good evening, Brother Camping. I would like your explanation of Hebrews 8:11. And I'll take my answer on the air.
HC: In Hebrews 8 God is indicating that the old covenant, that is, the covenant of grace as it is modified by the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai, is being supplanted by a better covenant that is relating, of course, to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, apart from the ceremonial laws. In other words, the ceremonial laws have all been completed in Christ, and they are not in view right at this moment.
And then in this context He is quoting from Jeremiah 31, where God prophesies concerning this new covenant, and says, "The days will come when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. And this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says 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."
And then verse 11: "And they shall not teach everyone his fellow [or everyone his brother], saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."
Now I'm not certain of the complete implication of this verse. I do know that whatever it means, it came into being from the moment of salvation, or from the moment of the cross. Now in the Old Testament days it was only occasionally that someone was qualified to be a prophet. And they were the ones who taught the others concerning the ways of the Lord. They had the mandate to bring the Gospel, if you will. But the typical believer, while he was saved exactly as we are saved, was not qualified to be a witness.
But once Christ went to the cross, and God began His program to evangelize the world (which is really what's in view here in Hebrews 8), every believer is qualified to be a witness, from the moment that he is saved. And we can read the Bible, and we can know the truth.
Now that doesn't mean that some of the New Testament believers are not especially called to be teachers. And it doesn't mean that we can't learn from each other. But the fact is that every believer does have the qualification to be a witness. And whether we are least in the Kingdom or great in the Kingdom, it makes no difference at all. We are qualified to be a witness, because our sins have been covered and it's God's program to utilize us as ambassadors of Christ, to help evangelize the world.
I think this is the meaning of this passage, although I'm not absolutely certain whether there isn't some other implication also. I hope this will help a little bit.