Some think we are still under the old law, that is, the law of Moses.  Others think that someday the law of Moses is going to be reinstated by God.  The scriptures teach that the old law has been replaced by the law of Christ and that it will never again play a role in God’s scheme of redemption.

Hebrews 8:13 (ESV)
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.

Why would God ever replace the superior with the inferior?  That would not make any sense.  This is why the Hebrews writer labored so diligently to show the superiority of the new law.  Once a person realizes that he is under a superior covenant, he should never again desire to go back to the old.

The New Testament is a superior covenant because it is centered around a better sacrifice.  The law of Moses had a sacrificial system in place, but it was not sufficient to take away sins.

 Hebrews 10:1-4 (ESV)
¹ For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. ² Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? ³ But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. ⁴ For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

The continuation of the Old Testament sacrifices is evidence that they could not completely remove sin.  They were only, the writer tells us, “a shadow of the good things to come.”  This is a truth that the writer of Hebrews drives home repeatedly.

Hebrews 9:8-9 (ESV)
⁸ By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing ⁹ (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper,

Hebrews 10:11 (ESV)
¹¹ And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

The superiority of our Lord’s sacrifice is seen in that He only had to offer it once.  In contrast to the animal sacrifices, the writer of Hebrews drives this point home as well.

Hebrews 9:12 (ESV)
¹² He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

Hebrews 9:28 (ESV)
²⁸ So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Hebrews 10:10 (ESV)
¹⁰And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 

Jesus’ sacrifice was clearly superior.  Unlike the animal sacrifices, it met all the criteria that were necessary to appease God.  It was the voluntary sacrifice of a man who knew no sin.  It was not an animal that sinned against God, it was man who did that, making a human sacrifice necessary.  And not just any human.  It had to be someone perfect, having never sinned.  There has only been one man to qualify—Jesus! Thank God He was willing to become the sin-offering we desperately needed.              

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.