A Bible Study in EasyEnglish (2800 word vocabulary) on the Book of Hebrews
Keith Simons
EasyEnglish is a system of simple English designed by Wycliffe Associates (UK).
Last part: The importance of Christ’s death (Hebrews 9:14)
A covenant is a peace agreement. It makes enemies into friends. Each side makes promises, and because of those promises, there is peace.
Because the two sides were enemies, they cannot even speak to each other. That is why there must be a mediator. A mediator is the person who arranges the peace agreement. He speaks to each side in turn, on behalf of the other side.
It is not easy for enemies in war to agree peace. Often, they have done terrible things to each other. There is a price for peace. So, often, a death must happen before there can be peace.
One example is in 2 Samuel 20:14-22. Sheba’s death was necessary so that the city called Abel could have peace. Otherwise, Joab’s army would have destroyed the whole city. Sheba had to die because he had opposed King David. In 2 Samuel 21:1-9, several members of Saul’s family had to die. That was the cost because Saul had refused to obey promises in an ancient covenant (Joshua chapter 9).
God made a covenant with his people. And he made wonderful promises to them. But the people refused to obey his law. In fact, all people have done wrong things against God’s law (Romans 3:9-23).
Without a new covenant, nobody could benefit from God’s promises. But God said that he would make a new covenant with his people (Hebrews 8:8-12). They had become his enemies, so there had to be a mediator. That mediator is Christ.
And there had to be a death, too. People had offended against the laws that God had made under the first covenant. Everyone is guilty, so everyone deserves to die (Romans 6:23). But God does not want his people to die. He wants to give them life, so that they can benefit from his wonderful promises to them.
So God decided that he himself would provide the sacrifice for people’s wrong deeds (Genesis 22:14). A sacrifice is a gift that God considers valuable. And the sacrifice that God provided was his own Son, Jesus Christ (John 3:16). It was Christ’s death that established God’s new covenant. It is by Christ’s death that God can forgive our wrong deeds. And it will be by Christ’s death that we shall receive all the benefits of God’s promises to his people.
© 2012, Keith Simons.