“For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.” (Hebrews 8:7)

At first glance, this verse sounds as though God’s first covenant, His covenant with Israel established at Sinai, was somehow defective. “If that first covenant had been faultless…” implies, doesn’t it, that something about it failed? But that conclusion would be both theologically troubling and biblically unfounded. After all, the law of God is “holy and righteous and good” (Rom. 7:12). The problem, as always, lies not with God, but with us.

When the writer of Hebrews contrasts the “first covenant” with the “better covenant” established through Christ (Heb. 8:6), he is not suggesting that God made a mistake and had to start over. Rather, he exposes the fatal flaw of the old covenant system: not in its divine origin, but in its human participants. The law was perfect in revealing God’s will, but powerless to change the human heart. The fault lay not in the covenant itself, but in the covenant-breakers.

As Hebrews 8:8 goes on to say, “For he finds fault with them when he says…” and then quotes Jeremiah 31’s promise of a new covenant. The author is careful: God doesn’t find fault with it, He finds fault with them. Israel’s unfaithfulness made clear what the law could only expose, not cure: the incurable disease of sin. The old covenant was designed, in part, to reveal this very weakness of man that no amount of sacrifice or law-keeping could reconcile us to God.

In this light, the new covenant in Christ is not a divine correction, but a divine completion. It accomplishes what the old covenant only anticipated. Where the law was written on tablets of stone, Christ writes His law on hearts of flesh (Heb. 8:10). Where the old covenant demanded obedience from hard hearts, the new covenant grants obedience through renewed hearts. What the old covenant shadowed in sacrifices and ceremonies, the new covenant fulfills in the once-for-all sacrifice of the Son of God.

We might say that the “fault” of the first covenant was its necessary inadequacy, it was never intended to perfect sinners, but to prepare them for the One who could. The law was a mirror to show our sin, not the soap to cleanse it. It condemned the guilty, but it could not justify. Only Christ, the Mediator of the better covenant, can do that.

A Word About Redemption Under the First Covenant

Though the first covenant could not perfect the conscience, it was never devoid of grace. Its sacrifices and ceremonies pointed forward to Christ, and by faith in those promises the saints of old were truly redeemed. The Westminster Confession of Faith beautifully captures this truth:

“Under the law, [the covenant of grace] was administered by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb, and other types and ordinances… all foresignifying Christ to come; which were, for that time, sufficient and efficacious, through the operation of the Spirit, to instruct and build up the elect in faith in the promised Messiah, by whom they had full remission of sins, and eternal salvation.” (WCF 7.5)

From Abel’s altar to Abraham’s tent, from Moses’ tabernacle to David’s throne, the people of God were saved by the same grace, through the same faith, in the same Christ. The difference between the old and new covenants lies not in the substance of salvation, but in the manner of its administration. The saints of the Old Testament looked forward in faith to what was promised; we look backward in faith to what has been accomplished. But both rest upon the same foundation, the redeeming work of the Son.

And so the beauty of Hebrews 8:7 is not in exposing divine imperfection, but divine mercy. God knew the frailty of His people, yet He did not leave them under the law’s curse. He promised a covenant of grace in which the very thing man could never accomplish, obedience from the heart, would be written into his being by the Spirit of God.

The first covenant shows us our fault; the second covenant shows us our faultless Savior.

SDG