“By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.” (Hebrews 8:13).

The fact that something is obsolete simply means that it has served its purpose and now is not necessary. That is the status of the “old” covenant. It was necessary and did what it was supposed to do. It prepared the way for the salvation Jesus would bring. The sacrificial system was necessary before Jesus came but now He has offered the final and complete sacrifice essential for our salvation.

Priests were necessary under the old covenant because they represented people to God. Now Jesus has come to be the perfect and complete High Priest for all of us.

The writer of Hebrews was contending with people who wanted to go back to the way religion was before Jesus came. His purpose for writing this epistle is a lesson for us as well. We can never go back to religion without Christ. The old system served its purpose and served it well. Now we have Jesus and faith in Him and what He did for us is all that is necessary to receive salvation.