“The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God” (Hebrews 7:18-19).
Keeping the law as a means of obtaining salvation has been set aside. The writer of Hebrews explains why. It was “weak,” “useless” and made nothing perfect. It isn’t that the law is flawed. It isn’t. God gave it. It’s that we are flawed and couldn’t keep it. A book on “How to Swim” doesn’t do any good for a person who is drowning and doesn’t know how to swim. We needed to be rescued, not given a list of rules we couldn’t keep.
We have a better hope. It doesn’t depend on our ability to be righteous in our own strength. It depends on Jesus who died in our place and has given us the gift of righteousness. We are only asked to believe in Him and we can do that!
Even more, salvation through Jesus enables us to draw near to God. That is real hope. We are forgiven by what Jesus did and we have the hope of eternal fellowship with God who loves us. We can thank God for Jesus because He delivers us from our failure to keep the law and gives us a new nature when we put our faith in Him. We now have a better hope because we have a relationship with our heavenly Father.
