The Privileges of the New Covenant | March 16, 2025
Brian Hedges | Hebrews 13:9-16
Let me invite you to turn in Scripture this morning to Hebrews 13.
As you turn there, I want to begin with a statement. This is a famous quotation, and I’m going to begin it. I want to see if you can complete the statement, okay? “With great power comes…great responsibility.” Okay. At least this side of the room knows your Spiderman. I couldn’t hear those of you over here as well.
It’s a quotation, of course, that’s famous now in popular culture from the Spiderman movies. Remember that Peter Parker has been bitten by this radioactive spider, and he finds that he has new powers. Initially, he’s using those powers pretty selfishly, but his Uncle Ben in the first Spiderman movie, and in the more recent iteration his Aunt May, tells him, “With great power comes great responsibility.” And he has to learn how to use those powers responsibly and for the good of others.
While that’s kind of something well-known in popular culture, it also reflects a deeper spiritual principle, that with great privileges also come great responsibilities, and that’s true in the Christian life. The privileges that we have through Christ and through the gospel also bring with them certain responsibilities for us as believers in Christ and as members of the body of Christ.
The letter to the Hebrews is really all about both those privileges and those responsibilities. We’ve been studying through this letter together for a number of months now. We’re now in the final chapter, chapter 13, and we’ve seen that this letter was written to Jewish Christians who were being tempted to turn away from their faith in Christ and draw back into the forms of Old Testament worship. The letter is written to remind them that Jesus Christ is better, that Jesus is a better priest who’s offered a better sacrifice, who has led them into the new and living way, the better covenant, the new covenant that’s based on better promises. Now they have this new relationship with God, and they are to hold onto Jesus, not turn away from Jesus, but rather hold fast the confidence of their faith.
This letter has really alternated between exposition and exhortation, explaining for us the significance of the person and the work of Jesus Christ and then exhorting us to be faithful to the end, to not turn away from Christ. When we get to Hebrews 13, it’s almost pure application, as now the author is applying to his readers the person and the work of Jesus Christ, reminding them of how they are meant to live as the new covenant community, as the church.
We started our study of Hebrews 13 last week as we really looked at the countercultural aspects of the Christian community. Today we’re going to be in Hebrews 13:9-16, and we’re going to just take these verses, looking at them in a little different way. Today I want to focus on the privileges and the responsibilities that belong to those who are in the new covenant.
Really, what you have in these verses is a series of commands. Those are the responsibilities, the obligations, but they are commands that are really enforced by a reminder of the great privileges that we have in Jesus Christ. So we’re going to read Hebrews 13:9-16, and then we’ll notice together three pairs of obligations and privileges that we see in this passage. So let’s read the text, Hebrews 13 beginning in verse 9.
“Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”
This is God’s Word.
This passage reminds us of both our great privileges as the people of God while also pointing out several responsibilities that we have as the people of God. I think we can summarize these in three points. We see:
1. Vigilance and the Privileges of Grace
2. Endurance and the Privileges of Citizenship (citizenship in the heavenly city)
3. Sacrifice and the Privilege of Pleasing God
Let’s look at each one of these in turn.
1. Vigilance and the Privileges of Grace
Number one, notice here that there is an exhortation or a call to vigilance, and it’s backed up with the privileges of grace. Let’s just read again Hebrews 13:9. It says, “Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings.” There’s the exhortation, and it is an exhortation to be vigilant so as not to be led astray from the truth of the gospel. “Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace—” there’s the privilege, the privilege of grace “—not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.”
So this is a warning, and it’s a call to vigilance as the writer here reminds these readers of the truth of the gospel, that we are strengthened by the grace of God, and not to be diverted or distracted or led away into the practice of the Old Testament ceremonial food laws. I think that’s what he has in mind here.
He says these are diverse and strange teachings, and we are to remember that it’s good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.
The author understands what the New Testament everywhere teaches, that with the advent of Jesus Christ, with the coming of Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection, the Old Testament laws have been fulfilled and the food laws of the Old Testament are done away with.
You find hints of this in Jesus’ own teaching, in Mark 7 and Matthew 15. You have a very clear presentation of this to the apostle Peter in the book of Acts. Remember when Peter sees the sheet coming down from heaven with all the different beasts, and this is to tell him that the Gentiles are being welcomed into the family of God and that nothing is unclean which God has cleansed. So it’s doing away with those food laws, and you have it clearly taught in the New Testament letters as well.
In fact, earlier in Hebrews the author, talking about the Day of Atonement and talking about the earthly tent or tabernacle, showed that it was really an illustration for the present time, showing that the gifts and sacrifices offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. Then he says in Hebrews 9:10, “They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings, external regulations applying until the time of the new order.”
The whole argument of this letter is that the new order has come. The new has come. The new way, the new and living way of the new covenant, a new order of worship has come, because Jesus Christ, the great and final and supreme high priest, has made the once-and-for-all sacrifice by shedding his blood for us on the cross. He has sanctified us and cleansed us with his blood. He has brought us into the family of God, into the kingdom of God, and he’s given us access into the very presence of God. This is the gospel as Hebrews presents it to us.
Now, in light of all these truths that the author has spent twelve chapters expounding for us, now he says, “Don’t be led away from this reality. Don’t be led away from the truth by these diverse and strange teachings.”
He says in verse 10 that we have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. We have an altar. And just as he has said that we’ve got a better priest who’s offered a better sacrifice, he is in essence saying here that we have a better altar as well. By “altar” he doesn’t mean a piece of furniture in the church. He doesn’t mean an altar at which we come to kneel. We don’t call this stage an altar. The altar here, I think, is a reference to the finished work of Jesus Christ. Christ is the one who’s made that final sacrifice on the cross, and the altar from which we eat, from which we draw nourishment and strength, by which our hearts are strengthened by the grace of God, it is the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
That’s why it says in verse 12 that “Christ also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people with his own blood.” We are sanctified, set apart, saved, brought to the family of God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Hebrews 10:10 says, “We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.” This is the grace of the gospel.
We get all that we need for salvation through Christ and through Christ alone, and we are called to trust in him and enjoy the great privileges that are ours in him, and that brings with it the obligation of vigilance, that we do not allow ourselves to be distracted from that one and only gospel.
So, I think this suggests a couple of applications.
(1) Number one, don’t be led away from the finished work of Christ. Don’t be led away from what Christ has done to accomplish salvation. This can happen in lots of ways, and I would guess that most of us in this room are not particularly tempted to go back to the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament.
That’s not the temptation for us. But you can add legalism to grace and start thinking that your works somehow contribute to your salvation. You can fall into what C.S. Lewis one time warned as the danger of “Christianity and,” where you’re adding things to the finished work of Jesus Christ and you’re trusting in something other than what Christ has done for us. Any teaching that diminishes or diverts from the finished work of Jesus Christ is something that we need to be on our guard against. So don’t be led away from the gospel.
(2) I think a second application for us here is to remember that this exhortation is framed by two exhortations to follow the leaders of the church, Hebrews 13:7 and 17. In verse 7: “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God.” And in verse 17: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls.”
We saw last week that this is part of the countercultural community of the church, this different kind of culture, where the power structures of the church are very different than those of the world, where the leaders serve the people. But notice how they serve here. They serve by teaching the word of God and by watching over the souls of the flock. Those are the two functions of a shepherd. A shepherd feeds the flock, and a shepherd watches over the flock.
I bring this up because I just think it’s important for us to remember—in our day of radical individualism, where each person tends to think of himself or herself as the ultimate arbiter of truth, where we are always analyzing in our own minds, “What is true for me?” Maybe not even thinking in terms of absolute truth, but “what is true for me?”—that Scripture reminds us that the church as a whole is entrusted with the truth, and that God has placed leaders in the church in order to guard that truth, to guard the gospel, and to protect the flock from error and false teaching and anything that draws us away from Christ. In the same way that a shepherd protects the flock from wolves that devour and continues to lead the flock into good pasture so that they can be fed and well cared for—feeding and watching—that’s the role of elders in the church. That’s the role of leaders in the church. It’s the role of pastors in the church; not to lord over the flock, but to protect the sheep, to love the sheep, to care for the sheep, and to be vigilant by guarding the gospel so that we’re not led astray into anything that diminishes from the finished work of Jesus Christ.
It’s called vigilance, as we guard ourselves from error and enjoy the great privileges of grace.
2. Endurance and the Privileges of Citizenship
Secondly, in verses 13-14 we see another privilege. It is the privilege of citizenship, and accompanied by this call to endurance. Look at Hebrews 13:13-14. It says, “Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.”
Hebrews has already talked about the reproach that we may suffer for the sake of Christ, and it has called these readers to endurance again and again and again. We are by faith to imitate those who through faith and endurance inherit the promises. Hebrews 11 is this rousing call to faith as we consider the example of the Old Testament saints who also live by faith. We think of Moses, who considered the reproach of Christ as greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. And the author has already reminded his readers that some of them have been exposed to reproach and affliction, and some were being partners with those who are treated in just that way, and he’s calling them to an enduring faith. And that’s what he’s doing here.
But here, he speaks of this endurance as bearing the reproach of Christ, connecting this with the idea of Christ being crucified outside the city gates of Jerusalem. Really, he’s drawing a word picture here, drawing an illustration or an analogy from what happened to the carcasses of the animals who were sacrificed on the Day of Atonement. You can read about this in Leviticus 16, where the bodies of these sacrificial animals were taken outside the camp and were burned. It was a symbol of the sin being removed from the people, from the community, and signifying the rejection of the impurity of those carcasses.
Now we know from John 19 that Jesus was crucified outside one of the city gates of Jerusalem, and now the author is drawing a connection between these two things, the animals being burned outside the camp and Jesus being crucified outside the city.
Listen to how the commentator F.F. Bruce explains this. He says,
“Jesus was led outside Jerusalem to be crucified, and this is regarded as a token of his rejection by all that Jerusalem represented. To have his messianic claims rejected by the leaders of the people was in itself a stigma; to be cast out and crucified added to that stigma.”
And now the author is saying, “Join Jesus there. You bear the same reproach. Go outside the camp and bear the reproach with Jesus.” And it’s a call to endurance. It’s a call to be willing to suffer affliction for the sake of Jesus Christ.
Remember the context. These are Jewish believers who are being tempted to pull away because of the persecution. And one reason, perhaps, that they would have been tempted to go back to Judaism is because Judaism was recognized by the Roman Empire. It was recognized as a legitimate religion. You could be a Jew, but Christianity wasn’t. Christianity was viewed as subversive. So it’s perhaps the case that they’re facing persecution, not just from Jews who maybe don’t like the fact that they’re following Jesus, but even from the outside world because they’re not within the state confines of Judaism. It’d be easier to just stay Jewish rather than commit themselves to Jesus the Messiah. But the author is saying, no, bear the reproach with Jesus who was crucified outside the gates of Jerusalem.
Then he gives the reason why they are to do this in verse 14. “For here we have no lasting city [no Jerusalem for us here], but we seek the city that is to come.” He’s reminding them of their citizenship in the eternal city; the city that Abraham was looking forward to that has foundations whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10); the city which Hebrews 12:22 tells us we have come to, this Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. This is the city of which we are now citizens as members of the new covenant community, and we’re to seek our security not in an earthly city, whether it’s Jerusalem or any other earthly system—we don’t seek our security in that. We find our security in our citizenship in heaven. Remembering that we are part of this eternal kingdom that never will be shaken, we can be faithful even in the face of suffering and persecution for the name of Christ.
Of course, we can think of the many examples, both historical and modern, of people who have suffered for the name of Jesus Christ. Sometimes that suffering is relatively mild, or maybe we are criticized or we are mocked or we are misunderstood; sometimes that suffering is severe or someone actually goes to the point of shedding their blood for the sake of Christ.
I think of one of those stories of one of the great early martyrs of the church, Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna. He was arrested for refusing to renounce Christ, he was brought before a proconsul and given a choice: turn away from Jesus, forsake Christ, or face death. He was 86 years old, and he wouldn’t do it. He would not turn away from Jesus. He says, “Eighty-six years I have served him. He has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my king who saved me?” And at 86 years old, he was burned to death.
Faithfulness to Christ. And most of us don’t face such a severe test, but ask yourself, how do you respond when you face criticism or rejection for your faith in Christ. Ask yourself if you’re living in the reality of this eternal citizenship in the city of God, or are you too focused on approval and security in this world? Consider how you can endure in the face of reproach when you know that your true citizenship is in heaven as a part of God’s eternal kingdom.
It’s a call to endurance, reminding us of the great privileges of citizenship in the kingdom of God.
3. Sacrifice and the Privilege of Pleasing God
Then following right on this, there’s a third series of commands that all have to do with sacrifice and with worship, and also a reminder of the great privilege we have of pleasing God. This is in Hebrews 13:15-16.
Notice that it really follows right out of the previous commands. It says, “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.” So he’s saying, “In light of all of this, therefore, then, let’s continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God; that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” Then verse 16, “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”
Again, he’s using the language of sacrifice, but now he’s using the language of sacrifice in this distinctive way that applies to us as New Testament Christians.
What is a sacrifice? A sacrifice is something which is offered to God. That’s what a sacrifice is. We might think of sacrifices in terms of the Old Testament sacrifices, where animals were offered to the Lord, and certainly you have that. We might think of sacrifice as something that’s costly that we have to give up. But at the heart of it, a sacrifice is something we offer to God, whether large or small. Hebrews has gone to great pains in chapters 9-10 to show that Jesus himself has offered the once-and-for-all final sacrifice for our sins. There’s no need now for an animal sacrifice. Those were temporary. Those were provisional. They did not work to remove guilt from the conscience. They were just pointers to something that would come in the final, all-sufficient sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
He’s just told us already in this passage that Christ, through his sacrifice outside the city gates, has sanctified us through his blood. But now he uses the language of sacrifice, and he applies it to the Christians. But he says, “Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God; that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”
He’s echoing here a couple of Old Testament passages, Psalm 50. Already in the Psalms we’re learning that God doesn’t really delight in the animal sacrifices. Instead, it says, “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High.”
Then Hosea 14:2 talks about bringing words as we return to the Lord and offering up the vows of our lips. So when he says the sacrifice of praise to God is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name, it’s an allusion to that passage in Hosea.
I think we can say that there are four dimensions to this life of praise, and I’m drawing this from the helpful little commentary by Raymond Brown. Four dimensions of sacrifice.
(1) There is, first of all, thankful praise. That’s the praise of our lips. That is speaking or singing or any way in which we ascribe worship to God with the use of our voices and of our words. So that’s the focus of verse 15: “Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.”
Now listen, brothers and sisters, that’s what we do together when we gather on Sunday morning. When we’re lifting up our voices in song to the Lord, we’re offering the sacrifice of praise. But this is a call to continually offer a sacrifice of praise. It’s not just what we do on Sundays. It’s the way we use our words all the time, where our words are to reflect the worth and the value of God in our lives.
(2) So it’s not just thankful praise, it’s also our unashamed witness. Notice he says this is “the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” That word connects to a word that’s used elsewhere in Hebrews that talks about the confession of our faith or the confession of our hope, this acknowledgment, this confession of faith in Christ.
I think this has in mind the public confession of faith in Christ that we make when we identify ourselves with Jesus as his followers, as Christians, as disciples. It is unashamed witness.
There are a couple of ways in which we do that. We do that, of course, in baptism, when we confess the name of Christ and we publicly declare to friends and family and church and community that we belong to Jesus. But we also do that every time we share our faith. Every time we boldly speak the name of Christ or share the gospel or point someone to Christ, it’s part of our unashamed witness. This is also the sacrifice of praise.
(3) Then there’s the sacrifice of compassionate service. This is number three. And so verse 16 says, “Do not neglect to do good.” To do good. He says this is a sacrifice that is pleasing to God, doing good to others.
On one hand, we want to say that Christianity teaches without any hesitation whatsoever that we are justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone; that salvation is in the finished work of Jesus Christ. You don’t add anything to that. But never think that that means there’s no place for doing good, because the life that we are called to, in grateful response to what God has done for us in and through Jesus Christ, is a life of good works. It is a life of doing good to others, and the New Testament calls us to that again and again and again. It even says that we’ll be judged according to our works. I think the reason is because those works are the public evidence of genuine faith in Jesus Christ. So we’re called to do good.
It’s one reason why we should be involved in doing good in our communities. And whether it’s service through a food pantry or it’s partnership with a ministry like Life Plan, where we’re ministering to women in crisis or in need, or it’s partnering with Hope Ministries or Transformation Ministries and trying to minister to the homeless among us—any of those kinds of things and many other ministries of that kind are ways of doing good in the name of Jesus. It’s part of what we are called to do.
(4) Then finally, there is the sacrifice of generous giving. Again, verse 16, “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”
Notice again, he’s using the language of sacrifice. You see, these are not sacrifices that are a part of our atonement. They are rather sacrifices of worship and praise that please God. As we share what we have through generosity with others, this pleases the Lord.
The great privilege we have is that we can please God, and the way in which we can please God is through the finished work of Jesus Christ.
There’s a parallel passage, 1 Peter 2, which says that we’re to come to Christ, the living stone who’s been rejected by men but is chosen and precious in the sight of God. And he says in verse 5, “You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices which are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
Your life, when it’s offered to God as a spiritual sacrifice—your life, your service, your generosity, your unashamed witness, your praise to God is acceptable. It’s pleasing to God. It delights the heart of God when it’s offered through Jesus Christ.
So ask yourself, is this characteristic of your life, a life of praise and worship, an unashamed witness as you share your faith with others, a life that is characterized by doing good, giving of yourself, generosity, as you devote yourself to the Lord by serving others in his name? This is the great responsibility or obligation that comes with the privilege of knowing God through Jesus Christ and being a part of his people.
So we’ve seen three things this morning. There’s a call to vigilance, there’s a call to endurance, there’s a call to sacrifice. These responsibilities are backed up with the great privileges of the gospel, privileges of grace, of citizenship in his eternal kingdom, and of living lives that please God through Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters, as we reflect on God’s word in our lives, let’s apply this to our hearts. Let’s apply it to our lives as a church, but also as individuals. Let’s devote ourselves to serving God and offering him the sacrifice of praise, remembering that with great privileges come great responsibilities. Let’s pray together.
Gracious Father, we thank you this morning for the great privileges of the gospel that are ours because of what Jesus Christ has done. Lord, we’re not worthy of these privileges, the privileges of knowing you, of experiencing your grace, of being sanctified and saved and set apart for your glory, of being citizens in your kingdom. We’re not worthy of these things. They come to us by grace and by grace alone. But Lord, having received these privileges, we pray that you would help us to live with a deep appreciation of them, and then to fulfill the responsibilities and obligations that are ours as your people.
As we come to the Lord’s table this morning, we pray that the table would be for us a means of grace, as we reflect on what Jesus Christ has done for us. We pray that you would help us receive these elements as tangible reminders of Christ’s broken body and shed blood. We pray that as we come to the table we would come not just to receive bread and juice but we would come to trust in and fellowship with Jesus himself through the Spirit and so be strengthened and nourished by the grace that is in him. So search our hearts now. Help us, Lord, to turn to you in any way that is needed. Renew us by your Spirit. Work in us what is pleasing in your sight. We pray in Jesus’ name and for his sake, amen.
Brian G. Hedges
