Hebrews 8:6
But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
Hebrews 8:6 identifies Christ as the minister and mediator of the better covenant under the gospel dispensation. His mediatorial ministry is far more excellent than the earthly, symbolic priesthood. The sacrificial system and Jewish ceremonies, which Christ himself originated, represented the coming Redeemer in types and shadows until Christ, the perfect and sinless offering, took their place and met their fulfillment in his death. Guilty people cannot approach God on their own merit; Christ alone opens the way through his mediation by offering himself in a sacrifice of infinite value that meets the demand of God's law. The contrast in the verse does not make true religion under the former dispensation less full or demanding.
A covenant is an agreement by which parties bind themselves and each other to fulfill specified conditions, and the human agent enters into agreement with God to comply with the conditions specified in his Word, showing by conduct whether those conditions are respected. Through the administration of the better covenant God's people are justified by Christ's righteousness, receiving and accepting his righteousness instead of establishing their own. The better promises surpass the old covenant's demand to obey in order to live under curse for disobedience: God forgives iniquity and remembers sin no more, and gives grace to renew the heart and bring it into harmony with the principles of his law. The same law once written and engraved on stone is put into the inward parts and written on the heart by the Holy Spirit.
Christ's blood atones for sins and his obedience is accepted for the sinner. Renewed by the Holy Spirit and living through Christ's grace, those who have the Spirit of Christ obey God's law written on the heart and bear the fruits of the Spirit, walking even as he walked, delighting to do God's will with the law within the heart and always doing what pleases the Father. Under the new covenant, being justified by faith gives peace with God through Jesus Christ; faith does not void the law but establishes it, and what the law could not do because it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his Son in sinful flesh to condemn sin, so that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those who walk after the Spirit. By obeying the covenant-keeping God a person gains everything, has God's attributes imparted enabling mercy and compassion, and rests on God's unchangeable character assured by the covenant. The terms of the covenant are to love the Lord God with all the heart, soul, strength, and mind and the neighbor as self, which are the conditions of life to be done in order to live.