Jesus the Guarantor
Hebrews 7:22 · Colossians 2:14
A guarantor does not cheer you on while you pay. He steps in and takes the bill as his own.
Hebrews calls Jesus the “guarantee” (the old word is surety, or guarantor) of a better covenant. A guarantor is the person who signs for a debt he did not himself run up, and who has the means to pay it.
We broke God’s law. The debt was not a small invoice. It was a life we could not give back. No amount of churchgoing, tears, or fresh resolutions could settle it. The law does not take instalments from the dead.
Jesus stepped into the room. On the cross he did not contribute a part. He paid the whole. Colossians says the record that stood against us was nailed to the cross. The nail is the receipt.
A better covenant is not “try harder with nicer feelings.” It is God binding himself to save by a Priest who has already paid. That is why the writer can say by so much — by as much as Jesus is greater than the old priests, by that much the covenant is better.
If you are still trying to make it up to God, you are treating a paid bill as if it were still on the table. The guarantor has signed. The account is closed.