NOTES for Heb 7:18-19

Speaking of the "setting aside of the former commandment," which, however, according to the meaning of the corresponding Greek word would more accurately be called a "renunciation," the author of the letter says that this happens because of its "weakness," precisely as in the Greek text. Judging by the context, the point here is not that the commandment is bad as such, that it is insufficient for solving the task set by God, but that it is not a perfect instrument for achieving the appointed goal: the Torah that operated in pre-Christian times, as we see, could not solve the task of the full sanctification and transformation of a person. That is precisely why something greater was needed, something that could enter the world only with Christ. But this greater thing did not mechanically supplement the former Torah; it did not mean its growth like the kind one might speak of, for example, when adding a story to a house, where the addition does not presuppose changing or remaking the original building. For the greater thing was nothing other than the Kingdom that the Savior brought into the world. It certainly includes all the fullness of sanctification accessible to a person, in comparison with which every former sanctification was only partial and relative. But this fullness is not made up of parts; bringing sanctification to fullness means the complete transformation of human nature, a new quality and a new state of the person, not the continuation of former purifying and sanctifying rituals. And this new quality, surpassing everything previously given to humanity, makes the former things spiritually irrelevant. For in the Kingdom only fullness is possible, life in abundance, and nothing less.