Friday
Friday
The New Covenant
“The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”
Jeremiah 31:31
It is important to grasp that there is only one covenant of grace throughout the Bible, namely the promise God made to Abraham some four thousand years ago to bless him and his posterity and through them to bless the world. It is this covenant that Jesus ratified (“This cup is the new covenant in my blood” [1 Cor. 11:25]). It is new only in relation to Mount Sinai (see Jer. 31:32); it is not new in itself, for it is as old as Abraham. Consider now the terms of the new covenant.
Firstly, in the new covenant the law of God is internal: “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts” (v. 33). As a result, we understand it, love it, and obey it. There is strange teaching around today that Christians are no longer under obligation to keep God’s moral law. But, on the contrary, God writes his law in our hearts in order that we may obey it.
Secondly, in the new covenant the knowledge of God is universal: “‘No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, “Know the LORD,” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,’ declares the LORD” (v. 34). This universality includes the Gentiles and the “priesthood of all believers.” That is, in the covenant community of Jesus Christ, there is no hierarchy of privilege but rather an equal access of all to God through Christ.
Thirdly, in the new covenant the forgiveness of God is eternal: “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (v. 34). Of course, there was forgiveness in the Old Testament (cf. Ps. 32:1–2). Yet the sacrifices continued to be offered repeatedly and interminably. But the Lord Jesus Christ offered one sacrifice for sins forever, and on the ground of his finished work God remembers our sins no more.
So these are the priceless blessings of the new covenant—an internal law, a universal knowledge of God, and an eternal forgiveness.
For further reading: Hebrews 10:11–18