What is the New Covenant?

“A New Heart”

Is the New Covenant for Christians, and the Old Covenant for Jews?
Did the New Covenant replace the Ten Commandments?

[Updated April 3, 2012]

Because the New Covenant was promised to be a better covenant, it is almost inevitable that some would make misleading comparison and conclusions about the Old and the New Covenant.

The actual text of the New Covenant is found in Jeremiah 31:31-34:

This is quoted by the apostle Paul almost verbatim in Hebrews 8:8-12. From the above scripture the following basic facts about the New Covenant, among others, are well established:

1. God’s laws will be written in our [man's] hearts and mind.
2. God will forgive His people’s sin and remember it no more.
3. The New Covenant is made with the House of Judah and the House of Israel.

The New Covenant states rather, that God’s law will be written in our hearts and mind. This belie the common teaching that the New Covenant makes God’s laws obsolete. God’s law instead will be etched right into the very core of our consciousness!

That is too clear to miss!

God’s promise to forgive His people’s sin is fulfilled through the death of Christ which Paul colorfully explained in Colossians 2:

Col 2:13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
Col 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

Our sins, as God promised, has been blotted out, never to be remembered.

The New Covenant itself clearly states that it is an agreement between God and the house of Israel & Judah – NOT with Gentiles. This explodes the myth that dichotomizes the covenants into New Covenant for Gentiles and Old Covenant for Jews. God actually never made covenant with Gentiles.

Where does that leave the Gentiles?
Is God a respecter of person or race?

Paul says NO! [Rom.2:11]

The Abrahamic Covenant

Misconception about the Old and New Covenant results from failure to rightly appreciate the Abrahamic Covenant.

Whether you like it or not, Israel figures prominently and primarily in God’s covenants and overall plan for mankind. This prominence has nothing to do with national superiority – racial or otherwise. It all started with Abram [later renamed Abraham].

Before Abraham, and almost as soon as Adam and Eve were created, mankind progressively drifted away from God. By the time of Noah, it had reached the point where man’s wickedness so “grieved” God [Gen.6:6], He decided to destroy all mankind with flood, except Noah and his family [v.8-18]. From Noah’s family the earth re-populated. But soon afterwards, man began to stray away from God, again.

You should wonder how God could judge man of “wickedness” IF He had not shown him what wickedness means, through some law or standard. The fact is, Noah actually preached God’s righteous ways and warned people, many years before the flood “took them away” [2 Pet 2:5,Gen 6:3].

Faith and Obedience

There was one man whom God took notice of. That man was none other than Abraham.

Why Abraham? What’s so special about Abraham?

Here God instructed Abram to get out of his hometown and go to another land. God promised to make Abram a great nation and that through him the families of earth “shall be blessed”. Verse 4 shows that, without quibble, Abram simply obeyed God.

Now let’s read Gen. 15:1-6 in our Bible. To save space I will just summarize it here. Here God promised to give Abram a son – which Abram knew was highly improbable considering he was then 100 years old while his wife Sarah was 90 years old. But despite that, Abram simply believed God. Notice what God says of Abraham’s response:

Notice the words: He [God] counted it to him for righteousness. And so as we already know, God fulfilled His promise with the birth of Isaac (Genesis 21).

Now in Genesis 22:1-18, God tested Abram by instructing him to offer Isaac as sacrifice. This must have distresses and caused doubt in Abraham. But Abraham simply loved and trusted God, he was willing to give up anything – even his only son – just to obey God. Obviously Abraham trusted that God will sort out things and so he obeyed. Of course we know God stopped Abraham from harming his son.

At this point, Abraham had fully demonstrated to God that he would obey – no matter what. So God by an oath made the following unconditional promises to Abraham:

1. blessing [physical or otherwise] for Abraham and his descendants
2. a seed in whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed

In Genesis 15 we read of the vast tract of land that God had actually given to Abraham:

If you looked at the Middle East map, you will see a vast strip of land that stretches from eastern Egypt, through Sinai Peninsula and Saudi Arabia all the way to Central Iraq! We know that God’s promise cannot be broken, so that gives you an idea about what the future will be for Israel and the Middle East region.

Now, there is another thing that Abraham did that made God decide to make His promises unconditional. Let’s read it in Genesis 26:

Here we see that Abraham kept God’s commandments, statutes and laws – long before Moses! Mind you that this was about 430 years before the “Law of Moses” was given to Israel – which only shows that God’s laws and commandments dates back to Abraham — AND earlier as a matter of fact.

So, two things pleased God about Abraham, which made Him establish such a special relationship with Abraham: FAITH and OBEDIENCE!

The apostle James said faith and works [or obedience] go hand in hand. Without obedience faith is dead, or vice versa. Abraham showed his faith by his obedience to God’s laws and instructions (James 2:18-23).

Covenant Confirmed to Isaac, Jacob and the Nation Israel

Now, the same covenant that God made with Abraham would be confirmed to his descendants Isaac [Gen 26:1-5] and Jacob [Gen 28:1-4]

The same covenant would later be confirmed with the nation Israel. Notice:

God formalized this covenant with Israel in Exodus 24:7f.

To summarize what we have covered so far:

1. God initiated a covenant with Abraham.
2. In this covenant God promised blessing to Abraham and his seed. God promised to make his seed a great nation and to bless them materially. The second promise is to bless all nations through his Seed [which Paul says is Christ - Gal.3:16].
3. This covenant was confirmed and passed on to Isaac and then to Jacob.
4. This same covenant was confirmed with the children of Israel.

Has this covenant been abolished?

Note the phrase “a thousand generations”. There had hardly been a hundred generations since God made the covenant with Abraham. The fact is, God says it is an everlasting covenant [verse 17]!

God Blesses The Nations Through Christ

As pointed out earlier, the new covenant was made with the Israelites – NOT with the Gentiles. The Gentiles, as Paul said, were strangers from the covenants — without promises, without hope, without Christ and without God:

But, Paul says, through the blood of Christ, the Gentiles were “made nigh”. The Gentiles now had become fellow-citizens with the saints and household of God, through Christ.

In effect the Gentiles had been absorbed into the spiritual nation Israel [the church]. Paul actually used the word “graffed” or “grafted” in Rom.11:17-24 in describing the Gentiles’ inclusion into Israel. We Gentiles are merely grafted into Israel. Through Christ we become Abraham’s children. Notice:

This clearly is the FULFILLMENT of God’s promise to Abraham to “bless all nations” through his seed – which is Jesus Christ!

Sacrifices and Rituals in Old Covenant

God’s covenant with the ancient nation Israel came with rituals and sacrifices – which were mere images of the reality – which, were reminders of the promised redemptive work of the coming Messiah. The Holy Spirit itself was never promised to be given during the Sinai covenant, because the Holy Spirit can only come after Christ comes and departs (John 16:7).

In other words, the spiritual promises to Abraham were not intended to be fulfilled in the so-called Old Covenant with the nation Israel because the promised “Seed”, Christ – the focus of much of the ritualistic law and symbolism – was YET to come. This ritualistic law served as “schoolmaster” that pointed and led God’s people to Christ – as Paul illustrated figuratively in Galatians 3 [See The Law in Galatians]. But unfortunately, the Israelites as Paul said had become “dull of hearing” [Heb.5:11]. They failed to recognize Christ and His teaching when He came, because they did not keep the law [John 7:19] and they did not believe Moses in the first place [John 5:46-47]!

Now think about this: The “New Covenant” promises no “new laws” but RATHER a “new heart” and the writing of the same old law in our heart and mind! It also promises forgiveness of sin, which really is grace. All these is made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit and the sacrifice of Christ! Notice:

So, the New Covenant is a better covenant because:

• Firstly, the remission of sins through the sacrifice of Christ.
• Secondly, the change of carnal man that was hostile to God and His laws TO a “new man” who will walk in God’s law.
• And thirdly, the coming of the Helper [Spirit] which makes change in us possible.

Conclusion

Finally, to sum it up, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant are nothing more than reiterations/confirmation of the everlasting covenant that God made with Abraham. The difference between the Old and the New results from the timing of the coming of the promised “Seed” [Messiah] and of the Holy Spirit. The sacrifices, divers washings, rituals and Levitical priesthood, which were part of “the law” to be kept under the Old Covenant, served as temporary substitute for Christ’s redemptive work and the “sanctifying” and transforming power of the Spirit. These substitutes had become unnecessary once Christ and the Spirit had come – thus the New Covenant now replaces the Old. Christ’s sacrifice took our sins away, which God promises to no longer remember.

Furthermore, the Spirit made it possible for us to have a “new heart” and mind [Ezek 36:26-27] on which God can now write His law [Heb. 8:10]. The same Spirit likewise, would “cause’ us to walk in those laws [Ezek 36:27].

Because obedience becomes part of our nature, God says:

Jer 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD…

To “know” God, it necessarily means that you keep His commandments [1 John 2:4]!

Clearly, God’s covenant with Abraham, the Old Covenant and the New Covenant are all about obedience and faithful response to God and His commands!

How different that is from the popular teaching that perverted the gospel of Christ!

[This is Part 11 of the series Did Jesus Christ Abolish the Law?]

Related Posts:

• A Covenant of Circumcision?
• What is the OLD COVENANT?
• Is Dispensationalism Biblical?
• Is the Law of God for Jews only?
• God Does Not Change — Did He Change His Laws?
• Is America Nearing Its End?
• The Much Misunderstood Law in Galatians

Tags: Abraham, covenant, Holy Spirit, Israel, law, schoolmaster