Covenant Series: New Covenant, Part 2 of 2

In the last post we left off at Jeremiah 31:31-34 and the four elements of the New Covenant found in these verses: forgiveness, reconciliation, internality, and personal faith. From here we are going to look at how the New Covenant is built off of the previous covenants, and how it finds its fulfillment in Christ.

In the Abrahamic Covenant, God promises offspring, blessing and land to Abraham in order that God’s will may be known in the world. In the Mosaic Covenant, God promises the offspring of Abraham that they will have their land, and that they will be a blessing to others because of their intimacy with God, the creator. In the Davidic Covenant, David is promised that the Israelites will always have the land in which they now dwell, and that there would always be a Davidic king to rule the people of Israel. Furthermore, as long as the king embodies the ideals and values of God, the nation will be at peace and be able to be a blessing to others.

In Jeremiah, starting from chapter 29 through 31, we see God making promises of a new king (30:21) which fulfills the Davidic Covenant. God also promises national restoration and times of peace and prosperity for the Jews (29:10-14, 30:3, 10, 17-18, 31:2-4, 8-11, 16-17) which fulfills the Abrahamic Covenant. God promises in Jeremiah 31:33-34 that he will write His law on their hearts and minds to that everyone will know God and have access to a personal relationship with Him: this fulfills the Mosaic Covenant.

What about the other three covenants? The Edenic, Adamic and Noahic? Well, in these same verses, God promises forgiveness for the iniquities and sins of the Israelites and offers them a better way to live and worship Him. This points back to these covenants. As the people are restored and reconciled to God, they begin to become who they formerly were. Jeremiah 30:20 says, “Their children will be as formerly, and their congregation shall be established before me.” The Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants were designed to bring the people of God back into proper relationship with Him so they could once again have a personal relationship with their creator, as they did in Eden. God will not destroy His people ever again (31:36-37), but will rather uphold them and guide them in a more intimate way than ever before.

When some of the Jews returned to the Holy Land from exile under the Persian Empire, things were by no means easy. There was much reconciling to do for past sins in exile from the people who had stayed in the land, and there were constant challenges to restore the city of Jerusalem. But out of this time came the rise of the synagogue, teachers of the law, Pharisees, scribes, etc. All these people took seriously the call to reform their behavior so that they would never again be exiled from their land. What we see them doing is trying to keep the covenants by their own power rather than depending on God to enable them. Priests and high ranking temple officials wore small tablets on their heads and over their hearts to symbolize the law being on their hearts and minds. But this was not what God had meant.

During Jesus’ ministry, he made many claims about how to gain access to God. “I am the way and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me (John 14:6).” Later in this chapter he says, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments (14:15).” In John 16:5-15 Jesus talks about the Helper, the Spirit of Truth, who will come to Jesus’ followers and guide them in truth. In the Ancient Near East, sin was considered to be a debt that needed to be paid. In order to receive forgiveness of the debt, a sacrifice had to be made. The sacrificial system under the Mosaic Law tells of different sacrifices that were to be made for the forgiveness of sins (Sin or Guilt Offering), for reconciliation between God and man (Burnt Offering), and for thanksgiving and fellowship (Fellowship or Grain Offering).

Now then, Jesus came as God-incarnate to be the sin and guilt offering to take away the sins of the world. In order for mankind to be reconciled to God and forgiven of all sin, there had to be a sacrifice. God provided the sacrifice, and so Jesus took on the sins of the world and died upon the cross so that we might be forgiven (Element 1 of Jeremiah 31:31-34: Forgiveness). Truly, the only way to gain personal access to the Father was through Christ. Once we were forgiven, we could be reconciled to God (Element 2: Reconciliation). As we pursue a relationship with our Creator, the Holy Spirit indwells us to teach us truth. In this way the Law of God is written on our hearts and minds so that we may always be aware of it and know it (Element 3: Internality). Finally, if the Holy Spirit indwells us and enables us to keep all of God’s commandments, then we have a personal relationship with God because His Spirit lives within us. We are responsible for our own sins and for repenting for them because we have access to God through our own faithfulness (Element 4: Personal Faith.)

The New Covenant has brought us to a point where we can know our God and Creator and have a relationship with Him. This is why Jesus says “You are my friends if you do what I command you (John 15:14).” Friendships take work, understanding, trust, and patience. Jesus calls us friends if we believe that He is the Son of God who died for the sins of the world, and proceed to love Him and others with our entire being. So you see, the New Covenant doesn’t just free us from the Mosaic Law or any of the older covenants, it sums them up. If we are to partake in God’s holy nation and be a part of His kingdom of priests, we need to love God more than anything else so that we too become holy. If we are to be a blessing to others, we are to love others as God loved us. If we are to have a relationship with God, we must love Him and work to maintain the relationship by repenting of our wrong doings and seeking forgiveness.

The last thing I wish to address in this post is Hebrews 8:7-13. In this passage, the author of Hebrews states that “if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second.” The first covenant is the Mosaic Covenant and the Mosaic Law that guides the people in it. He is not saying the Covenant itself, as received from God was at fault. God’s law is perfect, and there is much evidence that many people were able to keep the law perfectly (see the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:20, and Paul own testimony in Philippians 3:6). The fault here is that the vast majority of the people were not able to keep the Covenant due to their own sin and lack of understanding of who God was and is, Isaiah 5:13 says, “My people go into exile for lack of knowledge.” They didn’t know God, and so they didn’t know how to keep His commandments. After this verse, the author repeats the verses found in Jeremiah 31:31-34, and states in Hebrews 8:13, “When He said, ‘A New Covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.” This then, is where the idea that we no longer need the old covenants and perhaps the Old Testament come from.

Let’s be careful though. The next set of verses in Hebrews 9 talk about the old and the new. In 9:1-10 the author recounts how the sacrifices and temple functioned. In 9:11-28 the author talks about how things function under the new covenant with Christ as the mediator and the sacrifice and the one who is daily in the presence of God. So then, what is becoming obsolete is the Mosaic Law, not the Mosaic Covenant. As stated in previous posts, the Mosaic Covenant is the one where God calls the people of Israel to be his treasured possession, holy nation, and kingdom of priests. What follows the making of this covenant is the Mosaic Law, which stipulates how to keep the covenant. The Law is becoming obsolete because Christ, the better priest and sacrifice,  has done away with the necessity of it, and because the Holy Spirit indwells believers now and teaches them truth. We are still called to live holy and righteous lives that will enable us to spread the good news of Christ and bring blessing to others. How that works in our own personal lives has changed. The original mission and desire is still the same though. God desires for us to know and love Him, and be committed to following His commands and will for our lives. One of those commands is to spread the good news of what God has done for mankind, and to love others. We can do this now because God has chosen to make himself available to us and sent His Spirit to help us overcome our own sin and desires so we can be transformed into the holy priests He wants us to be. Amen and Amen.