The last couple of weeks we did a sermon series on the Biblical Covenants at all our locations of Celebration Church Netherlands. We spoke about the covenant that God made with all of humanity through Noah, and how the rainbow was the sign of that covenant. We then moved on to the covenant the LORD made with Abraham, with circumcision as the sign. Both these covenants are unilateral covenants. They did not depend on the performance of the human party in the covenant. We then talked about the covenant with Israel on Mount Sinai and the covenant with king David.
The New Covenant According to Jeremiah
The last one in the series was about the “new covenant”. It coincided with Pentecost on our western calendar, which is the celebration of that new covenant. I believe this is the best and most beautiful covenant we can find in the Bible! There is so much to say about it. But let’s read what the prophet Jeremiah hast to say about it:
31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
(Jeremiah 31:31-34 ESV)
Is the old covenant obsolete?
Does this “new covenant” mean that the “old covenant” is obsolete and no longer valid? Hebrews 8:13 seems to suggest that, after the author of the epistle quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34:
In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
(Hebrews 8:13 ESV)
Context is everything:
- Hebrews doesn’t call it the “old” covenant, but the “first” covenant.
- Also, the chapter division is very unfortunate, because the author continues his argument in chapter 9. There, it becomes very clear that he isn’t talking about the covenant with Abraham or King David, but the covenant that he made with all Israel on Mount Sinai. What he is saying is that the sacrificial system of the Sinai covenant is now obsolete, because Jesus is the once and for all sacrifice.
The proof is in Hebrews 9:11-15:
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
(Hebrews 9:11-15 ESV)
No words that the covenant promises to Abraham or King David would now be annulled or fulfilled. In other words: the land promises to Abraham still stand! The promise of the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel with Jesus as its Jewish King still stands! Both of these promises are going to be fulfilled upon Jesus’ return!
So the “new” covenant builds on the “first” covenant that God made with Israel on Mount Sinai.
Here are the first two reasons why we should love the new covenant:
#1 No more animal sacrifices for sin are needed. Jesus is the once and for all sacrifice (Heb.9).
#2 God writes the Law of the Sinai covenant on their (and our) hearts (Jer.31:33).
A covenant with Israel and Judah
Here is another important thing to know about this “new covenant”, something I only realized in the last year. Jeremiah 31:31ff does show the new covenant is with Israel and Judah… NOT with the other nations! Does this mean that gentiles don’t have a part in it?
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt…”
(Jeremiah 31:31-32 ESV)
Notice how Israel centric this new covenant is! It makes no mention of the nations! It’s all about Israel and Judah! And we don’t have to feel excluded. I’ll get to that in a moment. But this is another reason to love the new covenant:
#3 Because God is still faithful to Israel, the new covenant is between him and Israel and Judah. The new covenant doesn’t push Israel from its place as God’s covenant people.
A guarantee of an inheritance
But then watch what Ephesians, written by the Jew Sha’ul / Paul, says to a mainly gentile church:
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
(Ephesians 1:13-14 ESV)
Two conclusions:
- What happened on the day of Pentecost 2000 years ago is only a PARTIAL fulfilment of the new covenant. If you look at Israel today, only a small minority of them believe in Jesus and are partakers of the new covenant. But there will be a day when all Israel will be saved (Rom.11:26). This is the moment when Jesus returns and the new covenant with the house of Israel and Judah will come to a complete fulfillment.
- The Holy Spirit believers from Jewish and Gentile background can experience now is only a down payment of the full manifestation of the new covenant. As gentiles, we’re part of these promises, because we are grafted into the olive tree of faithful Israel (Romans 11).
So here is a fourth reason we should love the new covenant:
#4 As believers from the nations, we receive a down payment of the new covenant when we accept Jesus as our God and our King through the Holy Spirit.
New Covenant only fully established at Jesus’ return
The full-scale fulfillment of the new covenant will only be realized at Yeshua’s return:
“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.”
(Zechariah 12:10 ESV)
YHWH pours out this Spirit… and Israel will “look on me” = “on him [Jesus] whom they have pierced”! The next chapter confirms this is about the new covenant:
“On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.”
(Zechariah 13:1 ESV)
That takes us to the final reason we should love the new covenant:
#5 When Jesus returns, the new covenant will come to complete fulfillment, causing all Israel to accept Jesus as their Messianic King!
Conclusion
Let’s not separate the new covenant, of which we can now enjoy a downpayment, from the people God has promised to give it to! God is still faithful! God still loves the people he chose when he set Abraham apart from all the other people in the world! God still wants to restore the Kingdom to Israel when Jesus returns!
And most importantly: we need to keep our hearts full of expectation for the return of the King and pray for his people to accept him now! Let’s keep our oil lamps full of oil. Let’s stay filled with the Holy Spirit, so that when trials and tribulations come, we will stand firm!
33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
(Jeremiah 31:33-34 ESV)
Rather listen to my whole sermon? This is it:
Featured image is of Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia, which is most likely the actual location where Moses received the Torah.
Leave a Reply