We have been in a study through the bible for some time now tracing the story arc of scripture. And one word we have heard a number of times is the word covenant. A covenant is an agreement between God and his people. It is sovereignly administered by God with responsibilities for both parties - God and his covenant people. We have looked at the covenant given to Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and today we will look at the key OT prophecy regarding the New Covenant - the covenant we are now a part of. When we consider the covenants, it is important to see where there is continuity and fulfillment and where there is discontinuity.

Let me explain. There is continuity and fulfillment with the Abrahamic covenant and the new covenant. The covenant given to Abraham went beyond just the promise of a son Isaac, an ethnic people, and a chunk of land. The Abrahamic covenant was a gracious covenant and redemptive in nature and finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ. Jesus Christ is the offspring of Abraham through Whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Furthermore, the covenant given to David is redemptive (an eternal king) and also is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the son of David, who sits on an eternal throne and will rule forever. This is continuity and fulfillment.

When we come to our text regarding the new covenant, we hear the language of discontinuity (not complete). There is discontinuity between the old covenant (Mosaic) and the new covenant. There was something wrong with the old covenant which the new covenant renews. This morning, I want to lay out five ways in which the new covenant is new and better and why it matters. 

Before we get into the meat of our text… don’t get hung up by the words “The house of Israel and Judah”. Some might read this and come to the conclusion that this is just for ethnic Jews or the people of Israeli descent. Of course it was spoken to them (through Jeremiah), but it goes beyond just them. We know this for a few reasons. First, the apostle Paul uses the language “new covenant” in his letter to the church at Corinth - a church in a gentile city, and made up largely or exclusively of gentile (non-Jewish) converts. Second, when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, he said the cup we drink is the “new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you.” (Matthew 26:28; 1 Corinthians 11:25). Paul repeats these words of Christ to the Church of Corinth in his instruction to them concerning the Lord’s Supper. Third, the NT uses language referring to Israel in a spiritual sense or being Jewish inwardly (Romans 2, Romans 9). The NT speaks of the Jerusalem above or the true Israel of God (Galatians 4; 6). There is a spiritual Israel (the church) of which you are a part, not because you are physically descended from Abraham, but because you are in the offspring of Abraham, Jesus Christ by faith. 

Of course this does not exclude ethnic Israel. It is for them too. But it is for them in Christ. So God has one people, spiritual Israel - made up of Jews and Gentiles. So this new covenant is for all (Jew and Gentile alike) who enter it through the blood of Jesus Christ. We will revisit this later. 

Five ways the new covenant is better than the old given to Moses at Mount Sinai. 

First: The new covenant cannot be broken. 

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 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… (Verses 31-32)

The problem with the old covenant was not the moral commands. It is not as though the laws were bad. Paul says in Romans 7:12: “So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” The problem was the people. Hebrews 8:7-8 says in its discussion on the new covenant the following: 

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. 8 For he finds fault with them…

The problem was with the people. Israel was privileged with being given the old covenant, yet their history is one of flagrant violation of it again and again. The description in Jeremiah 32:23 about Israel’s consistent unfaithfulness is, “But they did obey your voice or walk in your law. They did nothing of all that you commanded them to do”. This was written right before Judah was overthrown by the Chaldeans and many taken into exile for their sin. You cannot read through the books of the law, the Judges, the Kings, and the prophets without seeing this pattern of disobedience to God’s law and idolatry leading to God’s judgment. They did not keep the law. They broke His covenant continually. 

The new covenant is better because, unlike the old, it is unbreakable. In the new covenant, God not only establishes the covenant and sets the terms of it. Not only does He hold up His end of the covenant, but He also ensures that covenant members hold up their end of the covenant as well. Not in some robotic way, as we will see shortly. It’s important to see this passage is all about what God does. So what does God do in the new covenant to ensure faithfulness on our part?

Second: The new covenant brings about an inward renewal. The old covenant did not do this. There were laws and commands, but it promised no new heart with an inward power to obey. The old covenant of laws which came through Moses required obedience from the heart, but provided no power to do so. The law was written on tablets of stone. You could see them with your eyes. You could hear them spoken. One could feel a sense that the law ought to be followed. But the law was external. And the heart of sinful man was disinclined to do them. The commands of the law cannot produce the needed change in the hearts of bad people. By nature people are still the same now as they were then. By nature everyone is born a son of disobedience and child of wrath. The law cannot change that. It can tell us what we ought to do, but cannot empower us to do so. John Bunyan wrote long ago,

Run John, run, the law commands, but gives us neither feet nor hands…

So we need to know what God has done in the new covenant to not only make a covenant, but ensure that His people remain faithful to it. Verse 33 tell us:

For this is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. (v. 33)

So we go from the law written externally on tablets of stone to the law written internally on tablets of human hearts. The new covenant brings about an inward renewal; something deep and profound, that changes us from the inside out. It doesn’t say so explicitly, but I think it’s implied that in the new covenant, we are given a new heart. A passage that doesn’t use the phrase new covenant, but nevertheless is a parallel passage to our text this morning is Ezekiel 36:25-27 in which God says:x

25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

A new heart. A new spirit. Taking out the heart of stone (hard, obstinate, dead). Putting in a heart of flesh (alive and responsive to God). I will put my Spirit within you. I will cause you to walk in my statutes and obey my rules (law on the heart). This is an inward renewal by the Spirit of God. This is speaking of the new birth. Jesus said, “You must be born again”. That’s what this is talking about! The new covenant brings about this inward renewal by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

And notice, this inward renewal is moral in nature. The new covenant does not get rid of the law of commands - God’s moral and ethical standards, but written within. The Christian life is not just about having good thoughts about Jesus and then going on our way and trying to live in a way that doesn’t cast shade on those good thoughts. The Christian life is about an inner renewal through the power of the Spirit, which produces a fundamentally new way of living in God’s moral universe for His glory. I only quoted part of Bunyan’s poem. The entire little rhyme goes like this:

Run John, run the law commands. But it gives us neither feet nor hands. Far better news the gospel brings. It bids us fly and gives us wings. 

The good news of the new covenant is that we are bid to fly and given wings. We are empowered to obey through the inward renewal of the Spirit, a new heart, and the law written on it. 

Third: This covenant promises God’s allegiance. (v. 33)

I will be their God and they shall be my people… (v. 33)

The name used for God here is a very common one… the Hebrew word Elohim. This word is used in a variety of contexts, but most often refers to God as Supreme. The first time Elohim is used in the bible is the first verse: “In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth.” If you are a member of the new covenant, God - the Creator of everything - says, “I am your God and you belong to me”. And this is a mutual commitment. We, in covenant with our Creator God can turn this statement around and say like David, “You are my God” and likewise “I belong to you”. 

Fourth: All members of the new covenant know the LORD. (v. 34)

And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each one his brother, saying ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD.

In the old covenant, there were numerous members of the covenant, with the covenant sign of circumcision who didn’t really know the LORD. In fact, I think it is safe to say the vast majority of those who came out of the land of Egypt did not have a saving knowledge of the Lord. This could be said about the people of Israel throughout the OT and into the new. In the new covenant, this is all different. Every true member of this covenant possesses a saving knowledge of the LORD (go back to new birth). The Lord says, from the least of them to the greatest. The oldest and youngest, those of low esteem and those of high esteem. Men, women, slave free, white, black… All know the LORD. This doesn’t mean we are to remain immature in our knowledge of God… we certainly grow. But to truly be a member of this covenant is to know the LORD in an intimate and saving way. And actually, I think an evidence of this saving knowledge is a desire to know the Lord better and to treasure the fact that you know Him. Listen to Jeremiah 9:23-24, 

23 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

Fifth: The new covenant secures total and complete forgiveness. Throughout the old covenant era, animal sacrifices made it possible for the people to experience temporary relief from God’s judgment. But the book of Hebrews says that the continuation of the sacrifices made under that system was simply a reminder that their sins were not fully and completely dealt with (Hebrews 10:3). Roman Catholic Mass. Listen to these words:

For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Beloved, this is precious beyond measure. I love: Ps. 32:1-2; Ps. 103:12. How can all of this be? How can the new covenant be unbreakable and produce an inward renewal, grant a knowledge of the Lord, the privilege of saying, “You are my God and I am yours”, and total forgiveness? Here’s how:

In The Blood of Christ

The new covenant is “in the blood of Jesus.” This means that the new covenant was purchased and secured, paid in full and thus guaranteed through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. The new covenant is all in the perfection of the work of Christ on our behalf on the cross. You don’t yo, yo in and out of the covenant. It’s unbreakable… because it is in the blood of Christ. The inward renewal through the Holy Spirit was purchased in the blood of Jesus. Even your obedience is fueled by the inexhaustible grace of God, was purchased through the blood of Jesus. The saving knowledge of the LORD that all covenant members possess is in the blood of Jesus. The right to call Elohim your God and declare “I belong to Him was secured through the blood of Jesus. And forgiveness of sins… all of them, such that they are no longer remembered is in the blood of Jesus. Hebrews 10:17 quotes Jeremiah 31 and then adds the sufficiency of Christ’s death when it says,

17 “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Jesus' death secures all these blessings and Jesus lives and is presently the Mediator of the new covenant (Hebrews 9:15). His cross-work is perfect and His present work as Mediator will not fail. The all important question is, are you a member of this covenant with God? That is the all important question. There is only one door - Jesus Christ and by his blood. The way in is faith. Looking to, relying on Jesus Christ alone. Trusting in his death on your behalf… trusting that He lives to Mediate these blessings to you!

What difference should this being a member of the new covenant make?

1. This is a source of massive joy and assurance. If through repentant faith in Christ, you are a member of the new covenant, you walk out of here today saying, “The law has been written on my heart, I know my Savior, He is my God and I belong to Him, my sins are gone forever, no longer remembered by God” And this covenant is unbreakable. And you ought to glory in this! Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:31)!

2. Obedience is made possible and elevated in the new covenant. The new covenant does not minimize obedience, it maximizes it. The fact that the law is written on the heart and mind does not make obedience irrelevant… it makes it possible, from the heart, in the power of the Spirit. The power source has changed from the flesh to the Spirit. The motivation has changed from guilt and fear to love. And for those who have been brought into this covenant by the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s commands  are not a burden (1 John 4). You are required to obey Jesus Christ… and it is possible for you to obey,  because you have the law written within. You have the Spirit dwelling within. You are fueled by inexhaustible grace. So make it your aim to obey Christ in every area of life. 

3. The new covenant creates the church as a covenant community. That’s what the church is. And you should consider that with the deepest of seriousness and reverence. Convenience is the currency of the day, not covenantal commitment. It should not be that way. Tertullian quoted a pagan official saying about the Christians: "Look at how much they love each other, and how they are ready to die for each other!" John 13 → “The world will know that you are my disciples by how you love one another…” I think without seeing the church as a covenant community, this is absent. When this is at the heart of church, we pull together, pray together, serve one another, forgive one another, build one another up, lay down our lives for one another in love. We link arms together and work for a greater purpose. Convenience takes a back seat. Covenant is at the forefront. 

4. Finally, if you are a member of the new covenant, you are also a minister of the new covenant (2 Corinthians 3). Your ministry is not a list of do’s and don'ts. It is the transforming power of Jesus Christ which changes people from the inside out. The new covenant is glorious! Let’s pray.