The New Covenant (Part 1)

The New Covenant (or New Testament) is the promise that God makes with humanity that He will forgive sin and restore fellowship with those whose hearts are turned toward Him. Jesus Christ is the mediator of the New Covenant, and His death on the cross is the basis of the promise in Luke 22:20. The New Covenant was predicted while the Old Covenant was still in effect. The prophets Moses, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel all allude to the New Covenant.

The Old Covenant that God had established with His people required strict obedience to the Mosaic Law. Because the wages of sin is death, the Law required that Israel perform daily sacrifices in order to atone for sin. But Moses, through whom God established the Old Covenant, also anticipated the New Covenant. In one of his final addresses to the nation of Israel recorded in Deuteronomy 29:4 , Moses looks forward to a time when Israel would be given “a heart to understand.” Moses also predicts that Israel would fail in keeping the Old Covenant in Verses 22–28, but he then sees a time of restoration in Chapter 30:1–5. At that time, Moses says:

Verse 6 “The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.”

The New Covenant involves a total change of heart so that God’s people are naturally pleasing to Him.

The prophet Jeremiah also predicted the New Covenant.

Jeremiah 31:31 “‘The day will come,’ says the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah..."

Verse 33 "But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day,’ says the Lord. ‘I will put my law in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.’”

Jesus Christ came to fulfill the Law of Moses according to Matthew 5:17 and to establish the New Covenant between God and His people. The Old Covenant was written in stone, but the New Covenant is written on our hearts. Entering the New Covenant is made possible only by faith in Christ, who shed His blood to take away the sins of the world. Luke 22:20 reveals how Jesus, at the Last Supper, takes the cup and says, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”

Ezekiel 36:26, 27, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

Ezekiel lists several aspects of the New Covenant here:
-a new heart.
-a new spirit.
-the indwelling Holy Spirit.
-true holiness.

The Mosaic Law could not provide any of these things, but a relationship with Jesus can.