GOD’S NEW COVENANT

WHAT IS COVENANT?

Covenant is an agreement between two people or two parties or an agreement established between two parties. Biblically a covenant is an agreement or contract that God initiates with humanity; some have conditions, some do not. For example God’s covenant with Adam before the fall required obedience to His command, with the prospect of either life or death and the covenant with Abraham contained no conditions, but only promises of blessings to him and his descendants. These pertain to us as well, since those who love the Lord are children of Abraham through faith in Christ. There are different covenants that God made with different parties such as; In Eden, with Adam, with Noah, with Abraham, with Moses and the Israelites at Sinai, with Israel in Palestine, with David,  the new covenant in Christ, and the future covenant of peace. We won’t be studying all these today, but only, “God’s New Covenant in Christ”

THE NEW COVENANT

 God promised to make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. A unique covenant not like the ones He made with our fore fathers (Jer. 31:31-34) “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah- not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord God. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord; “I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”  No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” The “new covenant” that Jeremiah refers to here is the new covenant established through the blood of Christ. See (Luke 22:20) “Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the New covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.” And Paul’s letter to the Corinthians says (1 Cor. 11:25)”In the same manner he also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”  And the writer to the letter of Hebrews gives an extended contrast between old and new covenant, demonstrating the superiority of the new covenant see (Heb.8:3-10) “For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; who serve the copy of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”  But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, in as much as He is Mediator of a better covenant which was established on better promises.’ Jesus Christ as the high Priest has something to offer to us for the remission in. (V. 7) “For if that first covenant had ben faultless, then no place would have been sought for the second. Because finding fault with them, He says the days are coming, says the Lord, When I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah- and not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: “I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”  We see, there are similarities of the new covenants message both to Prophet Jeremiah as well to Apostle Paul the writer of Hebrew letter.  The Israelites did not continue in God’s covenant making the covenant faulty and that is why it was inevitable for the Father to make a second Covent by His begotten Son Jesus Christ. And because the first covenant was made according to the Law, He took it away that He may establish the second covenant through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Heb. 10:15-18) “But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us;  for after He had said before, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” then He adds, Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.”

JESUS AS THE MEDIATOR OF THE NEW COVENANT

 In the book of Hebrew, we still see God’s new Covenant made perfect through His Son Jesus Christ ( Heb.12:22-24) “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the New covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.” The Israelites of old bound together by the Sinai covenant to the One true God, were earth’s most favored nation. This relationship required them to serve God alone and to live as brothers in covenantal love, thus confronting pagan nations with a powerful spiritual witness when the Israelites ultimately occupied the land which God had promised them. Because of sin and the consistent rejection of the covenant law the nation was punished by God, who ultimately suspended His covenant with His people. Israel was therefore set a side in God’s redemptive purpose, and the new people of God, the Christian church, was formed under the New Covenant instituted by the atoning work of Christ. Henceforth the church was to be God’s witness to the world, winning people for the kingdom by evangelism, spiritual teaching and holy living. Whereas Abel’s spilled blood cried aloud to heaven for vengeance, Christ substitutionary atonement expresses God’s supreme grace and love as it pleads for human pardon. Isaiah the son of Amoz word of hope was (Isa. 62:1-2) “For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake, I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns. ‘The gentiles shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will name.”  When I read this Scripture sometimes back, I personalized it to myself, saw the weight that it has and its promises to the new covenant in Christ Jesus, giving birth to the reborn of my new name. Though, the Israelites, the chosen nation did not keep the covenant God made with them, He made an everlasting covenant with David his servant and a man after His own heart. And though Davidic generation did not keep this covenant either turning their backs on God which led to their captivity in Babylon, God never ceased to keep the covenant promise made with David that a lamp will always burn to David by making sure Christ was born from Davidic genealogy, gave Him up for us through the atoning blood; that His word may not return unto Him void but to accomplish that which He sends it forth for. Though human beings are to error God will always keep His word, to the point that; if there is no man to make the covenant with, He will raise for Himself stones to keep His covenant and that will be a very big blow to humanity. Let us not allow it to rich to that extent beloved.

GOD’S RELATIONSHIP TO HIS COVENANTS

1.       God will always establish His covenant with His people:  (Gen. 6:18) “But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark-you, your sons, your wife, and your son’s wives with you.” Because Noah was a righteous man, he obeyed the commandments of God and God in His part established that covenant. The same thing applied also to Abraham (Gen. 17:7) “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.” And with the Israelites (Exod. 6:4) “I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers.”

2.       God is forever faithful to His covenant: (Deut. 7:9) “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keeps His commandments.” Also (1 Kings 8:22-23) “Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven; and he said; “Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like You who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts”  And to Nehemiah he said (Neh. 9:32) “Now therefore our God, the great, the mighty, and awesome God, who keeps covenants and mercy; Do not let all the trouble seem small before You that has come upon us, our kings and our princes, Our priests and our prophets, our fathers and on all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until this day.”  Daniel prayed (Dan. 9:4) “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keeps His commandments.”

3.       God will forever remember His covenant even if man defects to it: (Exod. 2:24) “So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.” See (Ps. 105:8) “He remembers His covenant forever, the word which He commanded for a thousand generations.” And also (Ps. 111:5) “He has given food to those who fear Him; He will ever be mindful of His covenant.” See also (Ezek. 16:60) “Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.” And the prophecy of Zachariah (Luke 1:72) “To perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant.”

Though humanity may not keep the covenant between him and God, yet God will always keep His, remembers it, establishes it and will remain faithful to the covenant till the end.

“Grace to you and Favor from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with s all. Amen and Amen and Amen.”