The New Covenant Through Christ

The words “new covenant” are found once in the Old Testament and six times in the New Testament. Christians who celebrate the Lord’s Supper, or Holy Communion, hear the words of Jesus: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:25). But we must first look at the Old Testament reference to see what “new covenant” meant to the Israelites and to Jews today.

The New Covenant Versus the Covenant of the Law

The prophet Jeremiah recorded God’s promise of a new covenant for Israel.

“The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

Consider this question: Why is the Old Testament promise of a new covenant specifically directed to Israel?

Phrases like “my law in their minds and . . . hearts” and “will remember their sins no more” sound much like the spiritual promises of the New Testament. But other parts do not.

From other passages of the Old Testament, we see that God has a special plan for Israel as a nation. The prophecy that all the world will be blessed through the nation of Israel has not yet been fulfilled, though partial fulfillment has come through the conversion of many Gentiles (non-Jews). Israel will yet fulfill that promise in a greater measure. The common thread that runs through all the promises to Israel and to born-again believers who make up the church is the real nature of the new covenant. Though there are physical elements in the new covenant, in comparison with the old covenant made with Israel, the new covenant is a spiritual or salvation covenant. The hearts of obedient and receptive Jews will be changed just as the other believers who have accepted Christ as Savior have been changed. As Horton (1996) notes, “There is only one new covenant, the covenant put into effect by the death of Jesus on Calvary’s cross”. Many Jews will recognize and accept their true Messiah, Jesus Christ. As the new covenant applies to the who of God’s people Israel, it would include Jewish believers who have accepted Jesus as Savior, as well as Jews who will accept Christ in the future. But the full picture is yet to be completed. As the new covenant applies to the church universally, it is being fulfilled right now in an ongoing way.

Some critics have rather carelessly charged that Israel disobeyed God’s covenant requirements and, therefore, has lost out with God. So, they say, God went to another group and made a covenant with them. Israel, they claim will never be the recipient of the glorious prophecies recorded in the Old Testament. They conclude that the descriptions of Israel’s glorious future are now being fulfilled figuratively in the church. But our belief in the literal fulfillment of biblical prophecy requires that the unfulfilled prophecies concerning Israel will yet be part of the future. (See Romans 11.)

Foundation of the New Covenant

Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant (Hebrews 12:24), both now and in the future. A mediator reconciles differences between two parties who, for some reason, are not in agreement. Mediation would be especially difficult between sinless deity and sinful humans. Overcoming the differences and restoring a loving relationship demanded more than talking through a problem. It demanded a painful sacrifice.

Look again at the words of Jesus as He instituted the Lord’s Supper. “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20). Under the Mosaic Covenant with Israel, the blood of a slaughtered animal was the focus of the sin offering. But regular sin offerings did not bring permanent obedience and relationship. The sin offering was a repeated bloody event that took the life of an animal. That animal could never be a mediator. But the Son of God could, and He willingly came to earth to be that needed permanent Sacrifice. “There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men” (1 Timothy 2:5). Listen closely to the voice of our Mediator the next time you partake of Holy Communion: “This [bread] is my body, which is for you . . . . This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (1 Corinthians 11:24-25). Our blessed Mediator is our wonderful Redeemer.

The Holy Spirit in the New Covenant

The new covenant is a spiritual relationship with our Creator. But frail humanity needs help in maintaining that divine fellowship. The Old Testament is a continuing story of the failures of God’s chosen people. Yet God’s plan from the beginning included a solution for this need. It was foretold by the prophet Joel who recorded God’s promise: “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days” (Joel 2:28-29).

Jesus, the Mediator in our relationship with the Father, knew we needed divine help. Just before He left the disciples and returned to the Father, Jesus promised a Helper just like himself. “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me” (John 15:26). Some fifty days later, Joel’s prophecy became reality. On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended in dynamic power, filling the 120 followers with His presence and speaking through them in tongues of praise understood by all the visitors from foreign lands.

Paul saw that the reception of the Spirit by the Gentiles was part of the fulfillment of the promise of blessing that God gave to Abraham: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit” (Galatians 3:13-14).

A glorious future awaits the Spirit-filled believer. In the meantime, “we have the firstfruits of the Spirit . . . as we wait eagerly for . . . the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23). The fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) makes us more like Jesus with whom we will spend eternity. The gifts of the Spirit are a foretaste of the exciting life we will be living forever.

Paul saw the Day of Pentecost outpouring of the Holy Spirit as evidence a new age had begun. “But it is only a foretaste, giving assurance of the promised Kingdom blessings. Thus, he [Paul] refers to the Holy Spirit as God’s ‘seal of ownership on us’ and ‘his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit [a first installment], guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Corinthians 1:22). After speaking of the time when we will receive our new bodies, he [Paul] reemphasizes, ‘God who has made us for this very purpose . . . has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come’ (2 Corinthians 5:5)” (Horton 1996, 155-156). Paul obviously saw the Holy Spirit as an important part of the new covenant life now and in the yet-to-be-fulfilled prophetic events of the future.

The Old Covenants Complete in the New

The Old Testament covenants were not failures. They were steps in the progression of God’s plan of redeeming fallen humankind. Thus, Israel is not forgotten in God’s end-time plan.

I do not agree with the skeptics who claim that Israel’s glory days are all past, never again to be seen. There may be a spiritual pride in thinking and teaching that God has turned His back on Israel, because of its disobedience, and that now “we the church” are the complete fulfillment of the end-time prophecies about Israel, but the detailed accuracy of prophecy already fulfilled lets us know with assurance that we will see the fulfillment of God’s future plans for Israel. 

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