The Promise of the New Covenant

2/7/10 Sermon by Minister Michael Johnson

The Promise of the New Covenant

Hebrews 9:11-15

Last week we spent time talking about the covenants of the Old Testament. We focused on the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants which promised a future Messiah that, through the line of Abram and the line of David, would bless all nations. We looked at how important it is to understand that God made unconditional covenants with Abram and David. This means that nothing can happen that will break God’s promises in those covenants. God will never turn His back on His people. Despite our sin, God will always hear the repentant heart calling out for forgiveness. This brings us to the New Covenant found in Christ. This is a covenant of hope and mercy. Christ is the fulfillment of this new and wonderful covenant.

Before we begin to unpack the New Covenant, it is important to answer the question “What is the Old Covenant?” The Old Covenant is the Mosaic Covenant, or the Covenant of the Law. This is the promise God made with the Israelites when He gave Moses the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. The Israelites needed to follow the stipulations of the covenant in order to receive its blessing. As we learned several weeks ago, the Israelites failed miserably at keeping God’s commandments. They found themselves sinning over and over again. Imagine if we were the Israelites, if our relationship with God depended upon us living a sinless life. It would not be long before we sinned and broke the covenant. So what kept God from abandoning the Israelits and what gave them hope? It was the unconditional promises God had previously established through the Abrahamic covenant earlier in Genesis 15.

Let’s review. The Abrahamic covenant was first and it was unconditional. Next was the Mosaic Covenant, or the Old Covenant, which hinged upon obedience to the Law. Third, was the Davidic Covenant, which was unconditional like the first, and promised the Messiah would come from the line of David. The writers in the Old Testament looked forward to a future when the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant and Davidic Covenant would be fully manifested.

The manifestation of these promises comes in the New Covenant through Jesus Christ. The New Covenant was actually first mentioned in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was looking forward to a time when the blessings of the Mosaic Covenant would no longer be based on the works of men. Please turn with me to Jeremiah 31 verses 31-34.

“Indeed, a time is coming,” says the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” says the LORD. “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel after I plant them back in the land,” says the LORD. “I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God and they will be my people. People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” says the LORD. “For I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”

Jeremiah was prophesying that the Old Covenant did not work because it was violated and so a New Covenant must be set in place. The Old Covenant did not work because it was based on works. The Israelites needed to follow the commands of the Law. If they were able to do so then they would have receive the blessing of the covenant, but they were unable to keep all the commandments. The Old Covenant did not offer the saving power that the New Covenant does. The Old Covenant merely pointed out sin, it did not have the power to forgive sin. Anyone can look at the Ten Commandments and identify right from wrong. However, the Ten Commandments do not hold the power to forgive anyone of their sins. Instead, following the Ten Commandments offers an upright way of living. The Ten Commandments, as well as the rest of the commandments given to the Israelites by God, were merely written down on tablets of stone. They were not written on the hearts of the people.

When an individual accepts Christ as his or her Savior that person is fundamentally changed. No longer must that person be bound to their sinful ways. Under the new covenant the Holy Spirit writes the Law on our hearts. 2 Corinthians 3:6 states, “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as if it were coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who made us adequate to be servants of a new covenant not based on the letter but on the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” The letter that is being spoken of in this passage is the Law. The Law cannot save us, only the New Covenant can. There is nothing within us and there aren’t any works that we can do that would earn us His blessing.

Those in the Old Testament sacrificed animals to seek atonement for breaking the Law of the Lord. No longer do we offer sacrifices to cleanse us of our sins. Instead, our forgiveness is found in Christ who died for us on the Cross. We need the Law to show us right from wrong, and we need the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sin. What do we do, then, when we realize we cannot follow God’s Law to the letter and what do we do when we become aware that we have sinned? We can ask forgiveness for our sin because God became flesh, dwelt among us, and gave Himself up as a sacrifice to atone for all our sins, past, present and future.

Christ’s death and the shedding of His blood signify the establishment of the New Covenant. When Moses mediated the Old Covenant he sprinkled both the physical writing of the Covenant with blood as well as the people agreeing with the Covenant. In the same way Christ’s blood, shed for us, establishes us under the New Covenant. The difference is that the blood shed for us by Christ offers eternal permanence in the presence of God. The sacrifices of the Old Testament were temporary and needed to be repeated, as sinful offenses were committed.

During the time before Christ, the sign of covenant with God was outward in nature. The sacrifices of animals were obviously outward actions. The act of circumcision was an outward sign to signify a person’s was Jewish and part of the Chosen people. These outward signs are no longer required. God tells us that those in Christ have a circumcision of the heart and not the body. This is an inward change. It is the mark of change inside us that sets us apart from the world. Under the New Covenant there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile because all who have faith in Christ are one in Him.

With this said, to enter into the New Covenant we need to do nothing but to have faith in Christ. This is an unconditional covenant. There is nothing we need to do in order to keep the covenant and its blessings. Our faith in Christ is a sign of our participation in the Covenant. From our faith will flow good works because they are a sign that we are changed by our love for Christ. If we love Christ we will want to do good things in His name. We do not do good things because we need to do so in order to keep our place in the New Covenant. No, our good works are a result of the faith we have in Christ.

God did not forget the covenants He has established. In fact, they were on a much larger scale than the Israelites ever imagined. Jesus was sent to establish His throne, just as it was promised to David. With the coming of Christ grace has been extended to all people, Jew and Gentile, from every nation, just as God had promised Abram. As you can see, God’s promises extend beyond an earthly throne or an early nation. Instead, God was promising an eternal throne and an eternal nation. It should not be surprising to us that God’s promises always have an eternal perspective and that He delivers on a scale much larger than we could ever hope or imagine.

Throughout these last two weeks we have seen how God has built upon each covenant in order to establish the New Covenant prophesied by Jeremiah. This covenant is eternally lasting and open to all who are called into faith in Christ. This covenant cannot be broken because it is unconditional. Think of the radical implications of this fact. Through the New Covenant God is showing His love for us. God established a covenant that is eternally reaching and offers us eternal life. This is why John wrote what he did in John 3:16. Most people read this verse as “For God so loved the world…” as if God’s love one day just multiplied so He sent His son to die on the cross for all. This is inaccurate. He is unchanging so His love for us in the world has always been unchanged. What John 3:16 says in the original Greek is, “For in this way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” What this verse is stating is that God was demonstrating his love to the world by keeping His covenant with us. He did this by sending His Son to die on the cross for all who are called to faith in Him. He is extending the opportunity for eternal life through the death of His Son. This, again, is the New Covenant.

Take this message with you today. Don’t skip over the Old Covenants because we call them Old. Remember the New Covenant was not established to replace the Old Covenant but to fulfill it. God has invited us into an everlasting covenant of Grace. This is a covenant that cannot be taken from us. We cannot lose the blessings promised by God. As Christians we are separate from the world. We have a hope and a promise that not even death can take from us. Jesus is on the eternal throne in His eternal kingdom and we have access to Him through faith. Remember this in your daily interactions. Remember this when you feel threatened or lost. You are in an unbreakable covenant with God, the Creator of the Universe, the lover of your soul, the keeper of Covenants.