New Covenant

What advantages do Christians have under the New Covenant?

Even though separated by over 500 years, the writings of Jeremiah have a close connection to the life of Jesus while he was here on earth.

The Weeping Prophet

For hundreds of years the leaders of Israel had been taking advantage of and stealing from the people they were supposed to serve and protect. Many of the people had deserted God and followed after other “gods”, both supposedly spiritual gods and earthly “gods”. Israel was filled with greed, selfishness, and rebellion against God.

It is 587 BC and Jeremiah has warned for 30 years that there will be consequences for this behavior, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Over the years Jeremiah is so moved by the failure of his people to listen to his message from God and their refusal to turn back to God that his writings in the Old Testament books of Jeremiah and Lamentations sometimes describe his personal shedding of tears for his people.

Oh that my head were waters
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For the slain of the daughter of my people!
(Jeremiah 9:1)

My eyes run down with streams of water
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

My eyes pour down unceasingly,
Without stopping,

Until the Lord looks down
And sees from heaven.

My eyes bring pain to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.
(Lamentations 3:48-51)

Hope Through a New Covenant

Then in Jeremiah chapter 31 the weeping ends, and an expression of hope begins. Through Jeremiah, God promises a New Covenant with the people of Israel.

"But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the Lord, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." (Jeremiah 31:33-34)

What is new and different about this covenant?

“I will put my Law within them and on their heart I will write it.”

• The “Old” Covenant
• The first covenant was written first on stone tablets and then on scrolls.¹
• That kind of material could be lost, forgotten, ignored, or altered.¹
• They had the Law in front of them, but they had failed to internalize it.¹
• The “New” Covenant
• The New Covenant, in contrast, would be written on their hearts.¹
• The content of the Law is essentially the same.¹
• What changes is their inner commitment to keep it.¹

“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."

• The word “know” here means more than just a casual acquaintance.
• It has the meaning of an "intimate personal knowledge which arises between two persons who are committed wholly to one another in a relationship that touches mind, emotion, and will."²
• Your brothers and neighbors will no longer have to encourage you to be faithful to God, because you will already have a close personal relationship with him.

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

• The trust and faith that exist in the close, intimate, personal relationship described above makes forgiveness possible.

After 40 years of speaking out warning messages to the people of Israel as they continued to ignore his warnings while at the same time persecuting him, Jeremiah witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem that God had described through his message.

The Weeping Messiah

Now fast forward over 500 years. It is 30 AD and Jesus has spent over three years calling his people to come to God, and yet most of them have rejected him and his message. In addition to that, the “religious leaders” of Israel are actively plotting to put him to death.

It is five days before Jesus’ crucifixion and the Passover, and it is time for the final confrontation. In fulfillment of prophecy and tradition, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey as many are lining the road and honoring Jesus as if he were their king.  They are mistakenly looking for an earthly Messiah, who will kick out the corrupt “religious leaders” and the Romans, but this is not his mission or his message. The Gospel of Luke records that, as he approached, Jesus wept over the city, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.” (Luke 19:41-42) He is crying for his people who are struggling instead of trusting, who are not understanding his message. He knows that another destruction of Jerusalem is coming. In fact, in a couple of days he publicly prophetically announces to them that it is coming. His tears are tears of concern for them.

Meanwhile, at the temple, in advance of the coming Passover feast and ceremonies, the merchants have set up shop. They are hoping to make a killing selling the Passover necessities at a nice profit to all the travelers who are in town for the Passover festivities. Jesus dismounts the donkey, enters the temple, and proceeds to run all the merchants out of the temple. He says, "It is written, 'AND MY HOUSE SHALL BE A HOUSE OF PRAYER,' but you have made it a ROBBERS' DEN."

What is the significance of that comment?

• “And my house shall be a house of prayer.”
• Here Jesus quotes a line from Isaiah 56:7 where Isaiah is writing words spoken by God. By calling the temple “My House”, Jesus is claiming to be God.
• “You have made it a robber’s den.”
• Here Jesus quotes from Jeremiah 7:11, again quoting words spoken by God.

“Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, ” declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 7:11)

In his statement Jesus connects himself to the prophet Isaiah who described the Messiah as a lowly suffering servant who would be despised and then put to death, and he connects himself to the prophet Jeremiah who spoke of a coming “New Covenant” between God and his people.

The New Covenant Personified

A few days beyond those events, on the night of his arrest, Jesus is eating the Passover meal with his disciples. During the meal, he makes a personal connection between the New Covenant described in Jeremiah.

And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood. (Luke 22:19-20)

The New Covenant described in Jeremiah 31:31-34 is initiated through the person of Jesus.

• “I will be their God and they shall be my people.” (Verse 33) Jesus is God in human form living and walking among us.
• “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”  The death of Jesus made possible the forgiveness of the New Covenant, and his resurrection give us hope of resurrection.

Mark Moore sums this up well in his Core 52³ book:

There are three things promised in the new covenant: personal relationship with the Father, forgiveness of sin through the sacrifice of the Son, and the law of God in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.³

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1. Jeremiah 31:33 Study Note 80, quoted by permission, taken from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2016 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.

2. Dr Constable's Expository Notes, copyright ©2010 Dr. Thomas R. Constable, quoted from the NET Bible notes, https://bible.org/

3. This post is the result of my studies based on the book by Mark E. Moore, Core 52: A Fifteen-Minute Daily Guide to Building your Bible IQ in a Year, published by WaterBook (Penguin Random House)
Trade Paperback ISBN 978-0-525-65325-7
ebook isbn 978-0-525-65326-4

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible