The Scriptures of the New Covenant

Jeremiah 31: 31-34

³¹ “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
³² It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors
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.
³³ “This is the covenant I will make with the people 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.
³⁴ No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘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.”

The Law (first five books) is the heart of the Old Testament. It is the background, basis, and actual covenant between God and the nation of Israel. The prophets all speak to how Israel did or did not keep the covenant, and then God’s reaction to that. They are blessed with life when they obey, they are cursed with dying when they do not.

In one particularly dark time in Old Testament history, the prophet Jeremiah was used by God to speak to the nation of Israel and to call them back to their covenant with God.  Israel was in exile, 70 years given over to their enemies. Disciplined for their own good that they would abandon idolatry.

During the time of Jeremiah, he prophesied the above verses. There would be a new covenant, with different promises. It is my aim to discuss that prophesied new covenant today and see how it is brought into being through Jesus Christ. (And just as an aside, there are many, many different Old Testament prophesies about a Savior (Messiah) to come who would deliver the Jews from their enemies.)

The significance for us in studying the Bible as a whole is it unifies the story of salvation, showing us that God has been at work to save through Jesus Christ throughout history.

Galatians 4:4-5

4 But when the right time came, God sent his Son, who was born from a woman and lived under the law. 5 God did this so that he could buy the freedom of those who were under the law. God’s purpose was to make us his children.

 

1. A Covenant Prophesied
2. Different days are coming

        Jeremiah 31: 31-34

³¹ “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
³² It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors
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.
³³ “This is the covenant I will make with the people 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.
³⁴ No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘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.”

1. Promises because of Jesus’ actions

        Luke 22:19-20

        19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to    them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in         remembrance of me.”

20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup,         saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is       poured out for you.

 

Jesus’ body as the Passover Lamb

 

Jesus’ blood as the life of the sacrifice for sins

 

Jesus work is the full reality of which the saving work of God in    the past was a shadow. (This is only confusing because a shadow      is formed by something already done, and in this case, the     shadow came first.)

 

This covenant is made because of Jesus’ actions, just as the         previous was the result of God’s plagues (especially the    Passover) and Red Sea deliverance. But the people did not keep     the covenant, incurring curses instead of blessings.

 

 

1. People purchased for God

        Revelation chapter 5

        5 Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” 3 But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. 4 I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. 5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

6 Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. 8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. 9 And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals,
because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”

11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. 12 In a loud voice they were saying:

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” (These are what all desire!)

13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”

14 The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

 

1. New Covenant Promises

Jeremiah 31: 31-34

³¹ “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
³² It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors
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.
³³ “This is the covenant I will make with the people 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.
³⁴ No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘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.”

 

1. The Holy Spirit lives within all God’s people

“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.”

 

Compare Col 3:16 and Ephesians 5:18. They are parallel scriptures! Jesus’ ministry and the Holy Spirit’s ministry is the same ministry!

 

Look at John 14: 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you (Jesus) and will be in you.(Holy Spirit)

 

And Acts 2 on the day of the Spirit’s invasion:

Peter quotes from Joel 2:28-32

17 “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

 

³² God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. ³³ Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

 

³⁷ When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

³⁸ Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

 

1. Reconciled relationship as God’s sons

 

I will be their God, and they will be my people.
³⁴ No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,”

 

In the book of Job, Job suffers terribly. But he maintains his integrity. He does not abandon his faith. This teaches us that true faith is not rooted in people because of God’s blessings in their lives. Those blessings can be removed. Hard things will come. But, the lesson of Job is that the resolution of the hard things that happen is in God’s revelation of Himself.

 

II Cor 5:

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

 

Adam sinned and man was driven from God’s presence. In the tabernacle, God is “with us” and we are separated from His presence.

 

Jesus died and the veil is ripped in two. God invites us into His presence again!!

 

1. Sins forgiven and forgotten by God

“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

        ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

 

Hebrews 10:

¹⁴ For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

¹⁵ The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:

¹⁶ “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”

¹⁷ Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”

¹⁸ And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

 

This this new covenant is prophesied and described in Jeremiah, and we see it’s fulfillment in the gospels, how are we to live in it? What are we to do and be? This is why we have the…

 

III. Scriptures of the New Covenant

1. The Gospels: Jesus is the Word

        Hebrews 1: 1-3

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. ³ The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

        There is no information about Jesus apart from people sharing that information with us. Obviously, the majority of information about Jesus comes to us from the gospels. The gospels are in two parts:

1. The synoptic gospels: synoptic is a compound word that should make sense to us: syn= same. Optic=see. They have a similar view of Jesus, or they share in a similar way. The narrative follows the same flow, but the gospels are not the same.
2. John: this gospel is more theological or topical if you will. John’s gospel is later and has as its purpose to present Jesus as the Son of God bluntly from the very beginning.
3. Acts: the record of what Jesus continued to do through the Apostles. (1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach) The historical spread of the gospel out from Jerusalem and the introduction to the Apostle Paul who will drive the first missions movement.

 

1. The Epistles

        Epistle means letter. The correspondence between early church leaders and followers of Jesus gathered in communities (churches) and some certain individuals in the first few decades.

Paul wrote 13 of them: Romans-Philemon

 

General epistles: Hebrews, James, 2 Peter’s, 3 John’s, and Jude

 

1. The Revelation from Jesus Christ

Romans 16:

²⁰ The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

Revelation 21:

21 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ² I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

⁵ He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”