The New Covenant via Jeremiah
(Jeremiah 31:31-37)
1. My relationship to Social Security has changed. For years, I was required to contribute money for Social Security.
2. Now that I am retired, the Social Security Administration is sending money to me.
3. In a way, I have left the Old Covenant for the New. And I like the New a lot better.
4. A covenant is an arrangement, a contract, a formal agreement, one that is meant to clarify any ambiguities. There are six or seven such covenants, as I understand them, in the Bible: The Noahic covenant (Genesis 9), the Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 12, 15, etc.), the Mosaic covenant (Exodus 20-24), the Priestly covenant (Phineas) (Numbers 25), the Palestinian covenant* (Deuteronomy 29-30), the Davidic covenant (Psalm 89), and New Covenant (Jeremiah 31; I Corinthains 11). *best understood as part of Mosaic
5. All the covenants permanent/unilateral, except for the Mosaic. The Mosaic covenant is based upon the Abrahamic covenenant promising Israel three things: land, seed, and blessing to all nations. The Mosaic covenant was temporary, the others are active. The giving of the Law is associated with the Mosaic covenant, but the covenant itself is the agreement made between God and Israel. The other covenants are more like announcements, unilateral. Completed fulfilled in the New Covenant.
6. When we talk about the “old” covenant, talking about the Mosaic covenant. The issue is not what laws or rules pertain to whom, but rather the agreement itself. A change of covenant does not necessarily mean a change of rules, but rather of relationship.
7. A covenant is an agreement between God and man, a formalized oath that clarifies and amplifes the promises of the covenant. It might be conditional (like a contract) or simply an announcement of God's promised intention. Attached to a covenant are expectations. But the New Covenant is a covenant of personal transformation. When you hear NC, think personal transformation.
8. According to Isaiah 42:1-7, His Servant (Yeshua) IS the (New) covenant (vs 1 & 6):
Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations... 6 “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations...
Main Idea: Regenerate believers since the time of Jesus – including most of us -- have begun to experience the New Covenant; the nation of Israel will experience the New Covenant in the future. So what does this mean?
I. The New Covenant Is Only for the REGENERATE (31-34).
Everyone under the New Covenant is regenerate, therefore only regenerate people are part of the New Covenant…
A. How this CONTRASTS with the Old Covenant
1. Older [Mosaic] made with a visible nation, not individuals from all nations; Jeremiah does not mention the gentiles, although Isaiah does...
2. A Jew was born into the Old Covenant, but one enters the New Covenant through being born-again, spiritual birth, what we call regeneration.
3. In the Older C, the covenant people consisted of both regenerate (transformed) and unregenerate, saved and unsaved people. No clear distinction made.
4. God does not offer a New Covenant to those who never had the Old Covenant, so we non-Jews share in the Jewish New Covenant – also under the Noahic C.
In John 4:22, Yeshua is speaking to the Woman at the Well, "You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews."
I Corinthians 15:27b, "For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings."
Romans 9:3-5, "For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen."
B. OT Believers: Regenerate but not INDWELT
The "Law of God" on the heart (3 Levels)
1. Conscience (used in Romans of gentiles who did not have the Mosaic Law)
2. The New Nature -- an intensification of conscience & desire to serve God
3. The Holy Spirit (the NC advantage) Who indwells and empowers
? God the Holy Spirit is transforming us through the Word, experiences in life, using other believers, praying for us, assuring us…
? Under Old C., those regenerate had a new nature and some rtlshp to HS.
C. All N.C. people are FORGIVEN and KNOW the Lord
• Under the Old Covenant, the Jewish people leaving Egypt had to ask Moses to pray for them …perhaps because many of them were unsaved…
• Under the OC, some people knew the Lord, while many did not
• This doesn't mean that we know everything about the Lord, or that we cannot know Him better; it means, rather, that we are now in relationship with Him.
• The New Covenant is about personal transformation from within!
D. Right now His INVISIBLE universal congregation (church = called out ones).
E. Yeshua ROLLED out the N.C. at the Last Supper.
• That Jews and gentiles would be part of “one new man” and on equal footing before God is a NT “mystery.” It is either missing or more probably hidden in OT implications. An unforeseen gap between the Lamb and the Lion.
• When Yeshua instituted N.C., He presented the ritual of the Covenant, the Lord's Supper representing His coming death formalizing the covenant; disciples did not eat middle matzoh or drink cup of redemption until Judas had left…
• Yeshua established NC w/remnant of Jews who believed & later gentiles.
• The basis of the NC is the sacrificial death of Christ and His resurrection, the age of the NC was in another sense official at Pentecost
II. Upon His Return, ALL Israel Will Enjoy New Covenant (35-37).
A. Since God is SOVEREIGN, He can regenerate an entire nation!
Despite Israel's unbelief and rejection … He will cause that last generation of Jews to embrace Yeshua. This is technically called unconditional election; God will make it happen very much like He zapped Paul on the road to Damascus.
B. There is a certain LOGIC to it.
• NC is just for the Regenerate, and experienced by all Israel, then Israel must become regenerate.
• This will occur in God's time when the "full number of Gentiles has come in…"
Romans 11:25-26a, "I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved…"
• The timetable is that of Zechariah 12-13
C. The stars TESTIFY to the literalness and ongoing validity of God's Promise.
III. Summary and APPLICATION
A. The big DIFFERENCE between the covenants is the prerequisite of the New Birth.
B. We must each PERSONALLY covenant with God to enter the New Covenant.
C. The "set of rules" issue is COMPLEX, but not the primary issue.
D. God’s past and future purposes for Israel and His New covenant community – and creation in general – are about bringing GLORY to His Name.
E. Do you KNOW the Lord?
