The New Covenant Via Jeremiah

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.