“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.”
(Jeremiah 31:31–32, ESV)
One time while working as a consulting engineer in the printing industry, I was hired to investigate an issue with a printing press. I won’t go into the details regarding the problem, but just say that the press would not meet the contract’s performance requirements. The purchaser had paid for the machine and it could not satisfactorily print the desired product. Ultimately this ended up as a contract dispute between the purchaser of the equipment and the seller.
A contract of this sort could involve thousands or millions of dollars depending on the machine. Both the purchaser and seller of such equipment enter into a bilateral agreement, a contract, a promise for a promise. The contract would lay out the requirements for both the seller and purchaser and was ratified by signatures of both parties. Then they were both legally bound to fulfill their end of the agreement. If one party did not fulfill their end of the agreement, the contract was considered broken.
Here the Lord spoke to Israel regarding a New Covenant that was to come. Similar to a contract, a covenant is a solemn and binding agreement between two parties. The mention of a New Covenant to come meant that there was an existing covenant that would be considered obsolete.
The Old Covenant was that covenant between the Lord God and Israel. It too was a bilateral covenant. God promised to be faithful to Israel and they were to remain faithful to Him. However, continually Israel violated their part of the covenant. They broke it and this brought hardship upon them. Thus, the Lord brought word of a New Covenant which would be different than that of the Old Covenant.
This New Covenant would be different. It would work to change the heart of the people of Israel. Ezekiel indicated that this would be a work of the Holy Spirit, who would remove the stony and stubborn heart of the people and replace it with a heart of flesh. This new heart would be completely different, for God’s ways would be written on their hearts rather than on stone tablets. They would be the people of God. They would know him and He would, “forgive their iniquity” and “remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34, ESV)
This covenant would be a better covenant as it would be ratified by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Jesus stated when He took the cup after the supper, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:20, ESV) The writer of Hebrews indicates that Jesus is the mediator of this permanent covenant, the New Covenant.
Moreover, unlike the bilateral nature of the Old Covenant which required a promise for a promise, this New Covenant is unilateral. The New Covenant requires a promise for an act. The Lord God made the promise and ratified it by Jesus’ shed blood on the cross. The required act by those under the covenant is simply this, faith. It is trusting in Christ alone through His finished work on the cross. The Scripture states this repeatedly.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9, ESV)
While this is a future promise for the nation of Israel, it is the covenant relationship that every believer today falls under when they believe in Jesus for eternal life. Today we have the blessings and guarantee of eternal life promised by God.
Yet Israel does have a future as a nation. When the Northern Kingdom, Israel, and the Southern Kingdom, Judah, will recognize Jesus as their Messiah. This will happen when the Lord Jesus returns to this earth to establish His Millennial Kingdom.
Renewing the Heart 