The Promise Of A New Covenant (New Testament) |
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Old Testament Prophecy |
New Testament Fulfillment |
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But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises (Hebrews 8:6). |
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “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 31:31-34).
Jeremiah is foretelling of a new covenant that God would institute that would replace the old covenant. It is a promise from God that someday, the old covenant (commonly referred to as the Old Testament) would be replaced with a new covenant (commonly referred to as the New Testament). Because the new covenant is made between God and the house of Israel and the house of Judah, it is for all Jews meaning that all 12 tribes and their descendants are to be included.
The new covenant promises Israel that God will be their God showing that God is not done with Israel. God will forgive Israel's iniquity and remember their sin no more.
This prophecy is partially fulfilled. The New Covenant was instituted by our Messiah and the promises that it contains are available to all who choose to believe in them. There are still some end time prophecies to be fulfilled and when this occurs the rest of the new covenant will be fulfilled. For more on this please read A Closer Look At The New Covenant Prophecy.
Jesus came as the mediator of the new covenant (Heb. 8:6; 12:24), which He ratified by His sacrificial death (Luke 22:20; 1 cor. 11:25).(1)
The new covenant's superiority to the old is manifest in a number of ways. For instance, it has a better mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ (Heb. 8:6); it offers a better hope based on better promises, most notably that of complete forgiveness (Jer. 31:34; cf. Heb. 10:4); it grants all believers direct access to God without the need for priests; it is gracious (Heb. 8:9) in that its blessings will never be forfeited by disobedience (though disobedience brings chastening [Heb. 12:4-11]); it is internal, written not on tablets of stone (2 Cor. 3:7; Ex. 31:18), but on the heart (Jer. 31:33; Heb. 8:10); it brings spiritual life, not spiritual death (2 Cor. 3:6; cf. vv. 7,9; Rom. 8:2-3); it results in righteousness, not condemnation (2 Cor. 3:9); it is clear and straightforward, unlike the old covenant's types, pictures, symbols, and mysteries; and it is energized by the liberating power of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17-18).(1)
JewishRoots.Net Note: This page in meant to be just a quick look at Jeremiah's prophecy and it's fulfillment. Readers are encouraged to go to A Closer Look At The New Covenant Prophecy for a more in depth examination of this prophecy. Readers are also encouraged to read for themselves the entire New Testament which will offer a more complete understanding of what this new covenant is about. For anyone who doesn't have access to one, please Contact JewishRoots.Net And we will try to get you one. New Testament bibles written in English and Hebrew are available.
One reason a new covenant was needed was because of Israel's Disobedience.
1). The MacArthur New Testament Commentary - John MacArthur - John 1-11 p.124
