Articles
I Will Make a New Covenant
As one thumbs through the Bible, he quickly realizes that it is divided into two major parts, an Old Testament and a New Testament. The word testament means a contract or covenant. This explains why we sometimes hear people refer to the two parts of the Bible as the “Old Covenant” and the “New Covenant.”
The old covenant was a contract made between God and the nation of Israel and was given to Moses on Mount Sinai: “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.’ So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments” – Exodus 34:28. Note in the passage above that the covenant was made by God with Moses and the nation of Israel. It was never given to any other people. It was a covenant between God and that nation alone.
It is also noteworthy that it involved more than just the Ten Commandments. “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them” – Exodus 24:12. Though the Ten Commandments summarized the requirements of the Law, the details of the Law were quite extensive spanning the books of Exodus through Deuteronomy. God instructed Moses to teach it to Israel so that they might learn to turn away from sin, live godly lives, and be a holy nation. “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel” – Exodus 19:5-6.
Thus the Law and the Ten Commandments were given by God to create a special and holy nation. But He did not intend for His law to continue forever. “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah – not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt…” – Jeremiah 31:31-32.
God intended for His first covenant to last only until the time of Christ. “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but as of one, ‘And to your Seed,’ who is Christ… What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator” – Galatians 3:16-19.Thus the Law was fulfilled and removed when Christ died on the cross – Ephesians 2:13-16; Colossians 2:13-14.
Upon Christ’s death, the new covenant went into effect. “And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives” – Hebrews 9:15-17.
We are now under God’s new covenant. It is far superior to the covenant given to Israel. “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises” – Hebrews 8:6. By this covenant we have actual and immediate forgiveness by the blood of Christ. “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” – Hebrews 8:12.
Let us not therefore appeal to the old covenant to serve God today. It was never given to us. It was for the Jews alone and was to last only till the time of Christ. He is the One who has shed His blood to make the new covenant possible. He is the One whom we are to obey today – Matthew 17:1-5.
