The New Covenant: The Agreement
Section one
Reviewing The Old Agreement
Image by Tibor Janosi Mozes from Pixabay
Many Christians view the New Covenant as a promise by God that has already been fulfilled. The New Covenant is a promise; however, it can be argued that a more appropriate term would be agreement.
Let's start by looking at the definition of the word Covenant. According to Dictionary.com, a covenant is: "an agreement, usually formal, between two or more persons to do or not do something specified". A covenant is an agreement between both sides to do something. Many know what God has agreed to do according to the promised covenant on His end but do we as Christians know how we are to uphold our end?
First, to get a better idea of what the New Covenant is let us examine the contents of the Old Covenant.
Exodus 24:3: When Moses went and told the people all the LORD’s words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the LORD has said we will do.”
Exodus 24:4: Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel.
Exodus 24:7: Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey.”
Exodus 24:8: Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
Just before reading the Book of the Covenant and the people of Israel receiving the blood of the covenant, Moses told Israel the “LORD’s words and laws”. Prior to this event taking place God gives Israel the 10 commandments, then He gives a list of many more commandments, including the commands to observe Sabbath and Feasts Days. The commandments of God are what Israel is agreeing to do on their end of the contract. Israel has agreed to keep God’s laws and Sabbaths as their covenant (or agreement) with God in exchange for God’s covenant. Although, as time goes on, Israel is found guilty of breaking their end of the contract many times over.
Jeremiah 3:8“And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and gave her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also”.
However, God shows mercy to Israel and wants her to repent. “Go, proclaim this message toward the north: “ ‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD, ‘I will frown on you no longer, for I am faithful,’ declares the LORD, ‘I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt— you have rebelled against the LORD your God, you have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree, and have not obeyed me,’ ” declares the LORD.—Jeremiah 3:12-13. However, Israel does not repent from breaking their covenant with God causing God to rebuke them and cast them out of the land. Jeremiah 15:1 Then the Lord said to me, “even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for these people, I wouldn’t help them. Away with them! Get them out of my sight!”
Even so, God knows the end from the beginning, therefore, He knew that Israel would fail to uphold their end of the agreement:
Deuteronomy 29:25
25 And the answer will be: “It is because this people (Israel) abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.
26 They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them.
27 Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book.
28 In furious anger and in great wrath the LORD uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”
Deuteronomy 30:1-8
1 "Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you,
2 and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul,
3 that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you.
4 If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you.
5 Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.
6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
7 Also the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you.
8 And you will again obey the voice of the Lord and do all His commandments which I command you today.
Deuteronomy 29:25 states God uproots Israel out of the land because they abandoned the Covenant of the Lord, which we read earlier is the Laws of God Israel agreed to keep. Deuteronomy mentions the regathering of God’s people back into the land of Israel one day. It also speaks of circumcision of the heart which alludes to having a new heart, one with the law written on it. Where their heart of stone will be removed, and they will be given a heart of flesh “so that you may live” (verse 6). And in this future time, just as verse 8 says, we will again obey the voice of the LORD and do all His commandments that He commanded “today” (in the time of Moses). Our new heart given to us by God will cause us to walk in His commandments. Let's take a closer look at the promise of the new agreement with God and His people:
The Promise of The New Covenant
Ezekiel 36:18-31
18 Therefore I poured out My fury on them for the blood they had shed on the land, and for their idols with which they had defiled it.
19 So I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries; I judged them according to their ways and their deeds.
20 When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy name--when they said of them, 'These are the people of the Lord, and yet they have gone out of His land.'
21 But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went.
22 "Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord God: "I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went.
23 And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord," says the Lord God, "when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.
24 For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.
25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.
29 I will deliver you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and multiply it, and bring no famine upon you.
30 And I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields, so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among the nations.
31 Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities and your abominations.
God has promised to bring us out from the nations around the world and bring us into the land of promise. This is the same land that God chose to place His Spirit; God will be bringing us back into the land of Israel, as verse 28 states (this has not happened yet). These verses state that God will cleanse us with pure water and give us a heart that will “cause” us to walk in God’s commandments. In this life, those of us who chose to follow God and His Son do so with free will.
We are given the option to freely enter into the New Covenant. And by doing so, we attempt to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, who left us a perfect example for us to follow, committing no sin - 1 Peter 2:21. When we are regathered from the nations, around this time, we will receive our new bodies and a heart and mind that is free of sin and carnal lusts. Essentially, we will walk perfectly in God’s commandments, and we will remember our past transgressions and reject them. These things are not yet fulfilled. We do not have a new heart with the laws of God inscribed on it. If this were true, we would know God’s laws without having to learn them, they would already be instilled within our minds. This is speaking of a time when we will know the laws of God in all situations, innately, as Jesus did.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
31 "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--
32 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, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.
33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
Here God says in verse 33 that part of the establishment of His New Covenant is that he will place His law in our minds and write that same law on our hearts. Initially, the law given to the people of Israel was written in stone. With the New Covenant, the commands will be written on the hearts of God’s people, and they will no longer break the covenant and laws of God, unlike the first covenant at Mt Sinai. God will remove our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh that will cause us to keep His commandments.
Also, notice that when this happens everyone on earth will know who God is “from the least to the greatest.” We are still teaching each other how to know the LORD. We will not have all of these segmented denominations and debates and arguments on how to follow God, we will already know God. The New Covenant is fully enacted once Jesus makes his return to earth, we are regathered to Israel, and we are given our new bodies with a circumcised heart that will cause us to walk faithfully in God's commandments. There are a few major aspects of the new covenant that has taken place. We now have a new priesthood under the authority of Jesus, who mediates on our behalf. We are also given “better promises” under the New Covenant. To read the next section on the New Covenant click the link below.