“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…” – Jeremiah 31:31
When I was a kid, I made the mistake of removing the spokes of my bike wheel from the hub to see what would happen. Not surprisingly, that simple series of moves wrecked my wheel and made it impossible to ride my bike. When studying the Old Testament, everyone and everything is like the spokes, and Jesus Christ must be the hub; otherwise, there’s no way to hold it all together.
The most quoted Old Testament Scripture in Hebrews is Psalm 110, which begins by promising the current sovereign rule and reign of Jesus Christ over everyone and everything, saying, “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” Perhaps the central Old Testament Scripture in Hebrews that connects every theme and thread to Jesus Christ and the New Covenant is Jeremiah 31:31-34,
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. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Unlike previous covenants (Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic), the New Covenant is God not merely giving us a human mediator but the second member of the Trinity Himself coming into human history as the man Jesus Christ. Rather than taking life as He did when He flooded the earth in the days of Noah or requiring sacrifices for sin in the Mosaic Covenant, He offered Himself as the sacrificial substitute for sinners on the cross, where He shed His blood in their place.
In the New Covenant, God comes to be with each of His people as He did with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. He also places the Holy Spirit in them to make them into a temple where worship occurs. The Spirit makes them new creations as the dawning and first fruits of the finality of the new creation that culminates with Jesus’ Second Coming. The Spirit’s work includes transfiguring us into Jesus’ image bearers, as Moses was.
Perhaps the lengthiest treatment of the New Covenant and its superiority to all preceding covenants is found in the book of Hebrews. In light of our study of covenants, the most helpful thing would be to simply read Hebrews 8:6-9:28.
Come back tomorrow where we discuss the link between the Old and New Testaments.
Take some time to read Hebrews 8:6-9:28. What stands out or speaks to you most as you read?
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