Better Promises, Better Covenant

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. (Hebrews 8:6)

So far in this series, we have seen that the New Covenant has a better High Priest (“Jesus, the Highest Priest“) and a better sacrifice (“Jesus, the Spotless Sacrifice“). Those are both amazing truths, and we need to take time to understand and apply the implications of them. In this post, we are going to talk about the most fundamental difference between the Old and New Covenant. The New Covenant was founded on better promises.

As we’ve said before, it’s not that the Old Covenant (the law, if you will) was bad. In fact, even the New Testament says that the law is holy, just and good (Rom. 7:12). Why then do we need a New Covenant? Because the law could not change man’s nature, nor could it give life to men. Both Paul and the writer of Hebrews describe the law as weak (Rom. 8:3; Hebrews 7:18). The thing about the law is that it cannot make one righteous; it can only tell if someone is. One can be declared righteous only as he fully keeps the law. One slip and he is forever condemned as unrighteous.

Thus, none of us is or will ever by righteous by the law. We are all already lawbreakers. The law can only promise earthly blessings–and not eternal life. And those blessings are only given as one keeps the law. Yet, the law does not and cannot help man keep it. The law simply says, “Here are the standards, now obey them.” The law is temporal; it has power over a person only as long as he or she lives (Rom. 7:1-6).

So, if the New Covenant is better because of better promises, what are those better promises?

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. (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. (Ezekiel 36:22-29)

If you’ve read much of this blog over the years, you know that we’ve talked about these passages much (and if you haven’t you really should). These really are central passages to understanding the New Covenant. So, we are going to look at these passages to see the “better promises.”

Before we do that, however, one thing needs to be pointed out and clarified. Notice in these two passages that the Lord is speaking to “the house of Israel.” These prophecies, like so many in the Old Testament, were given specifically to Israel. The New Testament makes it clear that the new Covenant was first given to Israel. In fact, Jesus said that His death would institute the New Covenant. Read His words:

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26:27-28)

These words are an echo of the words Moses spoke to Israel. After he read the whole law to Israel, we are told,

And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.” (Exodus 24:8)

So, the New Covenant and the gospel were offered to Israel first. That the Gentiles should be included in the gospel on the same basis was a mystery, as Paul calls it. It was not revealed back then but was revealed to the apostles. He writes:

Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. . . . For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (Romans 11:25; Ephesians 3:1-6)

So, Paul says that the Gentiles are now fellow-heirs with Israel in the blessings of Abraham (compare Rom. 11:11-24). More than that, Israel has experienced a partial hardening until “the fullness of the Gentiles” (or the full number of the Gentiles). Thus, this better covenant (the New Covenant) is open to all.

The Better Promises

Returning to our passages, the first thing we should notice about the promises God makes is this: They are unconditional. Notice the repetition of the phrase “I will.” Under the Old Covenant, Israel was promised blessings if they obeyed. It was an “I will if you will” arrangement. As we’ve mentioned previously, the Old Covenant did nothing to change people or help them actually obey the law. It simply said “Obey and be blessed, disobey and suffer the curses.” Not so with the New Covenant. There is no “I will if you will.” There is only “I will.” And the repetition of “I will” strongly emphasizes the unconditional nature of the covenant.

This New Covenant is a fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham so long ago. When God called Abram (later known as Abraham, father of many nations). He repeated that same “I will” (Gen. 12:1-3) Like the covenant with Abraham, the New Covenant is unconditional. Both are eternal and still stand today.

Not only is the New Covenant unconditional, but it deals with far more than just the outward temporal things. The blessings of the Old Covenant are blessings of this life. The law only has authority over those who live. Its authority ends at death. The New Covenant, however, promises eternal blessings that go beyond this life. These blessings have to do with identity and inheritance, or who we are and who we will become.

Who We Are, Then and Now

The New Covenant changes everything. Specifically, it changes everything about us. When we put those two passages together, we see four key changes:

No longer defiled

Where once we were defiled by sin, we are now cleansed. Not like the repeated washings of the Old Covenant, but through the once-for-all cleansing through the blood of Christ. The Lord promised, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. . . . And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses” (Ezek. 36:25, 29). No matter what we have done, when we turn to Christ in dependence and trust, we are cleansed from all our defiling sins. There is no sin that will escape His cleansing.

Forgiven, not just covered

Our sins are forgiven, not just covered. Under the Old Covenant, God accepted the sacrifices for an atonement or covering for sin. Yet, as we learned in a previous post, animal blood cannot take away human sin. Thus the debt of sin was continuing to pile up. The Lord promised, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jer. 31:34). The New Testament bears this out in such passages as this: “Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38; see also 10:43; Eph. 1:7; Col.1:14; 2:13; 1 John 1:9; 2:12).

A new heart and motivation

Not only are we forgiven and cleansed, but we are also changed. Our very nature is changed. Notice what the Lord promised: “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. . . . I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Jer. 31:33; Ezek. 36:26). Why are cleansing and forgiveness not enough? Because those things, as wonderful as they are, don’t change our nature. We would continue to sin, making a mockery of that forgiveness and cleansing. So the Lord changes our heart. The old heart (the Sinful Heart, the heart of stone) is totally opposed to God and desires to live independently of Him. The new heart (the Spiritual Heart, the heart of flesh) is inclined toward God and longs to commune with Him and obey His voice. Thus, our motivation to obey has changed. We no longer obey because “the Bible says so,” but because obedience is part of who we are.

A new relationship and empowerment

The Lord promised that “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. . . . I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Jer. 31:34; Ezek. 36:27). Imagine that. Not only are our hearts changed, but now we have a relationship with the very One who created us! The very one we dismissed and sinned against. How do we have such a relationship? Through the presence of the Holy Spirit living in us. Jesus gave us information on the Holy Spirit, in what is a fulfillment of this promise. He said, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. . . . the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:16-17, 26). In the Old Testament, the Spirit was said to be upon people, but never was it said that the Holy Spirit indwelt them!

Future Glory as Sons and Daughters

Because of the New Covenant, not only are we cleansed, forgiven, having a new heart and a relationship with God, but there is still more. We have been and are being adopted into the very family of God as sons and daughters. Paul tells us, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom. 8:15-17, see also v. 23; 9:4; Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:5).

Jesus Himself calls His disciples brothers (see John 20:17 for an example). Think of it, we are considered part of the family of the God of the Universe! Because of this, we will share in Christ’s glory. Paul wrote in that passage we are heirs of God and fellow heirs of Christ and we will be glorified with Him. Nowhere in the Old Covenant will you find such statements. This is what Paul means when he often refers to our inheritance.

The Real Question

The real question here is this: What do we do with these glorious truths? Like all of Scripture, we are to believe them and then act accordingly. This is why the oft-quoted statement, “I’m just a sinner saved by grace” is so inaccurate and misleading. The Bible does not call us sinners any longer. He calls us saints–holy ones separated out for God’s own purpose. If you see yourself as a sinner, guess what you’ll continue to do? Sin. If, however, you begin to see yourself as a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17) and begin to apply these truths, you’ll begin to walk in freedom from sin and victory over sin more and more. Will we be perfect in this life? No. Will we grow? Absolutely.

All thanks to Jesus and the New Covenant.