The New Covenant

“...but this shall be the covenant that I will cut with the house of Israel: After those days, says Jehovah, I will put My Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (Jeremiah 31:33)

This is not the old covenant that God made with man. Verses 31 and 32 lets us know that He is talking about a new covenant. “Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I cut with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which covenant of Mine they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Jehovah;” (Jeremiah 31:31-32) This New Covenant was ratified by the Messiah, Jesus Christ our Lord by His work and sacrifice on the cross. This is now a better covenant. “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much He is also the Mediator of a better covenant, which was built upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been without fault, then no place would have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, He said to them, "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will make an end on the house of Israel and on the house of Judah; a new covenant shall be, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day I took hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt," because they did not continue in My covenant, and I did not regard them, says the Lord. "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My Laws into their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not each man teach his neighbor, and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more." In that He says, A new covenant, He has made the first one old. Now that which decays and becomes old is ready to vanish away.” (Hebrews 8:6-13)

We have the privilege of accepting and living in this New Covenant of mercy and grace. Our sins are taken away. We walk with God and He indwells by the Holy Spirit. He has made us His children with privileges of sonship. Wait a minute. Didn’t the Lord say this new covenant is for Israel and the house of Judah? Yes! But the Lord God has always since the beginning wanted all people from all nations to come to Him. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) When Adam lost mankind to the enemy, God already had a plan for redeeming mankind from every nation, the whole world. He gave His laws to the descendants of Abraham so we could understand His standard is beyond our capability of fulfilling it and so we would realize we need a Savior to save us. All who receive this Savior, Who is Jesus our Lord, are saved and redeemed because He fulfilled the Law and paid the payment for our sin which we could not ever make payment for it because any sacrifice and any payment we would make would be defiled with this world’s sin. Payment had to be made from a clean, pure spotless sacrifice. Jesus was that sacrifice. The Lord provided the sacrifice that would make that payment. Jesus, born of a woman by the Holy Spirit, Who lived like a man on this earth, but never sinned and is holy became the Lamb of God, the holy sacrifice to pay the price of sin, death.

All believers are part of the church which has been grafted into the family of God. (Romans 11:11-24) The people of all nations who believe have part in the New Covenant God has made with man. We have become part of Israel, grafted into the privileged who have God as their Father.

We live in the New Covenant God has made with the people of the world. By accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we receive forgiveness for our sins and in our inward parts is the Law of God, written in our hearts by the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Lord is our God, and we are His people.