Jeremiah 31:31

THE NEW COVENANT

"Behold the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah."

In Vol. 10 (Hebrews) of the New Testament Commentaries, pp. 162-166, one may find additional commentary on the New Covenant. There were several covenants that God made. (1) There was a covenant with Noah (Genesis 6:18,9:9); (2) two covenants with Abraham (Genesis 17:2,10; 15:18ff); (3) the covenant of salt (Numbers 18:19; Leviticus 2:13); and (4) the covenant of the everlasting priesthood (Numbers 25:13). However, in Hebrews 8:6-7, this "new covenant" is contrasted with what is called "the first covenant," or "the old covenant," indicating that the new covenant would replace not merely those lesser covenants, but it would take the place of that covenant which was so great and comprehensive, overshadowing all others, that God called it the "first covenant." In short, it was designed to replace the entire religious system of the Jews, including the Decalogue, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the tabernacle ritual, the temple, and the temple services later developed, the statutes, judgments, and commandments, embracing the entire ceremonial and moral constitution of Judaism. Every student needs to identify which covenant was annulled and replaced by the new.

The old covenant identified:

(1) It was the one made with the "house of Israel and with the house of Judah." The mention of the house of Judah is significant, because it distinguished the "old covenant" from the covenant of the priesthood which was made with the house of Levi. It also indicated that all Israel, both the Northern and Southern Israels, were included in the New Covenant.

(2) The old covenant was the one that had the Decalogue in it as a basic component (Deuteronomy 4:13; Hebrews 9:4).

(3) The old covenant was the one God made with Moses (Exodus 34:2,28).

(4) It was the one God made at the time when Israel came out of Egypt, "in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt" (Jeremiah 31:32).

The nature of the new covenant. It partakes of the nature of all covenants, concerning which Keil declared that, "Every covenant which God concludes with men consists, on the side of God, the assurance of God's favors and blessings; and on the side of men, it binds them to the keeping of commandments laid upon them."[9]

Time when the new covenant was made. It was made upon the Cross of Jesus Christ when he became the "propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world." It was announced upon the Day of Pentecost, exactly fifty days after the resurrection of the Son of God, and it became effective upon that day when three thousand Jews became "the Virgin Israel" accepted the terms of the New Covenant, and by their baptism into Christ, became thereby Charter Members of the New Israel, the Israel of God, the Spiritual Israel, that Other Israel, which succeeded the Old Israel, and is today the Only Israel of God.

MISCONCEPTIONS OF THE NEW COVENANT

We regret that some scholars have missed the truth regarding that New Covenant. Graybill, for example, said that, "The new covenant will not be a new law, the old law was good enough!"[10] The last clause here is a flat contradiction of Hebrews 8:6-7, which declares that if the old law had been faultless God would not have changed it. Furthermore, the notion that the New Covenant got rid of all law is a preposterous error. We have already noted that the "priesthood" was changed when Christ our High Priest was raised from the dead, eternally supplanting the Aaronic priesthood; and the author of Hebrews stated that, "The priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law" (Hebrews 7:12).

Furthermore, if there is no law of the gospel, or law of Christ, or law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, then there is no such thing as sin, because "sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4).

Another gross error is the notion that the New Covenant was stated in the form of a question by Feinberg, "Does the New Covenant efface the distinction between Israel (racial Israel) and the Church (the New Israel)? The answer is a resounding no!"[11] This, of course, is a flat contradiction of Romans 10:12, which declares that "there is no distinction," not even between Gentiles and Jews; and, since Gentiles are in the Church, if one should suppose a distinction between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, it would mean that God has two classes of children in his Church, an utter impossibility.

In the New Covenant all special considerations and privileges of racial Israel were forever lost. Race, today, is totally unimportant, as regards salvation. No person whomsoever can be either saved or lost eternally, upon the basis of any racial consideration whatsoever.