What does it mean to be under the New Covenant? What is the difference between the New Covenant and the New Testament? How is the New Covenant different from the Old Covenant? What even is a covenant?!
A covenant is… “between nations: a treaty, alliance of friendship; between individuals: a pledge or agreement; with obligation between a monarch and subjects: a constitution; between God and man: a covenant accompanied by signs, sacrifices, and a solemn oath that sealed the relationship with promises of blessings for keeping the covenant and curses for breaking it.” (Theological Worldbook of the Old Testament)
So in other words, a covenant is a legally binding relationship between 2 or more parties. The most common form of a “covenant” in Western society today is the marriage covenant.
What is a Covenant?
Covenant Basics
Covenants are binding
Covenants are intergenerational
Breaking a covenant has dire consequences
A broken covenant requires atonement
The whole book of Deuteronomy can be compared to an ancient Near Eastern covenant, known as a “suzerainty treaty.”
A covenant always contains terms and conditions to be fulfilled by both parties. Covenants were supposed to be mutually beneficial for both parties. The glue of the ancient covenant was a deep sense of fidelity.
Covenant Requirements:
Mutual benefit
Terms and Conditions
Fidelity and Faithfulness
Ancient Near Eastern covenants always had a religious element involving some sort of ceremonial elements like sacrifice or other rituals. In fact, the Hebrew term for making a covenant is karat berit which literally means “to cut a covenant,” but idiomatically means “to make a covenant.”
The covenant closure was a shared meal between the parties.
Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant. Genesis 21:27
Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his relatives to eat a meal. So they ate a meal and spent the night on the mountain. Genesis 31:54
God did not harm the Israelite nobles; they saw Him, and they ate and drank. Exodus 24:11
Some examples of Biblical covenants are:
The covenant with Noah (Genesis 8:14-9:17)
The covenant with Abraham (Genesis 12, 15, 17)
The covenant with Isaac (Genesis 26)
The covenant with Jacob (Genesis 28)
The covenant at Sinai (Exodus 19-20)
The covenant with Aaron (Numbers 18:19)
The covenant with Pinchas (Numbers 25:12-13)
The covenant with David (2 Samuel 7)
The New Covenant (Jeremiah 31)
Understanding the Abrahamic Covenant
The covenant God made with Abraham is the foundation on which the rest of the covenants of the Bible are built.
Genesis 12:1-3, 7 explain the initial promises to Abraham:
The Lord said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who treat you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Genesis 12:1-3
The covenant provisions were…
God will make of Abraham a great nation.
God will bless Abraham.
God will make Abraham’s name great.
God will make Abraham a blessing to others.
God will bless the ones who will bless Abraham.
God will curse the ones who curse Abraham.
God will cause all the families of the earth to be blessed through Abraham.
Genesis 15 describes the ratification of the covenant and the covenant ceremony.
Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:6
Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was perfected. So the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness, and he was called God’s friend. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. James 2:21-24
Genesis 17:1-14: The sign of the Abrahamic covenant. Circumcision is the sign of the Abrahamic covenant.
If any male is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that man will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant. Genesis 17:14
The covenant of Abraham is a covenant for all Israel, and it is an ongoing covenant. A later covenant does not cancel an earlier covenant.
Brothers, I’m using a human illustration. No one sets aside or makes additions to even a human covenant that has been ratified. Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say “and to seeds,” as though referring to many, but referring to one, and to your seed, who is Christ. And I say this: The [Torah], which came 430 years later, does not revoke a covenant that was previously ratified by God and cancel the promise. Galatians 3:15-17
The Abrahamic covenant establishes the paradigm for all of God’s relationships with people, even after Messiah came.
And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while still uncircumcised. This was to make him the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, so that righteousness may be credited to them also. Romans 4:11
Understanding the Covenant at Sinai
The covenant at Sinai did not cancel the Abrahamic covenant.
He then took the covenant scroll and read it aloud to the people. They responded, “We will do and obey everything that the Lord has commanded.” Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you concerning all these words. Exodus 24:7-8
The covenant Provisions were blessings and curses. These are detailed in Leviticus 24 and Deuteronomy 27-29.
Exodus 19 was the invitation to enter the covenant.
Now if you will listen to Me and carefully keep My covenant, you will be My own possession out of all the peoples, although all the earth is Mine, and you will be My kingdom of priests and My holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites. Exodus 19:5-6
The “Old Covenant” (the covenant at Sinai) is NOT the Torah. The covenant is the AGREEMENT to obey the Torah.
The terms and conditions of the covenant are explained in Exodus 20-23. The LORD commands His people to believe in Him through acts of faith and obedience.
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. Exodus 20:2
Exodus 24 explains the covenant ratification ceremonies, and the covenantal sign is the Sabbath, a perpetual covenant.
Shabbat
“cease, rest, Sabbath”
The Israelites must observe the Sabbath, celebrating it throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign forever between Me and the Israelites, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. Exodus 31:16-17
If the covenant with Abraham is considered the covenant of promise, the covenant at Sinai may be considered the covenant that begins to fulfill that promise.
When the covenant at Sinai failed due to Israel’s disobedience, God would fall back on his covenant promises to Abraham.
if their uncircumcised hearts will be humbled, and if they will pay the penalty for their sin, then I will remember My covenant with Jacob. I will also remember My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. Leviticus 26:41-42
The Torah does not justify a person, because the Torah is contingent upon obedience. When the covenant at Sinai is broken, the covenant with Abraham is like a safety net underneath it, and that is a covenant of faith - Abraham’s faith.
Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith. But the law is not based on faith; instead, the one who does these things will live by them. Galatians 3:11-12
Is the law therefore contrary to God’s promises? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly be by the law. Galatians 3:21
Understanding the Covenant with David
God made an exclusive covenant with David and his descendants.
2 Samuel 7 describes this covenant.
I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have destroyed all your enemies before you. I will make a name for you like that of the greatest in the land. I will establish a place for My people Israel and plant them, so that they may live there and not be disturbed again. Evildoers will not afflict them as they have done ever since the day I ordered judges to be over My people Israel. I will give you rest from all your enemies. “ ‘The Lord declares to you: The Lord Himself will make a house for you. When your time comes and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He will build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to Me. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with a human rod and with blows from others. But My faithful love will never leave him as I removed it from Saul; I removed him from your way. Your house and kingdom will endure before Me forever, and your throne will be established forever.’ 2 Samuel 7:9-16
God promised David the kingdom and a dynasty, posterity, inheritance, peace, greatness, blessing. The promises are similar to those given to Abraham:
A secure and permanent home for Israel, 2 Samuel 7:10 (cf. Genesis 12:7)
Offspring (a dynasty) for David, 2 Samuel 7:11-12 (cf. Genesis 12:2)
Kings are to descend from him, 2 Samuel 7:12-16 (cf. Genesis 17:6, 16)
The covenant obligation was to obey the Torah. The covenantal sign was the House:
the House of the Davídica dynasty
the House of the Temple in Jerusalem
the House of the Temple of believers (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:19)
Don’t you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 1 Corinthians 6:19
The Davidic covenant builds on both the Abrahamic covenant and the Sinai covenant. Both Abraham and David were promised:
A great name
A piece of real estate
Offspring
A connection to a throne
A special relationship with God
An effect upon the Gentiles
Great blessing
Understanding the New Covenant
The “New Covenant” includes all previous covenants.
This covenant is explained in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36. One might assume that the New Testament is the New Covenant scriptures. Actually the scriptures about the New Covenant are in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and several other places in the TaNaK.
Look, the days are coming” — this is the Lord’s declaration — “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt — a covenant they broke even though I had married them” — the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days” — the Lord’s declaration. “I will put My teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them” — this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin. Jeremiah 31:31-34
For I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place My Spirit within you and cause you to follow My statutes and carefully observe My ordinances. Then you will live in the land that I gave your fathers; you will be My people, and I will be your God. Ezekiel 36:24-28
The New Testament is not the New Covenant. The New Testament is a collection of scriptures that tell about how the gospel brought about the New Covenant, but it is not actually the New Covenant itself.
The covenant provisions, or New Covenant promises, are found in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36:
God will write His Torah on their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33)
The LORD will be their God (Jeremiah 31:33)
Israel and Judah shall be God’s people (Jeremiah 31:33)
They shall all know the LORD (Jeremiah 31:34)
God will forgive their sin (Jeremiah 31:34)
God will regather the people of Israel to their Land (Ezekiel 36:24)
God will spiritually cleanse Israel (Ezekiel 36:25)
God will give the nation a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26)
God will put His Spirit within them (Ezekiel 36:27)
They will be faithful to the covenant of the Torah (Ezekiel 36:27)
The Spirit leads us to Torah, which is Truth. The covenant obligations are faith and obedience.
I will place My Spirit within you and cause you to follow My statutes and carefully observe My ordinances. Ezekiel 36:27
The covenantal sign is the Holy Spirit.
He has also sealed us and given us the Spirit as a down payment in our hearts. 2 Corinthians 1:22
And the One who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment. 2 Corinthians 5:5
When you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed in Him, you were also sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. He is the down payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1:13-14
The New Covenant was instituted by Messiah’s death and resurrection, but it has not yet been fully implemented.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second one. Hebrews 8:7
So what Does that Mean for Jews?
Look, the days are coming” — this is the Lord’s declaration — “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Jeremiah 31:31
The New Covenant is a covenant only with the Israel people.
Because of Jesus, we are brought near the Old Covenants, but we do not replace the people for whom the covenant was originally made.
At that time you were without the Messiah, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. Ephesians 2:12-13
The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and all your soul so that you will live. Deuteronomy 30:6
The LORD is faithful to His covenants. He will never forsake His people. At the judgment, He promises to cleanse the hearts of Israel so that they may live. Israel is the first and primary heir to the Kingdom, but everyone must repent and seek forgiveness of sins. Yeshua states:
Jesus answered, “I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. John 3:5
As a Jew, being born of water could be your physical birth when you emerged from your mother’s womb. However, Yeshua explains that there are two kinds of birth: that of water and of the Spirit.
Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. John 3:6
In order to enter the kingdom, a person (even if he or she were Jewish) must go through both. The way to achieve birth in the Spirit is to believe in the Messiah, and align your allegiance to him as King.
so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life. John 3:15
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